Budget Gaming PC <€500

ConsolePleb

I am completely new to PCs (you can probably tell by my name). I have never built nor owned one in my entire life so I would greatly appreciate information on pretty much all aspects of building one. My budget would be pretty low with €500 being my max.

I would need all other components (monitor, keyboard and mouse) however these would be excluded from the €500 as I have some cheap ones I could use for now.

I would mostly be playing AAA first-person-shooters which I understand is a lot to ask for on such a low budget but I am willing to buy a few of the parts second-hand (something I know might be hard given I live in rural Donegal)

TL;DR I would like to build a €500 PC to play 2016's AAA games but second hand parts may be hard to come across in my area

Again: any and all help would be greatly appreciated as I am completely new to this!

Digital Solitude

At that budget you're likely better buying a second hand machine and adding a GPU, will check adverts later for you

ConsolePleb

Digital Solitude wrote: »

At that budget you're likely better buying a second hand machine and adding a GPU, will check adverts later for you

Thanks, I really appreciate it. I did some poking around and found a PC for sale for €480 (I can't link it because I'm a new user, I'll just copy and paste the description)

****price drop 480e bargain!

(*all original boxes and warranties come with PC, its brand new never used )

Custom built gaming pcs for sale

Gpu: nvidia geforce gtx 950 2gb
Ram: 8gb crucial ballistics gaming ram
Cpu: amd fx 4300 4. 2 ghz (oc) to 4. 5 ghz if needed
Storage: western digital 1 tb hdd
Psu: aerocool 500w 80+ bronze
Cooling: coolermaster seidon liquid cooling all in one
Case: custom lighting side window
Mobo: gigabyte usb 3. 0, 8x usb/hdmi etc
Os: windows 10 pro
Will play all games on high/max settings.

I don't know how trustworthy this seller is but if all he says is true then it seems like a good deal (I don't know how comfortable I'd be with a water cooled system, however). But I don't have much knowledge on the subject so I best leave it to the professionals!

Thanks again for the help!

Digital Solitude

The ad is inaccurate with its description. It's a good price but I wouldn't call it a bargain, you can do better

ConsolePleb

Digital Solitude wrote: »

The ad is inaccurate with its description. It's a good price but I wouldn't call it a bargain, you can do better

Ok, thanks!

TerrorFirmer

That PC isn't terrible but the CPU is a bit weak. However, he might be willing to move on price and if you could get it for say, 400 you would be doing pretty well. That's the thing about adverts, most people don't expect to get their asking price, it's just a guide to start people off with the offers.

This is also in Donegal, been up for two weeks with no offers so maybe he'd be willing to take 500. Pretty solid PC and much faster than the one above.

Bazzo

At work so just had a quick look on my phone but this looks like a pretty good deal unless I'm missing something: http://touch.adverts.ie/desktops/gaming-pc-for-sale/11000752

ConsolePleb

TerrorFirmer wrote: »

That PC isn't terrible but the CPU is a bit weak. However, he might be willing to move on price and if you could get it for say, 400 you would be doing pretty well. That's the thing about adverts, most people don't expect to get their asking price, it's just a guide to start people off with the offers.

Thanks a lot, that looks great. I'll try to get in touch when I know I have the money. I'm not sure about that September deadline though

Digital Solitude

Stretching for the one Terror linked would be nice going, if you got €600 you'd be away for a good while. The €350 one isn't too bad either but would require a GPU upgrade for newer games at higher settiongs, knocking out a good chunk of the savings

TerrorFirmer

Bazzo wrote: »

At work so just had a quick look on my phone but this looks like a pretty good deal unless I'm missing something: http://touch.adverts.ie/desktops/gaming-pc-for-sale/11000752

Yeah, if you're willing to travel considering that includes a monitor it's a total no-brainer.

ConsolePleb

All of you were really helpful and I really appreciate the info. I'll probably look into all of these a bit more and decide soon enough.

But, would maybe waiting until a PC that's considered powerful now becomes cheaper be a good idea? A PC that can run Battlefield 1/Battlefront on somewhat high settings smoothly now would be great to get even in the middle of next year as I would be mainly playing those games anyway.

ConsolePleb

Bazzo wrote: »

At work so just had a quick look on my phone but this looks like a pretty good deal unless I'm missing something

How would I go about changing to Windows 10 (I'm really new) or is Linux fine for gaming and general use?

Bazzo

ConsolePleb wrote: »

How would I go about changing to Windows 10 (I'm really new) or is Linux fine for gaming and general use?

Unless things have changed since I last checked(and it's entirely possible, I'm fairly out of the loop) you don't want to be gaming on a linux system. I'm pretty sure you can buy windows keys online for €20 or something though, or if by chance you happen to be a student there's a good chance that your college will have a deal with microsoft meaning you could be entitled to a free copy of windows while you're still a student.

ConsolePleb

Bazzo wrote: »

Unless things have changed since I last checked(and it's entirely possible, I'm fairly out of the loop) you don't want to be gaming on a linux system. I'm pretty sure you can buy windows keys online for €20 or something though, or if by chance you happen to be a student there's a good chance that your college will have a deal with microsoft meaning you could be entitled to a free copy of windows while you're still a student.

Thanks. I'm no longer a student but I'll be sure to check out the keys online

Digital Solitude

Don't bother with the €20 keys, it's basically paying pirates.

TerrorFirmer

Besides no need to really use them anymore anyway as Win10 trial works indefinitely, just has a barely noticable watermark in the corner. Thankfully did away with that pain-in-the-hole full screen 'NOT GENUINE WINDOWS' hourly feature of Win8.

MarkAnthony

CPU: i3-6100 €112.58
(includes your cooler etc.)

Motherboard: MSI H110M PRO-VD €52.10
(Nothing says quality like a mobo named after an STD)

Memory: 8GB Crucial Generic €31.92

Case: Thermaltake Versa H15 M-ATX €39.42

PSU: EVGA 600w €47.79

Storage: Kingston 240GB SSDNow €60.94
(You might want to put a hard drive in here but personally I can't use a PC without an SSD. I'd go with the SSD, someone always has an old HDD kicking about they'll give you.)

Total €375 inc deliver from mindfactory. Amazon is usually free delivery if you parcel motel.

Performance: 30FPS at 720p is not playable to me BUT it's not far off a console and you have a very solid base to build on and €125 left over to look at adding a discrete GPU there are a huge number of options there. Personally I'd look for a R9-390 for about €200 second hand or wait for the RX-480 prices to become sensible or look at the Rx 470 when it launches.

The below video is also worth a watch - you might want to look at an AMD based build if you want a more set it and forget it type build you do once and leave it for a couple of years. Personally I don't recommend this but you could probably squeeze a monitor into your €500 budget at the sacrifice of upgradeability.

You might need to watch some of the dimensions of GPU cards in that case. There are certainly some cost shaving that can be done to the intel build allowing enough to be left over for a discrete GPU. Over to the others

€500 is loads for a new build for gaming to be fair - no need to go second hand. For pure gaming the TV is fine until you can buy a monitor. Most of us grew up (okay most of us might be overstating it now!) using computers attached to TVs.

MarkAnthony

The €350 unit is actually a very good deal though!