Computer Suggestions for Under $500?

[Byrne]

Looking for a decent gaming desktop (or laptop but I doubt theres a good one for that price.)I can't build and would prefer not to go to a secondary website, I'd rather it be from Amazon, Best Buy or somewhere like that. I would like it to be under $500, I need decent runnings speed but I don't require much to have fun. 30 frames on medium settings is okay with me. Recently I've played ARK and Rust with no luck gettting them to work... I know these games are heavy on the computer but I don't mind playing on the lowest settings. I currently can't even load either. If you know of good computer that generally meets these guidlines, would you please comment down below the it is?

EDIT: I would prefer a non-intel graphics card but I can manage with one until I upgrade

[Blackstar001]

Try this link. I am thinking option #1 should be of some help if you watch the video.

YouTube™ Video: Build a Gaming PC on Your Budget - Holiday Buyer's Guide 2014 

Views: 791,207

Our second annual "Holiday Buyer's Guide" for systems at a variety of different price points is here! Five Four message: Sign up for one of the most epic Five Four giveaways every at...

Best Buy can be really over priced so you are best off trying Newegg or Amazon in my opinion.

[Rumpelcrutchskin]

Good luck trying to play ARK with $500 PC, this game needs quite good graphics card to run well and all those $500 bundles they sell in stores have no graphics card or have complete joke office PC graphics cards like GT series.

If you manage to put it together yourself then you can get fairly decent one:

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/ysc4Vn

Would still need Windows OS though and mouse, keyboard.

[_I_]

are you near a microcenter?
http://www.microcenter.com/site/stores/

[Rove]

Look this is super simple to put together yourself. There are 5 parts and they all just plug into each other except for the motherboard which needs be be screwed into the case (screws included). You should really put this together yourself cause it's cheap and good:

AMD A10-7850K 3.7GHz Quad-Core Processor
ASRock FM2A88M PRO3+ Micro ATX FM2+ Motherboard
Mushkin Redline 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-2133 Memory
Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive
Apex TX-381 MicroATX Mid Tower Case w/300W Power Supply
http://pcpartpicker.com/p/sc4RXL
Base Total: $307.85
Mail-in Rebates: -$10.00
Shipping: $1.99
Total: $299.84

I want to mention that there is a really easy upgrade path to make this PC even better for gaming for cheap. Later on your can add a R7 250 dedicated graphics card and it can do dual graphics hybrid crossfire with the A10-7850K APU which has integrated graphics about as powerful as a R7 250. So with the integrated graphics and one R7 250 it's really like you have two R7 250 cards working together (only possible with this configuration, not with two R7 250 cards) for a total of over 1600 GFLOPS graphics power. 1600 GFLOPS is right between the Xbos One and Play Station 4 in graphics power and everything else in the build is already as good as one of those consoles. So for like $50-$70 dollars later on you get a great upgrade.

Example of the R7 250 that is currently the cheapest:
MSI Radeon R7 250 1GB Video Card
http://pcpartpicker.com/part/msi-video-card-r72501gd5oc
SuperBiiz $79.99 -$20.00 $59.99+S&H
$20.00 mail-in rebate

List of R7 250 GPus by price:
http://pcpartpicker.com/parts/video-card/#c=150&sort=a8&page=1

Add Windows, DVD drive, 60Hz 20 inch 1600*900 resolution monitor with built in speakers, mouse, keyboard, and USB wifi dongle all for only $500! Unbeatable for a prebuilt.

AMD A10-7850K 3.7GHz Quad-Core Processor
ASRock FM2A88M PRO3+ Micro ATX FM2+ Motherboard
Mushkin Redline 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-2133 Memory
Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive
Apex TX-381 MicroATX Mid Tower Case w/300W Power Supply
Lite-On iHAS124-14 DVD/CD Writer
Microsoft Windows 8.1 OEM (64-bit)
Rosewill RNWD-N1501UB 802.11b/g/n USB 2.0 Wi-Fi Adapter
Sceptre E205W-1600 60Hz 20.0" Monitor
Rosewill RK-101 Wired Standard Keyboard
Zalman ZM-M300 Wired Optical Mouse
http://pcpartpicker.com/p/Nh977P
Base Total: $541.78
Promo Discounts: -$22.00
Mail-in Rebates: -$20.00
Shipping: $1.99
Total: $501.77

If you have mouse and keyboard already then you can get a bigger 1920*1080 resolution monitor with real external speakers instead like so:

AMD A10-7850K 3.7GHz Quad-Core Processor
ASRock FM2A88M PRO3+ Micro ATX FM2+ Motherboard
Mushkin Redline 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-2133 Memory
Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive
Apex TX-381 MicroATX Mid Tower Case w/300W Power Supply
Lite-On iHAS124-14 DVD/CD Writer
Microsoft Windows 8.1 OEM (64-bit)
Rosewill RNWD-N1501UB 802.11b/g/n USB 2.0 Wi-Fi Adapter
Acer G226HQLBbd 60Hz 21.5" Monitor
Cyber Acoustics CA-2016WB 3W 2ch Speakers
http://pcpartpicker.com/p/wTm3GX
Base Total: $553.79
Promo Discounts: -$32.00
Mail-in Rebates: -$20.00
Shipping: $1.99
Total: $503.78

Also if you have everything except the PC tower itself and maybe WIndows there is this:

AMD Athlon X4 860K 3.7GHz Quad-Core Processor
ASRock FM2A88M PRO3+ Micro ATX FM2+ Motherboard
G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory
Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive
PowerColor Radeon R9 270 2GB TurboDuo Video Card
Xion XON-560 MicroATX Mini Tower Case
Corsair Builder 500W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply
http://pcpartpicker.com/p/BbphwP
Base Total: $462.62
Promo Discounts: -$5.00
Mail-in Rebates: -$60.00
Shipping: $4.98
Total: $402.60

That gives up the integrated graphics for a 2300~ GFLOPS graphics card instead that is more much more powerful than integrated graphics. Got $100~ left to add Windows & DVD.

If you really want a prebuilt one of these is probably the best you get for $500~

http://www.dell.com/us/p/alienware-alpha/pd?~ck=mn%E2%80%8B
OR
http://www.ibuypower.com/Store/AMD-FM2-A-Series-APU
OR
https://www.cyberpowerpc.com/system/AMD_Fusion_APU_Configurator

All these guys are big PC brands, Alienware belongs to Dell for example.

None of these is great. You could build your own just like them and a bit better for $300-$350 + $100~ for Windows and DVD. The first build I suggested to you for $300 is better than the ibuypower or Cyberpower one. Here's a clone of the Alienware Alpha not including Windows but with a CPU that is 700 MHz faster than in the Alienware Alpha and double the HDD size:

Intel Core i3-4160 3.6GHz Dual-Core Processor
ECS B85H3-M9 (1.0) Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard
A-Data XPG V1.0 4GB (1 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory
Hitachi Deskstar 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive
Gigabyte GeForce GTX 750 Ti 2GB WINDFORCE Video Card
Apex TX-381 MicroATX Mid Tower Case w/300W Power Supply
http://pcpartpicker.com/p/Lrm3GX
Base Total: $386.52
Mail-in Rebates: -$40.00
Total: $346.52

Anyways building your own is pretty easy when you get a partlist like I gave you. There are many video tutorials and text guides online on youtube and in text on many websites.