Brother-In-Law Build

[Maxxtraxx]

Hello all,

 

Why: My Brother-in-law has begun seeing the glorious PC reality that is the Steam sale as well as the great selection of games available. He is beginning to regularly play RTS and Turn based strategy games on my second PC and also at home... at home however it is on a several year old HP laptop with integrated graphics, a useless battery and overheating issues. I have decided it's time for him to get an actual desktop with discrete graphics for his sake and my own(when his laptop crashes mid-game during online sessions we play).

 

Location: US(east coast)

Aim: I've cobbled together a build that would offer what I believe is a good starting point for him for non AAA gaming in his living room.

Monitor: Flatscreen TV (720p)

Peripherals: wireless keyboard/mouse(already have)

 

Any thoughts or recommended changes to the setup would be appreciated.

 

I've put the parts together via PC part picker but the parts would be coming from both used sources and new sources and have a current total price of: $529

 

The Build

 

[aSpoink]

Hello all,

 

Why: My Brother-in-law has begun seeing the glorious PC reality that is the Steam sale as well as the great selection of games available. He is beginning to regularly play RTS and Turn based strategy games on my second PC and also at home... at home however it is on a several year old HP laptop with integrated graphics, a useless battery and overheating issues. I have decided it's time for him to get an actual desktop with discrete graphics for his sake and my own(when his laptop crashes mid-game during online sessions we play).

 

Location: US(east coast)

Aim: I've cobbled together a build that would offer what I believe is a good starting point for him for non AAA gaming in his living room.

Monitor: Flatscreen TV (720p)

Peripherals: wireless keyboard/mouse(already have)

 

Any thoughts or recommended changes to the setup would be appreciated.

 

I've put the parts together via PC part picker but the parts would be coming from both used sources and new sources and have a current total price of: $529

 

The Build

Looks pretty good to me, although, you may want to get a hdd if possible.

[cortexcortex]

Hello all,

 

Why: My Brother-in-law has begun seeing the glorious PC reality that is the Steam sale as well as the great selection of games available. He is beginning to regularly play RTS and Turn based strategy games on my second PC and also at home... at home however it is on a several year old HP laptop with integrated graphics, a useless battery and overheating issues. I have decided it's time for him to get an actual desktop with discrete graphics for his sake and my own(when his laptop crashes mid-game during online sessions we play).

 

Location: US(east coast)

Aim: I've cobbled together a build that would offer what I believe is a good starting point for him for non AAA gaming in his living room.

Monitor: Flatscreen TV (720p)

Peripherals: wireless keyboard/mouse(already have)

 

Any thoughts or recommended changes to the setup would be appreciated.

 

I've put the parts together via PC part picker but the parts would be coming from both used sources and new sources and have a current total price of: $529

l

The Build

You probably won't last long with ONLY 120GB for the OS & files

[Whorax]

Hold on, I'll brb with something. @Maxxtraxx follow your topics.

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

 

CPU: Intel Core i3-4150 3.5GHz Dual-Core Processor  ($111.89 @ OutletPC) 

Motherboard: ASRock H97M PRO4 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard  ($62.98 @ Newegg) 

Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory  ($41.99 @ Amazon) 

Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($52.33 @ OutletPC) 

Video Card: MSI Radeon R9 380 2GB Video Card  ($190.98 @ SuperBiiz) 

Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA GS 550W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply  ($69.99 @ NCIX US) 

Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 OEM (64-bit)  ($87.98 @ OutletPC) 

Total: $618.14

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-10-19 23:04 EDT-0400

 

I'll leave the case to you since it's really up to you to decide what will look decent in a living room. It's nice to have an SSD but I think on that budget it isn't going to happen

[Inception9269]

Hello all,

 

Why: My Brother-in-law has begun seeing the glorious PC reality that is the Steam sale as well as the great selection of games available. He is beginning to regularly play RTS and Turn based strategy games on my second PC and also at home... at home however it is on a several year old HP laptop with integrated graphics, a useless battery and overheating issues. I have decided it's time for him to get an actual desktop with discrete graphics for his sake and my own(when his laptop crashes mid-game during online sessions we play).

 

Location: US(east coast)

Aim: I've cobbled together a build that would offer what I believe is a good starting point for him for non AAA gaming in his living room.

Monitor: Flatscreen TV (720p)

Peripherals: wireless keyboard/mouse(already have)

 

Any thoughts or recommended changes to the setup would be appreciated.

 

I've put the parts together via PC part picker but the parts would be coming from both used sources and new sources and have a current total price of: $529

 

The Build

 

I put this list together, somewhat a variation of yours

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i3-4150 3.5GHz Dual-Core Processor  ($111.89 @ OutletPC)

Motherboard: ASRock H97M-ITX/AC Mini ITX LGA1150 Motherboard  ($66.98 @ Newegg)

Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory  ($41.99 @ Amazon)

Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($52.33 @ OutletPC)

Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 950 2GB Dual WindForce Video Card  ($153.98 @ Newegg)

Case: Cooler Master Elite 130 Mini ITX Tower Case  ($34.99 @ Newegg)

Power Supply: XFX 550W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply  ($55.99 @ SuperBiiz)

Total: $518.15

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-10-19 23:56 EDT-0400

 

A G3258 is "decent" but not very good at all really. An I3 is much better since it also has hyperthreading.

As for storage a 1tb hdd is better than have a small as shit ssd. Windows 7 takes up a lot of room, after which he'd probably have barely 60gb left.

I went with a 950 which is good for rts games as well as normal games at respectable settings (with a 720p tv he should easily be able to get really high settings in most games probably)

Also you can save yourself money on the os by buying from reddit https://www.reddit.com/r/microsoftsoftwareswap/comments/3pepc4/h_office_2016_for_pc_mac_now_in_stock_windows_10/ this is the guy I bought from. I recommend buying a windows 8.1 pro dirt cheap for $25. you could upgrade to 10 for free from it (if you choose to keep 8.1 I recommend downloading classicshell which gives it a windows 7 like start button). All you have to do is buy a key from him, then download the iso and burning software from microsofts website, burn it to a usb drive then fire that bitch up.

[Maxxtraxx]

Thank you everyone for the thoughts and advice, we ended up changing the 120gb ssd for an 850evo 250gb for an extra 40 bucks with the idea if he needs more space in a year then he can get a supplemental hdd. I'm interested to see how the g3258 does when overclocked and if needed the 1150 socket leaves him with upgradeability.

[Neemil]

Thank you everyone for the thoughts and advice, we ended up changing the 120gb ssd for an 850evo 250gb for an extra 40 bucks with the idea if he needs more space in a year then he can get a supplemental hdd. I'm interested to see how the g3258 does when overclocked and if needed the 1150 socket leaves him with upgradeability.

I understand that you were on a tight budget but don't expect much from the g3258, it really struggles with some games to the point that some games refuses to even work. You should have at least gotten an i5 4460.

[Inception9269]

I understand that you were on a tight budget but don't expect much from the g3258, it really struggles with some games to the point that some games refuses to even work. You should have at least gotten an i5 4460.

 

or even just an I3 which has hyperthreading

[Maxxtraxx]

The system is now finished, the build went smoothly if it is much tighter than my define r5. The g3258/gtx760 is working great for the games he uses (mainly civ 5 atm)and it fits nicely in his home theatre cabinet. I can highly recommend the CM elite 130 it has a perfect size and also very respectable temperatures under load. This was my first dual core pc since 2007 when I used a core 2 duo e6400 and can say for sure the apparent gaming performance is far better this time around(WoW BC didn't run the smoothest on that machine). I was skeptical of the performance I could expect from the g3258 but am pleasantly surprised at how well it works(fyi he doesn't play many AAA games).

Thank you all for taking the time to read and the effort to make recommendations!