Budget RGB Experiment #1

  1. Home
  2. /
  3. Builds
  4. /
  5. Build
byzrk
  • Avid Builder
  • App Happy
Member since
United States
Build Views
2,558
Build Approvals
46
Fistbumps
15
Followers
9
Posts
19

Most Recent Build

Best Build

Budget RGB Experiment #1

One thing I've noticed lately is that most of the people that buy my budget builds are coming from consoles. They don't care much about price/performance, but rather focus on price/aesthetics. This experiment was created to test on how many corners I could cut and still make a quick flip on some used PC parts by adding RGB bling. Here's the breakdown.

CPU / Motherboard - The meat and bones of this build, this combo came from a dusty old Craigslist PC I picked up for $170. Had to drive about 40 minutes to pick it up, but the spare parts have really come in handy for quick flips builds like this one.

CPU Cooler - INTEL STOCK COOLER. This is the first corner I cut in the build to save costs. As much as I hate to waste the potential of the CPU, I already got it on the cheap so downgrading it to a non-K would not be worth the trouble. Also, most of the people who buy my budget builds do not care to overclock anyway, so this was an easy way to save $20.

Ram - Used some really cheap value ram I had lying around, cheap DDR3 ftw.

SSD - These go on sale at Newegg quite often. Doesn't get much cheaper than this.

HDD - Another salvaged part from one of my dusty Craigslist PC pickups, not even sure if it's worth the $5 considering how old it is, but hey it works.

GPU - This card was a pickup from a random dude on Offerup who works for 1-800-GOTJUNK. He was actually honest with me and told he hadn't used or tested the card, but I inspected the card and it was in great condition. It came in a GTX 1070 box with the PCI slot protector re-applied. Since the card wasn't just thrown out without any care or thought, I was pretty happy to take this risk and pickup the card AS-IS. Stress tested the card when I got home and it ran nice and cool so no worries from me.

Case - I love this case for the price when it goes on sale. It looks great, doesn't break the bank, and no fans included means you have a lot of flexibility on how pricey you want your fans. Whether you like the look or not, it's hard to find a nicer looking case at this price point even when factoring in really good used deals.

Power Supply - This is the second corner I'm kind of cutting in this build. This is the first "Renewed" power supply I've ever purchased from Corsair and Amazon. This was a better price than a new CX550M, and still comes with a Corsair 1-year warranty, so I figured why not? If the PC blows up then it's not my fault, it's Corsairs...in theory. We'll have to wait and see if this ends up hurting me later.

Case Fans - The rear exhaust fan I used was actually free from a $3 off $3.01 coupon on eBay! I'm actually a huge fan of how it looked that I'll probably end picking up more in the future. The upHere RGB fans look great, just don't use them if you actually need good airflow.

WiFi Card - Another "experiment" of mine is to try adding this cheap WiFi solution I found on eBay. Again, I've noticed that people buying gaming PC's still want WiFi cards on them, so I think this adds a ton of value that definitely helps sell the computer faster.

Conclusion -

This PC sold within 24 hours of posting for my full asking price. The guy who bought my PC for his son to play Fortnite said he liked the 750W power supply a lot. He also mentioned he liked the already included WiFi, and didn't care about overclocking. In the end, the cost saving moves I made ended up mattering and the corners I cut didn't matter. As long as that power supply doesn't blow up, I'm pretty happy with how this experiment turned out! I now have an easy formula to take a $100 CPU/motherboard combo and make a cheap $300 RGB build out of it. Thanks for reading!
Color(s): Black
RGB Lighting? No
Theme: none
Cooling: Air Cooling
Size: ATX
Type: General Build

Hardware

CPU
$ 62.00
Intel - Core i5 4670K
Socket: LGA 1150
Cores: 4
Motherboard
MSI - Z87-G43 Gaming
Chipset: Z87
CPU Socket: LGA 1150
Size: ATX
Graphics
$ 158.68
Gigabyte - OC Windforce
Chip Manufacturer: NVIDIA
Chip: GTX 770
Storage
$ 92.00
TeamGroup - L5 Lite (Black)
Form Factor: 2.5 Inch
Interface: SATA 6 Gb/s
Capacity: 120 GB
Storage
Western Digital - Caviar Black 750gb
Form Factor: 3.5 Inch
Capacity: 750 GB
PSU
$ 89.99
Corsair - CX750M
Wattage: 750
Form Factor: ATX
Efficiency: 80+ Bronze
Case
$ 65.85
DeepCool - MATREXX 55
Type: Mid-Tower
Side Panel: Tempered Glass
Case Fan
$ 34.99
109
4
Approved by: