Guide - the Budget Gaming PC

deconduo

Do you need a case? If not, something like this would fit your budget, comes up at just under €250 after shipping.

€33.29 - 4GB Crucial RAM
€40.81 - SF Amazon 450W
€18.89 - Samsung DVD RW
€34.64 - Spinpoint F3 500GB
€47.69 - Athlon II X2 250
€41.81 - MSI 760GM
€30.00 - Shipping

€247.13 Total

I'm not too sure what the graphics requirements are, but if onboard isn't enough maybe a 5570 for €50 might be?

sham69

Do you need a case? If not, something like this would fit your budget, comes up at just under €250 after shipping.

€33.29 - 4GB Crucial RAM
€40.81 - SF Amazon 450W
€18.89 - Samsung DVD RW
€34.64 - Spinpoint F3 500GB
€47.69 - Athlon II X2 250
€41.81 - MSI 760GM
€30.00 - Shipping

€247.13 Total

I'm not too sure what the graphics requirements are, but if onboard isn't enough maybe a 5570 for €50 might be?

Thanks a lot for the reply.
That sounds exactly what I want.
Not sure if I will need a case to be honest , I might just mount it in the cab.
Could you recomend a case just in case (excuse the pun)
Thanks
Sham.

deconduo

A Xigmatek Asgard would be a good cheap choice.

lindtee

Thanks for the previous advice, but everything is still coming in a bit too expensive:( We lack the expertise of putting something good but cheaper together so if someone could advise on what would be the best build for budget of €500 to €550 With decent graphics card it would be much appreciated He plays a lot of WOW and the likes of Modern warfare, crisis etc. Would also need a wireless thingy as the phone point is the other side of the house from where the desktop will be going. Thanks in advance. And are ankermann that bad? His uncle is advising this system from them http://www.ankermann-edv.de/ANKERMANN-PC-Systems//PC-Core-i5-2500K-NVIDIA-GTX460-8GB-RAM-1000GB-HDD-SATA3::9988.html Its still a little more than I want him to pay though, but if its a good price for what you get I might be convinced to let him get it. Thanks in advance

deconduo

lindtee wrote: »

Thanks for the previous advice, but everything is still coming in a bit too expensive:( We lack the expertise of putting something good but cheaper together so if someone could advise on what would be the best build for budget of €500 to €550 With decent graphics card it would be much appreciated He plays a lot of WOW and the likes of Modern warfare, crisis etc. Would also need a wireless thingy as the phone point is the other side of the house from where the desktop will be going. Thanks in advance. And are ankermann that bad? His uncle is advising this system from them http://www.ankermann-edv.de/ANKERMANN-PC-Systems//PC-Core-i5-2500K-NVIDIA-GTX460-8GB-RAM-1000GB-HDD-SATA3::9988.html Its still a little more than I want him to pay though, but if its a good price for what you get I might be convinced to let him get it. Thanks in advance

Yeah thats a pretty poor choice. It has a dodgy PSU and a H61 mobo meaning that you can't actually overclock the 2500k. So you are paying extra money for a feature you can't use. Also the GTX 460 would be bottlenecked a lot by the processor.

EDIT: Something like this maybe. The CPU isn't as good but at least you'd be able to OC it and its got a good graphics card.

€143,49 - HIS HD 6870 Fan GDDR5 1024MB Native HDMI 2x Display Port Dual-DVI
€95,40 - AMD Phenom II X4 955 Box, Sockel AM3
€56,09 - MSI 870-C45, Sockel AM3, ATX, PCIe
€18,89 - Samsung SH-223C bare schwarz SATA
€18,89 - Samsung SH-223C bare schwarz SATA
€31,61 - Xigmatek Asgard II Midi Tower - black/black, ohne Netzteil
€40,81 - Super-Flower Amazon 80Plus 450W
€34,64 - Samsung SpinPoint F3 500GB, SATA II (HD502HJ)
€33,29 - 4GB-Kit DDR3 Crucial Value PC1333 CL9
€14,99 - Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 - Pro PWM Rev.2
€30,00 - Shipping
€518,10 - Total

Links:
http://www1.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?aid=26625&agid=1242
http://www1.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?aid=42048&agid=1232
http://www1.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?aid=29466&agid=699
http://www1.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?aid=32896&agid=631
http://www1.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?aid=30074&agid=1627
http://www1.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?aid=28151&agid=689
http://www1.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?aid=29694&agid=1192
http://www1.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?aid=28345&agid=669
http://www1.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?aid=39500&agid=1004

Jonny7

Just to note, something like the AMD 955 x4 chip recommended above is still a beast and more than capable of taking what you can throw at it.

The above machine will handle Crysis, WoW and COD with ease

Ankermann take the cheapest possible PSU's (one of the most important parts of the PC), cases, etc and jam them into a PC with good processor and graphics card
I've had bad experiences with them, long delays, no cpu paste, loose fan, bad build, no response via email
Unless they've changed their stripes, they are a company who doesn't give a **** anymore (rare amongst German companies)

The prices of their full PC's often don't beat the same machine specced from hardwareversand.de.

lindtee

Thanks very much for the advice guys:) That machine looks good, and son seems impressed. All he wants is a desktop that will handle his favourite games. He's currently using a very poorly specced laptop.

Will I still need to get something to make it connect to the home wireless?

deconduo

Any PCI wifi card should be fine.

deejer

lindtee wrote: »

Thanks very much for the advice guys:) That machine looks good, and son seems impressed. All he wants is a desktop that will handle his favourite games. He's currently using a very poorly specced laptop.

And you got to say that half the fun is putting it together yourself anyway. Makes you appreciate it more with the bit of effort it does take. Could be a good father/son bonding exercise!

lindtee

deejer wrote: »

And you got to say that half the fun is putting it together yourself anyway. Makes you appreciate it more with the bit of effort it does take. Could be a good father/son bonding exercise!

I'm his mum!! We were thinking of paying the €20 for them to build it, or is it something that someone with no experience or clue could build with guidance? I'd be terrified personally! My son is hoping to work with computers when he's older but he'd be clueless too at the moment.

Trevor451

lindtee wrote: »

I'm his mum!! We were thinking of paying the €20 for them to build it, or is it something that someone with no experience or clue could build with guidance? I'd be terrified personally! My son is hoping to work with computers when he's older but he'd be clueless too at the moment.

Its really easy to build it. Just follow the instructions and watch some install guides on youtube and you should be fine

deejer

lindtee wrote: »

I'm his mum!! We were thinking of paying the €20 for them to build it, or is it something that someone with no experience or clue could build with guidance? I'd be terrified personally! My son is hoping to work with computers when he's older but he'd be clueless too at the moment.

Feck sorry! Well its also a good mother/son bonding exercise!

What age is your son? I am someone who had no experience and put my first pc together last year. It is relatively straight forward and good fun! If your son is interested in computers I would definitely recommend it. I was delighted with myself! And as I said before really makes you appreciate it.

And if there are any small issues there are plenty people here to help out.

Aveidha

Hello all,I am looking for something similar to what lindtee wanted.My budget would be less then 500 euro including vat,postage and assembly.My knowledge extents to knowing that what I have atm is crap and no further.I can push up the budget a small bit but only if it makes a big difference.Is there much hope of being able to play new games on it for the next,say,2 years on low-mid settings? I would mainly be using it for MMOs and won't really be looking at playing fps like Crysis(I think MMOs have lower requirements then most 'disk' games).I have UPC 25 mgb wireless broadband(dunno if that effects anything).If anything cheaper will work then thats a big plus xD.Also I heard Intel released a new type of processor or something that is very good;are they good in peoples opinion?That's about all I can think of atm,I will add anything else that I think of.Thanks in advance.

Solitaire

€500 is doable

Unless you need a new monitor

Or Windows 7

Or both :eek:

What monitor (size and maximum resolution) and version of Windows do you have already?

Aveidha

I have a windows 7 laptop,so unfortunately monitor and windows 7 will be needed.I hope I havent ruined my chances of getting what I want now lol.

Solitaire

<€300 isn't doable At least not first-hand

I'll see if I can put together a Desperation Build together but generally, the further you go below €500 the less feasible it is to buy new. There's a reason why even the "ultra-budget" category doesn't drop below €400

Unless you can liberate a little more cash combing through Adverts might be in your near future

deejer

Aveidha wrote: »

I have a windows 7 laptop,so unfortunately monitor and windows 7 will be needed.I hope I havent ruined my chances of getting what I want now lol.

One thing there is plenty of on adverts is monitors. You could pick up a decent 21" for about 60-80euro. And if your a student (or know a student!) you could pick Windows 7 up for 45euro. If you got the two of them out of the way for Eur100 maybe it could be done for Eur400??

Aveidha

I suppose I can go to €550 if absolutely necessary.I'm a bit wary of second hand stuff from previous purchaces.Does being in secondary school count as being a 'student'?If not I have a few friends in collage.Should I start looking at Adverts at this point or should I wait until you have looked up an "ultra-budget" option?

deejer

Aveidha wrote: »

I suppose I can go to €550 if absolutely necessary.I'm a bit wary of second hand stuff from previous purchaces.Does being in secondary school count as being a 'student'?If not I have a few friends in collage.Should I start looking at Adverts at this point or should I wait until you have looked up an "ultra-budget" option?

Ya school students are covered. Take a look here. Definitely where you should be buying your Windows 7!

Solitaire

€488 shipped but more caveats and corners cut than you could shake a bus at :eek:



CPU is basic but good; I don't trust dual-cores for gaming anymore. Mobo is horrid but at least has decent onboard sound as that's a common issue with dirt-cheap mobos. RAM... well, you have 4GB of DDR3 but I'll be damned if I could recognise the brand GPU is good so long as it doesn't have to game at 1080p which ain't happening here Drives are good, case is mediocre and PSU is a joke, but at least its a joke with a brand name and some hope of providing more than 150W without melting into a puddle

Now for the caveats: That big case is shiny but I don't know if it includes any fans. The monitor is a wee 18" model because you can't afford anything bigger first-hand but at least it won't push the GPU very hard. The OS is absurdly expensive so you'll have to download Windows 7 yourself, then use the activation key off this German copy to activate it. And the kicker: the GPU needs a PCIe power cable (not that it even needs the power off it but it won't boot without something plugged in there) but I doubt the PSU has one. You'd need to find a Molex (or SATA) to PCIe adaptor cable but I don't see any on HWVS. Not expensive but you'd need it to build the system.

Personally I'd recommend going the full €550 and/or getting a better monitor second-hand; it won't buy you a huge increase in performance over the above, but IMHO the thing that needs fixing most is reliability, not raw power!

Aveidha

tbh I am completely lost with the product names.But I do have a vague idea of what you said in your post!I can buy windows 7 for €45 so that helps and I am willing to go to €550.Thanks deejer for the link.I'm afraid that you have lost me with the power cable bit.The rest I can mostly figure out.Also my dad is interested in buying RegistryBooster and SystemTweaker as they are on special offer.Are they any good and can they be used multiple times?Btw,what is GPU,OS and PSU?

Solitaire

GPU - Graphics Card. You need a decent one for most modern 3D MMOs, some of which can be fairly demanding (not all are as system-friendly as WoW, and even that can be fairly resource-hungry at higher settings!).

OS - Operating System. In your case, Windows 7

PSU - Power Supply Unit. Very important this, without it your PC has no electricity :eek::P

Not sure about those tools, ask over in the Windows forum about those.

If you spend €100-120 on OS and monitor that gives €400+ for the system, which makes things a bit easier. You might not need a much more powerful graphics card though, although it can be hard to tell given the wonders of progress In two years time there could be MMOs worse than Crysis out there, and if you like other games you don't want to skimp on the GPU and get one that can barely handle WoW. Non-MMO RPGs in particular, can surprise you with their system requirements. I suspect that Skyrim is going to make my HD6850 cry in a corner somewhere

Aveidha

I have heard that Skyrim will have very demanding requirements lol.Luckly I can get it for my brothers PS3 and won't have to worry about my GPU having to go to rehab:D.I would certainly be interested in having a good GPU as my current one is always giving me trouble.I will state at this time I have never played WoW,I am way to cheapskate to pay $15 a month:p.APB is one I am currently struggling with any failing to play it without 2-3 between each action(aka turning my aimer one small bit) and having a great time not playing it:mad:.Would I be looking at buying a 2nd hand monitor to stand any chance of reaching my price goals?

lindtee

I have to say I have learned loads about what is in a computer over the past few days:D Hadn't a clue before then. Actually found it very interesting:o Will probably put in an order tomorrow with hardwareversand. Based on the advice here we have put a few set ups together on the site, and have to decide which one to go for! Thanks again, and we might even decide to actually put it together ourselves instead of paying the €20!!
Edit - Will the €45 Windows 7 Student upgrade definitely work on a clean install?

papu

sham69 wrote: »

sorry , was a bit vague.

Yeah I need some sort of spec as some of the 3d games (tekken, Ridge racer, sould blade etc) won't run.

Budget, I suppose 200-300 euro.

I need a dual core processor if budget allows, quad core would be better, 4gb ram, anything over 80gb hard drive, some usb slots etc.

Sorry not clued in on self builds at all.

Wonder if you could find a cheap laptop which could serve , For abso Budget builds either Go second hand or Prebuilt like dell , they buy in such bulk that its difficult to match when building very low spec!

papu

lindtee wrote: »

Edit - Will the €45 Windows 7 Student upgrade definitely work on a clean install?

No youll need to have some kind of operating system installed before you use that , AFAIK even an unactivated trial version of vista will do , Just means extra hassle of installing another operating system . But once you have that done you can select a Clean install option.

deejer

lindtee wrote: »

Will the €45 Windows 7 Student upgrade definitely work on a clean install?

It will work as I have done it myself. Google it and you will find plenty of straight forward explanations of how to do it. What you end up doing is installing it without activating it and then install in properly on top of that and it thinks its an upgrade.

Solitaire

Aveidha wrote: »

I have heard that Skyrim will have very demanding requirements lol.Luckly I can get it for my brothers PS3 and won't have to worry about my GPU having to go to rehab:D.I would certainly be interested in having a good GPU as my current one is always giving me trouble.I will state at this time I have never played WoW,I am way to cheapskate to pay $15 a month:p.APB is one I am currently struggling with any failing to play it without 2-3 between each action(aka turning my aimer one small bit) and having a great time not playing it:mad:.

APB?

Having a decent yet frugal GPU is always a good backup plan for a casual gamer who wants to play the odd semi-demanding 3D title. The HD6750 is a lot more than I'd usually spec for this price band but <€75 for that amount of horsepower is hard to pass up And its not too hard on the electricity bill either!

Would I be looking at buying a 2nd hand monitor to stand any chance of reaching my price goals?

Depends on what you find, but if deejer is even anywhere near right its the way to go. Even cheapo 18" models cost a good €70-80 new!

Lads I got stuck with an extra copy of W7 thanks to Hardware' not plugging in the power cable on my HDD leading to me believing the W7 I had was dodge.
(Yes I'm a noob who doesn't know the ins and outs of the hardware)

These two threads were mine on here involving sourcing my build and getting it running
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=71645168

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=72270005

Since I opened it I can't return it to PC World.

Still have the receipt and all, it's the E150 full retail that Hardware have for E114, If anyone wants that version I'll post it all in for E100.

Sorry to tout Mods but I hope you'll leave this here as selling software using adverts and the like doesn't seem like the places people look whereas it's the exact thing people here will be buying.
(And it's connected to my build on here so I'm not just posting to sell it)

Aveidha

I'm very sorry to ask this,but could you spend 5min checking Adverts for a decent monitor for me plz Solitaire?I'm not just being lazy,I just wouldn't know if I'm being ripped off.I usually get my brother to help with this sort of thing but he is on strike atm.Must have been something I said:P.APB=All Point Bulletion.Well its actually APB Reloaded.

Thanks all for the help so far,I am a technological hermit and some of your helpful advice will go straight over my head:D.I'll try my best though lol.