Guest Gaming PC

Recurve360

Hi guys. I have a main gaming/workstation PC but im looking for a second for guest use and also for portability. Im trying to work on a tight budget and use second hand and leftover parts. I already have a few pieces that I can use such as a:
Pentium g3258
Couple of 1TB HDD's
A custom fabricated mATX case.
Windows 8.1 Key
Possibly a 212 evo as i may replace from my main PC for a closed loop watercooler.

Heres the usual long form:

1. What is your budget? €250 - 300 ish but can spend more if needed

2. What will be the main purpose of the computer? Portable gaming PC as my Rig is too big to carry around often. Also be used as a guest pc in the house.

3. Do you need a copy of Windows? [Yes/No] No

4. Can you use any parts from an old computer?
Pentium Anniversary g3258
Sata DVD Drive
mATX case
Seagate 1TB HDD
CPU Cooler

5. Do you need a monitor? Nope I have a 21" 1080p spare panel.

6. Do you need any of these peripherals? Nope

7. Are you willing to try overclocking? Yeah Im hoping to push the Pentium to 4.3-4.4 without too much hassle.

8. How can you pay? Any

9. When are you purchasing? Within the next month

10. If you need help building it, where are you based? Ill be fine building

One thing I was looking at was the possibility of using some second hand parts such as GPU and PSU.

Basically what I need is a:
GPU: I was thinking a preowned GTX 770 for about 130-140
PSU: 500W for about €50
Mobo: unsure of what to get here, b85 supports overclocking on pentiums??
RAM: If tight on cash I could get 4gb ram but ideally I would get 8 as rams dirt cheap at the moment.

Dont need wifi and also not to worried about SSD as i may replace my main rigs ssd so could have a 120gb kingston.

Looking forward to your suggestions and anything i may have missed.

Digital Solitude

You've pretty much got it down.

The Pentium can be OC'd on H series boards, I'm unsure on B85s

What kind of games will you be playing, the Pentium will be lacking in a lot of them, especially multiplayer

TerrorFirmer

The G3258 will be problematic no matter how much you overclock it, the lack of hyper threading kills it. For games like CS: GO and similar however it's obviously fine. But Black Ops 3/Far Cry 4/Witcher 3/Fallout 4/Battlefront/BF4 and similar are all a no go.

2nd hand I don't think you would get a GTX770 for 130 but you would get a HD7950 - or a 7970 for 150ish, both still quite good. The GTX770 normally goes for about 170-180 or so.

i3-6100 - 125
430W+ PSU - 40
Hd7970 - 150
H170 - 50
8GB DDR4 - 50

Sell G3258 for €30 and you're under €400 and it would be an excellent portable machine. I think sticking with the Pentium will infuriate you unless you're only playing older/indie games.

Recurve360

Well the majority of games it would be expected to play are the telltales games (thanks to the newest humble bundle), CSGO, LFD2, Spec Ops, Grid 2, Minecraft.

Nothing too demanding on CPU really as I use my main rig for my main gaming needs which is an Xeon. Then just a little light Photoshop and After Effects work but again nothing too taxing.
Im interested on b85 as there a little cheaper than a h87 but i really want to try overclocking as I cant on my main rig

So bearing in mind I dont plan to run any kind of intensive games do you suggest still going for i3 6th gen?

Oh and I have a mate willing to offload me his 770 for about 140. He has more money than sense... :P

DaDerv

Where are you located Recurve? I've a h97 HD3 and MSI 770 2gb I would offload.

TerrorFirmer

The Pentium will be absolutely more than enough for those games, just at stock speeds. It will only be an issue if you suddenly develop a hunger for new titles! You can get a mild overclock on H81 which is extremely cheap.

You could also look at cheaper cards - a second hand GTX750, HD7850 or GTX660 card shouldn't be more than about 75-80. Not as fast as GTX770 obviously but a good match for a G3258 and would still blitz those games. The GTX770 would be somewhat wasted on both the types of games and the G3258.

Recurve360

DaDerv wrote: »

Where are you located Recurve? I've a h97 HD3 and MSI 770 2gb I would offload.

Im based in Laois and also in Clonmel, Tipperary. I often travel around the country due to work though. The HD3 is ATX? I was hoping to do a mATX build if possible purely for portability as i have a small matx case. May be interested in the 770 though.

TerrorFirmer wrote: »

The Pentium will be absolutely more than enough for those games, just at stock speeds. It will only be an issue if you suddenly develop a hunger for new titles! You can get a mild overclock on H81 which is extremely cheap.

You could also look at cheaper cards - a second hand GTX750, HD7850 or GTX660 card shouldn't be more than about 75-80. Not as fast as GTX770 obviously but a good match for a G3258 and would still blitz those games. The GTX770 would be somewhat wasted on both the types of games and the G3258.

Yeah I will be using my main rig (Xeon e3 and r9 290) for my more demanding games. Hmm that may be an idea for gfx card alright. No point bottlenecking my system. Plus it means I can save even more money on this build and put it to my main rig.