Getting into PC gaming

[Marcoman2]

I'm looking to get into PC gaming and I'm on a very tight budget, I have put together a list on PCPartPicker but it's very budget oriented. I will upgrade soon after building but my real question is if it is even worth it to purchase this machine or just wait.  This is my list so far;

Intel Pentium G4400 $59

Asus H110-A $52

Crucial 8GB (one stick) DDR4 2133 $30

WD Caviar Blue 1TB 7200 rpm $48

EVGA GeForce GTX 750 ti SC $90

DIYPC DIY-F2-P $25

Corsair CX500 $30

Dell Ultrasharp U2212HM (monitor) $30

Windows 10 Pro (Reddit software swap) $25

 

Total cost, about $390

 

Also, suggestionson the build are welcome

[LordMastodon]

What's your actual budget?

[Oakley]

4 minutes ago, Marcoman2 said:

I'm looking to get into PC gaming and I'm on a very tight budget, I have put together a list on PCPartPicker but it's very budget oriented. I will upgrade soon after building but my real question is if it is even worth it to purchase this machine or just wait.  This is my list so far;

Intel Pentium G4400 $59

Asus H110-A $52

Crucial 8GB (one stick) DDR4 2133 $30

WD Caviar Blue 1TB 7200 rpm $48

EVGA GeForce GTX 750 ti SC $90

DIYPC DIY-F2-P $25

Corsair CX500 $30

Dell Ultrasharp U2212HM (monitor) $30

Windows 10 Pro (Reddit software swap) $25

 

Total cost, about $390

 

Also, suggestionson the build are welcome

I dont think you have a case in there, maybe I am blind though.

[LordMastodon]

Just now, Oakley said:

I dont think you have a case in there, maybe I am blind though.

He does have a case, the DIYPC thing.

[Cyberrnetic]

I would not really recommend an Intel Pentium for PC Gaming. I would go for i5 or i7 processors for gaming, preferrably Haswell or Skylake.

8GB is good, but I would recommend 16GB of RAM.

You can also invest in a 120GB SSD to install windows on so you can boot faster.

The corsair CX series of PSU's aren't that great power supplies.

I would also recommend a more powerful GPU for better performance in games.

[ltguy]

Just now, Oakley said:

I dont think you have a case in there, maybe I am blind though.

DIYPC DIY-F2-P $25

[LordMastodon]

5 minutes ago, Marcoman2 said:

I'm looking to get into PC gaming and I'm on a very tight budget, I have put together a list on PCPartPicker but it's very budget oriented. I will upgrade soon after building but my real question is if it is even worth it to purchase this machine or just wait.  This is my list so far;

Intel Pentium G4400 $59

Asus H110-A $52

Crucial 8GB (one stick) DDR4 2133 $30

WD Caviar Blue 1TB 7200 rpm $48

EVGA GeForce GTX 750 ti SC $90

DIYPC DIY-F2-P $25

Corsair CX500 $30

Dell Ultrasharp U2212HM (monitor) $30

Windows 10 Pro (Reddit software swap) $25

 

Total cost, about $390

 

Also, suggestionson the build are welcome

 

What's your actual budget? Also, please post the PCPartPicker link.

[LordMastodon]

3 minutes ago, Cyberrnetic said:

I would not really recommend an Intel Pentium for PC Gaming. I would go for i5 or i7 processors for gaming, preferrably Haswell or Skylake.

8GB is good, but I would recommend 16GB of RAM.

You can also invest in a 120GB SSD to install windows on so you can boot faster.

The corsair CX series of PSU's aren't that great power supplies.

I would also recommend a more powerful GPU for better performance in games.

 

 

He said earlier that he's on a tight budget. You're literally recommending he basically double his PC cost. Also, the Pentium G4400 is Skylake.

[Cyberrnetic]

3 minutes ago, LordMastodon said:

He said earlier that he's on a tight budget. You're literally recommending he basically double his PC cost. Also, the Pentium G4400 is Skylake.

 

maybe it would be easier to actually know what his budget actually is.

[LordMastodon]

That is what I asked him, although he doesn't seem to be responding.

[Logarithm]

1. g3258, and a board that can do some overclocking. It is a beast of a processor.

2. Look for used parts. r/hardwareswap is great for this. You can definitely get a better gpu on there. Look around for a 280, I think they should be around $100 now.

3. Where the fuck did you find an u2212hm for $30?!

 

Edit:

Expanding on the first point, if you can wait and get like $40 more, a Z97 board + g3258 will do great until you want to upgrade. You don't even need aZ97 board to overclock it, but it'll help in the long run, and Z97 won't be outdated for a long time. Neither will Z87 for that matter.

[Marcoman2]

23 minutes ago, LordMastodon said:

What's your actual budget?

$400

[LordMastodon]

Just now, Marcoman2 said:

$400

Can you upload the actual PCPartPicker URL please?

[Marcoman2]

4 minutes ago, LordMastodon said:

Can you upload the actual PCPartPicker URL please?

How do I do that from a phone? It's not letting me

[LordMastodon]

It's the permalink, just before the CPU in the list.

[Marcoman2]

http://pcpartpicker.com/user/Marcoman2/saved/2RgdnQ

[LordMastodon]

Here's the updated version: http://pcpartpicker.com/list/T8XMcc

 

1. If you're willing to go $4 over-budget, I managed to fit in a GTX 950, which is a definite improvement over the 750 Ti.
2. I did that by changing the power supply to a slightly cheaper model, which is actually better. CX series PSUs aren't recommended for things such as gaming, so I changed it to an EVGA model that's $5 cheaper, but an improvement.

[SteveGrabowski0]

What games do you want to play? If you want to do CS:GO, LOL, stuff like that, go for the Pentium system and then you can grab a Kaby Lake i5 later on if you want to play AAA games and have another $200 to spend. If you want to play AAA games like Witcher 3, GTA V, and so on, wait until you can afford at least an i3-6100 instead of the Pentium.

[Marcoman2]

4 minutes ago, SteveGrabowski0 said:

What games do you want to play? If you want to do CS:GO, LOL, stuff like that, go for the Pentium system and then you can grab a Kaby Lake i5 later on if you want to play AAA games and have another $200 to spend. If you want to play AAA games like Witcher 3, GTA V, and so on, wait until you can afford at least an i3-6100 instead of the Pentium.

I'm mostly a casual gamer so I think I'll be fine with pentium but thanks

[Marcoman2]

21 minutes ago, LordMastodon said:

Here's the updated version: http://pcpartpicker.com/list/T8XMcc

 

1. If you're willing to go $4 over-budget, I managed to fit in a GTX 950, which is a definite improvement over the 750 Ti.
2. I did that by changing the power supply to a slightly cheaper model, which is actually better. CX series PSUs aren't recommended for things such as gaming, so I changed it to an EVGA model that's $5 cheaper, but an improvement.

Thank you for your suggestion, I think I'm going to use your list

[LordMastodon]

Just now, Marcoman2 said:

Thank you for your suggestion, I think I'm going to use your list

Alright, happy to help!

[SteveGrabowski0]

1 hour ago, Marcoman2 said:

Thank you for your suggestion, I think I'm going to use your list

Nice. The GTX 950 is much more powerful than the GTX 750 Ti. It can produce on average roughly 50% higher fps at 1080p than can the GTX 750 Ti in the techpowerup testsuite of games they benchmark. Good find @LordMastodon on that gpu.

[LordMastodon]

6 hours ago, SteveGrabowski0 said:

Nice. The GTX 950 is much more powerful than the GTX 750 Ti. It can produce on average roughly 50% higher fps at 1080p than can the GTX 750 Ti in the techpowerup testsuite of games they benchmark. Good find @LordMastodon on that gpu.

 

Happy to help!

[Marcoman2]

21 hours ago, CUDA_Cores said:

For 400 bucks I recommend doing this instead:

 

Heres the deal, building a computer on a budget under $600 you can get significantly more performance by going used on most of your parts.. Therefore this is what I reccomend doing.

 

1. Buy THIS dell Percision T3500 on ebay:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/381707706657

 

This will give us our:

• Motherboard
• Case
• 3GB of RAM
• windows

Next, buy a better CPU for this machine:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/142032679174

 

This is a quad-core CPU with hyperthreading and performs pretty close to a sandy-bridge i5. 

 

Then get a 500GB HDD:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/152132341901

 

It's okay that this HDD is used since we are just gonna be using it for mass storage. We will be using an SSD for our primary boot drive

 

Then Get a Used R9 280X:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/262541504261

 

$145 for a GPU like this is an amazing price and anything currently on the market could not perform that well. This GPU will be able to play almost everything at 1080p on high or even ultra settings.

 

Everything else we will buy new:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Memory: Team Elite 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1333 Memory  ($30.98 @ Newegg) 
Storage: A-Data Premier SP550 240GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($54.99 @ NCIX US) 
Power Supply: EVGA 600B 600W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply  ($39.99 @ NCIX US) 
Total: $125.96
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-07-29 01:13 EDT-0400

 

Total: $394.17

 

With this rig you are getting:

8GB of DDR3 (or 11GB if you want to reuse the ram in that dell machine)

240GB SSD

500GB HDD

Xeon W3565

R9 280X

600w power supply

 

Seems like a really killer rig to me, and this will absolutely destroy any PC built today out of new parts. I highly suggest you try this.

 

What is the upgradability of your suggestion, plan to keep my system and would like to upgrade without buying a new CPU and motherboard and memory.

[LordMastodon]

12 hours ago, Marcoman2 said:

What is the upgradability of your suggestion, plan to keep my system and would like to upgrade without buying a new CPU and motherboard and memory.

 

 

That CPU is actually really shitty. It was released in 2009, around the same time as the first generation of CPUs (e.g. i7-9xx), the ones with only three digits at the end. It's considered at the end of its life by Intel's ARK website. A Sandy Bridge i5 crushes it, proving his statement of comparable performance wrong.

 

8 GB of DDR3 is still considered nice, but that CPU can actually only support DDR3-1066 (actually really bad), so you'd have to buy different RAM than what was suggested. Also, 11 GB of RAM is not something that you should actually do.

 

The storage setup isn't too bad, and would definitely pass for usable today.

 

R9 280X is actually two generations old now, which is pretty much like buying a 750 Ti for a gaming rig today. It's really not something I'd recommend. As for his claim that "$145 for a GPU like this is an amazing price and anything currently on the market could not perform that well,"; that's completely untrue. The (4 GB) RX 470 is $150, a $5 increase, and I can guarantee that it performs better than that R9 280X. I'm not even counting the (4 GB) RX 480, which is only $50 more, and absolutely crushes that 280X. Anyone that is trying to sell you something by saying that is probably the one selling it.

 

That case is really ugly, and old, and the motherboard is equally old and not in any way something I recommend.

 

The PSU is fine, although it is $15 more than the PSU that I had suggested.

 

As for his claim that this is a "killer rig" and that it will destroy any PC built out of new parts, that's yet more lies. Again, this is a 7-year-old CPU, 1066 MHz RAM (when even my new $550 Laptop has 1600 MHz and is actually a pretty bad laptop), and R9 280X. This is not in any way, shape or form a killer rig. The list that you had put together is actually far better than this, especially with my suggestions.

 

As for upgradability, there is very very little. You would be able to upgrade your RAM, but only up to 24 GB (without switching motherboard). You actually would not be able to upgrade your CPU without a motherboard change, because LGA 1366 (that motherboard's socket) only supports 1st generation CPUs. You could upgrade your graphics card until they change the shape of PCIe, but really any new GPU would be bottlenecked by that CPU. You could also upgrade your drives until they change the shape of SATA with no real worries.

 

If I were you I would genuinely be suspicious of this post. I think that the person who wrote that may have been the poster of the Ebay listings, or something similar because anyone doing that little research about the build has some ulterior motive, and anyone thinking this is a "killer rig" is mostly likely delusional and I really would not go with that suggestion.