Building Budget Gaming PC Need Advice

O

OceaNz

n00b
Joined
Feb 8, 2008
Messages
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Hi All,
I've been out of the building game for quite awhile and was asked by a friend to build a budget gaming PC. I was hoping to get some direction here on what to use as I have not been keeping up! Thanks in advance for any help!!

1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? Gaming/Web

2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included? 700.00

3) Which country do you live in? If the U.S, please tell us the state and city if possible. USA/FL

4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, etc. The word "Everything" is not a valid answer. Please list out all the parts you'll need.
CPU, RAM, videocard, motherboard.

5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model. 700W PSU, he also has a monitor, case,and SSD that I will be reusing.


6) Will you be overclocking?maybe initially but he is not into tweaking so not important

7) What is the max resolution of your monitor? What size is it? 1920x1080

8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC? within the next two weeks

9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Crossfire or SLI support? eSATA? Onboard video (as a backup or main GPU)? n/a

10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If yes, what OS? Is it 32bit or 64bit? yes win 10 64bit
 
How badly does your friend want to game? The prices on mid-range cards have ballooned to the point that they can easily cost upwards of half of your budget. Add in the inflated cost of DDR4 RAM and you may need to increase your budget.

For example, the following build is what I would consider "mid-range"...

$179 - Intel Core i5-8400 six-core processor
$120 - MSI Z370 GAMING PLUS ATX motherboard (sale price, expires 4/11)
$84 - Patriot Viper 4 2x4GB DDR4 3000 RAM (sale price, expires 4/11)
$340 - ASUS DUAL-GTX1060-O6G GeForce GTX 1060 6GB video card (sale price, expires 4/12) -- OR --
$340 - ASUS ROG Strix ROG-STRIX-RX570-O4G-GAMING Radeon RX 570 4GB video card

$723 - Total (not including shipping, taxes, or rebates)

I chose Intel because Intel processors are generally better in gaming benchmarks than their AMD "equivalents." That said, with the Coffee Lake processors, like the i5-8400, Z370 is the only (motherboard) game in town.

Unfortunately, my choice of the i5-8400 prevents you from overclocking; you'd need the more expensive i5-8600K or the (even more expensive) i7-8700K to overclock (not to mention the added cost of a good third-party CPU cooler, regardless of whether you go with air-cooled or liquid-cooled).

Some of the items that I chose are currently on sale, so their prices may increase by the time that you decide to buy your parts.

Out of curiosity, what are the brand, model, and age of your PSU and SSD?
 
tiraides said:
How badly does your friend want to game? The prices on mid-range cards have ballooned to the point that they can easily cost upwards of half of your budget. Add in the inflated cost of DDR4 RAM and you may need to increase your budget.

For example, the following build is what I would consider "mid-range"...

$179 - Intel Core i5-8400 six-core processor
$120 - MSI Z370 GAMING PLUS ATX motherboard (sale price, expires 4/11)
$84 - Patriot Viper 4 2x4GB DDR4 3000 RAM (sale price, expires 4/11)
$340 - ASUS DUAL-GTX1060-O6G GeForce GTX 1060 6GB video card (sale price, expires 4/12) -- OR --
$340 - ASUS ROG Strix ROG-STRIX-RX570-O4G-GAMING Radeon RX 570 4GB video card

$723 - Total (not including shipping, taxes, or rebates)

I chose Intel because Intel processors are generally better in gaming benchmarks than their AMD "equivalents." That said, with the Coffee Lake processors, like the i5-8400, Z370 is the only (motherboard) game in town.

Unfortunately, my choice of the i5-8400 prevents you from overclocking; you'd need the more expensive i5-8600K or the (even more expensive) i7-8700K to overclock (not to mention the added cost of a good third-party CPU cooler, regardless of whether you go with air-cooled or liquid-cooled).

Some of the items that I chose are currently on sale, so their prices may increase by the time that you decide to buy your parts.

Out of curiosity, what are the brand, model, and age of your PSU and SSD?
Click to expand...


Thanks so much for the reply! The SSD is about a year old and I think it is a Samsung not sure of model. PSU is OLD about 6yrs so I will probably replace it as well. He is pretty stuck on gaming/streaming it is unfortunate that video card prices have ballooned so high making this hard to achieve.
 
PSU's degrade in performance over the years and 6 years on a PSU is a lot. I would definitely replace that PSU.
 
I don't know how this will be received....but I would go with used equipment in the 2-4 year range. Purely as an example, my current setup is all Frankenstein'd free parts plus a $60 case to make it presentable. I play GTAV on high in the 40-50 FPS range.

List:
i3-2120
DH61CR Intel MOBO
16GB DDR3
GTX 970
460 GB SSD
2 TB HD

The CPU and mobo are $30 & $50 on ebay. DDR3 is still cheap(er) and that should leave plenty for a good video card. You probably wont need 16 GB of ram, none of the gaming I do requires it....

Yes, the CPU maxes out on GTA5 but its smooth and playable. It also runs Plex, Minecraft server & Splunk at the same time that I game.

edit: The GTX 970 & SSD were not free. Everything else was. Hope the point is clear.
 
I wouldn't spend so much on a CPU. A quad core would leave more than enough performance now, and places like Microcenter will have deals on 8700k when they're replaced with something new. 8GB memory is right on the bleeding edge of viability.

Also, prices on the GTX 1060 6GB have fallen $50 in just four weeks. This one is $289, and has been in stock several days now.

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814487260

And here's the rest of them:

PC Hound Part List

CPU: Intel Intel Core i3-8100 ($112.99 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: MSI Z370 GAMING PLUS ($99.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: G.SKILL 16GB (2 x 8GB) Ripjaws V Series ($180.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $393.97
Price may include shipping, rebates, promotions, and tax
Generated by PC Hound
 
defaultluser said:
I wouldn't spend so much on a CPU. A quad core would leave more than enough performance now, and places like Microcenter will have deals on 8700k when they're replaced with something new. 8GB memory is right on the bleeding edge of viability.

Also, prices on the GTX 1060 6GB have fallen $50 in just four weeks. This one is $289, and has been in stock several days now.

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814487260

And here's the rest of them:

PC Hound Part List

CPU: Intel Intel Core i3-8100 ($112.99 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: MSI Z370 GAMING PLUS ($99.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: G.SKILL 16GB (2 x 8GB) Ripjaws V Series ($180.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $393.97
Price may include shipping, rebates, promotions, and tax
Generated by PC Hound
Click to expand...

Get a B360 or a H370 if you have a locked CPU. H370 Pro would be fine.
 
cheap50 said:
I don't know how this will be received....but I would go with used equipment in the 2-4 year range. Purely as an example, my current setup is all Frankenstein'd free parts plus a $60 case to make it presentable. I play GTAV on high in the 40-50 FPS range.

List:
i3-2120
DH61CR Intel MOBO
16GB DDR3
GTX 970
460 GB SSD
2 TB HD

The CPU and mobo are $30 & $50 on ebay. DDR3 is still cheap(er) and that should leave plenty for a good video card. You probably wont need 16 GB of ram, none of the gaming I do requires it....

Yes, the CPU maxes out on GTA5 but its smooth and playable. It also runs Plex, Minecraft server & Splunk at the same time that I game.

edit: The GTX 970 & SSD were not free. Everything else was. Hope the point is clear.
Click to expand...

A friend of mine is happy gaming on a system I built for him with an i3-2120 when it was new. I asked him recently if he wanted to upgrade he said no need. Those i3's are great for 1080p gaming.
 
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