Building a gaming PC for a friend

[UsualEverydayGuy]

So I'm building/trying to build a PC for my friend. Some quick info:

-We are in Germany

-His reference point was 600€ but he said that he could spend more, if it's worth the increased performance gain

-He is actually not in a hurry, could wait a few more months

-It's gonna be used mostly for gaming, primarily simulation games like Cities in Motion, Cities Skylines, Train Fever and such

-He doesn't have that high requirements towards graphics and framerate actually. He used an Aldi PC for over 6 years, he doesn't even notice when a game runs at 30 FPS or lower 

-He is gonna use his 1TB HDD from his current PC

-No new mouse, keyboard, monitor needed

 

What I've outlined so far (feel free to criticise/suggest better options):

-Some 8GB DDR4 RAM, haven't decided on further specifics, but just 1 bar so he can still buy another one later on if needed

-SSD 250GB, probably Samsung?

-Intel Core i5 3570 (probably a bad choice? I'm new to Intel CPUs and I don't really know how CPU heavy those games are)

-Mainboard ... well whatever has decent quality and the socket for the CPU

-GPU probably an R9 280 due to decent price/performance

-PSU 600W be quiet! Pure Power 18 Non Modular

-Case Bitfenix Nova

[ARikozuM]

I'd head over to PC partpicker and make a build with a i5-6500 and a RX460. The site will give you vendors and prices to go by.

Report back if you make any progress or have questions.

 

[Sreno1]

Those games are extremely CPU intensive. Get a i5-6500 or better to have good performance. You should get a new gen GPU like a RX 470/1050ti.

[stealth80]

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-6500 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor  (€204.89 @ Mindfactory)
Motherboard: MSI B150M BAZOOKA Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard  (€84.24 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix Sport LT 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2400 Memory  (€69.99 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Video Card: HIS Radeon RX 460 2GB iCooler OC Video Card  (€117.79 @ Mindfactory)
Case: Zalman Z3 Plus White ATX Mid Tower Case  (€45.56 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Power Supply: Corsair CSM 550W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply  (€86.94 @ Mindfactory)
Total: €609.41
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-10-24 17:10 CEST+0200

[Starelementpoke]

27 minutes ago, UsualEverydayGuy said:

So I'm building/trying to build a PC for my friend. Some quick info:

-We are in Germany

-His reference point was 600€ but he said that he could spend more, if it's worth the increased performance gain

-He is actually not in a hurry, could wait a few more months

-It's gonna be used mostly for gaming, primarily simulation games like Cities in Motion, Cities Skylines, Train Fever and such

-He doesn't have that high requirements towards graphics and framerate actually. He used an Aldi PC for over 6 years, he doesn't even notice when a game runs at 30 FPS or lower 

-He is gonna use his 1TB HDD from his current PC

-No new mouse, keyboard, monitor needed

 

What I've outlined so far (feel free to criticise/suggest better options):

-Some 8GB DDR4 RAM, haven't decided on further specifics, but just 1 bar so he can still buy another one later on if needed

-SSD 250GB, probably Samsung?

-Intel Core i5 3570 (probably a bad choice? I'm new to Intel CPUs and I don't really know how CPU heavy those games are)

-Mainboard ... well whatever has decent quality and the socket for the CPU

-GPU probably an R9 280 due to decent price/performance

-PSU 600W be quiet! Pure Power 18 Non Modular

-Case Bitfenix Nova

PCPartPicker part list: http://de.pcpartpicker.com/list/XzZwqk
Price breakdown by merchant: http://de.pcpartpicker.com/list/XzZwqk/by_merchant/

CPU: Intel Core i5-6400 2.7GHz Quad-Core Processor  (€173.94 @ Mindfactory) 
Motherboard: ASRock H110M-HDS Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard  (€51.51 @ Amazon Deutschland) 
Memory: Crucial 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR4-2133 Memory  (€30.99 @ Amazon Deutschland) 
Storage: Kingston SSDNow UV400 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  (€41.99 @ Amazon Deutschland) 
Video Card: XFX Radeon RX 470 4GB HS Black Edition Video Card  (€206.94 @ Mindfactory) 
Case: BitFenix Nova ATX Mid Tower Case  (€36.56 @ Mindfactory) 
Power Supply: XFX TS 550W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply  (€65.91 @ Mindfactory) 
Total: €607.84
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-10-24 17:23 CEST+0200

[Quaker]

58 minutes ago, UsualEverydayGuy said:

-Some 8GB DDR4 RAM, haven't decided on further specifics, but just 1 bar so he can still buy another one later on if needed

I would recommend something like the poster above's i5-6400 build, except:

CPU: i5-6500 - the speed bump over the 6400 is worth the extra cost

Motherboard:  get a motherboard with 4 RAM slots so that you can get 2x 4Gigs of RAM now instead of just 1x 8Gig and still have slots available for later. It can be H110, but B150 or H170 would be better.

RAM: DDR4-2133 or 2400, whichever is cheapest. Get 2x4 instead of 1x8.

GPU: RX 460 or 470 or GTX-1050 as budget allows.

SSD: An SSD is nice, but you should get the i5-6500, 8Gigs of RAM, and an RX 460/470 and the rest of the system first, and then stick in an SSD if budget allows. Your friend would probably be happy enough just running off the hard drive.

PSU: 450-550 watt 80+ bronze such as the XFX TS or a Corsair CX550M, etc.

Case: whatever floats your boat - or whatever new or used case that can hold the parts together

ODD: your friend may want an optical drive. A common DVD burner is cheap.

 

For gaming, the most important things are the CPU and GPU. Then comes enough RAM (8Gigs currently) and a good power supply.

The rest - SSD, ODD, case, etc - don't actually contribute to gaming performance, and should be based upon whatever budget is left over after you get the main parts.

[Xreldo]

1 hour ago, UsualEverydayGuy said:

So I'm building/trying to build a PC for my friend. Some quick info:

-We are in Germany

-His reference point was 600€ but he said that he could spend more, if it's worth the increased performance gain

-He is actually not in a hurry, could wait a few more months

-It's gonna be used mostly for gaming, primarily simulation games like Cities in Motion, Cities Skylines, Train Fever and such

-He doesn't have that high requirements towards graphics and framerate actually. He used an Aldi PC for over 6 years, he doesn't even notice when a game runs at 30 FPS or lower 

-He is gonna use his 1TB HDD from his current PC

-No new mouse, keyboard, monitor needed

 

What I've outlined so far (feel free to criticise/suggest better options):

-Some 8GB DDR4 RAM, haven't decided on further specifics, but just 1 bar so he can still buy another one later on if needed

-SSD 250GB, probably Samsung?

-Intel Core i5 3570 (probably a bad choice? I'm new to Intel CPUs and I don't really know how CPU heavy those games are)

-Mainboard ... well whatever has decent quality and the socket for the CPU

-GPU probably an R9 280 due to decent price/performance

-PSU 600W be quiet! Pure Power 18 Non Modular

-Case Bitfenix Nova

Hes pretty much set with this http://de.pcpartpicker.com/list/ngC64C all you need for a good gaming PC but cheap also the mobo allows 64gigs of ram so he can buy even more of those sticks and the the RX480 will give him much more than 60 fps look at benchmarks online. He could buy an SSD if he had enough money but really you dont need an SSD at this kind of price point.

[Xreldo]

23 minutes ago, Quaker said:

I would recommend something like the poster above's i5-6400 build, except:

CPU: i5-6500 - the speed bump over the 6400 is worth the extra cost

Motherboard:  get a motherboard with 4 RAM slots so that you can get 2x 4Gigs of RAM now instead of just 1x 8Gig and still have slots available for later. It can be H110, but B150 or H170 would be better.

RAM: DDR4-2133 or 2400, whichever is cheapest. Get 2x4 instead of 1x8.

GPU: RX 460 or 470 or GTX-1050 as budget allows.

SSD: An SSD is nice, but you should get the i5-6500, 8Gigs of RAM, and an RX 460/470 and the rest of the system first, and then stick in an SSD if budget allows. Your friend would probably be happy enough just running off the hard drive.

PSU: 450-550 watt 80+ bronze such as the XFX TS or a Corsair CX550M, etc.

Case: whatever floats your boat - or whatever new or used case that can hold the parts together

ODD: your friend may want an optical drive. A common DVD burner is cheap.

 

For gaming, the most important things are the CPU and GPU. Then comes enough RAM (8Gigs currently) and a good power supply.

The rest - SSD, ODD, case, etc - don't actually contribute to gaming performance, and should be based upon whatever budget is left over after you get the main parts.

Would be sad if he just left not looking at my build 

[gtx1060=value]

http://de.pcpartpicker.com/list/VfbL7h

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-6600 3.3GHz Quad-Core Processor  (€210.34 @ Mindfactory) 
CPU Cooler: be quiet! PURE ROCK 51.7 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler  (€30.79 @ Aquatuning) 
Motherboard: MSI B150M BAZOOKA Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard  (€84.24 @ Amazon Deutschland) 
Memory: Crucial Ballistix Sport LT 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR4-2400 Memory  (€37.49 @ Amazon Deutschland) 
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  (€52.84 @ Mindfactory) 
Video Card: XFX Radeon RX 460 4GB Double Dissipation Video Card  (€137.85 @ Mindfactory) 
Case: Thermaltake Versa H21 ATX Mid Tower Case  (€38.23 @ Amazon Deutschland) 
Power Supply: Corsair CX 430W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply  (€56.28 @ Mindfactory) 
Total: €648.06
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-10-25 02:07 CEST+0200

[Herman Mcpootis]

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-6400 2.7GHz Quad-Core Processor  (€165.95 @ Mindfactory) 
Motherboard: ASRock H110M-HDS Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard  (€51.51 @ Amazon Deutschland) 
Memory: Crucial 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR4-2133 Memory  (€30.99 @ Amazon Deutschland) 
Storage: A-Data Premier SP550 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  (€44.03 @ Amazon Deutschland) 
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon RX 480 4GB NITRO+ 4G Video Card  (€219.52 @ Mindfactory) 
Case: Thermaltake Versa H22 ATX Mid Tower Case  (€34.99 @ Amazon Deutschland) 
Power Supply: XFX ProSeries 450W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply  (€48.89 @ Amazon Deutschland) 
Total: €595.88
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-10-25 02:21 CEST+0200

[ARikozuM]

1 minute ago, herman mcpootis said:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-6400 2.7GHz Quad-Core Processor  (€165.95 @ Mindfactory) 
Motherboard: ASRock H110M-HDS Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard  (€51.51 @ Amazon Deutschland) 
Memory: Crucial 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR4-2133 Memory  (€30.99 @ Amazon Deutschland) 
Storage: A-Data Premier SP550 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  (€44.03 @ Amazon Deutschland) 
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon RX 480 4GB NITRO+ 4G Video Card  (€219.52 @ Mindfactory) 
Case: Thermaltake Versa H22 ATX Mid Tower Case  (€34.99 @ Amazon Deutschland) 
Power Supply: XFX ProSeries 450W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply  (€48.89 @ Amazon Deutschland) 
Total: €595.88
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-10-25 02:21 CEST+0200

I would skip right over the i5-6400 since it's only a few dollars (euros) for a good jump in speed. Also, good choice on RAM, case, PSU, and SSD.