Budget Gaming PC - thoughts?
Discussion
Hi All,
Came across an interesting youtube vid that took a relatively cheap HP Elite SFF Desktop (i5-2400) and then bunging a 1030 / 1050 / 1050ti graphics card in along with a bit of extra memory and an SDD. All in this could be done for around £400/450 ish with ebay prices.
Granted that this won't be able to run the most modern games at med or high settings but for games a few years old the performance seems pretty decent.
I'd be looking to play more strategy / sim type games (Civ, Football manager, turn based strategy stuff) so think that the less graphically intensive nature should suit this sort of spec.
Any thoughts on this sort of build / or suggestions for a base desktop other than the HP?
Any suggestions on decent games of the suggested genres - esp the turn bases strat stuff?
Came across an interesting youtube vid that took a relatively cheap HP Elite SFF Desktop (i5-2400) and then bunging a 1030 / 1050 / 1050ti graphics card in along with a bit of extra memory and an SDD. All in this could be done for around £400/450 ish with ebay prices.
Granted that this won't be able to run the most modern games at med or high settings but for games a few years old the performance seems pretty decent.
I'd be looking to play more strategy / sim type games (Civ, Football manager, turn based strategy stuff) so think that the less graphically intensive nature should suit this sort of spec.
Any thoughts on this sort of build / or suggestions for a base desktop other than the HP?
Any suggestions on decent games of the suggested genres - esp the turn bases strat stuff?
My vitals are i5 4670k, 8Gb DDR3 and GTX760. They weren't top of the line when I got them (with the rest of the commensurate gubbins for ca. £800) three years ago, but they are still holding up remarkably well. This was from Overclockers.
I would expect the same could be had for somewhere around your budget these days.
Turn based strategies could include Civ, or XCom. Not a huge fan of turn based, personally, so can't really recommend too many.
ETA: Might want to skip the 4670k as its an old chip set and uses an obsolete socket. Would limit you to your choices of motherboards and later upgrades.
I would expect the same could be had for somewhere around your budget these days.
Turn based strategies could include Civ, or XCom. Not a huge fan of turn based, personally, so can't really recommend too many.
ETA: Might want to skip the 4670k as its an old chip set and uses an obsolete socket. Would limit you to your choices of motherboards and later upgrades.
Edited by Alias218 on Tuesday 26th December 22:41
tallstevef said:
Hi All,
Came across an interesting youtube vid that took a relatively cheap HP Elite SFF Desktop (i5-2400) and then bunging a 1030 / 1050 / 1050ti graphics card in along with a bit of extra memory and an SDD. All in this could be done for around £400/450 ish with ebay prices.
Granted that this won't be able to run the most modern games at med or high settings but for games a few years old the performance seems pretty decent.
I'd be looking to play more strategy / sim type games (Civ, Football manager, turn based strategy stuff) so think that the less graphically intensive nature should suit this sort of spec.
Any thoughts on this sort of build / or suggestions for a base desktop other than the HP?
Any suggestions on decent games of the suggested genres - esp the turn bases strat stuff?
TBH you could easily get away with an i5 2500k, 8GB Ram and a decent last Gen or two graphics card. Even a 780/780ti or 970/980 will still do sterling work at 1080p. It's finding a relatively cheap source of said equipment. Came across an interesting youtube vid that took a relatively cheap HP Elite SFF Desktop (i5-2400) and then bunging a 1030 / 1050 / 1050ti graphics card in along with a bit of extra memory and an SDD. All in this could be done for around £400/450 ish with ebay prices.
Granted that this won't be able to run the most modern games at med or high settings but for games a few years old the performance seems pretty decent.
I'd be looking to play more strategy / sim type games (Civ, Football manager, turn based strategy stuff) so think that the less graphically intensive nature should suit this sort of spec.
Any thoughts on this sort of build / or suggestions for a base desktop other than the HP?
Any suggestions on decent games of the suggested genres - esp the turn bases strat stuff?
This isn't too bad, although, if anything a bit steep: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Intel-Core-i5-2500k-wit...
Endless Legend is like Civilization, but in a more fantasy setting. It's a decent game and it's got 66% off in the Steam sale at the moment. There's a sci-fi space version called Endless Space, but I haven't played that.
With an older PC you may want to consider that it may not have USB 3.0 built in and the PCI-E slots and SATA will be older (slower) standards and RAM will be slower than current spec. That said, I would not expect that to have a huge effect on performance. The i5 2400 would be up to the job when paired with a half-decent graphics card.
If you get an ex-business HP, Dell or Lenovo, you probably won't be able to overclock it. Make sure you get a full size tower so you can fit a massive graphics card in it.
My GTX 970 has absolutely no problem with Civilization 6. By the way, Civilization 6 is the reason I am up at 3am!
With an older PC you may want to consider that it may not have USB 3.0 built in and the PCI-E slots and SATA will be older (slower) standards and RAM will be slower than current spec. That said, I would not expect that to have a huge effect on performance. The i5 2400 would be up to the job when paired with a half-decent graphics card.
If you get an ex-business HP, Dell or Lenovo, you probably won't be able to overclock it. Make sure you get a full size tower so you can fit a massive graphics card in it.
My GTX 970 has absolutely no problem with Civilization 6. By the way, Civilization 6 is the reason I am up at 3am!
Donbot said:
The GTX1050 is about the same as the GTX960 I'm currently using. Plays everything I've thrown at it using high settings in 1080p. You don't need to spend big money on a card these days to get good gaming out of a PC.
Yes, if your monitor or TV is 1080p, a GPU like that or 1060 3gb will do fine - it's only when you get into higher resolutions like 1440p and 4k you need a beefier card with more RAM (As I found out when I bought a 1060 3gb for our 4k TV, and realised I made a mistake and got a 1080..)Games like Civ 6 (and open world games like GTA 5 and Assassins Creed Origins) love multi-core CPU's, though, as well as a decent GPU. 16GB of onboard RAM is now the norm, rather than 8, too.
Edited by chris watton on Wednesday 27th December 13:02
TVR Moneypit said:
Sorry to thread hijack, but could any of you chaps give a ballpark spec / price of a tower capable of running Arma3 / DayZ at a decent speed?
Cheers.
Best place to ask is PCSpecialist or Overclockers UK forums...many PC gurus who enjoy responding to this type of question in there...Cheers.
Just as a bench for ARMA 3, I have a D-day landing scenario that gets very busy (think saving private ryan) from the off.
My old i5 Sandybridge and 16gb RAM plus 1080 managed around 4-5fps.
My new build with i7 8700k, 32gb RAM and 1080 managed to run the same scenario around 30-40fps.
My old i5 Sandybridge and 16gb RAM plus 1080 managed around 4-5fps.
My new build with i7 8700k, 32gb RAM and 1080 managed to run the same scenario around 30-40fps.
Daston said:
Just as a bench for ARMA 3, I have a D-day landing scenario that gets very busy (think saving private ryan) from the off.
My old i5 Sandybridge and 16gb RAM plus 1080 managed around 4-5fps.
My new build with i7 8700k, 32gb RAM and 1080 managed to run the same scenario around 30-40fps.
I don't understand that, ARMA 3 is a 4 year old game, and the Sandy Bridge CPU's still aren't that bad at all. I am not sure the very low FPS was down to the 4 core CPU. Even the recommended specs to run that game are pretty modest compared to newer titles.My old i5 Sandybridge and 16gb RAM plus 1080 managed around 4-5fps.
My new build with i7 8700k, 32gb RAM and 1080 managed to run the same scenario around 30-40fps.
I got a PC all in for £400 6 months ago.
Fella builds them as a hobby and i was nervous about getting it but as soon as i met him he was a real geek and knew his stuff.
i3 4130
gtx 1060
nicely put together with attention to detail, very neat inside the PC tower.
So far have no probs playing sim racing stuff. yes the CPU isn't amazing but does surprisingly well.
Regards sim racing it means simply racing agaisnt 20 odd cars rather than 50 cars...but i can live with that.
It can be done on a budget and it is more powerful than an XBOX X.
Fella builds them as a hobby and i was nervous about getting it but as soon as i met him he was a real geek and knew his stuff.
i3 4130
gtx 1060
nicely put together with attention to detail, very neat inside the PC tower.
So far have no probs playing sim racing stuff. yes the CPU isn't amazing but does surprisingly well.
Regards sim racing it means simply racing agaisnt 20 odd cars rather than 50 cars...but i can live with that.
It can be done on a budget and it is more powerful than an XBOX X.
Why pay £400-£500 on a sub standard system?
For £650, I just built a i5-7600, 16gb Ram, SSD, 1060 3gb system. Admittedly, I got the i5 for a 3rd off, but a Ryzen is not much more than I paid.
Just shop around for deals. Black Friday helped me a bit.
Case (Fractual Design Focus G mini) - £30
Mobo (MSI H270M Mortar Arctic) - £78
SSD (Crucial 256gb) - £61
GPU (Asus GTX1060 3GB) - £188
Ram (Ballistix 16GB) - £144
CPU (i5-7600) - £110
PSU (Corsair VS550) - £25
Total = £636
The PSU is weak, but once built a system is less to maintain.
I had a £750 budget and got a £100 24 inch monitor, Razor keyboard and cheapie mouse within budget.
For £650, I just built a i5-7600, 16gb Ram, SSD, 1060 3gb system. Admittedly, I got the i5 for a 3rd off, but a Ryzen is not much more than I paid.
Just shop around for deals. Black Friday helped me a bit.
Case (Fractual Design Focus G mini) - £30
Mobo (MSI H270M Mortar Arctic) - £78
SSD (Crucial 256gb) - £61
GPU (Asus GTX1060 3GB) - £188
Ram (Ballistix 16GB) - £144
CPU (i5-7600) - £110
PSU (Corsair VS550) - £25
Total = £636
The PSU is weak, but once built a system is less to maintain.
I had a £750 budget and got a £100 24 inch monitor, Razor keyboard and cheapie mouse within budget.
I always start off with very restrained goals and components, but once I research stuff on the internet, all of that goes to pot.
So when a simple GPU upgrade was needed for my Sandy Bridge based work (and game) PC, I decided to change everything (apart from the BR drive)
I would wholeheartedly recommend the Fractal Design Define R6 case, it is a mid-tower size, but unlike a lot of new mid towers, there's enough room for a BR/DVD drive at the top, while still allowing for a 240mm front mounted radiator. This is by far the best (and most modular) case I have ever worked with, and is a keeper!
So when a simple GPU upgrade was needed for my Sandy Bridge based work (and game) PC, I decided to change everything (apart from the BR drive)
I would wholeheartedly recommend the Fractal Design Define R6 case, it is a mid-tower size, but unlike a lot of new mid towers, there's enough room for a BR/DVD drive at the top, while still allowing for a 240mm front mounted radiator. This is by far the best (and most modular) case I have ever worked with, and is a keeper!
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