Sub €500 gaming build

will56

1. What is your budget? < €500

2. What will be the main purpose of the computer? Gaming

3. Do you need a copy of Windows? Yes.

4. Can you use any parts from an old computer? No, all brand new

5. Do you need a monitor? No, using HD TV

6. Do you need peripherals? No

7. Are you willing to try overclocking? Yes

8. How can you pay? CC, Paypal, Bank Transfer, etc.

9. When are you purchasing? anytime

10. If you need help building it, where are you based? No help needed

Is it possible to build a gaming PC for this budget or less that will beat a PS4/XBOne?

Ant695

Around 500 is possible. Lower no but the best way to look at it is that what you save on games will then cover the extra you spend on the machine as well as the longevity of it with upgrades etc...

For example I got mad max on release for pc for €16. So around 30 saved against buying for console so in a short space of time the savings on pc games make up for the initial outlay especially with steam summer and winter sales.

Long story short bit more spent now is better long term than saving now and having to do bigger upgrades down the line.

will56

How does this look ?

Don't know what to look for with the GPU, everytime I come across one that gets good reviews there seems to be another thats better/cheaper, very confusing .

Parts are from Amazon, UK/ES. I ordered a different build from Amazon.es without issues so would do so again.

€329.50 Total
CPU €69.40 Pentium 3258
MotherBoard €51.80 Asus H81m Plus
RAM €47.70 8GB
SSD €81.28 240GB SSD
Power Supply €56.37 Corsair 430
Case €22.95 Zalman Z1

Lu Tze

will56 wrote: »

How does this look ?

Don't know what to look for with the GPU, everytime I come across one that gets good reviews there seems to be another thats better/cheaper, very confusing .

Parts are from Amazon, UK/ES. I ordered a different build from Amazon.es without issues so would do so again.

€329.50 Total
CPU €69.40 I3 3258
MotherBoard €51.80 Asus H81m Plus
RAM €47.70 8GB
SSD €81.28 240GB SSD
Power Supply €56.37 Corsair 430
Case €22.95 Zalman Z1

What resolution is your tv? If its 720p save yourself some money and buy an second-hand AMD HD7770 or similar will play everything pretty much on high settings at that resolution for about €50-60.

If its 1080p look to the Nvidia GTX 750 ti. £80-90 sterling on amazon, will handle things medium to high (depending on hte game) at 1080p and a very low power draw.

Just a note, the intel CPU you listed above 3258 is a pentium, not an i3. It was mentioned in one of these threads before that some games wont play without a quad core, which the i3 passes due to hyperthreading even though it is actually dual core, but the pentium wont. Worth a quick google on it.

If you are intending to upgrade to a quad core in the next 6 months or so i would go with the pentium and save the money, if not go with an i3 or greater.

Ant695

I'd probably push processor up to a i3 4160 and get a r9 290 for about 165 on cex or adverts. Also you'd probably get it a little cheaper from mindfactory.de and just get the case from amazon as shipping would be alot for a case from mindfactory.

will56

Lu Tze wrote: »

What resolution is your tv? If its 720p save yourself some money and buy an second-hand AMD HD7770 or similar will play everything pretty much on high settings at that resolution for about €50-60.

If its 1080p look to the Nvidia GTX 750 ti. £80-90 sterling on amazon, will handle things medium to high (depending on hte game) at 1080p and a very low power draw.

Just a note, the intel CPU you listed above 3258 is a pentium, not an i3. It was mentioned in one of these threads before that some games wont play without a quad core, which the i3 passes due to hyperthreading even though it is actually dual core, but the pentium wont. Worth a quick google on it.

If you are intending to upgrade to a quad core in the next 6 months or so i would go with the pentium and save the money, if not go with an i3 or greater.

Amended the list to Pentium, thanks for pointing that out.
The TV is 1080p

will56

I3 4160 with the R9 290x pushes it to about €550

If I put in a 120gb SSD i can get closer to the €500 budget ?

Ant695

Yeah but you'd likely need another hdd for storage at that point which is about €50 for a 1tb whereas with the 240gb ssd you could get away with that for a while without extra storage. Also possible to get a cheaper graphics card to take it closer to €500 but that is a pretty well liked one. Gpus not my strongest area though so someone more knowledgeable may have an idea of something a bit lower in price with decent performance.

Dard23

will56 wrote:

I3 4160 with the R9 290x pushes it to about €550

I reckon an R9 290 is more then enough for 1080p and you can overclock easily in the future which brings it to 290x region.

TerrorFirmer

Where are you seeing an R9 290 for €165?

Ant695

TerrorFirmer wrote: »

Where are you seeing an R9 290 for €165?

Ah **** yeah my bad I was looking at the we buy for price. That's what I get for looking at it on my phone.

On the other hand an r9 270 is €105 and this time I am sure I'm looking at the right price. Should be ok to get you started.

will56

Thanks for the replies so far.
This is what I have so far, comes to €364 including windows from Reddit

• CPU: I3 4160
• MotherBoard: Asus H81m Plus
• RAM: 8GB
• SSD: 120gb SSD
• Power Supply:Corsair 430
• Case: Zalman Z1

Balance left then is €136/140
What would be the best bang for buck GPU either new or second hand ?
Budget has to be €500/510. Any more than that I'll start rationalising a €550+ budget

If there is anywhere I can make more savings please point them out.

TerrorFirmer

R9 270X for €125 from CEX, 2nd hand but offers a 12 month warrany.

New, a GTX750Ti for about €125-130.

will56

TerrorFirmer wrote: »

R9 270X for €125 from CEX, 2nd hand but offers a 12 month warrany.

New, a GTX750Ti for about €125-130.

Still trying to get my head around GPUs but am I right in saying the 270x would be better than the 750ti ?

Xenoronin

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/1043?vs=1130

I love this site so much for simple comparisons. The 270X is a fair bit better. Will run most games in 1080p at high graphics. 750TI would be looking at high/medium.

will56

Xenoronin wrote: »

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/1043?vs=1130

I love this site so much for simple comparisons. The 270X is a fair bit better. Will run most games in 1080p at high graphics. 750TI would be looking at high/medium.

Thats brilliant, thanks.
I've been using GPUBoss up to now but that site looks to be much better with the FPS benchmarks for different games

Eoinmc97

I don't understand how people keep forgetting the Godsaver of €500 builds:
The AMD A10 7850K. A 4 core CPU to match an overclocked i3 (but can't match an i5 if I recall) with a R7 250 GPU inside it. Not only that it can play most triple AAA titles at Medium, with faster RAM or Crossfiring another R7 250, then the performance almost doubles.
My reccommended build is:
A10 7850k: €115 (this can also overclock for some more power)
2400MHz 8GB RAM: €50 (the faster RAM really helps the APU)
R7 250 1Gb: €80
Corsair 430w PSU: €45
1Tb HDD: €50
MSI FM2+ ATX MoBo: €60
An ATX case: €40-50
You can get a Windows key for about €20 on Reddit.

Digital Solitude

250 is miles off a 270X, and AMD are toasty enough without crossfiring, as well as having a sub par CPU.

TerrorFirmer

I don't think I've ever heard someone call the AMD APU line a godsaver of budget builds. Probably because they're not; the A10's are still far slower than the Haswell i3's.

Also, crossfire with APU's is pretty bad, in a lot of cases there's no gain, don't know why but it's nowhere near as reliable as regular crossfire. A 7850K + R7 250 would really be a waste of money for a gamer.

A10-7850K running triple A titles at medium? Sure... if you play at 1024x768. GTA V? Battlefield 4? Witcher 3? Batman Arkham Knight? DayZ? Arma3? All very popular games....and all would run at low settings at low resolution to get any decent FPS.

AMD's APU's have much better performance than Intel's but that doesn't suddenly make them brilliant gaming chips - they more just do a far better job for a person who plays games incidentally rather than regularly, or plays unintensive games like Minecraft, CS: Go, etc.