Budget Gaming - Any issues before I pull the trigger?

JohnnyJohnJohns

Hi guys, I've been putting off buying a gaming PC for the past few months but I've finally decided to bite the bullet.

One thing I was wondering about was a good recommendation for wireless mouse and keyboard?

Machine is HTPC/Gaming build to live in the sitting room on a budget.

Item|Price
FRACTAL DESIGN Gehäuse Core 1000 black|€35.35
Super-Flower Amazon 80Plus 550W|€54.03
Seagate Barracuda 7200 1000GB, SATA 6Gb/s|€67.90
AMD A10 5800K Black Edition mit AMD Radeon HD 7660D Grafikeinheit, Box, FM2|€113.71
ASRock FM2A85X Extreme4-M, FM2, mATX|€76.10
8GB-Kit Corsair Vengeance grün PC3-12800U CL9-9-9-24|€42.26
Samsung SH-224BB bare schwarz|€17.80
ARCTIC COOLING Freezer 13 (Sockel 775/1155/1156/1366/754/939/AM2/AM2 +/AM3/AM3+/FM1)|€22.52
Shipping|€18.99
Total|€448.66

Eboggles

Looks great .

Three things though:

Why the 550 watt PSU? Just grab a 430 watt be quiet one (the modular one) and you'll be grand.

Also, no SSD? I know it's a budget build, but you'll be kicking yourself for not spending an extra €60 to grab one, namely this one.

Finally, that RAM looks like puke . I'd recommend this, even if its just to ensure heatsink compatibility

JohnnyJohnJohns

Eboggles wrote: »

Looks great .

Three things though:

Why the 550 watt PSU? Just grab a 430 watt be quiet one (the modular one) and you'll be grand.

Also, no SSD? I know it's a budget build, but you'll be kicking yourself for not spending an extra €60 to grab one, namely this one.

Finally, that RAM looks like puke . I'd recommend this, even if its just to ensure heatsink compatibility

Thanks for the feedback, want to make sure I'm getting good value for money.

1. I added the be quiet PSU, just had the 550W to leave me some headroom if I wanted a discrete GPU but I think that's a bit down the road anyway. Do I need any cables or will it come with everything I need?

2. Added the SSD, I suppose it does make sense to do it right now, had been considering it as a future purchase.

3. I chose the ram because its 1866 mhz CL9 which seems to provide a decent boost to the A10 based off some articles I read. If you can recommend a similar set of 8gb 1866 mhz ram I will gladly consider it, it just seemed the cheapest, decent brand I could find.

Item|Price
FRACTAL DESIGN Gehäuse Core 1000 black|€35.35
Seagate Barracuda 7200 1000GB, SATA 6Gb/s|€67.90
AMD A10 5800K Black Edition mit AMD Radeon HD 7660D Grafikeinheit, Box, FM2|€113.71
ASRock FM2A85X Extreme4-M, FM2, mATX|€76.10
8GB-Kit Corsair Vengeance grün PC3-12800U CL9-9-9-24|€42.26
Samsung SH-224BB bare schwarz|€17.80
ARCTIC COOLING Freezer 13 (Sockel 775/1155/1156/1366/754/939/AM2/AM2 +/AM3/AM3+/FM1)|€22.52
be quiet! PURE POWER CM BQT L8-CM-430W|€56.61
Samsung SSD 830 64GB SATA 6GB's Basic|€59.99
Shipping|€18.99
Total|€511.23

Eboggles

This RAM doesn't look that bad, and this RAM (I think) looks quite stylish, along with your motherboard, or even this? The last two are 1600mhz, but you won't notice the difference.

MRTULES

Re the ram, this is worth a read

JohnnyJohnJohns

Ok, so updated with 2133 RAM, will I be ok in terms of power with a 430 PSU? Will I have some room to OC still?

Item|Price
FRACTAL DESIGN Gehäuse Core 1000 black|€35.35
Seagate Barracuda 7200 1000GB, SATA 6Gb/s|€67.90
AMD A10 5800K Black Edition mit AMD Radeon HD 7660D Grafikeinheit, Box, FM2|€113.71
ASRock FM2A85X Extreme4-M, FM2, mATX|€76.10
Samsung SH-224BB bare schwarz|€17.80
ARCTIC COOLING Freezer 13 (Sockel 775/1155/1156/1366/754/939/AM2/AM2 +/AM3/AM3+/FM1)|€22.52
be quiet! PURE POWER CM BQT L8-CM-430W|€56.61
Samsung SSD 830 64GB SATA 6GB's Basic|€59.99
8GB-Kit G.Skill Sniper PC3-17066U CL9|€63.84
Shipping|€18.99
Total|€532.81

JohnnyJohnJohns

Ok, so I realised that I wasn't going to get great performance out of that build so decided to focus on something with a more powerful GPU as it will be mostly for gaming that I'm buying and HTPC is just a useful benefit. Would like to bring it under €500 but I can't see where I could make those savings. Thoughts?

Item|Price
FRACTAL DESIGN Gehäuse Core 1000 black|€35.35
Seagate Barracuda 7200 1000GB, SATA 6Gb/s|€67.90
Samsung SH-224BB bare schwarz|€17.80
be quiet! PURE POWER CM BQT L8-CM-430W|€56.61
Intel Pentium G860 Box, LGA1155|€57.92
ASRock Z77 Pro3, Sockel 1155, ATX|€87.14
Club 3D Radeon HD 7850 royalQueen, 1GB GDDR5|€159.19
8GB-Kit G.Skill PC3-10667U CL9|€28.34
Shipping|€18.99
Total|€529.24

Erper

JohnnyJohnJohns wrote: »

Ok, so I realised that I wasn't going to get great performance out of that build so decided to focus on something with a more powerful GPU as it will be mostly for gaming that I'm buying and HTPC is just a useful benefit. Would like to bring it under €500 but I can't see where I could make those savings. Thoughts?

Item|Price
FRACTAL DESIGN Gehäuse Core 1000 black|€35.35
Seagate Barracuda 7200 1000GB, SATA 6Gb/s|€67.90
Samsung SH-224BB bare schwarz|€17.80
be quiet! PURE POWER CM BQT L8-CM-430W|€56.61
Intel Pentium G860 Box, LGA1155|€57.92
ASRock Z77 Pro3, Sockel 1155, ATX|€87.14
Club 3D Radeon HD 7850 royalQueen, 1GB GDDR5|€159.19
8GB-Kit G.Skill PC3-10667U CL9|€28.34
Shipping|€18.99
Total|€529.24

i know that you might have different opinion than us...
but...
if i were you
i would change that cpu...
go for i3 or i5 if its within your budget
i3 2100 would be better in my opinion that that pentium

i know that building new pc would cost you dare money but in the end, you will be happy with it, you will use it and it would be better to have something in a long run than buying it again after few months

what i would do is next (i know it will be more expensive than current setup)

http://www.dabs.ie/products/asus-p8z77-v-s1155-intel-z77-ddr3-atx-80TL.html?refs=48760000&src=3
http://www.dabs.ie/products/intel-core-i5-3570k-s1155-3-4ghz-6mb-7YXJ.html?q=i5&src=16
http://www.pixmania.ie/ie/uk/10330733/art/corsair/hydro-series-h80-liquid-c.html

JohnnyJohnJohns

Erper wrote: »

i know that you might have different opinion than us...
but...
if i were you
i would change that cpu...
go for i3 or i5 if its within your budget
i3 2100 would be better in my opinion that that pentium

i know that building new pc would cost you dare money but in the end, you will be happy with it, you will use it and it would be better to have something in a long run than buying it again after few months

what i would do is next (i know it will be more expensive than current setup)

http://www.dabs.ie/products/asus-p8z77-v-s1155-intel-z77-ddr3-atx-80TL.html?refs=48760000&src=3
http://www.dabs.ie/products/intel-core-i5-3570k-s1155-3-4ghz-6mb-7YXJ.html?q=i5&src=16
http://www.pixmania.ie/ie/uk/10330733/art/corsair/hydro-series-h80-liquid-c.html

Unfortunately going that much more expensive would push the purchase to after christmas and my poor laptop just can't handle what I'm trying to throw at it right now and having a few weeks off is a great time to get some games in.

From the research I've done the G860 performs nearly as well as an i3 when it comes to games so it seems far better value for money especially as it allows me get a 7850. From what I've seen online this set up should run most modern games at high enough settings to suit my needs.

Spending a couple hundred more on improved CPU just isn't financially feasible for me right now.

Erper

JohnnyJohnJohns wrote: »

Unfortunately going that much more expensive would push the purchase to after christmas and my poor laptop just can't handle what I'm trying to throw at it right now and having a few weeks off is a great time to get some games in.

From the research I've done the G860 performs nearly as well as an i3 when it comes to games so it seems far better value for money especially as it allows me get a 7850. From what I've seen online this set up should run most modern games at high enough settings to suit my needs.

Spending a couple hundred more on improved CPU just isn't financially feasible for me right now.

understandable...

thats why i said, it might be out of your budget...
but in general tasking i3 is better than g860, 2/4 vs 2/2 cores...

regards

JohnnyJohnJohns

JohnnyJohnJohns wrote: »

Ok, so I realised that I wasn't going to get great performance out of that build so decided to focus on something with a more powerful GPU as it will be mostly for gaming that I'm buying and HTPC is just a useful benefit. Would like to bring it under €500 but I can't see where I could make those savings. Thoughts?

Item|Price
FRACTAL DESIGN Gehäuse Core 1000 black|€35.35
Seagate Barracuda 7200 1000GB, SATA 6Gb/s|€67.90
Samsung SH-224BB bare schwarz|€17.80
be quiet! PURE POWER CM BQT L8-CM-430W|€56.61
Intel Pentium G860 Box, LGA1155|€57.92
ASRock Z77 Pro4-M, 1155, mATX|€87.14
Club 3D Radeon HD 7850 royalQueen, 1GB GDDR5|€159.19
8GB-Kit G.Skill PC3-10667U CL9|€28.34
Shipping|€18.99
Total|€529.24

Hi folks, any advice on effective upgrade routes for this? Hoping to spend about €300-400 if possible or am I best off just starting from scratch?

TerrorFirmer

7850 is still pretty OK and will run all modern games at 1080p low to middling settings (console quality basically), however, the G860 is hopelessly outdated. It's socket 1155 and to replace it with an i5 would cost about €70 and will keep up with all the latest titles even with a €400 graphics card at 1080p.

Make a CPU upgrade your priority, the 7850 will last another while, but the CPU is holding you back massively.

If I were to spend that €400 I'd get an i5-2400 or i5-3470 or similar for about €70-80, and spend the remaining €350 on either waiting for the AMD 480, or right now, get a 2nd hand GTX970 for €240-250, or a new one for €300.

You'd be playing all the latest games at 1080p ultra. G860 isn't really worth anything (maybe 15 euro) but the 7850 should net you about 80 back.

Eoinmc97

How about a Pentium on a H110 board? That way, you could hop up to a Skylake/Kaby Lake i5 in a year or two, and get access to DDR4 (which has benefits in games like ARMA 3)
In terms of buying a GPU, I would just hold off until the RX 470 or the RX 480 launches. They look pretty sweet for smaller budgets.
From Mindfactory.de
Skylake Pentium: €65
ASRock DDR4 H110 mITX board: €70
8GB DDR4 2133MHz DIMM: €30
1TB Seagate: €45
120GB AData Premier: €35
430W beQuiet PSU: €50
(Get your case from Amazon): €55
Total: €350
Heck, you could bump that up to an i3 and save for the dGPU coming in July!

TerrorFirmer

No offense but that's a crazy idea. Pentium G4400 gets destroyed by an i5-2400 which actually costs little more and means he doesn't have to upgrade the board or ram.

i5-2400 can get about 60-70fps on the latest games with a strong graphics card. The G4400 can't even come close.

Eoinmc97

TerrorFirmer wrote: »

No offense but that's a crazy idea. Pentium G4400 gets destroyed by an i5-2400 which actually costs little more and means he doesn't have to upgrade the board or ram.

i5-2400 can get about 60-70fps on the latest games with a strong graphics card. The G4400 can't even come close.

I guess why not if you can find 2400s and a Z77 board.

Wonzy

I5 3570 or 2400 is a perfect upgrade and are excellent processors. Why would you bother upgrade to skylake and change the board unless gaming on a 120hz monitor? Also upgrading to DDR4 doesn't really make any sense.

JohnnyJohnJohns

TerrorFirmer wrote: »

7850 is still pretty OK and will run all modern games at 1080p low to middling settings (console quality basically), however, the G860 is hopelessly outdated. It's socket 1155 and to replace it with an i5 would cost about €70 and will keep up with all the latest titles even with a €400 graphics card at 1080p.

Make a CPU upgrade your priority, the 7850 will last another while, but the CPU is holding you back massively.

If I were to spend that €400 I'd get an i5-2400 or i5-3470 or similar for about €70-80, and spend the remaining €350 on either waiting for the AMD 480, or right now, get a 2nd hand GTX970 for €240-250, or a new one for €300.

You'd be playing all the latest games at 1080p ultra. G860 isn't really worth anything (maybe 15 euro) but the 7850 should net you about 80 back.

This seems to make a lot of sense at the minute. Theres a 2400S on adverts but from looking at the CPU benchmarks it looks like I'd be better off waiting for a 2400, is that correct?

I'm happy to wait for the new AMD cards- an RX 470 might be sufficient as its for 1080P gaming. Thanks!

TerrorFirmer

2400S operates at 2.5Ghz I think from memory whereas the regular 2400 is 3.1Ghz.

Will it make a massive difference? Not really - 55-60fps at ultra versus 60-65. But it's probably worth going for the 2400 - but there are other models too, I just picked a common one. i5-2400, 2500, 2500k, 3470, 3550, 3570, 3570k, etc are also contenders, loads other models too I just picked the ones that are common.

'S' models are just power saving models and are a few hundred mhz slower at stock than regular models.

all are sub 100 about now really and would see you through the next few years really at 1080p.

Lu Tze

JohnnyJohnJohns wrote: »

This seems to make a lot of sense at the minute. Theres a 2400S on adverts but from looking at the CPU benchmarks it looks like I'd be better off waiting for a 2400, is that correct?

I'm happy to wait for the new AMD cards- an RX 470 might be sufficient as its for 1080P gaming. Thanks!

I picked up a 2400 on adverts last weekend for €50, they can be got cheap enough. They pop up from time to time at good prices, under priced often as they are a couple of generations old, but the improvement each generation hasnt exactly been spectacular, so you arent losing much versus a 3470 or similar.

JohnnyJohnJohns

Lu Tze wrote: »

I picked up a 2400 on adverts last weekend for €50, they can be got cheap enough. They pop up from time to time at good prices, under priced often as they are a couple of generations old, but the improvement each generation hasnt exactly been spectacular, so you arent losing much versus a 3470 or similar.

That's great! I was worried the 1155 architecture might have caused a bottleneck and that I'd need to do a larger overhaul.

Will update once I get the parts!