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Cheap vs. Expensive Gaming!?

RILEYISMYNAME

Hmmm . What the heck is the face Riley is making in the thumbnail..

Also, the link to the builds doesnt work for non-floatplane plebs like me.

"We're all in this together, might as well be friends" Tom, Toonami.

 

mini eLiXiVy: my open source 65% mechanical PCB, a build log, PCB anatomy and discussing open source licenses: https://linustechtips.com/topic/1366493-elixivy-a-65-mechanical-keyboard-build-log-pcb-anatomy-and-how-i-open-sourced-this-project/

 

mini_cardboard: a 4% keyboard build log and how keyboards workhttps://linustechtips.com/topic/1328547-mini_cardboard-a-4-keyboard-build-log-and-how-keyboards-work/

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1 minute ago, Minibois said:

Hmmm . What the heck is the face Riley is making in the thumbnail..

Also, the link to the builds doesnt work for non-floatplane plebs like me.

Sorry! Uploaded them directly now!

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Amazing to see that my graphics card ( a gtx 1070 ) still can fit into the same price point pc ( 1000 dollar build ) as it did when I first built it

 

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My LAN pc is essentially "the midranger".  Can attest, can play pretty much any 1080p game at max settings, does meh to OK on productivity.  Very sweet spot build in my opinion

El Zoido:  9900k + RTX 4090 / 32 gb 3600mHz RAM / z390 Aorus Master 

 

The Box:  3900x + RTX 3080 /  32 gb 3000mHz RAM / B550 MSI mortar 

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yep i perfer min range  close to a great value per mony  peformace buld if it doist add peformace  a few spot i went for looks  not many  like no rgb  ohter then what cam on stuff taht was a great value

wow you include key board and mice and montroy most time i upgrade buld   over and over like the one i have now will be my case for a long time i wont say never  but will be a long time 

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Another screwed up video.

 

The first build :

image.png.10673b92d4592116f733eae165b7dcd3.png

 

 

A gamer that makes a cheap PC is not gonna spend 90$ (a THIRD of his budget) on a monitor.  He could live with 1600x900 20" monitor that costs 65$ : https://www.amazon.com/Acer-K202HQL-viewable-Monitor-Ports/dp/B00KWCD8D2/

He's gonna be smart and buy 2 sticks of memory to have 8 GB of memory in DUAL CHANNEL for a noticeable increase in performance in games AND in Windows. Why would he torture himself in Windows 10 with 4 GB of memory, when the integrated graphics can't even do 75 fps. 

Also, 58$ for a computer case and psu? 

31$ psu 430w (you can often find mail in rebates on Newegg to get psus in the 19.99-24.99 range) https://www.amazon.com/Thermaltake-Continuous-Active-Supply-PS-SPD-0430NPCWUS-W/dp/B07BFJ91TY/

23$ case https://www.amazon.com/ROSEWILL-Micro-Computer-plastic-computer/dp/B0116TSWM6/

so 54$ in total.

 

 

second pc ....

 

image.png.6b97c07223d6f5b3626704003c2b0e15.png

 

How does this make sense?

 

Why mix a cpu with integrated graphics with separate graphics, you're killing 8 pci-e lanes to save 10$ on cpu (if you go with a ryzen 1300 or 1400, for 4core/8 threads goodness) ?

 

Maybe a couple weeks ago or whenever this video was made, it was more expensive but today the Ryzen 3 1200 is 65$ : https://www.amazon.com/AMD-Desktop-Processor-Stealth-YD1200BBAEBOX/dp/B0741DN383/

Stupid to spend 175$ on a RX 580 when a RX 570 will give just as good graphics performance in 1080p and costs 140-160$ :

https://www.amazon.com/PowerColor-AXRX-570-4GBD5-3DH-OC/dp/B071DF8SJV/

https://www.amazon.com/PowerColor-570-AXRX-4GBD5-3DHD-OC/dp/B06ZYRRW9T/

Just saved at least 50$ and get the same performance... and I get 16 pci-e lanes for the graphics.

A 60$ MB would work just as well with a Ryzen 1200 and some 65w TDP

Spending 15-20$ extra to get 16 GB of memory seems like a no-brainer... can buy 16 GB with 60$

68$ : 3000 Mhz corsair : https://www.amazon.com/Corsair-Vengeance-PC4-24000-Desktop-Memory/dp/B07B4G525F/

 

58$ : https://www.amazon.com/Corsair-Select-1x16GB-2133MHz-PC4-17000/dp/B018GK2IB4/

 

I would bump up the monitor to 24-27" ... extra 10-20$ i already saved with the cpu and video card.

 

 

and the third build... you jumped straight from 90$ to 160$, from 21" IPS to 24" TN ... just to get 3" extra you pay 70$ more... STUPID

 

140$ 27" VA panel : https://www.amazon.com/Acer-KB272HL-bix-FREESYNC-Technology/dp/B07QPBXVBQ/

150$ 27" IPS 75 Hz panel : https://www.amazon.com/Acer-SB270-Bbix-Ultra-Thin-Technology/dp/B07KQKGP6W/

 

the glow-up ... spending 2600$ on a PC and still being cheap with just 16 GB of 3200 Mhz ram?

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1 minute ago, mariushm said:

Another screwed up video.

 

The first build :

image.png.10673b92d4592116f733eae165b7dcd3.png

 

 

A gamer that makes a cheap PC is not gonna spend 90$ (a THIRD of his budget) on a monitor.  He could live with 1600x900 20" monitor that costs 65$ : https://www.amazon.com/Acer-K202HQL-viewable-Monitor-Ports/dp/B00KWCD8D2/

He's gonna be smart and buy 2 sticks of memory to have 8 GB of memory in DUAL CHANNEL for a noticeable increase in performance in games AND in Windows. Why would he torture himself in Windows 10 with 4 GB of memory, when the integrated graphics can't even do 75 fps. 

Also, 58$ for a computer case and psu? 

31$ psu 430w (you can often find mail in rebates on Newegg to get psus in the 19.99-24.99 range) https://www.amazon.com/Thermaltake-Continuous-Active-Supply-PS-SPD-0430NPCWUS-W/dp/B07BFJ91TY/

23$ case https://www.amazon.com/ROSEWILL-Micro-Computer-plastic-computer/dp/B0116TSWM6/

so 54$ in total.

 

look like they are range in cheap even cheap  would  be some old prebuld  off ebay 

Dell Optiplex 3020 MT Pentium G3220 3.00GHz 2GB RAM 500GB HDD WIN 10 DVD-RW PC

as a example and a key bord and mouse and montory from some yard sell 

for 45$ would be the the almsoe chep option avable 

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this could seriously do with re-doing, with Ryzen 3000 included... the performance you get for the money now changes everything! 

--Xenon-VI - AMD Ryzen 7 3700X @ 4.4GHz 1.34V (Gib 4950X) - MSI MEG X570 Unify -  48GB Corsair Vengeance RGB 3600MHz - MSI WindForce // NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080Ti @ 2GHz Core 7GHz Mem flashed with 350W BIOS (SOLD, Temporary 1660 waiting for 3090) - 240GB Samsung 970 EVO M.2 PCIE - OS Drive - 1TB SanDisk Ultra II SSD - 1TB Crucial BX500 SSD (SHIT, DONT BUY) - 2TB Samsung 860 QVO SSD - EVGA 750W G2 80+ Gold - Lian Li O11D - 9x Corsair SP120RGB - Corsair Commander - Corsair Hydro X Pump/Res - 360mm Thicc Radiator - Hydro X CPU Block - 3090 Waterblock soon come 

1x Acer 27" XV273K 4K 144Hz G-Sync - 1x LG 24UD58 24" 3840x2160 60Hz - 1x Iiyama 28" 3840x2160 60Hz - Valve Index Headset! 

 

Corsair K95 Platinum RGB MX Reds & Corsair Dark Core RGB 
Philips Fidelio X2HR w/ JDSLabs Atom & Topping D10 DSD DAC

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12 minutes ago, GodAtum said:

So gamers dont need speakers?

some pc come with them buld in  or montory or on the cheap they use what head phone they got from a 1$ store or have laying around or form some other device 

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Now for a plot twist - add up the cost of ALL SIX of those builds and see what can be done. Do you think that it can even be possible to spend $13K on a single system?

 

The short answer is yes because I've probably spent near that much already:

 

Mobo: $500

CPU: $1000

Custom powder coated case: $1000

Four graphics cards with full cover blocks: $3200 (this is 2015 money)

PSU: $400

Monitor: $1000

 

Dust filters, sound deadening foam, RAM, fans, five massive rads, tubing, fittings, pump/res combo, coolant, cable management, RGB, two case LCD's, a dozen various drives, etc... and the time spent on mods and customization. Add stuff like the keyboard, speakers, DAC, trackball, gaming peripherals, new printer... It's the other 5 grand or so.

 

The big take away is that at that price point it becomes more than just a gaming machine. It becomes a workstation, an editing rig, a media server, a folding farm... whatever it is you want to do with your system OUTSIDE of gaming.

 

I was held back for over a decade using laptop after laptop. Yes they were great for portability and doing the web and casual gaming etc..., but they never really gave me the freedom to do what COULD be done with a PC. Now that I am back to using a real desktop as my main system I can do stuff that I just wasn't able to do before. Even now, close to 5 years after I first began putting it together it still doesn't feel slow, it still games well and it's a monster to see running at full blast.

 

Sure I spent a lot, but I get to hang on to it a lot longer as well since I went for the high end which still feels fast years later. Had I spent $300-$600 I'd either be throwing it away after three years or upgrading everything on it for a second time now.

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I think one of the lower build should have just had the either the Ryzen 3 2200G or the Ryzen 5 2400G using their integrated graphics only. In the Athlete build that is dropping $175 for other parts or just flat savings. Don't really frequently the forum but I wish I did to point this out in the thread Riley made.

 

Here are two massive reddit threads have both being showcased running a myriad if games. 

https://old.reddit.com/r/buildapc/comments/9ylcrh/ryzen_3_2200g_vega_8_integrated_graphics_gaming/

https://old.reddit.com/r/buildapc/comments/9ui9ii/ryzen_5_2400g_vega_11_integrated_graphics_gaming/

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I'm honestly okay with the 200GE and the 2200G PC (although you could get something without integrated graphics) except 4GBs of RAM in the cheapest one -- 8GB is the bare minimum and I don't think anyone would get a PC with 4GB RAM (especially if you're using the integrated graphics) 

No FPS comparison charts? No benchmarks? 

A rather small thing but you didn't use the Wraith Stealth cooler that comes with R5 2600, you didn't even use the one that comes with R5 2600X. A footer about this wouldn't hurt. 

Also on a separate note why would you pair a 2200G with an RX580? And at least specify whether it's 4GB or 8GB. 

Honestly I would just repurpose the existing footage for a new video (maybe a detailed Ryzen 2000 vs. Ryzen 3000 comparison?) instead of publishing it.

I would talk more about small details like the ones above but it's pointless as we have Ryzen 3000 now.

Desktop: AMD Ryzen 7 3800X / Noctua NH-D15 / Gigabyte Aorus Master X570 / 2x16GB XPG 3200Mhz DDR4 RAM / Radeon VII / 1TB Intel 660p SSD / Acer ED322Q / Acer ET322QU / Corsair Carbide 275R

Laptop: Dell Inspiron 7405 2-in-1: AMD Ryzen 7 4700U / 2x8GB 3200Mhz DDR4 / 512GB NVM.e

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1 hour ago, Dubious said:

NO Ryzen 3k?

Epic fail

Did you not watch the video.  It was done before Ryzen 3000 series was released. 

 

Tell my tale to those who ask. Tell it truly; the ill deeds along with the good, and let me be judged accordingly.

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4 hours ago, mariushm said:

Another screwed up video.

I'm thinking you should start a channel to do builds to show them what's what.

 

Or, you know, present your alternate ideas in a more polite way

4 hours ago, m2234323 said:

look like they are range in cheap even cheap  would  be some old prebuld  off ebay 

Linus did mention that he'd likely reccomend going used rather than going with the cheap option.

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🖥️ Memory: 32GB DDR4 2400  ** Power Supply: 650 Watts Power Supply Thermaltake +80 Bronze Thermaltake PSU 🖥️

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5 hours ago, RILEYISMYNAME said:

We built six gaming PCs at six different budgets to find out what it's like to game at every price point! (Almost). 

 

 

 

The Builds:

 

  Reveal hidden contents

El Cheapo Specs.png

  Reveal hidden contents

The Athlete Specs.png

  Reveal hidden contents

The Mid-Ranger Specs.png

  Reveal hidden contents

The Gentleman Specs.png

  Reveal hidden contents

The Glow-Up Specs.png

  Reveal hidden contents

Overkill Specs.png

 

Spends $7k on a overkill system .... doesnt custom loop water cool.

For shame I say !

CPU: Intel i7 3930k w/OC & EK Supremacy EVO Block | Motherboard: Asus P9x79 Pro  | RAM: G.Skill 4x4 1866 CL9 | PSU: Seasonic Platinum 1000w Corsair RM 750w Gold (2021)|

VDU: Panasonic 42" Plasma | GPU: Gigabyte 1080ti Gaming OC & Barrow Block (RIP)...GTX 980ti | Sound: Asus Xonar D2X - Z5500 -FiiO X3K DAP/DAC - ATH-M50S | Case: Phantek Enthoo Primo White |

Storage: Samsung 850 Pro 1TB SSD + WD Blue 1TB SSD | Cooling: XSPC D5 Photon 270 Res & Pump | 2x XSPC AX240 White Rads | NexXxos Monsta 80x240 Rad P/P | NF-A12x25 fans |

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2 hours ago, KWelz said:

Did you not watch the video.  It was done before Ryzen 3000 series was released. 

 

Why watch a outdated video?

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The delay between shooting a video and actually publishing video caused "controversy" in several videos recently.

 

For example, before this video, we got the "All this work... for what?? - Upgrading the Video Render Server" video where they replaced an Intel cpu with another expensive CPU and got basically crap performance bump, while not saying anything about Ryzen 3xxx because obviously this was shot before they could actually mention Ryzen due to NDAs - you can see at 2:05 in the video that they shot that footage on the 6th of June ... video got uploaded to Youtube on the 10th of July... more than a month later. Basically, the video felt like a filler, to save more interesting videos for other days...

 

This particular video  was probably also shot 2-3 weeks ago.

Could be the team is stacking a load of videos so that they'll keep posting every day even during the LTX Expo but even so...

 

In this particular case, just the first example that comes to mind: the closer the Ryzen 3xxx launch, the harder AMD worked to dump the first gen Ryzens to "clear inventory" so you can actually buy now Ryzen 3 1200 for 65$... retail... who in their right mind would buy a 2200g for 80-90$ and use dedicated graphics? Ryzen 1600 were 100-110$... now they're kinda gone.

 

edit: Ok, 200ge kinda makes sense for the super cheapest (using the integrated graphics) but even with this you may be able to squeeze a 20-30$ card, like a GT 730 for example.

 

I don't think it would have been hard to shuffle around some parts and maybe reshoot some segments and re-edit the video.

 

Also, maybe I'm being a bit mean or maybe I'm totally wrong ... just from watching videos since Riley came in the team, I got the impression that he's not really that technical and he doesn't really care that much about being up to date with everything... He seems more like someone interested in being a host, presenter, nice face that reads from the prompter.

I remember him saying in a video that he never built a PC for himself or something like that...

 

So it made me wonder... did Riley actually choose these configurations (and then got approved by Linus or others before "production") or were these configurations the work of interns, or the more tech savy guys build these systems and Riley just says he did it for the video shooting's sake?

 

Here's how I could have approached a video like this:

Why not have 5-6 guys in the team pick a configuration from a hat ... basically write a budget on a piece of paper and have 5-6 tech savy guys make the best configuration in the budget.

Before buying, everyone could get together to actually review just in case someone is way off base (sanity checks... ex using 200ge with a 2070 super) and when all parts arrrive, the video could be made more fun by actually having each of those 5-6 guys present their system and the reasoning why they chose this and that, why compromise there or go overboard somewhere else.

The current video has same parts for multiple builds, same monitor, same power supply, same ram sticks in multiple builds etc.. it's blah in a way.

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28 minutes ago, mariushm said:

So it made me wonder... did Riley actually choose these configurations (and then got approved by Linus or others before "production") or were these configurations the work of interns, or the more tech savy guys build these systems and Riley just says he did it for the video shooting's sake?

Riley came up with lists of parts, then asked for advice on the forums. Keep in mind this was about 6 weeks ago when ryzen, Navi, and Super weren't released.

 

 

Re: your suggestions about which parts should have been chosen instead... That's not really the point of the video. It's not a build guide or suggestion as to what exact parts to buy. It's for an exhibition at LTX where attendees can try out PC gaming across various price levels to see how the experience changes. Whether you can save $4 by buying a different case in the budget build is irrelevant.

 

From @RILEYISMYNAME in the original thread:

Quote

The  purpose of this project isn't necessarily to recommend specific components to the end user (e.g. buy Cooler A at 70 dollars instead of Cooler B at 85 dollars), but to give a general feel for what KIND of gaming experience you could expect at various price points (e.g. big noticeable changes like much faster refresh rates or higher resolution )

 

28 minutes ago, mariushm said:

The current video has same parts for multiple builds, same monitor, same power supply, same ram sticks in multiple builds etc.. it's blah in a way.

I guess there's two reasons for that. 

1. The part was good enough for multiple categories and to upgrade to something that would give a noticeable improvement would require significantly more of the budget.

2. LTT didn't buy all the parts themselves. Some parts were supplied by the manufacturers. I believe Asus were already on board for the motherboards from the get go, and it looks like possibly also provided the monitors as well. Looking at the final lists I would also guess that Corsair provided the PSUs and water coolers, and team force the memory. Maybe Logitech for peripherals. Again, this isn't meant to be a recommendation of "go out and buy this exact memory kit" but rather a general idea of what sort of gaming system you will get for around that price point.

Edited by Spotty

CPU: Intel i7 6700k  | Motherboard: Gigabyte Z170x Gaming 5 | RAM: 2x16GB 3000MHz Corsair Vengeance LPX | GPU: Gigabyte Aorus GTX 1080ti | PSU: Corsair RM750x (2018) | Case: BeQuiet SilentBase 800 | Cooler: Arctic Freezer 34 eSports | SSD: Samsung 970 Evo 500GB + Samsung 840 500GB + Crucial MX500 2TB | Monitor: Acer Predator XB271HU + Samsung BX2450

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I have to admit I didn't see that thread, and I visit this forum daily.

 

I think some parts were bought, because for example I doubt Gigabyte would donate an A320 based motherboard, or Corsair giving a CX series psu.. companies prefer people review or promote higher end parts.

I realize other parts were probably already available at LMG, received as review samples.

 

Just checked the other thread... seeing some others siliness there like 200GE + 2666 Mhz ram but then we have there 2200g+2400Mhz ram+ RX 580 ...

 

Still, no excuse for recommending a cheapo system with just ONE stick of 4 GB of memory in 2019 ... it's 20$ extra ffs. Apparently it was more important to have a 90$ monitor, when decent 20"+ monitors start at 60-65$... I guess at least you can see pretty colors while you wait for Windows to load your browser pages, and while you kill that 120 GB SSD with 70 TBW of lifetime with swapping Chrome's junk to pagefile on SSD and back.

 

Also, a 500 GB hard drive is 18-25$, here's an example : https://www.amazon.com/Blue-500GB-Desktop-Hard-Drive/dp/B00461G3MS/

... yeah, it would be slower than SSD, but at least it wouldn't be killed within a year by the constant paging because you only have 4 GB of RAM.

... and what's the point of a system with just a 120 GB SSD, when your WIndows 10 uses 40-50 GB ... you can barely download and install one 40-50 GB game at a time. Practically unusable.

You can always buy a SSD a month later if the budget is so tight and reinstall Windows on the SSD.

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7 hours ago, mariushm said:

while not saying anything about Ryzen 3xxx

I seriously doubt that they will put a new Ryzen CPU in their workstation and/or server the minute it launches. Your everyday gamer might be fine being a driver and bios beta tester but there is a reason why they went x99 at the end of it's life cycle.

CPU: i7 6950X  |  Motherboard: Asus Rampage V ed. 10  |  RAM: 32 GB Corsair Dominator Platinum Special Edition 3200 MHz (CL14)  |  GPUs: 2x Asus GTX 1080ti SLI 

Storage: Samsung 960 EVO 1 TB M.2 NVME  |  PSU: In Win SIV 1065W 

Cooling: Custom LC 2 x 360mm EK Radiators | EK D5 Pump | EK 250 Reservoir | EK RVE10 Monoblock | EK GPU Blocks & Backplates | Alphacool Fittings & Connectors | Alphacool Glass Tubing

Case: In Win Tou 2.0  |  Display: Alienware AW3418DW  |  Sound: Woo Audio WA8 Eclipse + Focal Utopia Headphones

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1 minute ago, Lathlaer said:

I seriously doubt that they will put a new Ryzen CPU in their workstation and/or server the minute it launches. Your everyday gamer might be fine being a driver and bios beta tester but there is a reason why they went x99 at the end of it's life cycle.

Give me a break. They have enough spare hardware around to build a Ryzen based server for the rendering/encoding and leave the previous as hot spare. The previous server doesn't have to be "decommissioned"

 

Leave the original server alone, buy a 2U..4U rackable case off Newegg/Amazon, make video with building the Ryzen server, do some encoding tests ... use it in production for a few months. If there's any problem, just switch the IP addresses between the servers and you have no downtime.

 

Worst case scenario ... they wasted half a day building a server with Ryzen, but they still got a money earning video from it and they can just say "oh well, still a bit buggy, waiting a few more weeks for revised bioses, we'll make anothe video if there's enough interest."

 

Could even be a 2-3h live stream so no serious editing time required ... just build server, answer questions from people while building server, quick install Windows and the software used to pick videos and render.. run a test

Optionally at the end of the day, just have editor pick the 2-3h footage, cut out the q&a bits, cut out some dead time (screwing mb in case, opening boxes etc), cut out the windows install time and software install time, basically bring the video below 30 minutes and you get another video out of it.

You get audience interaction, you get donations during live stream, you then also get adsense revenue when you publish the shortened video the next day or so.

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6 hours ago, mariushm said:

Just checked the other thread... seeing some others siliness there like 200GE + 2666 Mhz ram but then we have there 2200g+2400Mhz ram+ RX 580 ...

Yeah, there were a few weird issues like that but they were mostly addressed in the thread and changed which is good.

 

6 hours ago, mariushm said:

Still, no excuse for recommending a cheapo system with just ONE stick of 4 GB of memory in 2019 ... it's 20$ extra ffs. Apparently it was more important to have a 90$ monitor, when decent 20"+ monitors start at 60-65$...

Well, yes. If you could save $30 somewhere (such as the monitor) then that could be money put towards RAM or a CPU upgrade (2200G instead of Athlon 200GE).
 

13 hours ago, mariushm said:

A gamer that makes a cheap PC is not gonna spend 90$ (a THIRD of his budget) on a monitor.  He could live with 1600x900 20" monitor that costs 65$ : https://www.amazon.com/Acer-K202HQL-viewable-Monitor-Ports/dp/B00KWCD8D2/

I wouldn't recommend buying a 1600x900 monitor at all. At least not new. If you will be satisfied with 1600x900 (or even 720p) then look at buying a used monitor instead. I've seen 1600x900 monitors on local buy/swap/sell & trading sites advertised for free. Often see basic 1080p monitors for around $10. I definitely would not recommend spending $65 on a 1600x900 monitor. The cheapest option isn't always the best value option.
 

Honestly... I wouldn't recommend the "El Cheapo" build at all, especially not as a "budget gaming PC" (light browser PC maybe with the Athlon 200GE APU, but preferably with 8GB RAM). I would recommend saving up more money and going with a 2200G at a minimum along with at least 8GB of RAM.

 

I think in the original thread I did PCPP list suggestions for all of the other categories but I intentionally didn't do one for the "El Cheapo" price range simply because I couldn't come up with a list that I would feel comfortable recommending at the targeted price point. It would have meant making too many sacrifices on components to save cost and make something as cheap as possible. Too much "Hmm, well I could go with that option as it's cheap... But for only an extra $15 this option is 50% faster". By the time you end up making a few tweaks here and there to get something that I would be satisfied recommending it would end up costing too much.

 

You do have a valid point though, I would consider 8GB of RAM to be the absolute minimum these days and I think it should have went with 8GB of RAM, even if it meant increasing the budget by $20 to accommodate it.

 

6 hours ago, mariushm said:

Also, a 500 GB hard drive is 18-25$, here's an example : https://www.amazon.com/Blue-500GB-Desktop-Hard-Drive/dp/B00461G3MS/

... yeah, it would be slower than SSD, but at least it wouldn't be killed within a year by the constant paging because you only have 4 GB of RAM.

... and what's the point of a system with just a 120 GB SSD, when your WIndows 10 uses 40-50 GB ... you can barely download and install one 40-50 GB game at a time. Practically unusable.

You can always buy a SSD a month later if the budget is so tight and reinstall Windows on the SSD.

Personally I would recommend going the other way. Buy the OS SSD first and then a month later add the HDD to store additional games on. That way the SSD you can get set up straight out of the gate and install one or two games you want to play and then just slot in an extra HDD for any other games you want to play as needed. No need to do a clean install of your operating system or any fuss.

 

7 hours ago, mariushm said:

I think some parts were bought, because for example I doubt Gigabyte would donate an A320 based motherboard, or Corsair giving a CX series psu.. companies prefer people review or promote higher end parts.

I realize other parts were probably already available at LMG, received as review samples.

Yeah, there were definitely some parts that were purchased by LTT. The parts in the two cheapest build lists appear to have been provided by LTT. Looks like for those two builds they just went with whatever parts were the cheapest available [at the time]. With the low budget builds I think they were pretty much limited to the Sort By Price (Cheapest First) option on Amazon/Newegg. And yes, there could have also been other parts which they just pulled from existing inventory in the warehouse rather than purchasing new units. I'm sure they don't want to spend $2500+ on a pair of 2080Tis if they already have a couple sitting in their warehouse.

 

Excluding the two cheapest builds, they all use: Corsair for PSUs & Coolers. Team T-Force for memory. Asus for motherboards and monitors. Logitech for peripherals.

To me that doesn't look like a coincidence and they stated in the other thread they were hoping to use certain parts all from the one manufacturer where possible in the hopes of being able to convince manufacturers to supply some hardware for the builds. From their recent builds and sponsored projects (ie LAN gaming center) we know they've worked with Logitech, Asus, and Corsair in the past who have provided them with hardware for builds.

 

Though, to be perfectly clear I have absolutely no idea whether any of the manufacturers had any involvement in the project whatsoever. I don't think any of the manufacturers are noted in the video as having provided parts?

CPU: Intel i7 6700k  | Motherboard: Gigabyte Z170x Gaming 5 | RAM: 2x16GB 3000MHz Corsair Vengeance LPX | GPU: Gigabyte Aorus GTX 1080ti | PSU: Corsair RM750x (2018) | Case: BeQuiet SilentBase 800 | Cooler: Arctic Freezer 34 eSports | SSD: Samsung 970 Evo 500GB + Samsung 840 500GB + Crucial MX500 2TB | Monitor: Acer Predator XB271HU + Samsung BX2450

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