So, this may be a stupid question, but, are there any relatively good gaming PC's I can buy that has a top price of $500? My brother bought a PC in 09, and we played games on it for a while, but in 2011 it stopped working. I think we just used the graphics options improperly or something. So I don't play PC games as I would hope to. My problem with it is that I don't know how to build my own PC, and even if I learned (which I don't think I will, at least not soon), then comes to cost of things.

I just wish to go the more convenient route and buy an already built one, but I would hope there's one that's at least 500 dollars, and perhaps less that plays games great, like Bioshock Infinite (for example) at max settings with a good frame rate. I have a monitor that's only 1600 x 900, and for me, that's perfectly fine, so I don't need to look into monitors with greater resolutions that'll make it worse on the games frame rate. Sorry if this kind of question has been asked, and yes, like I said it's probably dumb, but I still felt like asking.

Thanks in advance. Please don't suggest making one, as I know some will probably feel like saying. It's a valid and good advice, but not one I want to take right now since I don't care to learn how to build one myself at the moment. And yes, I used the word 'convenient' and what's actually more convenient is arguable. I mean, I could go up, but I don't at all want to reach 1000 dollars. Hopefully this is seen. Giant Bomb took down the forums at the bottom of the home page for some reason a while back.

I also have a question, what's currently the best gaming desktop company, Alienware? I don't know.

You're not gonna get a machine that can do a whole lot for 500 bucks. Your best bet would be to buy a prebuilt and just add a mid range video card =/

You won't be able to max much doing this but it's the cheapest option without building your own.

You could probably come in around $600 or so for a system that has something like an AMD quad or hex core CPU and an AMD Radeon R9 270 or a 7870. No operating system, mouse, or keyboard for that price though....and probably only 4gb of RAM, or possibly 8gb of inexpensive RAM. Bare minimum power supply, low end case.

While you can probably build or maybe even buy a machine for around $600 that can run Infinite at decent settings at a respectable framerate, you certainly aren't going to be maxing it out. Even at 1680x1050. However, My concern is that you are considering spending $500+ on building (or buying) a computer with core components that are two or three generations old already.

I apologize for not answering your question but your best bet is to buy a PS4 or an XB1 with that money. For $500 a PS4 and an XB1 will perform better than that same PC will for games. If you really want to buy a PC though I suggest saving that $500 until you get to at least $800. You can build a pretty good machine at that price but since you're averse to that you can still buy a decent one from some of the boutique dealers. Sorry if this is no help.

I generally regret buying low end electronics. That extra 25-50% spend typically has a pretty significant return on investment.

Nvidia has an article about a cheap performance PC for £470 here:http://www.geforce.co.uk/whats-new/guides/geforce-gtx-750-ti-mini-itx-pc-build-guide. It has very basic Components, but it is said to run upcoming games like Titanfall better than the Xbox one. Take it With grain of salt though. If I were to built a $500 PC for gaming it would definitely be something like that one.

$500 is too low for a pre-bulit gaming PC. I recommend going with a Digital Storm gaming machine starting at $699. Specs, link and picture below.

Specs:

- NVIDIA GTX 750 1GB

- Intel Core i3 4330 CPU

- 8GB 1600MHz Memory

- 500GB 7200RPM HDD

- ASUS H81 Chipset Motherboard

- 430W Corsair CX Power Supply

- DVD-R/RW/CD-R/RW

- Microsoft Windows 8.1

http://www.digitalstormonline.com/gaming-desktops.asp

There's nothing like using something you made yourself, but @phileskyline's suggestion looks well enough. TBH you wouldn't even have to upgrade the PSU should you want to get a GPU that requires a 500W supply. Those min specs are usually for people who buy low quality PSUs.

Should you want to make a PC, here's one from r/PCMasterRace

PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/3101r

CPU: AMD FX-6300 3.5GHz 6-Core Processor ($118.49 @ Amazon)

Motherboard: ASRock 970 PRO3 R2.0 ATX AM3+ Motherboard ($79.99 @ Mwave)

Memory: GeIL EVO Veloce Series 4GB (1 x 4GB) DDR3-1333 Memory ($42.99 @ Newegg)

Storage: Western Digital RE3 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive

Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 760 2GB Video Card ($249.99 @ Newegg)

Case: Thermaltake VL80001W2Z ATX Mid Tower Case ($45.98 @ Newegg)

Power Supply: EVGA 600B 600W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($51.98 @ Newegg)

Total: $589.42

I already have an Xbox One and PS4.

Eh, alright. Thanks everyone. I kind of knew that it wouldn't be possible to buy a pre built gaming PC that was very good. My problem is that I don't want to spend a lot of money on something that could possibly break sooner than expected, like last time. I always try to keep my electronics in really good shape, but the PC last time just failed.

If you do build it yourself, most of the components will come with a warranty longer than what most prebuilt companies offer on their products. Also, if you pick decent brands and decent quality stuff, you probably won't have a problem, and people here will help you make sure you get the best you can for your money.

Your only other option would be to go somewhere and just buy an off the shelf, low end pc and add a 750Ti to it. It would at least get you low to mid settings in most games, but building it yourself will get you a lot more performance for the money.

The best thing you can do about having a PC last a long time (besides just taking good care of your electronics) is to not cheap out on parts. Go with trusted brands. That unfortunately means spending more, unless you put in some work in finding good deals on PC hardware. What I recommend is to save up until you can spend $700-800 on a rig. Then go to something like reddit's buildapcsales to find good deals. Also look for vendors who sell their own refurbished products. Refurbs will not only be cheaper but will have a better chance of not failing.

What is broken on your pc exactly? It's typically one thing that can be replace easily, if it's a HDD failure you may lose all your files but you can get a new one, even if ti's something like the motherboard, it can be replaced as well etc etc.

I built my pc, it was fun to learn how to do it and afterwards you can keep upgrading it as well

The problem is that gaming PC's, even self built, are simply more expensive than consoles. I would think in terms of a 1000.00 dollars for a gaming PC that will last a while in components and head room. Sure it could be done especially if self built for the most obvious reason, somewhere between 500.00 and 999.00 But the lower end of the 500.00 to 999.00 range just does not give you much. Make sure the Operating system is provided, that requires the same money as everything else does.

I think you are hitting your head against a brick wall. Consoles are produced in mass so that with other the factors included, they are not an arbitrary minus for the provider. Consoles are nice in that devs optimize for them, have some pretension of quality control, and through for least 1/2 of their lifetime are considered reasonably powerful. But, apparently you already have 2 consoles. And you probably know all this.

I would suggest you go here: http://www.cyberpowerpc.com/system/AMD_Six_Core_Configurator

I would go with AMD if you're on a budget.

This is for pre-built gaming machines, add and subtract what you will... I changed the power supply to a 650WATT and changed the selected GTX 650 to the new GTX 750ti which we all know how well it runs Titan fall with 8GB RAM and it came to $700.... you will not be able to get a proper gaming PC for 500$, it just aint going to happen. PCs do a hell lot more then consoles, a hell of a lot more, and that is why they are so expensive when their compared to consoles, there is a reason why the shitty walmart laptops and stuff aren't 500$ or more... Ipads are just a con from Apple why those are so expensive.

@ntm:

Alienware is a great gaming rig. I've got a AW14 R2. It can max out Skyrim and Crysis 3, so yeah, it's a great machine. However, not really great for next-gen gaming.

What I'm trying to say is, just build a gaming rig. Don't buy one. That's a mistake I made.

http://www.logicalincrements.com/ Good site for this

Typically pc's don't like have some crazy high failure rate or anything, sounds like you were either really unlucky or didn't use/build it properly or something in some aspect.

Sometimes components can be faulty or you can push things to hard (but not without really messing with stuff). You should probably try and look into what specifically is wrong with the pc you have if you still have it, or at least look into salvaging some parts to make the new one. There are very few computer issues that are beyond some quick googling. If you can reuse at least a few of the components - if you still have it, you can probably save up to a few hundred dollars.

Or maybe consider waiting for one of the less expensive steam boxes since it sounds like you basically want to deal with pc on the simplest most reliable terms.

First Rule of Pc Gaming. Build your own Rig, no exceptions.

@rowr: This is pretty old, so it's kind of unfortunate it's brought back since I'm not really thinking about it right now, but I guess it's good for the future. Anyways, yeah, I'm pretty sure I didn't use it properly for what the specs were for the PC. I don't really know what was up, but I have a feeling it had to do with overclocking, as I hinted at above I believe. I know the best answer to my question, always have, but I just wished there were something I didn't know, where there was a cheaper way.

Sorry didn't see the dates on the earlier posts. Yeh like I said, I would just keep your eye out when the whole steam box thing hits the market as I would assume some cheaper mass made prebuilts might pop up.

I just picked up one of these: http://www.microcenter.com/product/428535/ENVY_700-147_Desktop_Computer_Refurbished

I haven't had a windows machine in a long time, so I'm no expert, but I've been playin Titanfall and others and it's been great.