Gaming PC (including emulators) for €500-600

Moydow

1. What is your budget? - €500-600

2. What will be the main purpose of the computer? Software development, and some gaming. In terms of PC games, nothing too high-end; stuff like the Final Fantasy X remaster and Metal Gear Rising. Should have Dolphin support, so CPU must be Intel, or AMD Ryzen. Doesn't need to run something really heavy like The Last Story 100% perfectly, but I do want as high a degree of compatibility as possible. Being able to run stuff like Breath of the Wild in Cemu would be nice, but not a must (probably not reasonable for a €500 build, anyway).

3. Do you need a copy of Windows? No

4. Can you use any parts from an old computer? No

5. Do you need a monitor? No

5b. If no, what resolution is your current monitor and do you plan to upgrade in the near future? 1440x900; will consider upgrading if I can get a 1080p monitor and the PC for €650 max. If not, the PC should be able to run games at 1080p, and I can wait on upgrading the monitor until I have more money to work with.

6. Do you need any of these peripherals? Wireless card, DVD/Blu-ray drive (must be able to write DVDs, not as bothered about blu-rays), SD slot, audio input

7. Are you willing to try overclocking? No

8. How can you pay? Debit card

9. When are you purchasing? Not in a rush, would be willing to hold out if certain parts might be available cheaper in sales

10. If you need help building it, where are you based? Longford


Other: Linux compatibility is a must, since I'll be running a dual-boot Windows/Linux setup.

I'm reasonably confident in being able to put the thing together, just need some advice on what sort of parts I can pick up for my budget.

ED E

Are you really going to stay with that antiquated resolution? If so pretty much anything will do.

Moydow

ED E wrote: »

Are you really going to stay with that antiquated resolution? If so pretty much anything will do.

Well, it's maybe an overstatement on my part to say I'm not considering upgrading at all. If I could get the PC and a 1080p monitor for €650 max, I'd consider it then. I'm not really much of a graphics person, though. I mostly just want to get stuff like Dolphin running at a stable, playable framerate, while staying within budget. If I have to sacrifice a better monitor for the moment to get that much, then I'm okay with that.

I edited the first post to clear that up, though.

K.O.Kiki

Lenovo Y520

https://www.lenovo.com/ie/en/desktops-and-all-in-ones/legion-desktops/legion-y-series-desktops/Legion-Y520-Desktop/p/90H7000VUK

You won't build better than that unless you buy 2nd-hand parts.

Moydow

K.O.Kiki wrote: »

Lenovo Y520



You won't build better than that unless you buy 2nd-hand parts.

Any idea how long the €450 deal is up for? Can't see any end date or anything on the website. Won't be able to pick it up right away, but if it's still up in two or three weeks from now I might go for it. I do realise my budget is pretty tight, so something like this looks like it will do me just fine.

K.O.Kiki

Moydow wrote: »

Any idea how long the €450 deal is up for? Can't see any end date or anything on the website. Won't be able to pick it up right away, but if it's still up in two or three weeks from now I might go for it. I do realise my budget is pretty tight, so something like this looks like it will do me just fine.

It's been like that for a few months I'm sure.

Kuva

680 now, spec change though.

K.O.Kiki

Kuva wrote: »

680 now, spec change though.

Nah, same base price just without discount.

Billy86

€450 was a pretty good price for that Lenovo, but €380 for an i3 7100 and 1050 GPU is just a bad price, no questions.

If you want to build it on your own, this is about what you will get. There is a much quicker and easier website called PC Part Picker that should help you save another few Euro, but it is acting up at the second so these are pulled off Amazon.

i5 8400 CPU - £155
1060 3GB GPU - £190
Standard H310 motherboard - £50
8GB DDR4 RAM - £70
120GB SSD - £25
1TB HDD - £25
PSU - £40
Case - £30
Total - £585 = €655

If you want to save a little extra you could go on eBay get an i5 6500 and GTX 970 for about £225 total plus a (new) standard H110 motherboard for £35 or so, which would drop the price down to about £450, or €505. I use a 6600K and 970 and can play just about anything on full ultra graphics in 1080p, or as good as (I don't use GSync/VSync or anti aliasing though).

Also just to throw it out there, if you want to just get up an running on as low a cost as possible and are in south Dublin I can give you a G4560 CPU and a case for €20. The CPU works perfectly and will run games well (even many of the more demanding ones), only reason it's spare is because it's from a friends computer that they upgraded to a Plex server recently so they needed to go up to an i5. You would still need to get your own H110 motherboard but that would bring it down to about £350 / €400. I don't want this to come over as shilling , just throwing it out there since I'm looking to get rid of them and not bothered putting them on adverts.ie for €25-30 each. A G4560 can be upgraded to an i5 or i7 6XXX or 7XXX series (performs the same as i3 7XXX so no point bothering with either of them) if you ever wish to do so down the line.

To be honest from what I can see if you're looking to save money on the GPU in the second hand market at the moment it doesn't look worthwhile to go below the 970 - it's an excellent card and can be got as low as £130 on eBay, while other well known budget cards really are not much lower (if lower at all) and to get a big saving you'd need to go all the way back to a GTX 7XX or 6XX series card, or a 2GB RX 460/560 which really are just not worth it.

The G4560 with a 1050 TI I can tell you covers emulators perfectly including Cemu, and almost always it was the 1050 TI holding it back so I would expect even more with a 970 GPU. The advantages for an i5 would be able to handle some games like Battlefield 1 or PUBG with 100-odd people online together with notably smoother and more consistent framerates, and would do a better job if you like to tab in and out of games while using Chrome etc (because while the G4560 can run pretty much any game to a decent level and most more or less perfectly, doing so takes up all your CPU usage meaning you need to close the game to be able to use Chrome etc effectively). For other very CPU intensive games like Civ VI or Witcher 3 I didn't notice any issue on the G4560 at all.

K.O.Kiki

GTX 970 are still listing at €175-240, and i5 6500 are €120+ so unless you get a bundle you're about €100 off there Billy86.

Also that Lenovo was i3-7100 + 1050 Ti (not 1050).

Billy86

Apologies on the 1050TI, missed that - that with the discount gone for the same price they would get an i5 8400 with either a 6GB 1060 or a 3GB 1060 + SSD.

I actually got a 6500 for £90/€100 delivery just last week off ebay off someone in Wicklow on 'buy it now' (because I fecking hate the nervy bid process), I'm not sure if it's the craze for six cores with Coffee Lake and Ryzen but there's been a very noticeable drop there lately when I've been checking.

Also I'm guessing because Ethereum and the other bitcoin types are continuing to drop because the 970 costs are pretty amazing at the moment. They're not as readily available at that cost as the i5's but I saw £125 the other day and here is one off a quick search at £135 'buy it now' for example - https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/MSI-NVIDIA-GeForce-GTX-970-4096MB/113154478128?epid=222449304&hash=item1a58885030%3Ag%3AvbgAAOSwnDJbTh0z&_sacat=0&_nkw=gtx+970&LH_BIN=1&_from=R40&rt=nc

refusetolose

the Lenovo Legion Y520T is still €450

do you lads reckon its a good deal?

thinking of going for it

Xenoronin

I don't think you'd regret it anyway. The CPU is good enough for Dolphin and has enough grunt for the games you listed. It's a really good price

killanena

refusetolose wrote:

the Lenovo Legion Y520T is still €450

Yeah it's a good deal covers all your requirements and you should have enough to get a decent 1080p 27" display left over.

Only downfall is you don't get the satisfaction of building it yourself and choosing a case to your liking.

I'm actually half thinking of getting one myself to use in the living room as a steam machine.

Kuva

Out of stock.

If it comes back what SSD can you put in that?

Need a new machine, can't build myself so has to be off the shelf.