Low cost PC build

[crispymorgan 1,041]

Like a few other members, I'm looking to move over to PC gaming this year.  I used to be into Counter strike 1.6 and other games of that era, but owning laptop s etc I've fallen behind on PC knowledge.  Thought it might be nice to get a discussion going to see what others are going to buy.  Possibly even see if people have older gear they want to sell if they are upgrading. 

[The3rdWalker 1,263]

Give me a price range and I'll post some lists.

 

The build I'm starting in March will be between 1,250 to 1,500 USD. I could go over but not sure if I want the 1080, the 1070 would be fine with my 1440p 144hz monitor and streaming. 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i7-7700K 4.2GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($339.39 @ SuperBiiz) 
CPU Cooler: CRYORIG H7 49.0 CFM CPU Cooler  ($34.88 @ OutletPC) 
Motherboard: Asus Z170-A ATX LGA1151 Motherboard  ($147.98 @ Newegg) 
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3200 Memory  ($129.88 @ OutletPC) 
Storage: Crucial MX300 525GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($143.89 @ OutletPC) 
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($49.33 @ OutletPC) 
Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 1070 8GB Dual Series Video Card  ($403.98 @ Newegg) 
Case: NZXT S340 Elite (White) ATX Mid Tower Case  ($89.99 @ SuperBiiz) 
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA G2 650W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply  ($88.89 @ OutletPC) 
Total: $1428.21
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-02-17 08:34 EST-0500

[crispymorgan 1,041]

I guess my budget will be a lot less. probably half of that.  But I'm willing to drop to i5 processor and not the greatest card etc.

[The3rdWalker 1,263]

1 hour ago, crispymorgan said:

I guess my budget will be a lot less. probably half of that.  But I'm willing to drop to i5 processor and not the greatest card etc.

If you do not plan on streaming you do not need anything more than an i5 for high end gaming. Seriously though shoot out a number range and I can make recommendations. Are you looking to play games on high to ultra settings, which games etc.

[phil bottle 9,556]

I have a similar set up to Rib's planned build, just a little older. 

NZXT Phantom V2 White Full Tower Gaming Case
GIGABYTE GA-Z87X-UD3H Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) ATX Motherboard
Intel Core i7-4770K 4.40GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 
MSI Twin FrozR GeForce GTX 770 OC 2048MB GDDR5 Graphics Card
250GB Samsung 840 Series 2.5" SATA 6GB/s (SATA-III) Solid State Drive SSD
2TB Seagate Barracuda ST2000DM001 3.5" SATA III Hard Drive - HDD
Corsair Hydro H80i Watercooling Performance Closed-Loop CPU Cooler
750W Corsair Builder Series CX750M 80PLUS Bronze Modular Power Supply
Crucial Ballistix Tactical 16GB DDR3 RAM

My PC will be 4 years old this summer (cost about £1200 all told) and I've got my eye on a new GPU. Again like Rib most likely the 1070....or 1080.
If the timing is right I can probably let you have my 770 as it still gets me great frames on ultra settings in most games.

SSDs are much cheaper since I bought mine too and you probably don't need the uber hyper threading CPU either. 

I knew little about PCs until I decided to get one, it's an enjoyable learning curve. Diddums can vouch for that, unfortunately

[crispymorgan 1,041]

I'm thinking around £600.  But for this I'll need a screen  

[The3rdWalker 1,263]

2 hours ago, crispymorgan said:

I'm thinking around £600.  But for this I'll need a screen  

800 USD (641.85 GBP)

RX 480 4GB Gamer (VR Ready) (Plays Fallout 4 on 1080p high/ultra settings) (i5-6500, 16 GB DDR4, RX 480 4GB, 240 GB SSD, 1TB HDD. 

 

CPU: Intel Core i5-7500 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($172.00) 
Motherboard: ASRock B250M-HDV Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard  ($67.99 @ SuperBiiz) 
Memory: GeIL EVO POTENZA 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2133 Memory  ($105.88 @ OutletPC) 
Storage: Sandisk SSD PLUS 240GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($69.00) 
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($49.33 @ OutletPC) 
Video Card: MSI Radeon RX 480 4GB GAMING X Video Card  ($170.00) 
Case: Phanteks ECLIPSE P400 ATX Mid Tower Case  ($69.99 @ Newegg) 
Power Supply: EVGA BQ 500W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply  ($55.00) 
Total: $759.19
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-02-21 12:43 EST-0500

[GazzaGarratt 10,864]

3 hours ago, PlasticGaming said:

800 USD (641.85 GBP)

RX 480 4GB Gamer (VR Ready) (Plays Fallout 4 on 1080p high/ultra settings) (i5-6500, 16 GB DDR4, RX 480 4GB, 240 GB SSD, 1TB HDD. 

 

CPU: Intel Core i5-7500 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($172.00) 
Motherboard: ASRock B250M-HDV Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard  ($67.99 @ SuperBiiz) 
Memory: GeIL EVO POTENZA 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2133 Memory  ($105.88 @ OutletPC) 
Storage: Sandisk SSD PLUS 240GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($69.00) 
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($49.33 @ OutletPC) 
Video Card: MSI Radeon RX 480 4GB GAMING X Video Card  ($170.00) 
Case: Phanteks ECLIPSE P400 ATX Mid Tower Case  ($69.99 @ Newegg) 
Power Supply: EVGA BQ 500W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply  ($55.00) 
Total: $759.19
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-02-21 12:43 EST-0500

Nice. What's the most important piece of kit NOT to compromise on?

[phil bottle 9,556]

15 hours ago, GazzaGarratt said:

Nice. What's the most important piece of kit NOT to compromise on?

GPU and CPU need to be decent.

Plus, don't underestimate the power supply.

Personally, I'd wait a bit longer, save more money and purchase something that's going to last a while.

[Diddums 4,305]

Some "game changers" coming from AMD soon (yeah, cos we've never heardthat before) so I'd hold out to see what they can do first.

[The3rdWalker 1,263]

1 hour ago, Diddums said:

Some "game changers" coming from AMD soon (yeah, cos we've never heardthat before) so I'd hold out to see what they can do first.

What I am hoping from the benchmark testings is that it forces Intel's hand to lower prices. I had no interest in their 8 core 1,000.oo USD CPU in the first place

[phil bottle 9,556]

21 minutes ago, PlasticGaming said:

What I am hoping from the benchmark testings is that it forces Intel's hand to lower prices. I had no interest in their 8 core 1,000.oo USD CPU in the first place

This. Competition for Intel is long overdue.

But as Didds mentions, AMD have had a few false dawns before...

[Greboth 2,705]

Initial rumours seem to suggest a bit of a mixed bag performance wise with AMD scoring better in some respect and worse in others.  One thing seems to be certain though, Ryzen CPU's will be cheaper than their Intel competition so performance per £ should be better.  AMD certainly have had some false dawns though but with the NDA/Embargo lifting tomorrow it is going to be an interesting time.

Overall though, if you need to include a monitor (what about other peripherals?) then that really limits your budget to spend on components.  3 options for this though, 1- wait to save up some more and get a kickass pc straight away, 2 - buy as much second hand or last 'gen' to save a little on each component (i.e. for the most part a 5th gen Intel CPU would be enough, you don't need a brand new 7th gen) or 3 - Spend the money on CPU, MB, RAM etc. and get a cheaper graphics card something like a gtx 1050, or one of the 900 cards as it would be enough for medium to high settings at 1080 (not sure what the AMD equivalents to these are).  Then in a few months, a year or whatever you can quickly switch out for higher end card.

[cyberninja2601 1,102]

16 hours ago, Diddums said:

Some "game changers" coming from AMD soon (yeah, cos we've never heardthat before) so I'd hold out to see what they can do first.

 

AMD are a bunch losers, they don't hire top engineering talent like Intel does. Intel hires Canadian 

 

15 hours ago, PlasticGaming said:

What I am hoping from the benchmark testings is that it forces Intel's hand to lower prices. I had no interest in their 8 core 1,000.oo USD CPU in the first place

 

No it doesn't. Our stuff is top notch, we do not need to compete with those hacks from AMD

 

 

14 hours ago, phil bottle said:

This. Competition for Intel is long overdue.

But as Didds mentions, AMD have had a few false dawns before...

Yep, with out 83% market we are running scared.

Do yourselves a favor support top engineering Intel talent  (my rent is fucking ridiculous down here, I want my bonus)  

AMD, you guys are funny

 

 

 

[Diddums 4,305]

Bloody hell Pat 😂😂😂😂

[The3rdWalker 1,263]

We get it Pat, you work for Intel. Hahaha!

[phil bottle 9,556]

Funny as fuck, bravo

[crispymorgan 1,041]

Don't forget to post any second hand bargains. I'm about to start spending.

Via the FG App

[The3rdWalker 1,263]

Don't forget to post any second hand bargains. I'm about to start spending.

Via the FG App

Woooooo!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[crispymorgan 1,041]

My build list so far.  bare in mind this is a budget build, that must not raise suspicion with the boss lady.

 

Screen - A terrible Dell screen I used to have at work (just to get me up and running)

Peripherals - MX510 mouse and Logitech keyboard

Headset - Tirtton pro+ surround

CPU - Kaby lake G4600 (because I found it at almost the same price as a G4560)

Motherboard - Gigabyte G250M

RAM - Ballistix sport 2 x 4GB

PSU  - Corsair 80+ 450 (may upgrade)

GPU - RX470 black edition

Drives - 64GB SSD (free) and 2 x 1TB HDD (also free) running mirrored

Case - Bitfenix somethingorother

 

If all goes to plan this should come in at under £400 for a machine that will play todays games just nicely.

 

[phil bottle 9,556]

Nice Crispy. Look out for the Nvidia GTX 1060 too. If you can find it for a comparable price it's a better card. Plus the Nvidia Geforce UI is pretty nifty and has its own inbuilt video recording/capture.

Sent from my SM-N9005 using Tapatalk

[crispymorgan 1,041]

Went to the arcade club with some high spec computers ( i7 with 1080 cards). Man those things are slick. May see about tweaking up the performance.

[The3rdWalker 1,263]

Went to the arcade club with some high spec computers ( i7 with 1080 cards). Man those things are slick. May see about tweaking up the performance.

I'm in love with mine.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Greboth 2,705]

On 11/05/2017 at 10:59 PM, phil bottle said:

Nice Crispy. Look out for the Nvidia GTX 1060 too. If you can find it for a comparable price it's a better card. Plus the Nvidia Geforce UI is pretty nifty and has its own inbuilt video recording/capture.

Sent from my SM-N9005 using Tapatalk
 

 

I think the 1060 would be too much, around the price of the rx470 new then even second hand you're looking around the gtx980.  Though I'm not right up to date with the gpu market so don't know how a 980 benches against a 470.

[crispymorgan 1,041]

I may get the 480. Found a discounted one. Free sync monitors are cheaper.