Budget build for TF2

[aeroencychris]

Pretty simple, my friend is playing comp tf2 and wants a cheap as hell build that can do 144hz no problem. Not that tf2 is a very demanding game, but his old laptop isn't cutting it. Source is relatively CPU bound so I'm not entirely sure where to go. Is an i3 6100 enough? Here's a current build:

 

PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/list/bgpsXH
Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/list/bgpsXH/by_merchant/

CPU: Intel Core i3-6100 3.7GHz Dual-Core Processor  ($110.99 @ SuperBiiz) 
Motherboard: ASRock H170A-X1 ATX LGA1151 Motherboard  ($76.98 @ Newegg) 
Memory: Kingston HyperX Fury Black 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2133 Memory  ($38.99 @ NCIX US) 
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($47.49 @ OutletPC) 
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 950 2GB Video Card  ($139.99 @ Newegg) 
Case: NZXT Source 210 Elite (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case  ($45.99 @ Directron) 
Power Supply: EVGA 600B 600W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply  ($47.98 @ Newegg) 
Total: $508.41
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-08-18 15:37 EDT-0400

 

Another idea was to buy an old prebuilt i7 workstation and just put a GPU (maybe new PSU) and call it a day. Might that be better considering his price constraints?

[NinjaJc01]

2 minutes ago, cdsboy2000 said:

Pretty simple, my friend is playing comp tf2 and wants a cheap as hell build that can do 144hz no problem. Not that tf2 is a very demanding game, but his old laptop isn't cutting it. Source is relatively CPU bound so I'm not entirely sure where to go. Is an i3 6100 enough? Here's a current build:

 

PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/list/bgpsXH
Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/list/bgpsXH/by_merchant/

CPU: Intel Core i3-6100 3.7GHz Dual-Core Processor  ($110.99 @ SuperBiiz) 
Motherboard: ASRock H170A-X1 ATX LGA1151 Motherboard  ($76.98 @ Newegg) 
Memory: Kingston HyperX Fury Black 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2133 Memory  ($38.99 @ NCIX US) 
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($47.49 @ OutletPC) 
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 950 2GB Video Card  ($139.99 @ Newegg) 
Case: NZXT Source 210 Elite (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case  ($45.99 @ Directron) 
Power Supply: EVGA 600B 600W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply  ($47.98 @ Newegg) 
Total: $508.41
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-08-18 15:37 EDT-0400

 

Another idea was to buy an old prebuilt i7 workstation and just put a GPU (maybe new PSU) and call it a day. Might that be better considering his price constraints?

I don't think that'll max it out at 1080p 144Hz. My GTX 970 with my i7 gets 120FPS ish at highest settings at 1680x1050.

[79wjd]

Just now, NinjaJc01 said:

I don't think that'll max it out at 1080p 144Hz. My GTX 970 with my i7 gets 120FPS ish at highest settings at 1680x1050.

In TF2 a 970 should get you way more than 120fps especially at 1680x1050. Maxed out my 780 and a 4690k @ 4.2ghz gets me about 450fps at 1080p.

[aeroencychris]

1 minute ago, NinjaJc01 said:

I don't think that'll max it out at 1080p 144Hz. My GTX 970 with my i7 gets 120FPS ish at highest settings at 1680x1050.

Really? My i5 4460 and GTX 970 easily gets 150fps on my 144hz monitor @ 1080p.

[NinjaJc01]

Just now, djdwosk97 said:

In TF2 a 970 should get you way more than 120fps especially at 1680x1050. Maxed out my 780 and a 4690k @ 4.2ghz gets me about 450fps at 1080p.

Oh I forgot. The last time I played, I had TES:V running in the background...

[79wjd]

@cdsboy2000 An i3 is MORE than enough. Even a Pentium would be enough (assuming he's not doing anything intensive simultaneously). I would recommend waiting for the 460 to launch though. Also, TF2 is all about single threaded performance, so a modern Pentium would be much better than an older i7 (in TF2). 

[NinjaJc01]

1 minute ago, cdsboy2000 said:

Really? My i5 4460 and GTX 970 easily gets 150fps on my 144hz monitor @ 1080p.

MSI afterburner may have applied my underclock that I normally play with, or it might be when I had TESV open... I can't remember or check very easily. It might have been that I was streaming on twitch. Wow, my PC goes through a LOT of overuse.

[aeroencychris]

1 minute ago, djdwosk97 said:

@cdsboy2000 An i3 is MORE than enough. Even a Pentium would be enough. I would recommend waiting for the 460 to launch though. Also, TF2 is all about single threaded performance, so a modern Pentium would be much better than an older i7 (in TF2).

Just figured if I was going for the prebuilt route i3's would be generally pretty shit. I found some i7 prebuilts with close to 3ghz. Again, I realize "i#" with a higher number doesn't mean better performance, but in a prebuilt CPU won't be all that great, hence why I targeted more of a workstation. In particular this one looked nice:

 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/DELL-Optiplex-980-MT-Desktop-QUAD-Core-i7-870-2-93-Ghz-8-Gb-RAM-1-TB-HDD-/232052794044?hash=item36076ca2bc:g:oK0AAOSwOVpXYWtI

[79wjd]

1 minute ago, cdsboy2000 said:

Just figured if I was going for the prebuilt route i3's would be generally pretty shit. I found some i7 prebuilts with close to 3ghz. Again, I realize "i#" with a higher number doesn't mean better performance, but in a prebuilt CPU won't be all that great, hence why I targeted more of a workstation. In particular this one looked nice:

 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/DELL-Optiplex-980-MT-Desktop-QUAD-Core-i7-870-2-93-Ghz-8-Gb-RAM-1-TB-HDD-/232052794044?hash=item36076ca2bc:g:oK0AAOSwOVpXYWtI

Any new prebuilt that has an i3 will be using Skylake, which will outperform ANY older i7 in TF2. A Skylake i3 would be about 50% faster than an i7-870 (in TF2), and in multithreaded workloads the two would actually be fairly similar as well. 

[aeroencychris]

2 minutes ago, djdwosk97 said:

Any new prebuilt that has an i3 will be using Skylake, which will outperform ANY older i7 in TF2. A Skylake i3 would be about 50% faster than an i7-870. 

Yes but at what cost?

Edit: this the cheapest I could find:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Dell-Inspiron-I3650-1551SLV-Desktop-PC-Intel-Core-i3-6100-3-7-GHz-Dual-Core-/262515862342?hash=item3d1f2a2b46:g:KR8AAOSwaB5Xqjxd

[79wjd]

4 minutes ago, cdsboy2000 said:

Yes but at what cost?

$460 (+Windows) for a new system vs. $370 for a used system. And you potentially would need to replace the PSU in that $370 system. So for <$90 you get something new which will perform much better in TF2 and most other games as well and even better performance in heavily threaded tasks (like rendering).  

 

(I'm using the 950 as a filler, although I would aim for a 460 when it releases, which should be even cheaper)

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i3-6100 3.7GHz Dual-Core Processor  ($110.99 @ SuperBiiz) 
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-H110M-A Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard  ($45.99 @ Newegg) 
Memory: G.Skill Aegis 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR4-2133 Memory  ($30.98 @ Newegg) 
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($47.49 @ OutletPC) 
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 950 2GB Dual WindForce Video Card  ($143.99 @ SuperBiiz) 
Case: Cooler Master N200 MicroATX Mid Tower Case  ($43.99 @ NCIX US) 
Power Supply: EVGA 450W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply  ($37.49 @ SuperBiiz) 
Total: $460.92
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-08-18 15:52 EDT-0400

 

 

[antisleep]

PCPartPicker part list

CPU: Intel Core i5-6400 2.7GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($179.99 @ SuperBiiz) 
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-H110M-A Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard  ($45.99 @ Newegg) 
Memory: G.Skill Aegis 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR4-2133 Memory  ($29.99 @ Newegg) 
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($49.99 @ Newegg) 

Video Card: GIGABYTE Radeon RX 460 WINDFORCE OC 4GB ($129.99 @ Newegg)

^2GB version is $10 less
Case: Fractal Design Core 1100 MicroATX Mini Tower Case  ($28.99 @ Newegg) 
Power Supply: EVGA 600B 600W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply  ($39.99 @ Newegg) 
Total: $504.93 / All parts from Newegg except for CPU