Building a New Old Machine

Kintarō Hattori

Hey Folks,

I was watching a video on YouTube last night that looked at how the first generation Core i5 processors were for gaming today. It got me thinking. I have wanted a new PC as my old one is ancient (Intel Q9950, DDR-II etc) and not used anymore. My plan would be to use it to play my collection of Steam games which hasn't been updated in manny many years as I've been playing on console for the last few years. There's at least 120 or so games in my library so I think this could be a project worth looking at (for me). I'm not worried about playing the latest and greatest, this would simply be for the large collection of older games in my library.

How cheaply could I build a machine to plan old collection of games. Looking on eBay some parts are:

i5-750 can be got for around €10
An Asus motherboard can be got for around €50
16GB of DDR-III 1600 can be got for about €50
240GB SSD for around €30
I already have a copy of Windows 7 ultimate
An ATX tower can be got for around €40
I could probably use the existing PSU from my older machine which was quite a beefy unit

The only things I'm unsure of would be:

Do I go mini-ITX on the motherboard and case as this would go into the living room
What graphics card could I put into it?
Do I go with an LGA1156 chip/mobo or go for something after that? I'm fairly well out of this game so haven't kept up with what was relevant after the Core 2 Duo line

ED E

It seems mad to not step up to Sandy Bridge at a minimum.

mickuhaha

I would go with a 4670k and mobo combo at least for gaming. And maybe the old 7970/rx290. Old Amd cards seem to be a little better than Nvidia.

Homelander

There would be no point getting a 1st gen i5, the cost of a motherboard would be the same/more than a motherboard for the newest platforms which have low-end CPU's for €50 as well. So for the sake of €40 saved you'd be using totally obsolete 10 year old tech.

A320M motherboard new - €50
Ryzen 1200 2nd hand - €50
8GB DDR4 3200mhz - €50
240GB SSD - €35
Cheap case + PSU - €60
2nd hand GPU - €50

Total cost about €280. You could also buy a used Dell or HP on Ebay for about €120 with 8GB of RAM and a 4th gen i5. Add your own graphics card + SSD and it'll work out about €200 all in.

djan

What kind of games and what year were they made? Also what resolution would you play at?

If it's not too demanding stuff it could be an idea to go with AMD Ryzen G series processors which have a pretty decent graphics chip built in. It can run GTA V pretty decently compared to an xbox one s for example.

That would save up money as you don't need a graphics card.

Kintarō Hattori

Resolution would be capped at 1920 x 1080. To give you an idea of what games they are, here's a selection:

Assassin's Creed 3, Black Flag, Brotherhood
Batman: Arkham Asylum, City, Arkham Origins
Borderlands 1 & 2
Company of Heroes
Crysis 1 & 2
Farcry 4
Grid 2, Autosport
Just Cause 2 & 3
Metro Redux
Total War: Shogun 2
Toy Soldiers

I had totally not thought about AMD, depsite having built and owned many AMD powered machines in the past, so I'm totally open to building an AMD machine.

I'm so far out of the loop I have no idea if the Ryzen 1200 and the G series are one and the same. The plan is to build this, based off of your recommendations, so you lot have a lot of power in your hands right now! I'll link to parts and keep the thread updated if that would be of interest to anyone. There might be another eejit or two like me thinking about doing the same.

djan

Kintarō Hattori wrote: »

Resolution would be capped at 1920 x 1080. To give you an idea of what games they are, here's a selection:

Assassin's Creed 3, Black Flag, Brotherhood
Batman: Arkham Asylum, City, Arkham Origins
Borderlands 1 & 2
Company of Heroes
Crysis 1 & 2
Farcry 4
Grid 2, Autosport
Just Cause 2 & 3
Metro Redux
Total War: Shogun 2
Toy Soldiers

I had totally not thought about AMD, depsite having built and owned many AMD powered machines in the past, so I'm totally open to building an AMD machine.

I'm so far out of the loop I have no idea if the Ryzen 1200 and the G series are one and the same. The plan is to build this, based off of your recommendations, so you lot have a lot of power in your hands right now! I'll link to parts and keep the thread updated if that would be of interest to anyone. There might be another eejit or two like me thinking about doing the same.

Appreciate the long reply, makes it easier to gauge what kind of hardware would suit you, especially the games you're looking to play.

In terms of value, AMD is currently absolutely king while offering solid upgrade paths and keeping costs low.

I'll pop together a build tomorrow properly. What kind of budget you looking at?

Homelander

djan wrote: »

What kind of games and what year were they made? Also what resolution would you play at?

If it's not too demanding stuff it could be an idea to go with AMD Ryzen G series processors which have a pretty decent graphics chip built in. It can run GTA V pretty decently compared to an xbox one s for example.

That would save up money as you don't need a graphics card.

I wouldn't recommend this to be honest. They're very limited in terms of graphics power and you're gonna have to shell out £120 for a Ryzen 3400G to begin with.

For that price you'd get an entire i5 4th gen machine with 8GB ram off Ebay, just need to add a graphics card.

Like when the OP was talking about buying €10 processors, obviously the budget isn't there for a €500 machine.

Again, just get a 4th gen i5/8GB off Ebay for €120, drop in your SSD and 2nd hand GPU, and you'll have all the games mentioned running at 1080p high for the most part, perfectly for €200.

€300 with a mix of new/2nd hand parts would build you something solid enough that would also be OK for newer games and have future upgrade options.

Kintarō Hattori

djan wrote: »

Appreciate the long reply, makes it easier to gauge what kind of hardware would suit you, especially the games you're looking to play.

In terms of value, AMD is currently absolutely king while offering solid upgrade paths and keeping costs low.

I'll pop together a build tomorrow properly. What kind of budget you looking at?

As cheap as possible. I haven't gamed on the PC in a good few years as a little one has come along and well consoles have been taking care of the fix for a while. Literally the only reason I thought about this was to play the games currently in the steam library. I'm not looking to play newer titles as I'll just play those on console.

If a prospective build can play the library comfortably at 1080p on a shoestring budget, I'll be delighted.

For clarity I've attached the complete list of Steam games I'll be playing.

djan

For shoestring gaming, and idea could be to grab an ex office desktop machine such as the Dell Optiplex 9020 SFF which can be got for less than 100eur and put in a low profile graphics card like a Nvidia GTX 1050 or 1050ti (15% performance increase roughly) this will run the games listed really well, for comparison with consoles, it will be between a Xbox One S and a Xbox One X.

All together it would come to about 250eur. Assuming you have a monitor/tv and mouse/keyboard/gamepad already.

The negative with this is that it offers no upgrade path, spending another 200 eur will bring double the performance with better longevity. For your usecase, it would make sense to go for the cheaper option.

Installing the graphics card is quite simple: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3djQfs2--XQ

This si the performance you'd get, basically all the games would run great on high settings at 1080p: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=exXwnZ6IU_w

Also I'd strongly recommend upgrading to an SSD drive, 120gb can be gotten for around 20eur. It will make a world of a difference for booting up the machine and general snappiness. The games can go on the slower HDD included in the pc.

Graphics card would have to be low profile such as this 1050ti: https://www.laptopsdirect.ie/gigabyte-gtx-1050ti-lp-4gb-gv-n105toc-4gl/version.asp?refsource=ldieadwords&mkwid=sSrk1dNZf_dc&pcrid=373898386443&product=GV-N105TOC-4GL&pgrid=77279078635&ptaid=pla-302734503742&channel=googlesearch&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIi8Ce-qPo6QIVwrHtCh2YWgszEAQYASABEgJ0KPD_BwE

djan

Just changed the links there to better ones.

djan

Scratch that card, totally forgot about the newer GTX 1650, which at the same price will offer a bit better performance. This version is a bit loud but does offer excellent performance. (fan speed can be controlled manually depending on ambient temps etc)

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.amazon.co.uk/Zotac-Gaming-GeForce-1650-Profile/dp/B07T7P3HMV&ved=2ahUKEwi2tMKbrOjpAhWzp3EKHWGCDN8QFjAEegQIAhAC&usg=AOvVaw1Ajzug_ncdcxr0S-SmZflH

Kintarō Hattori

djan wrote: »

For shoestring gaming, and idea could be to grab an ex office desktop machine such as the Dell Optiplex 9020 SFF which can be got for less than 100eur and put in a low profile graphics card like a Nvidia GTX 1050 or 1050ti (15% performance increase roughly) this will run the games listed really well, for comparison with consoles, it will be between a Xbox One S and a Xbox One X.

All together it would come to about 250eur. Assuming you have a monitor/tv and mouse/keyboard/gamepad already.

The negative with this is that it offers no upgrade path, spending another 200 eur will bring double the performance with better longevity. For your usecase, it would make sense to go for the cheaper option.

Installing the graphics card is quite simple: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3djQfs2--XQ

This si the performance you'd get, basically all the games would run great on high settings at 1080p: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=exXwnZ6IU_w

Also I'd strongly recommend upgrading to an SSD drive, 120gb can be gotten for around 20eur. It will make a world of a difference for booting up the machine and general snappiness. The games can go on the slower HDD included in the pc.

Graphics card would have to be low profile such as this 1050ti: https://www.laptopsdirect.ie/gigabyte-gtx-1050ti-lp-4gb-gv-n105toc-4gl/version.asp?refsource=ldieadwords&mkwid=sSrk1dNZf_dc&pcrid=373898386443&product=GV-N105TOC-4GL&pgrid=77279078635&ptaid=pla-302734503742&channel=googlesearch&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIi8Ce-qPo6QIVwrHtCh2YWgszEAQYASABEgJ0KPD_BwE

I've had a look around at these but can't see them anywhere near the price point you've mentioned. Is it just a case of getting lucky?

Homelander

Something like this is what you're after. It's a 3rd gen i5 with 8GB of ram and already comes with an SSD + HDD for €130.

Add a 2nd hand GTX1050Ti for €80-100 off Adverts and for not much more than €200 you'll be running Witcher 3 at 1080p high/ultra without any issues.

edit: The thing with low profile cases is that you can only add low-profile cards which are much more expensive usually. The cheapest way to do it is with a full size tower and a 2nd hand full size GPU like the 1050ti.

Inquitus

Homelander wrote: »

Something like this is what you're after. It's a 3rd gen i5 with 8GB of ram and already comes with an SSD + HDD for €130.

Add a 2nd hand GTX1050Ti for €80-100 off Adverts and for not much more than €200 you'll be running Witcher 3 at 1080p high/ultra without any issues.

edit: The thing with low profile cases is that you can only add low-profile cards which are much more expensive usually. The cheapest way to do it is with a full size tower and a 2nd hand full size GPU like the 1050ti.

Aye I bought a bundle 18 months odd ago, a 550W eVGA Gold PSU and a eVGA GTX1060 GPU and popped them into a dell with a Decent i5 with 8GB's of RAM and gave it to my Son as a gaming rig, it plays pretty much anything decently at 1080p, especially the staples like Fortnite etc. It's certainly the cheapest way to put together a decent gaming rig for minimal money esp if you happen to have a Dell or a HP in house already. eVGA do these great value combinations from time to time.

Kintarō Hattori

Homelander wrote: »

Something like this is what you're after. It's a 3rd gen i5 with 8GB of ram and already comes with an SSD + HDD for €130.

Add a 2nd hand GTX1050Ti for €80-100 off Adverts and for not much more than €200 you'll be running Witcher 3 at 1080p high/ultra without any issues.

edit: The thing with low profile cases is that you can only add low-profile cards which are much more expensive usually. The cheapest way to do it is with a full size tower and a 2nd hand full size GPU like the 1050ti.

That looks ideal. Now not to ask too silly a question but would the PSU in that tower be up to running a GTX1050Ti?

Homelander

I'm not saying buy that exact one but just gives you a good idea of what you get get for small money.

Yes a 1050Ti would work fine as long as it's a model that doesn't need a six-pin power connector. 90% of 1050Ti's don't, but there were one or two that did.

Kintarō Hattori

Chaps, I was thinking of going for this today. The HP unit would have been nice as it had the SSD but it was an older i5. What are your thoughts on this:

https://www.ebay.ie/itm/Fast-Cheap-Dell-OptiPlex-i3-i5-i7-MT-Desktop-SFF-8GB-500-Windows-10-PC-Computer/173898222193?hash=item287d244a71:m:mVE9LoS-0bbuW_ANt-u9UIA

Mini Tower
Core i5 4th gen
8GB/500GB

I'll then add a 1050Ti to it later.

Homelander

It's fine but again you are limited by the small form factor, so you have to fit a low profile GTX1050ti. These aren't very common 2nd hand at all (at least not at reasonable prices).

A full size tower, you can stick a 2nd hand 1050ti you can get for €80 in it. New you will have to pay €150....at which point a more powerful full size GTX1650 is cheaper.

And there's not much difference at all between 3rd and 4th gen i5. And an SSD will make an enormous difference.

Kintarō Hattori

Homelander wrote: »

It's fine but again you are limited by the small form factor, so you have to fit a low profile GTX1050ti. These aren't very common 2nd hand at all (at least not at reasonable prices).

A full size tower, you can stick a 2nd hand 1050ti you can get for €80 in it. New you will have to pay €150....at which point a more powerful full size GTX1650 is cheaper.

And there's not much difference at all between 3rd and 4th gen i5. And an SSD will make an enormous difference.

Ahh is the mini tower not a proper ATX tower? I had thought it was.

Damn, that HP machine seemed like a bit of a bargain then.

https://www.ebay.ie/itm/HP-PRO-3500-i5-3470-3-2GHz-8GB-RAM-512GB-SSD-WIN10-WIRELESS-MT-DESKTOP-PC/124212515426?hash=item1ceba49262:m:mCyOm_EL5z_8ECjufsVQh7w

That same seller has this machine available.

Homelander

I don't know about that particular machine but a lot of those HP home PC's had weird BIOS locks on them that meant new graphic cards wouldn't work.

The office-geared machines didn't/don't.

edit: That seller does appear to have the Dell desktop "mini tower" available.

Kintarō Hattori

Homelander wrote: »

I don't know about that particular machine but a lot of those HP home PC's had weird BIOS locks on them that meant new graphic cards wouldn't work.

The office-geared machines didn't/don't.

edit: That seller does appear to have the Dell desktop "mini tower" available.

Apologies to be annoying you with so many questions. Looking around eBay it seems like the Optiplex Mini Tower based system might be worth looking at. I have had a 120GB SSD lying around for the longest time. I could use this exclusively for Windows, use the HDD for games and at a later date get say a 480GB SSD for games.

Thoughts?

Kintarō Hattori

https://www.ebay.ie/itm/DELL-OPTIPLEX-7010-INTEL-CORE-i5-3570-3-40Ghz-128GB-SSD-500GB-8GB-WIRELESS-PC/124222953332?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649

I've just bought that- YaY!

I actually have a Sapphire R9-270X that I can take out of my old machine and see how that fares. If it does the job, then great. If not, I'll get a GTX1050Ti. Hopefully though as it's really just for the steam library that's there, it'll suffice.

Kintarō Hattori

The desktop arrived today and it's pretty sweet for what it is. The PSU has absolutely no additional power connections so I thought I'd swap out the EVGA psu from my old machine into it but that's not going to happen as it'll never fit. I think the plan now will be to fit a new PSU into the Dell. Or keep it as it is and just get a 1050Ti such as the below, either way the additional cost will probably work out about the same:

https://www.ebay.ie/itm/Zotac-Geforce-GTX-1050TI-4GB-DDR5-Graphics-Card-GPU-1039850/324197972532?hash=item4b7bb47a34:g:E1MAAOSwadhe5gEp




Dell



The old machine

K.O.Kiki

You had a bloody Supernova G2 on-hand & didn't build around that?

Mate... :pac:

Kintarō Hattori

K.O.Kiki wrote: »

You had a bloody Supernova G2 on-hand & didn't build around that?

Mate... :pac:

Ah it would have cost too much. I'd have needed a new CPU, Mobo, Ram & SSD. Plus a less blingy case than the Antec 900 it currently resides in.

This is potentially a stopgap. I know once I get it built I won't be able to help myself buying new games and then I'll have to upgrade properly.

Homelander

Will the PSU definitely not fit? Tight fit, but it might fit if you remove the DVD drive. You can definitely put normal PSU's in there as it is, I know the G2 is long though. Worst case scenario you could cut away some of the cage to allow room for the cables?

The 1050Ti on Ebay will probably end up selling for a stupid price like €130. People on Ebay seem to be constantly paying way over the odds for GPUs, can't really understand it myself.

Adverts tends to have more realistically priced things. Should be able to get a 1050Ti for €80-100 but you won't get one cheaper than that anywhere really.

Kintarō Hattori

Homelander wrote: »

Will the PSU definitely not fit? Tight fit, but it might fit if you remove the DVD drive. You can definitely put normal PSU's in there as it is, I know the G2 is long though. Worst case scenario you could cut away some of the cage to allow room for the cables?

The 1050Ti on Ebay will probably end up selling for a stupid price like €130. People on Ebay seem to be constantly paying way over the odds for GPUs, can't really understand it myself.

Adverts tends to have more realistically priced things. Should be able to get a 1050Ti for €80-100 but you won't get one cheaper than that anywhere really.

I hadn't actually measured it, it was a best guess as I forgot just how big the EVGA PSU was. This is all about minimal hassle so I'll leave chopping the case for now. I'll have a measure later to see if the Sapphire card I have in the old machine will fit. If it does, I might just get a PSU. In saying that though, it is getting on a bit and only has 2GB of memory. It might be no harm to pick up a 4GB 1050Ti and try that instead.

Kintarō Hattori

I mentioned the 'new' PC to my brother and he asked for a new one as the last machine I built for him is now quite long in the tooth. His needs are very minor and it'll never play any AAA games.... the odd snooker game would be the most taxing thing. So I thought about what to get him and decided on similar core components, a Core i5 3rd Gen, 8GB of Ram, an SSD and an RX270 which has been sitting idle for a few years.

Looking into form factor, he's always had an ATX case and the insides have usually been illuminated in some manor. This time I've decided to go with a M-ATX case... the ThermalTake Core V21. It'll look something along these lines:



I'm now thinking I might give him the Dell machine I bought and am thinking perhaps I'll use the V21 as a basis for a machine for myself.

The point of this post is to highlight that it's a slippery slope. You're out, then when you decide to get a new ready made machine, it's never as easy as that. I can see lots of tinkering happening now, after a long absence away from things.

grogi

mickuhaha wrote: »

I would go with a 4670k and mobo combo at least for gaming. And maybe the old 7970/rx290. Old Amd cards seem to be a little better than Nvidia.

Hawaii is a power monster - won't behave well in an ITX case...

Samuel T. Cogley

Fond memories of my R9 290 Jet engine and a 1000w PSU.

Kintarō Hattori

I'm leaning towards a 4th Gen i5 and for the moment I'll use the existing R9 270 that's unused but then I'll upgrade to an R9 290. The TT case is M-ATX and not ITX.

Homelander

I'm not sure that is a great plan. The R9 290 is a power/heat monster for what is very modest performance these days. I mean, the card is 7 years old. You can get an RX570 2nd hand for €100 or similar that will be as fast and use a ton less power/produce heat.

What sort of money are you thinking about spending? I mean these days for €500 you can buy a new Ryzen 3300X + RX570 based build with 16GB DDR4 RAM for about €500 off-the-shelf that would absolutely destroy a 4th gen i5/DDR3/R9 290 combo as well as be way more modern/new with warranty.

grogi

Homelander wrote: »

I'm not sure that is a great plan. The R9 290 is a power/heat monster for what is very modest performance these days.

Absolutely agree. Sapphire R9 270x Dual-X is still a very fine card and there is no point in upgrading it to something like R9 290.

A bit of love and care could be given - remove the radiator (4 screws), remove the fans (another 4 screws), clean properly with a brush and vacuum cleaner. Replace the thermal paste and put together.

Homelander wrote: »

What sort of money are you thinking about spending? I mean these days for €500 you can buy a new Ryzen 3300X + RX570 based build with 16GB DDR4 RAM for about €500 off-the-shelf that would absolutely destroy a 4th gen i5/DDR3/R9 290 combo as well as be way more modern/new with warranty.

Again - absolutely agree It's fine to use the R9 270x + 4th Gen i5, but not really much sense in upgrading it further.

Kintarō Hattori

Homelander wrote: »

I'm not sure that is a great plan. The R9 290 is a power/heat monster for what is very modest performance these days. I mean, the card is 7 years old. You can get an RX570 2nd hand for €100 or similar that will be as fast and use a ton less power/produce heat.

What sort of money are you thinking about spending? I mean these days for €500 you can buy a new Ryzen 3300X + RX570 based build with 16GB DDR4 RAM for about €500 off-the-shelf that would absolutely destroy a 4th gen i5/DDR3/R9 290 combo as well as be way more modern/new with warranty.

I hear you chief- I'm out of the loop as you know. Really this started off being really fairly budget and I had planned on the old Dell machine with a GTX 1050Ti. After my brother asked for a new machine and I started looking around I got the itch again to build a system again from scratch.

I guess I'll just use the RX270 then for the time being. I'll see how much time I can get to actually do some PC gaming. The missus doesn't know yet that a machine is going into the living room so that could impact time spent.

If it turns out I actually get time to play some games, then in 6 months or so I might look at building a new machine with modern components and if that happens I'll be here to you guys asking for some advice. You've all been super helpful and it hasn't been unappreciated.

Kintarō Hattori

So below are the final specs:

Intel DH87RL Motherboard
Intel Core i5 4440 CPU
8GB of Corsair Vengence 4GB x 2
Sapphire R9 270X (to be upgraded at a later date)
Arctic Cooling Alpine 12 LP CPU Cooler
Thermaltake Core V21 Case
Kingston 128GB SSD and a 240GB SSD
EVGA Supernova 750 G2 Power Supply


Thoughts? (They've all been ordered btw)

grogi

Kintarō Hattori wrote: »

So below are the final specs:

Intel DH87RL Motherboard
Intel Core i5 4440 CPU
8GB of Corsair Vengence 4GB x 2
Sapphire R9 270X (to be upgraded at a later date)
Arctic Cooling Alpine 12 LP CPU Cooler
Thermaltake Core V21 Case
Kingston 128GB SSD and a 240GB SSD
EVGA Supernova 750 G2 Power Supply


Thoughts?

That cooler, while performing reasonably well, will block the first DIMM socket. Get something more flexible, ex. Antec A40 pro...

Homelander

This is confusing now. This is the old PC you talked about being transplanted into a new case? Or you're buying 2nd hand parts?

If you're buying 2nd hand, an i5-4th gen and 1150 motherboard are a total waste of time.

If you're just talking about transplanting that Dell into a new case it's fine assuming the board will fit.

The Arctic cooler uses standard push-pin so can't see how it would block a dimm slot. But it's not going to be much better than an intel stock cooler.

Kintarō Hattori

Homelander wrote: »

This is confusing now. This is the old PC you talked about being transplanted into a new case? Or you're buying 2nd hand parts?

If you're buying 2nd hand, an i5-4th gen and 1150 motherboard are a total waste of time.

If you're just talking about transplanting that Dell into a new case it's fine assuming the board will fit.

The Arctic cooler uses standard push-pin so can't see how it would block a dimm slot. But it's not going to be much better than an intel stock cooler.

Apologies for the confusion. I am going to give my brother the old Dell machine. After buying the V21 case, I decided to build a machine for myself as I had some parts from my old machine that I could still use.

Again, I decided to build to a budget as it's just for the pre-existing steam library.

Homelander

So what parts do you already have to work with exactly?

Kintarō Hattori

Homelander wrote: »

So what parts do you already have to work with exactly?

I already had:

A kingston SSD
The R9 270X
The EVGA 750W

I edited the post above to state that I've already ordered all the parts so eh, dang.

Ah listen, it's going to be a million times better than the old Q9500 machine I had that hadn't been turned on in years. While I may have fecked it up a little, it'll suffice. I'll make sure though to ask first before I order anything when I decide to build a machine with contemporary parts.

Homelander

I suppose it really depends what you paid for them. You can get H81M chipsets for €30 on Ebay, and i5 4th gen for about €30 from CEX with warranty.

New, you can get A320M for €50, and Ryzen 3100 for €100, which are nearly twice as fast.

Ebay prices are pretty terrible so I would suspect you paid over the odds for what is basically a totally outdated 7 year old CPU.

grogi

Homelander wrote: »

The Arctic cooler uses standard push-pin so can't see how it would block a dimm slot. But it's not going to be much better than an intel stock cooler.

It will. Speaking from personal experience.

Kintarō Hattori

Homelander wrote: »

I suppose it really depends what you paid for them. You can get H81M chipsets for €30 on Ebay, and i5 4th gen for about €30 from CEX with warranty.

New, you can get A320M for €50, and Ryzen 3100 for €100, which are nearly twice as fast.

Ebay prices are pretty terrible so I would suspect you paid over the odds for what is basically a totally outdated 7 year old CPU.

I hear you chief. I paid the following, with shipping included:

€66 for the mobo
€39 for the CPU
€36 for the Ram
Case & a Corsair CX430M that was included - €69
CPU Cooler (I just ordered the recommended one) - €33

Total outlay not including SSD's & GPU - €243

Let me see:

Board - €50
CPU - €100
RAM - €50
Case - €70
SSD for OS Install - M2 or SSD? €25 or o either way

Total - €300 or thereabouts. I guess I was a bit thick.