Budget Gaming.

[Sylentic]

Hi,

 

Thank you for taking a moment to reading this!

 

So my girlfriends laptop just gave up on us and after a lot of struggling with it simply won't even show the power is on. I will take it to a local hardware store as i do not have the tools to verify the issue properly. So it might live once more! However for now it seems very dead and i need a back-up plan. 

 

So the situation is as followed, I am near broke. We got an apartment lined up and we need money for that too but we also need a functioning pc. She likes to play League of Legends, World of Warcraft and would like to get into other games in the future like Arma 3 and newer AAA Titles. So a System with upgrading options would be nice.

 

The system i would like to get her over time would be something like my personal rig atm.

NZXT H440 Black & Red

Intel I7 6700K @4.0Ghz

Asus Maximus VIII Ranger

16GB DDR4 HyperX Fury

ASUS OC GTX 1070

 

Her current laptop is a Asus n56vz

 

So currently i need something that either holds up to this even if its on Medium settings. Or i can upgrade over time while she can still enjoy World of Warcraft and maybe some other less demanding titles

 

We are living in the Netherlands.

 

I'd love to hear what you guys think would be a good option. 

 

Thanks in advance!

[Aaronius_Leonius]

What is your budget and what currency is it in? World of Warcraft isn't that hard to run at all. Your build should run it at high settings.

[Sylentic]

Euro's Cause Netherlands
600 Euro's might be the max we could spend on it. And that is almost removing food from the table (Should have found a cheaper hobby)

[DHelios]

If it's for gaming --and League and WoW in particular-- and you're on a budget... I'd recommend against an i7, a fancy motherboard, a lot of RAM and a high-end graphics card.

 

The case, go wild. You don't want to have to upgrade that later. Getting a decent mainboard (really, anything ASUS is good quality, don't spend extra on fancy 'gamer' or overclocking features that you're not going to use). Stick a single stick of 8GB RAM in there now so you can easily upgrade to 16GB later. And go easy on the graphics card: League would play well even with the integrated graphics on an i5, and WoW gets quite the boost from even a simple graphics card.

 

If you're looking to buy her an awesome computer, then mimic the system you have now. If you're looking to keep the budget low, get something that suffices now (but with a solid base -- case, PSU, mainboard) and upgrade later.

[Sylentic]

So lets say i get her a GTX 1050 (Maybe TI) and an Asus 1151 Socket Motherboard. Jam in 8GB of Kingston or in worst case sacrifice one of mine to her PC. what would be a good CPU to pair with that?

 

 

[Sylentic]

Cause i could for example get one of these kits.

 

https://www.alternate.nl/ALTERNATE/Upgrade-Kit-GA-H110M-S2H-i3-6100-8-GB/html/product/1249026?lk=9527

 

or

 

https://www.alternate.nl/ALTERNATE/Upgrade-Kit-MSI-B150M-BAZOOKA-i5-6400-8-GB/html/product/1240785?lk=9527

[Castdeath97]

1 minute ago, Sylentic said:

So lets say i get her a GTX 1050 (Maybe TI) and an Asus 1151 Socket Motherboard. Jam in 8GB of Kingston or in worst case sacrifice one of mine to her PC. what would be a good CPU to pair with that?

 

 

I5 7500/I5 6500 would be more then enough

[Aereldor]

11 minutes ago, Sylentic said:

Euro's Cause Netherlands
600 Euro's might be the max we could spend on it. And that is almost removing food from the table (Should have found a cheaper hobby)

If she was using a laptop so far, that means she needs a monitor, keyboard, mouse, and Windows key. Doable, but not easy.

[DHelios]

I've just quickly picked some parts from the Informatique website (Ah... One day, one day we'll have a Dutch edition or Pcpartspicker... One day...) and it quickly adds up.

 

With a NZXT 440, Core i5-6400, 8GB Corsair LPX, ASUS B150M Pro Gaming, WD Blue 1TB HDD, Gigabyte GTX 1050, Corsair CX430... I add up to € 745,95. That's without Windows and assuming you'll be doing your own assembly.

 

With a 600 buck budget, you may want to look at an AMD APU system and add a dedicated graphics card later?

[DHelios]

4 minutes ago, Sylentic said:

Cause i could for example get one of these kits.

 

https://www.alternate.nl/ALTERNATE/Upgrade-Kit-GA-H110M-S2H-i3-6100-8-GB/html/product/1249026?lk=9527

 

or

 

https://www.alternate.nl/ALTERNATE/Upgrade-Kit-MSI-B150M-BAZOOKA-i5-6400-8-GB/html/product/1240785?lk=9527

That MSi / i5 kit looks decent enough.

 

The NZXT 440 is listed as a ~€ 130 case. Considering the shiny cases you can get for well under € 100, you may need to set your sights elsewhere. Define Mini C is only € 86 and is still a very nice case =)

[Aereldor]

@Sylentic Here's what I put together. Normally, I wouldn't spend this much on a keyboard on such a tight budget, but it's an awesome keyboard at a very cheap price.

 

Also, this Pentium has hyperthreading. It's part of the new Kabylake lineup and performs on par with a Core i3 6100.

 

Also, I used PCPartPicker Germany, but I imagine import fees won't be too high, as they're your immediate neighbours.

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Pentium G4560 3.5GHz Dual-Core Processor  (€81.86 @ Mindfactory) 
Motherboard: ASRock H110M-HDS Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard  (€53.99 @ Amazon Deutschland) 
Memory: Crucial 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR4-2133 Memory  (€48.34 @ Amazon Deutschland) 
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  (€51.99 @ Amazon Deutschland) 
Video Card: Zotac GeForce GTX 1050 2GB Mini Video Card  (€125.99 @ Amazon Deutschland) 
Case: Zalman ZM-T1 PLUS MicroATX Mini Tower Case  (€26.11 @ Amazon Deutschland) 
Power Supply: XFX ProSeries 450W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply  (€51.06 @ Amazon Deutschland) 
Monitor: Hannspree HE225DPB 21.5" 1920x1080 Monitor  (€93.99 @ Amazon Deutschland) 
Keyboard: Ducky Shine 4 Wired Gaming Keyboard  (€43.02 @ Amazon Deutschland) 
Mouse: Cooler Master Xornet II Wired Optical Mouse  (€12.90 @ Amazon Deutschland) 
Other: Windows 10 OEM Key (Kinguin) (€24.00)
Total: €613.25
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-01-10 14:37 CET+0100

 

[Sylentic]

She has a G910 Logitech Keyboard, G502 Logitech Mouse, G633 Logitech Headset and i run 2 23" Monitors which she can get 1 off so on that part we are fine.

[DHelios]

4 minutes ago, Aereldor said:

@Sylentic Here's what I put together. Normally, I wouldn't spend this much on a keyboard on such a tight budget, but it's an awesome keyboard at a very cheap price.

 

Also, this Pentium has hyperthreading. It's part of the new Kabylake lineup and performs on par with a Core i3 6100.

 

Also, I used PCPartPicker Germany, but I imagine import fees won't be too high, as they're your immediate neighbours.

 

[...snip...]

That's actually a really nice setup, love the inclusion of the Ducky even with this budget! Wonder how well that price translates if we ask our local suppliers nicely.

 

I love that no-one's jumped into the thread yet shouting that "you can't play games at 1080p without at least an i7 and a GTX1080 because of less than 60fps!!!11!!1eleven!". It almost feels like it's possible to be a gamer without spending a fortune!

[Sylentic]

Haha, Good point but after stripping down your part list with the stuff i already have the budget seems quite good. Will have a look what i can find at our local stores instead of germany.

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Pentium G4560 3.5GHz Dual-Core Processor  (€81.86 @ Mindfactory) 
Motherboard: ASRock H110M-HDS Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard  (€53.99 @ Amazon Deutschland) 
Video Card: Zotac GeForce GTX 1050 2GB Mini Video Card  (€125.99 @ Amazon Deutschland) 
Case: Zalman ZM-T1 PLUS MicroATX Mini Tower Case  (€26.11 @ Amazon Deutschland) 
Power Supply: XFX ProSeries 450W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply  (€51.06 @ Amazon Deutschland) 
Other: Windows 10 OEM Key (Kinguin) (€24.00)
Total: €363.01
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-01-10 14:49 CET+0100

 

So she has the Keyboard, Mouse, Headset, I can give her a screen and one stick of 8GB Kingston Fury. And her laptop has a 500GB Samsung EVO 850 that i can rip out.

 

Time to browse our local stores.

[Aereldor]

4 minutes ago, DHelios said:

That's actually a really nice setup, love the inclusion of the Ducky even with this budget! Wonder how well that price translates if we ask our local suppliers nicely.

 

I love that no-one's jumped into the thread yet shouting that "you can't play games at 1080p without at least an i7 and a GTX1080 because of less than 60fps!!!11!!1eleven!". It almost feels like it's possible to be a gamer without spending a fortune!

I think he should import all of that from Germany. Import fees and shipping can't be all that bad from a neighbouring country.

 

My entire setup was $550, which included a Cherry MX Blue keyboard and a Logitech G-series gaming mouse. A lot of people here are gaming on cheap Core i5s and R9 280s. 'Hardware Elitism' is very rare in this community, as most people don't have a ludicrously expensive setup. In fact, my signature has had a $300 build in it for a year (recently updated to $350 with the release of the hyperthreaded Pentium).

[DHelios]

With the I/O, RAM and SSD out of the picture, your 600 bucks may yet net you a really nice gaming rig for your girl and food on the table!

 

Don't forget Tweakers Pricewatch! Once you've got your component picked, it'll point you to the best place to buy it, and it actually takes into account Dutch prices. It's not the comparing convenience of Pcpartspicker, but it helps.

[Sylentic]

CPU: Intel Pentium G4560 3.5GHz Dual-Core Processor  (€81.95 @ Alternate) 
Motherboard: ASRock H110M-HDS Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard  (€64.85 @ Alternate) 
Video Card: Zotac GeForce GTX 1050 2GB Mini Video Card  (€135,50 @ Afuture) 
Case: Zalman ZM-T1 PLUS MicroATX Mini Tower Case  (€28.40 @ Afuture) 
Power Supply: XFX ProSeries 450W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply  (€49.40 @ Afuture) 
Other: Windows 10 OEM Key (Kinguin) (€24.00)
Total: €384.10

[Sylentic]

This is at least a good baseline to work from. I will go to the PC repair thingy... In a moment with the laptop and see what they think. If they can kick life into it i will start putting money aside for at least this base PC and start adding more onto it every month. So if it does go wrong we have the money to replace it.

 

I Shall in the meanwhile browser a bit further and see what happens if i go from MIcro ATX to ATX and put in a 1050TI. Just so i have an idea on the prices. Will post my choices once I made that!.

 

Thank you for your time so far!

[DHelios]

 

1 minute ago, Sylentic said:

CPU: Intel Pentium G4560 3.5GHz Dual-Core Processor  (€81.95 @ Alternate) 
Motherboard: ASRock H110M-HDS Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard  (€64.85 @ Alternate) 
Video Card: Zotac GeForce GTX 1050 2GB Mini Video Card  (€135,50 @ Afuture) 
Case: Zalman ZM-T1 PLUS MicroATX Mini Tower Case  (€28.40 @ Afuture) 
Power Supply: XFX ProSeries 450W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply  (€49.40 @ Afuture) 
Other: Windows 10 OEM Key (Kinguin) (€24.00)
Total: €384.10

Looks like you and your girlfriend will be eating well this month!

 

And both Alternate and Afuture are places I'd gladly buy from, so you didn't even have to resort to dealing with skeevy online-only vendors...

 

Glad you got your gaming problem solved. We'll see you two around in the Rift and Azeroth! And Draenor. And Outland. And OMGitsArgusIcantwaitImsoexcited!

[Sylentic]

I glady pay a bit extra to keep it to those 2 stores. Coolblue is alright too. Couple of months ago i bought her a Orbweaver and it broke from Informatique its been 2 months and still no replacement or any word... beside a mail its till at razer. I just mailed them again asking for a refund cause this is stupid. So if we get that refund at about 130 euro's it would help us well on the way to buy this

[Aereldor]

3 minutes ago, Sylentic said:

Haha, Good point but after stripping down your part list with the stuff i already have the budget seems quite good. Will have a look what i can find at our local stores instead of germany.

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Pentium G4560 3.5GHz Dual-Core Processor  (€81.86 @ Mindfactory) 
Motherboard: ASRock H110M-HDS Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard  (€53.99 @ Amazon Deutschland) 
Video Card: Zotac GeForce GTX 1050 2GB Mini Video Card  (€125.99 @ Amazon Deutschland) 
Case: Zalman ZM-T1 PLUS MicroATX Mini Tower Case  (€26.11 @ Amazon Deutschland) 
Power Supply: XFX ProSeries 450W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply  (€51.06 @ Amazon Deutschland) 
Other: Windows 10 OEM Key (Kinguin) (€24.00)
Total: €363.01
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-01-10 14:49 CET+0100

 

So she has the Keyboard, Mouse, Headset, I can give her a screen and one stick of 8GB Kingston Fury. And her laptop has a 500GB Samsung EVO 850 that i can rip out.

 

Time to browse our local stores.

You need to quote people or tag them with '@' like this- @Aereldor. Otherwise, they won't get a notification

 

 

[Sylentic]

My bad, @Aereldor and @DHelios , Currently the Laptop is running again i went to the store it instantly booted up without any problems. Logs sadly don't show anything so we assume its simply a power issue inside the laptop. Hopefully it can last for just a bit longer, Squeeze that last bit of life out before we replace it and hopefully get some extra funds to put into her new PC so we can buy an extra screen for her for example.

 

If you guys are interested i'll reply to the post once we get the parts sorted or i'll post a separate build log.