Cheapest pc that can run basic games...

[orbitalbuzzsaw]

1 minute ago, Stefan Payne said:

You mean 1366, don't you?

Or do you really mean 1356?? (yeah, that also exists. IIRC Beckton Socket)

But no, the old Intel stuff is rediculously overpriced.
And the GTX 400 and 500 series pretty crap and inefficient.

That sounds pretty good and has a good upgrade path.

Alternatives is to look for older DELL, Lenovo, HP PCs, if possible from a Busness. The Problem with those is that they are often limited in upgradability. They have some hard power limits, OC isn't possible and you can't put in a a GPU with a PCIe Connector.

 

Used PCs aren't the easiest to navigate through. It takes a lot of time to find something that is not too bad as many Business Machines you can get either have a Proprietary PSU without PCIe Connectors or low profile case or both.

Which is why I suggested the T3500 specifically. Proprietary board but it takes standard connectors and the tower is full size. I did give a fuller explanation further up the thread and CudaCores89's guide is good as well (the only thing is that he fails to instruct to get an SSD)

[Stefan Payne]

3 minutes ago, star_pilot475 said:

I get what you’re saying but I’m just trying to see what my options are. 

 

I looked around ebay and saw that I could build a system with a 4690k for around 250-260. I know 4th gen intel is known to be cheap but also respectable for gaming. 

Can you link to that System?

Maybe you can't put a GPU inside...

Just now, orbitalbuzzsaw said:

If you don't want to go the Optiplex route 4690K & 780 Ti/970/RX 4/580 is a very respectable combo. Make sure you get him an SSD though

Again, many Business PCs don't come with PCIe connectors. So the 2200G System isn't too shabby.

 

Also in one of the last Hardware Unboxed Videos, he tested an older OEM System with the 1650 (Haswell based) and found that the CPU Performance was not as good as expected...

Wich was because of Power Limitations of the Board. So they limit the power the CPU can use, wich limits its performance in Games.

 

Buttom Line: a DIY System is better as it comes with PCIe connectors and the Retail Boards don't usually powerlimit the CPU and are more built for performance.

[Oalei]

2 minutes ago, Stefan Payne said:

You mean 1366, don't you?

Or do you really mean 1356?? (yeah, that also exists. IIRC Beckton Socket)

But no, the old Intel stuff is rediculously overpriced.
And the GTX 400 and 500 series pretty crap and inefficient.

well there is a lot of options from the AMD side for used stuffs.

well get the 600 or 700 series or some HD 7xxx GPU.

[Stefan Payne]

Just now, Oalei said:

well there is a lot of options from the AMD side for used stuffs.

well get the 600 or 700 series or some HD 7xxx GPU.

Yeah, the GPU Side, totally. And a Radeon HD7970 holds up very well and should be able to be gotten for 50-60€. For that price its not bad. 

The nVidia 600 and 700 Series isn't that great. Especially the 680 is somewhere between the 7870 and 7970 today. And the 7970 is sometimes way in front of the 680 (somewhere around 30-40% faster) but the 680 is more expensive.

 

In some situations a Radeon HD7970GHz/280X battles with the 780...

[star_pilot475]

Just now, Stefan Payne said:

Can you link to that System?

Maybe you can't put a GPU inside...

Again, many Business PCs don't come with PCIe connectors. So the 2200G System isn't too shabby.

 

Also in one of the last Hardware Unboxed Videos, he tested an older OEM System with the 1650 (Haswell based) and found that the CPU Performance was not as good as expected...

Wich was because of Power Limitations of the Board. So they limit the power the CPU can use, wich limits its performance in Games.

 

Buttom Line: a DIY System is better as it comes with PCIe connectors and the Retail Boards don't usually powerlimit the CPU and are more built for performance.

Well, actually I just looked through eBay and put the parts in the cart. All the parts were separate. 

It was...

i5-4690k

Asus H81M Mobo (stock heatsink included with that) 

8GB of ddr3 1600mhz

rosewill arc psu 450 watt

MasterBox Lite 3.1

Total came to 264 or so

 

 

[orbitalbuzzsaw]

1 minute ago, Stefan Payne said:

Can you link to that System?

Maybe you can't put a GPU inside...

Again, many Business PCs don't come with PCIe connectors. So the 2200G System isn't too shabby.

 

Also in one of the last Hardware Unboxed Videos, he tested an older OEM System with the 1650 (Haswell based) and found that the CPU Performance was not as good as expected...

Wich was because of Power Limitations of the Board. So they limit the power the CPU can use, wich limits its performance in Games.

 

Buttom Line: a DIY System is better as it comes with PCIe connectors and the Retail Boards don't usually powerlimit the CPU and are more built for performance.

Yes. The 4690K & RX 480 is a better option, but would cost around $500

PCPartPicker Part List

Type	Item	Price
CPU	Intel - Core i5-4690K 3.5 GHz Quad-Core Processor	$70.00
CPU Cooler	be quiet! - Pure Rock Slim 35.14 CFM CPU Cooler	$31.98 @ Amazon
Motherboard	MSI - Z97 PC MATE ATX LGA1150 Motherboard	$85.00
Memory	Patriot - Viper 3 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR3-1600 Memory	$59.97 @ Amazon
Storage	Crucial - BX500 240 GB 2.5" Solid State Drive	$28.95 @ Amazon
Storage	Western Digital - Caviar Blue 1 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive	$45.40 @ OutletPC
Video Card	EVGA - GeForce GTX 970 4 GB Superclocked ACX 2.0 Video Card	$85.00
Case	Cougar - MX330 ATX Mid Tower Case	$39.99 @ Amazon
Power Supply	Corsair - CXM (2015) 450 W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-modular ATX Power Supply	$36.98 @ Newegg
	Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
	Total (before mail-in rebates)	$498.27
	Mail-in rebates	-$15.00
	Total	$483.27
	Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-05-21 10:53 EDT-0400

 

[Oalei]

2 minutes ago, Stefan Payne said:

Yeah, the GPU Side, totally. And a Radeon HD7970 holds up very well and should be able to be gotten for 50-60€. For that price its not bad. 

The nVidia 600 and 700 Series isn't that great. Especially the 680 is somewhere between the 7870 and 7970 today. And the 7970 is sometimes way in front of the 680 (somewhere around 30-40% faster) but the 680 is more expensive.

 

In some situations a Radeon HD7970GHz/280X battles with the 780...

For CPU does it have to be Haswell based? i mean here a G5400 or i3 gen6/7 is very cheap with motherboard included because of Crypto stuffs and also used DDR4 Pricing is very unstable so if you get very lucky you get a 2x8gb for like 50usd or something

well for me 600/700 pricing is better than 900 series which is very expensive.

HOW THE HECK DID YOU GET A HD7970 FOR 50? i can only find it for $70 which is more or less the same as RX 470 Nitro+ so not worth it.

[star_pilot475]

Somebody's got an Asus gaming desktop up for sale on Craigslist near me. Pretty similar to this for around $200

 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Asus-Rog-G11DF-VR-Ready-Gaming-Tower-Ryzen-3-1200-3-1Ghz-8Gb-1Tb-Win-10-/303003973023

 

could just buy that for him

[Lalit Kumar]

20 hours ago, star_pilot475 said:

The only thing is if I go with Ryzen, I’ve got no integrated graphics and therefore have to pay more for a cheap gpu. Maybe what I’ll end up doing is telling him to wait for zen 2, while I hope that prices drop on Ryzen 3s. 

The 200GE is a great CPU with integrated graphics. It's enough for roblox lol. Check out RandomGamingInHD's video about this APU.

[orbitalbuzzsaw]

On 5/21/2019 at 3:59 PM, star_pilot475 said:

Somebody's got an Asus gaming desktop up for sale on Craigslist near me. Pretty similar to this for around $200

 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Asus-Rog-G11DF-VR-Ready-Gaming-Tower-Ryzen-3-1200-3-1Ghz-8Gb-1Tb-Win-10-/303003973023

 

could just buy that for him

That'd actually be a great pickup but make sure you get a better video card - GT1030 is a piece of shit. I would grab an ex-mining 580 for $100.

[trevb0t]

For just under $300 I was able to put together the Ryzen 3 1200 and a used R7 260X combo:

PCPartPicker Part List

Type	Item	Price
CPU	AMD - Ryzen 3 1200 3.1 GHz Quad-Core Processor	$64.99 @ Newegg
Motherboard	ASRock - B450M Pro4-F Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard	$68.99 @ SuperBiiz
Memory	Team - Vulcan 8 GB (2 x 4 GB) DDR4-3000 Memory	$43.99 @ Newegg
Storage	Crucial - BX500 120 GB 2.5" Solid State Drive	$19.99 @ Amazon
Video Card	MSI - Radeon R7 260X 2 GB Video Card	$33.00
Case	Rosewill - FBM-X1 MicroATX Mini Tower Case	$26.99 @ Amazon
Power Supply	Corsair - CX (2017) 450 W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply	$39.88 @ OutletPC
	Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
	Total (before mail-in rebates)	$312.83
	Mail-in rebates	-$15.00
	Total	$297.83
	Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-05-23 22:36 EDT-0400

The R7 260X is competitive with the GTX 750Ti at half the current used price, which is to say it would outperform both the 2200G and 2400G.

There is still room for upgrade as well if he ever wants to plop a 2700X and an RTX 2070 in there

 

[Tensei Slime]

On 5/21/2019 at 6:55 AM, star_pilot475 said:

Ok, so I might be building a new pc for my little bro soon. Pretty much all he plays is Roblox.  

 

So, maybe some of you very helpful fellows out there could give me some suggestions on what the cheapest pc is that could run this very demanding game. (I don’t know if ROBLOX will run without at least an RTX 2080 ) I was thinking somewhere in the neighborhood of $200 if possible. If that’s too little let me know! 

you could run Roblox and minecraft on a $150 PC from target