Upgrading my friend's PC

[LinusIsTuff]

Budget (including currency): <30$, or as cheap as possible

Country: USA

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: Misc. (light) games and light work. Just need a GPU (though advice is welcome and very good !)

I wanted to be able to play some games with them, and since they only have a mac and Xbox One, I wanted to give them a side-grade to play some windows exclusive games. 
Currently, they have a build with and Ultra X-Blaster v2 Case, which is honestly all I know. It's an older PC, and I'm assuming they're using the prebuilt PSU and a Haswell/Bulldozer era dark ages CPU, perhaps older. However, it should be good enough for a <30$ GPU though, with the only goal being Minecraft, the Sims4, and other lower-end titles. All in all, should need be I can always shill out for an am4 APU since I have an am4 mobo lying around, though I'd prefer not to since I'd have to ship it all to them, along with getting ram, etc. I should get the specs from them in about an hour or two, but I am quite sure of the vague specs. They are also not too technical, so I want to avoid having them open the PC up beforehand. I'm assuming that most of the lower end cards sip power, and likely draw from the pcie2/3 slot I assume is on the board. 

Thank you very much! I was also wondering what you guys thought of the FirePro w5000, since she’s going to college next year and it will likely end up being her dad’s emulation station; I know that card is architecturally similar to the Xbox One, and theirs is currently on the fritz, so it would be neat for him to have a way to emulate it. I didn’t look too deep into it, but you guys know a lot more than me so I thought I’d leave it to the experts.

 

[OddOod]

Are you trolling? Or are you genuinely asking for recommendations for a sub 30 USD GPU?
If the latter, I'd say save up and buy a 1060 or a 1650.

[LinusIsTuff]

12 minutes ago, OddOod said:

Are you trolling? Or are you genuinely asking for recommendations for a sub 30 USD GPU?
If the latter, I'd say save up and buy a 1060 or a 1650.

I was wondering what you thought about the w5000 and similar stuff. She’s going to college soon and I can’t justify spending 50-100$ so I can play Minecraft with her for about a year, rather than buying her a junk laptop for GeForce now or flying out. These super cheap gpus seem to be competent enough, especially the ones with dx12 stuff.

 

The cheapest I can find is 50$, and all gtx 1060s I see only need a pcie 6/8pin connector, which I’m unsure her system has.

[Dedayog]

10 minutes ago, LinusIsTuff said:

I was wondering what you thought about the w5000 and similar stuff. She’s going to college soon and I can’t justify spending 50-100$ so I can play Minecraft with her for about a year, rather than buying her a junk laptop for GeForce now or flying out. These super cheap gpus seem to be competent enough, especially the ones with dx12 stuff.

 

The cheapest I can find is 50$, and all gtx 1060s I see only need a pcie 6/8pin connector, which I’m unsure her system has.

1050 or some 1050Ti's don't need additional power.

 

 

[LinusIsTuff]

5 minutes ago, Dedayog said:

1050 or some 1050Ti's don't need additional power.

 

 

For some reason in my area 1050s 40-50$, what about 960s? Or is there a reasonable and equivalent like the 550 (not sure how it performs)

[OddOod]

A year of gaming with a friend is pretty valuable. 
Sure, I guess. A w5k is basically the performance of a GT 1030 (which we all know is manufactured ewaste) with slightly worse DX12 support (11.1 vs 12.1)
If that's all you can scrape together and the iGPU is truly that bad, fine

[Dedayog]

2 minutes ago, LinusIsTuff said:

For some reason in my area 1050s 40-50$, what about 960s? Or is there a reasonable and equivalent like the 550 (not sure how it performs)

Sure, 960 if you can find it for under 30 is good.

 

I do think there are a LOT of red flags in this adventure, not the least is their ability to install the card, the really low budget,  college, etc.

 

Hopefully you get this figured out. 

[LinusIsTuff]

1 minute ago, OddOod said:

A year of gaming with a friend is pretty valuable. 
Sure, I guess. A w5k is basically the performance of a GT 1030 (which we all know is manufactured ewaste) with slightly worse DX12 support (11.1 vs 12.1)
If that's all you can scrape together and the iGPU is truly that bad, fine

Can you elaborate a little more? Sorry for taking up your time, but I was wondering about the gpus that have basic support of dx12; I saw a couple and was wondering how much that hurt the performance - also, is the r5 260x ok at all? I saw it recommended online, but don’t want to waste my money.

[LinusIsTuff]

1 minute ago, Dedayog said:

Sure, 960 if you can find it for under 30 is good.

Thank you! I was looking around and people were complaining about the 2gb vram option, but the 4gb ones seem to all need external power

[Dedayog]

1 minute ago, LinusIsTuff said:

Thank you! I was looking around and people were complaining about the 2gb vram option, but the 4gb ones seem to all need external power

I wouldn't get a 2GB card, find a 4GB with no power connector.

 

 

[LinusIsTuff]

5 minutes ago, Dedayog said:

I wouldn't get a 2GB card, find a 4GB with no power connector.

 

 

I know it’s not the best source for this era stuff, but when I put it in pcpp (maybe I did it wrong) I didn’t see any that were no power connector and 4gb. The 960 I found was also using a 6 pin I didn’t see, and the no external power versions cost 40+$ where I live (on eBay after shipping).

Sorry for being a bit of a nuisance! It’s helping a ton though, I didn’t really think about the 960/1050 until you mentioned it.

[Dedayog]

25 minutes ago, LinusIsTuff said:

I know it’s not the best source for this era stuff, but when I put it in pcpp (maybe I did it wrong) I didn’t see any that were no power connector and 4gb. The 960 I found was also using a 6 pin I didn’t see, and the no external power versions cost 40+$ where I live (on eBay after shipping).

Sorry for being a bit of a nuisance! It’s helping a ton though, I didn’t really think about the 960/1050 until you mentioned it.

1050 is your best bet, or the 1050ti without connection.

 

$10 between okay and piece of shit, make the right call.

 

$10 more on a friend is nothing.  

 

I have no idea how your wallet or hers is, but a year from college should be doing work?  Summer at McDonald's?

 

Keep in mind, college can be distracting.  You may not get as much Minecraft time as you think.  Temper expectations all around.

[LinusIsTuff]

25 minutes ago, Dedayog said:

1050 is your best bet, or the 1050ti without connection.

 

$10 between okay and piece of shit, make the right call.

 

$10 more on a friend is nothing.  

 

I have no idea how your wallet or hers is, but a year from college should be doing work?  Summer at McDonald's?

 

Keep in mind, college can be distracting.  You may not get as much Minecraft time as you think.  Temper expectations all around.

Lol lord knows college does things. It’s more on the money I have on hand, and I was also thinking about how that’s like an hour at my job/ 1/5 of building a pc for someone. It’s just gonna last for a year, and the only real goal is something that can be a warm body so she can experience the games at 30-60fps. She’s not gonna need anything crazy. I’m also saving for a big personal thing, along with having just paid for our trip to universal, and just trying to penny pinch. 

I was just wondering if there’s another gpu like the 1050 but from amd or maybe a tad cheaper? It’s not life or death, and I don’t want this rant to seem like I’m unappreciative. Thanks a ton for the help! It does mean a a lot.

[Dedayog]

12 minutes ago, LinusIsTuff said:

Lol lord knows college does things. It’s more on the money I have on hand, and I was also thinking about how that’s like an hour at my job/ 1/5 of building a pc for someone. It’s just gonna last for a year, and the only real goal is something that can be a warm body so she can experience the games at 30-60fps. She’s not gonna need anything crazy. I’m also saving for a big personal thing, along with having just paid for our trip to universal, and just trying to penny pinch. 

I was just wondering if there’s another gpu like the 1050 but from amd or maybe a tad cheaper? It’s not life or death, and I don’t want this rant to seem like I’m unappreciative. Thanks a ton for the help! It does mean a a lot.

Cuz I'm an asshole ... Can she not get her own GPU?   

[SquirrelChunk]

RX 470 4GB

 

 

this is there typical selling price here in the UK.  so if you can find one 

[LinusIsTuff]

14 minutes ago, Dedayog said:

Cuz I'm an asshole ... Can she not get her own GPU?   

She can, but same situation as me. We basically split the costs of a lot of stuff and now she’s focusing all in on saving for college. I’m sure I could ask her to chip in 10 or 20 but it is supposed to be a gift for her in celebration of a personal thing, and I’d rather surprise her with a fun day and pay a tad extra than beg for a 20 before

[LinusIsTuff]

13 minutes ago, SquirrelChunk said:

RX 470 4GB

 

 

this is there typical selling price here in the UK.  so if you can find one 

Thank you! I’ll look into it where I live

[SquirrelChunk]

5 minutes ago, LinusIsTuff said:

Thank you! I’ll look into it where I live

some need 6 pin, some need an 8 pin. what you need to do is check your friends PSU see if she has a 6pin spare first

[LinusIsTuff]

1 minute ago, SquirrelChunk said:

some need 6 pin, some need an 8 pin. what you need to do is check your friends PSU see if she has a 6pin spare first

I checked online, from what I can tell the default psu has a “pcie” connector and no other elaboration. She’s coming back from her internship in about 30 minutes so I’ll ask her to open it up, but she’s somewhat reluctant and I’d like to keep it as plug and play as possible

[LinusIsTuff]

44 minutes ago, Dedayog said:

Cuz I'm an asshole ... Can she not get her own GPU?   

Genuinely, thank you so much. Idk how many people say this, but you taking however much time out of your day to help me is really nice.  It helped a lot

[Dedayog]

2 minutes ago, LinusIsTuff said:

Genuinely, thank you so much. Idk how many people say this, but you taking however much time out of your day to help me is really nice.  It helped a lot

Glad to help.  Let us know what you end up with, and how it all works.  Love seeing if our advice pans out

[SquirrelChunk]

31 minutes ago, LinusIsTuff said:

I checked online, from what I can tell the default psu has a “pcie” connector

more than likely a 6 pin which is plenty for a 120 watt GPU 6 pin is good for 75w and they already draw 75w from the slot.  Just don't get a OC or 'big cooler' version and it should just have a single 6 pin connector

[LinusIsTuff]

22 minutes ago, Dedayog said:

Glad to help.  Let us know what you end up with, and how it all works.  Love seeing if our advice pans out

 

17 minutes ago, SquirrelChunk said:

more than likely a 6 pin which is plenty for a 120 watt GPU 6 pin is good for 75w and they already draw 75w from the slot.  Just don't get a OC or 'big cooler' version and it should just have a single 6 pin connector

they just got home, they have an fm2 system with an a6-6400k and 8gb of DDR3. Not sure really how to approach, but it might be better to just get her an am4 APU, considering fm2 hasn’t aged well even especially since it was kinda doa, at least to my memory.

 

I have an a520m-e from Asus, which to the best of my knowledge should still work

 

Seems like they have pcie 6pin.

Thank you!

[SquirrelChunk]

3 minutes ago, LinusIsTuff said:

 

they just got home, they have an fm2 system with an a6-6400k and 8gb of DDR3. Not sure really how to approach, but it might be better to just get her an am4 APU, considering fm2 hasn’t aged well even especially since it was kinda doa, at least to my memory.

 

Seems like they have pcie 6pin.

Thank you!

so that's new CPU, new board and new ram.  no chance at $30

[LinusIsTuff]

6 minutes ago, SquirrelChunk said:

so that's new CPU, new board and new ram.  no chance at $30

I have an Asus a520m-e and a cooler, just need ram and a cpu. I know it’s possible to do it <60$, but I’m not too sure whether to get a gpu+ junk cpu or what

 

wdyt?
https://pcpartpicker.com/list/PfbJDj
 

Thank you