Quick story:

This build started in December 2016.

My friend moved permanently moved here to the US in 2016. We've known each other since preschool and are avid gamers ourselves. Growing up we've always played in computer shops, always playing LAN games like the original DOTA, WC3, Counter-Strike and a few MMORPGs. Fast forward to when he moved to the US, we frequently played Dota 2 together, but he'd been playing on a laptop that was okay for work but not up to task for any kind of gaming.

Enter, Offcut Nucleus. Decided to name the PC as such, because it's an offcut or scraps of a few PCs. The thing is, having just moved here, my friend couldn't spend anything on a gaming PC, but he was so eager to get to playing Dota 2 properly. So he allocated $150 for it and I volunteered to gather all the parts and build what I could.

($30) Starting with the CPU, there was really only one option when it came to this part, the 2nd generation Core i5 Intel processors. At the time of the build the latest released CPU from Intel was the i7 6700k, and an i5 2400 wouldn't have been too far behind in terms of the games he intended on playing. For $30 this CPU gave me 4 cores at @ 3.4GHz, even without hyperthreading, is more than enough for esports titles and a few AAA games.

($20) The motherboard was THE HARDEST component to find. Initially purchased an MSI H61 board for $30 which turned out to be DOA. It was the only LGA 1155/1156 board that was convenient to purchase, meaning on Craigslist or free and quick shipping on eBay. However, scavenging through Craigslist, there were a few Dell Optiplex systems that were being sold as case and motherboard only. After making sure they were LGA 1155/56 boards AND FUNCTIONING, not to mention, I had my motherboard for $20.

($10) RAM at the time was really easy to buy, because it was the time where people were upgrading to DDR4 RAM with the release of Intel's Skylake processors, so there were a butt ton of DDR3 RAM on the used market. I was able to snag two 4GB sticks for $10 total. I wish RAM was as cheap back then.

($20) One of the two things bought new with this build was the power supply. As the saying goes, "never cheap out on a power supply, it is the life blood of your PC." I was able to find an EVGA 400W PSU for $20 on sale. Granted only 80+ rated, not bronze, but it's good enough to power the whole system.

($40) The graphics card was another challenging part to acquire, being on a REAAAAAAALLLY tight budget and trying to play at 1080p is a huge challenge. It took a while to find, but luckily one of my friends was getting rid of their Powercolor Radeon 7950. He sold it to me for $40 which at the time was definitely a friend's deal, going around for $100 used at the time.

($20) Looking for a hard drive on a budget wasn't really hard to do, even on a budget. With a mail in rebate on top of a holiday deal we were able to secure a 1TB HDD for $20 brand new.

($10) Lastly and definitely the least is the case. The listing on this was for one of those "junk" listings, where they just take a blurry photo of whatever they're selling, group all the items together, just generically listing the items they're selling (i.e. pc case - $20). I was still able to get the price lower to $10, and after opening the box, it was surprisingly pristine. Case was never used, so I looked it up and it was sold at Walmart. The Raygo S2 isn't too shabby of a case, it's definitely cheap -- flexible metal housing, unpainted interior, riveted drive cages and no room for cable management but it had good airflow, supported 1 120mm intake fan on the front and 1 120mm fan on the back and another 120mm fan on the bottom of the case.

Honestly, one of the most fun challenges I've had building PCs ever. Having THAT kind of a budget was more than a challenge, but seeing all the parts come together is so fulfilling. It's just a touch over two years since the build and it's still going. I'd love to some day upgrade a few of my friends' PC. Ryzen's pretty affordable nowadays, and I do have a GTX 960 lying around unused, which would be a few FPSs better than the 7950. Who knows maybe down the road we'd make another Frankenstein build for $300 with the 960 I currently have.