Guide - the Budget Gaming PC

Solitaire

PSU and cooler are horrid. Get a Coolermaster Hyper 212 for cooler if you can, it should actually be cheaper than that useless XTreme. PSU is cheap junk. I'd usually recommend a Corsair CX400 for ~€45 but you have a very hot and heavy CPU specced and a 30A 12V rail could be just a bit slim even at stock. If you intend on OCing that CPU the CX400 is blatantly unsuitable and you'll have to get a decent 550W PSU for €70+

Oh, and that graphics card and mobo are very expensive. You can find HD5750 1GB for under €100 in places and you can pick up decent AM3 mobos without CrossFire for under €65 in places.

Then there's the fact that, if this is primarily a gaming build, you'd be better off with a cheaper CPU and mobo and a pricier GPU anyway...

wcp1200

Do we have a high budget thread?

Solitaire

Nope

Simple reason: trying to put together a build that can run games fairly well at or just under Full HD for very little money is a very common problem with a fairly standardised blanket solution. High-budget builds are often built to focus on specific software tasks or to meet certain criteria with regard to size, shape, heat, noise, power, monitor number and resolution and cooling so there isn't really that one single answer to the question, and as we're dealing with far larger sums of cash any mistake can be extremely costly to rectify so making assumptions is much more dangerous.

Add the associated geek love and tech-pr0n factors and ensuing discussion and high-end builds usually warrant the attentions of having their own specific threads, while the Budget Gaming Build sticky is meant as a visible, quick and accessible resource for the many people out there who have been screwed over by the big OEMs or dodgy eBay sellers and who need to find what they really need to put together a cheap gaming-oriented build

wooly08

Hey! New to the forums and i've been skimming through the nuilding & upgrading section a lot before joining! I've been working on my new custom rig for a while now and trying to stick to a €600 budget, roughly. Like to get some feedback on what i'm thinking of ordering at the moment. I think it's a pretty good budget rig!

CPU: AMD Athlon II X3 440 "Boxed" 95W, Sockel AM3 - €69.99
Motherboard: ASUS M4A78LT-M, Sockel AM3, mATX - €56.77
RAM: 4GB-Kit G-Skill PC3-12800U CL9 - €91.63
Case: Aerocool QS-200 Schwarz, mATX (2x120mm fans) - €31.81
PSU: Corsair CX400W 400w - €45.21
GPU: Club 3D Radeon 5770 512MB - €116.84
Hard Drive: Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB, 16MB - €37.88
DVD Drive: LG GH22NS50 €17.73
OS: OEM Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit - €74.90

Total cost (plus assembly €20 and delivery €30) = €592.46

I think that's probably the best gaming rig i could get for under €600 euro (especially including assembly, delivery and Windows). The pc will be purely for gaming purposes and i'd like to be able to run most new games on hopefully very high settings with decent fps. Would this pc generally be up to the task?

Also i'd love any advice if necessary on stuff like the Mobo and PSU. Probably the least knowledgeable on these components and wouldn't be able to tell one from the other really!

david p

wooly08 wrote: »

I think that's probably the best gaming rig i could get for under €600 euro (especially including assembly, delivery and Windows). The pc will be purely for gaming purposes and i'd like to be able to run most new games on hopefully very high settings with decent fps. Would this pc generally be up to the task?

Also i'd love any advice if necessary on stuff like the Mobo and PSU. Probably the least knowledgeable on these components and wouldn't be able to tell one from the other really!

First of all, welcome to the forums!
What kind of monitor will you be using (ie what size is it, what's the resolution)? Your ability to play games on high settings will largely depend on your GPU, and while I'm no expert on this, the general consensus around here seems to be that if you want to play games at 1920x1080 resolution on a monitor 22 inches or bigger, you'll need the 1GB version of the HD5770 or better. It's about 30 euro more depending on where you buy it, but you could always shell out extra for the 1GB version and save a bit of money by assembling the PC yourself - it's not as complicated as it looks, all you need to do is find one of the many step-by-step guides online telling you how to put it together. It's really just a slightly more complicated version of Lego!

Hope this helps!

kittykrazy

Hi! I've been reading this thread and trying to work out what goes what what but I'm seriously lost. I have had experience putting PCs together for personal use but that was years ago (pre dual core). Anyway, what I'm aiming for is pretty simple - I want a machine that can play older newish games (bioshock 2, fallout 3). I've been using my BFs PC till now but sharing a machine isn't really working too well.

So, what's the very cheapest that I can get? (Or does anyone have an old system that they want to sell and advise me on what to upgrade it with?)

Thanks!

Solitaire

What budget do you have and what do you need aside from the PC? Monitor? OS?

kittykrazy

Well, I just got a monitor from adverts so that's sorted. I've got an old tower with an IDE mobo but I'm hoping I can get get a SATA one from a friend who just built a new machine. Hard drives shouldn't be a problem. I've made a bid on adverts for XP sp2 so OS shouldn't be a problem. I'm happy to run Linux if not.

I guess where I'm stuck (and completely bemused) is this whole AGP/PCI/PCI-e and CPU thing. And then compatibility with the mobo. I'm looking to spend 200 on mobo, cpu and graphics card (or less if possible). Can it be done? And is it worth doing?

Thanks for any input.

Monotype

Does the €200 include ram? If not, I'd say it would be quite possible.
Just get a €50-60 AM3 motherboard, something like a 4850 (80ish+ new, can get cheaper second hand) and an amd athlon II 435 (€70). That would play fallout 3 or bioshock 2 very well.

Solitaire

Or AM2+ mobo, if there's decent DDR2 (>666MHz) to be salvaged in there

kittykrazy

Thanks guys, that really helps! I think you need a tv show where you solve peoples hardware problems...

I'll let you know what I put together over the next couple of weeks.

Captain_Generic

Right so i've got €600(flexible) to spend on a gaming rig, i'll pick up a monitor, peripherals and OS separately, can anyone recommend an up to date build from hardwareversand that will sort me out for current and soon to be released games?
I know theres a good one from Solitaire on the previous page but its 2 months old and i'm sure prices have changed a bit, or am i wrong?
Any help greatly appreciated:)

Solitaire

Hmm... decisions, decisions... but at least the ghastly RAM prices are starting to slip!

For those who can't really make the €600 mark how's this for ~€515 including shipping?



After that it gets complicated: what's more important to you, a number-cruncher that can game or a pure gaming/CUDA monster? Catch is you can't have both within the €600 mark!

Any major TDP increase past the above forces a PSU upgrade to the VX550~EA650D area, adding at least another €25. This leaves €60 for messing - better CPU, better GPU, CPU cooler or other cooling upgrades. You can cheat a little by upgrading the tri-core to an X4-635 and the HD5770 to the oh-so-hungry HD4890, remaining just about within budget. Or you can spend an extra €40 on a shiny new GTX460 and stick with the tri-core. Getting both the quad and the GTX will push you slightly out of budget even with stock CPU cooling (not as dire for AMD as it is for Intel!). Then again if you need a stronger CPU you can spend another €45-55 on a Phenom and anything remaining on a Coolermaster Hyper 212 ver2 for greatly boosted cooling and just live with the HD5770, then OC everything like crazy.

And don't even think about an i5 - they're just not doable in gaming builds under €700

Captain_Generic

I'm using it solely for gaming so i don't think the quad core is necessary, the GTX460 looks nice though:D

Solitaire

Then change the graphics card to this and the PSU to this. If you have enough money left over try to grab a better CPU cooler - that PSU leaves stacks of room for OCing the CPU and GPU

Lu Tze

Always best to shop around.

Here is a similar build from pix though i think it is coming out more expensive

You should check ebuyer et al

Solitaire

It does Mostly because of the PSU though - HWVS has always had the upper hand with those. RAM is pretty poor quality too

Hasn't eBuyer stopped shipping here?

Captain_Generic

Sounds great, thanks for the help:D

rofno1

OK, here is a challenge for you PC Gods.

I've built PCs before but have not done so for about 4 years. I'm out of touch so need you help.

I have €400 +/- €50 and want (think its best) an I5-7x0 + Mobo, and a GTX 460, suitable PSU and 4 gig RAM. I would have rest of parts myself.

I would play flight sims (FSX, Lock on) and photoshop.

Any idea for the bargains?

Thanks in advance

massy086

rofno1 wrote: »

OK, here is a challenge for you PC Gods.

I've built PCs before but have not done so for about 4 years. I'm out of touch so need you help.

I have €400 +/- €50 and want (think its best) an I5-7x0 + Mobo, and a GTX 460, suitable PSU and 4 gig RAM. I would have rest of parts myself.

I would play flight sims (FSX, Lock on) and photoshop.

Any idea for the bargains?

Thanks in advance

cant be done new not a hope

rofno1

massy086 wrote: »

cant be done new not a hope

So what would be a realistic budget?

Unregistered.

rofno1 wrote: »

So what would be a realistic budget?

What exactly do you have now.

Solitaire

Assuming you get the absolute minimum safe PSU (CX400, and that means no OCing!) you're looking at ~€575 - CPU and GPU should both be ~€175, RAM and mobo ~€90 and PSU €45.

rofno1

Thanks for all your replies.

The only useful parts I have are the tower case, 500gb Hard drive , lcd screen, keyboard, mouse and 1 GB memory,(DDR1).

Unregistered.

Would you consider a HD 5770 instead?

rofno1

Yes I sure would.

I only mentioned GTX as I've only had one ATI board in past. All the rest have been Nvidia.

Chuck Finlay

Well, call me names and spank me, but MSI is launching their "Score Fuzion" cashback program for Mainboard+CPU over in SUI,AUT and GER until end of september.
Luckily, I happen to live in GER, and even more luckily, one of the participating retailers is indeed trustable and reliable, namely Home of Hardware.

The G54 is 83.50eur at HoH, so the bundles are:
955BE: 83.50 + 128.90 - 30 = 182.40
1055T: 83.50 + 179.75 - 40 = 223.25
1090T: 83.50 + 249.75 - 50 = 283.25

Can I even call this 'budget'? It's a frikkin 6core with USB3 and SATA6Gb/s support on the board. Add 4GB of RAM and I am outta here with 300...
I didn't want to upgrade before Bulldozer / Sandy Bridge (running on an AM2 Brisbane atm), but the 1055T now is about the best value I have ever seen since the early Athlon X2s or so.
Bulldozer - Sandy Bridge - 1055T...someone throw a dice and tell me what to do!

Monotype

Are you trying to make us jealous?

I'd hope they'd have it here, but it's probably not going to happen any time soon as I've never seen cashback deals in the more local places (ones that are eligible for someone living in Ireland anyway).

MSI are really pushing for fame these days. Their motherboards are much better than they were before and their laptops are nice too.

Overheal

rofno1 wrote: »

Yes I sure would.

I only mentioned GTX as I've only had one ATI board in past. All the rest have been Nvidia.

I've had 3 nvidia boards dont get me wrong but in the last couple years they have tanked. The laptop scandal really mudded their image and i was one of those affected: itll be a long while before I buy one of their cards again. The OEMs are starting to shy away from them and Apple has dropped them now altogether. So with that said Im now getting familiar with my 2nd ati card; the 5770 is a great middleweight card. Havent run into a game its had a problem with yet. Even the poorly optimized Crysis

VenomIreland

Solitaire wrote: »

Hmm... decisions, decisions... but at least the ghastly RAM prices are starting to slip!

For those who can't really make the €600 mark how's this for ~€515 including shipping?



After that it gets complicated: what's more important to you, a number-cruncher that can game or a pure gaming/CUDA monster? Catch is you can't have both within the €600 mark!

Any major TDP increase past the above forces a PSU upgrade to the VX550~EA650D area, adding at least another €25. This leaves €60 for messing - better CPU, better GPU, CPU cooler or other cooling upgrades. You can cheat a little by upgrading the tri-core to an X4-635 and the HD5770 to the oh-so-hungry HD4890, remaining just about within budget. Or you can spend an extra €40 on a shiny new GTX460 and stick with the tri-core. Getting both the quad and the GTX will push you slightly out of budget even with stock CPU cooling (not as dire for AMD as it is for Intel!). Then again if you need a stronger CPU you can spend another €45-55 on a Phenom and anything remaining on a Coolermaster Hyper 212 ver2 for greatly boosted cooling and just live with the HD5770, then OC everything like crazy.

And don't even think about an i5 - they're just not doable in gaming builds under €700

Might be using something similar to that in a build for a friend