Cheap "gaming" dekstop. Are these parts a good choice?

[firesoul453]

My roommate wants to buy his nephew a cheap desktop so he can play games. He has a 3 year old laptop so a cheap desktop aught to be an upgrade for him.

We already have an R7-250 since my roomate wants to upgrade his graphics card so my goal was to reuse that but I am open to any suggestions.

As to price he said "like $300" but I told him he would simply have to spend more.
Parts i quickly picked out where

AMD FX 6300
Gigabyte Motherboard GA-78LMT-S2P USB3.0
Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB DDR3-1600 Ram
Cooler Master TC-102 Mid ATX case
Seagate Barracuda 750 GB Hard drive refurbished
EVGA 500B 500 Watt power supply

Sound like a solid budget build?
Any suggestions?

Thanks

 

[sobe]

My question would be, what is the max budget?

Also, are there particular titles that he is interested in running?

 

[firesoul453]

My question would be, what is the max budget?

Also, are there particular titles that he is interested in running?

I am truly not sure. If I asked him about the budget he would say well whats the best deal? Is it worth it? And that subjective.

As to games he mentioned dying light and evolve.

 

[Dlaw]

Eek. I have Evolve, and it runs my stuff hard at 4K. I'm not sure a 250 will do it for that game, even with settings turned way down, at 1080p, I don't know that it will be playable. The minimum specs are listed as an HD 5770, which is marginally better from what I understand than the 250.

I don't know man, that's a tall order.

 

[Blaylock]

If you were to go with say an A10 7700k or 7850k then you could x fire with the current r7 250. Not sure that would be enough, but may be something to look into.

 

[Brandensbeast]

Refurbished hard drive,ehhhh.

 

[ATMINSIDE]

I'd say a 750Ti should be a minimum

 

[Blaylock]

Why not hit the classies here. ALWAYs some good deals.

 

[Mandrake4565]

AMD FX 6300+Gigabyte Motherboard GA-78LMT-S2P USB3.0

This is not a good pairing even running stock.

Are you anywhere near a Microcenter?

If not near a microcenter, something like this would be pretty good

 

[firesoul453]

Eek. I have Evolve, and it runs my stuff hard at 4K. I'm not sure a 250 will do it for that game, even with settings turned way down, at 1080p, I don't know that it will be playable. The minimum specs are listed as an HD 5770, which is marginally better from what I understand than the 250.

I don't know man, that's a tall order.

Ya I know, thats what I told him. His nephew is young and and his laptop can't even play most games thought.

If you were to go with say an A10 7700k or 7850k then you could x fire with the current r7 250. Not sure that would be enough, but may be something to look into.

Interesting Idea. I didn't think about that thought A10s definitely cost more than 6300

Refurbished hard drive,ehhhh.

I know lol. But nothing super important will ever be on it.

I'd say a 750Ti should be a minimum

I'll let him know. Since its simply a gift I don't think he wasn't to spend that much.

Why not hit the classies here. ALWAYs some good deals.

I'll have to check them out, kinda forgot that forum section exists lol.

This is not a good pairing even running stock.

Are you anywhere near a Microcenter?

If not near a microcenter, something like this would be pretty good

Microcenter has a bundle with that motherboard thats why its in my list. I knew it was cheap but I figured stock speed would be ok.

How does the intel pentium compare?

 

[Dlaw]

Honestly, if reusing the 250, an A10 is probably your best bet, unfortunately the boards are still in the $50-$60 range, so your looking at $200 right there. Then just Windows would take up the remaining $100, and you don't have a storage drive, ram, case or PSU yet.

I really don't see a viable $300 build with or without the reused 250 that I would comfortably say could run Evolve. At $400, I could see things start to happen, with the A10 on an A88X, but it would still be tight. You'd be looking at 1600-1866mhz ram, probably 2x4gb kits. You'd want that EVGA PSU, a cheap (preferably not refurbished) HDD (even just a 500GB would do for a little while), and as cheap a case as you can stand to look at, so long as it can fit the GPU. Then Windows.

If you can find a drive for ~$25-$30, a case for ~$25-~$30, and a Ram kit under $50, you'd probably be looking at ~$410.

 

[sobe]

He can pick up Win8.1 for $20 - $30, that's not an issue. But playing a game like Evolve or Dying Light with any decency is not going to happen at this pricing, best bet is the above-mentioned APU.

Minimum System Requirements for Dying Light:
OS: Windows 7 64-bit / Windows 8 64-bit / Windows 8.1 64-bit
Processor: Intel Core i5-2500 @3.3 GHz / AMD FX-8320 @3.5 GHz
Memory: 4 GB RAM DDR3
Hard Drive: 40 GB free space
Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560 / AMD Radeon HD 6870 (1GB VRAM)
DirectX: Version 11
Sound: DirectX compatible
Additional Notes: Laptop versions of graphics cards may work but are NOT officially supported.

Just look at those minimums, you will want to aim for a little higher budget I think to get any decent return in playing these games.

 

[Blaylock]

Another beauty of the APU option is generally your GPU is the first component to become obsolete. In a year or two you can always just grab a newer modern GPU and plug it in. The A10 will still be a viable gaming platform for several more years.

 

[Dlaw]

He can pick up Win8.1 for $20 - $30, that's not an issue. But playing a game like Evolve or Dying Light with any decency is not going to happen at this pricing, best bet is the above-mentioned APU.



Just look at those minimums, you will want to aim for a little higher budget I think to get any decent return in playing these games.

Where can you find Windows 8 for $20-$30? I couldn't find it for less than $100.

 

[EmbraceTheHate]

Here is a build your friend should do.

From what ive read APUs love Ram so maybe 16gb of ram.....

 

[sobe]

G2A has had Win8 for $22, just have to catch it in stock. And if you don't want to wait for that, GO HERE. (Keep in mind you are purchasing from a 3rd party/individual and the risks involved in doing such)

I even purchased a key from that user myself for Win8.1 Pro as I was making a switch to Win8 after being a holdout for a long time now.
(That user has been selling many many keys on [H], so I'm sure if something was amiss someone would have said something)

Of course as a student you can also either get it free through your school if it offers it or $70 for Win8.1 Pro through Microsoft's webstore, though I would still say save your money if you can't get it free or do not have a TechNet/MSDN subscription.

 

[Dlaw]

Here is a build your friend should do.

From what ive read APUs love Ram so maybe 16gb of ram.....

They love fast ram, but I don't see that fitting in a low budget build.

 

[EmbraceTheHate]

ya was kinda figuring that lol

 

[firesoul453]

G2A has had Win8 for $22, just have to catch it in stock. And if you don't want to wait for that, GO HERE. (Keep in mind you are purchasing from a 3rd party/individual and the risks involved in doing such)

I even purchased a key from that user myself for Win8.1 Pro as I was making a switch to Win8 after being a holdout for a long time now.
(That user has been selling many many keys on [H], so I'm sure if something was amiss someone would have said something)

Of course as a student you can also either get it free through your school if it offers it or $70 for Win8.1 Pro through Microsoft's webstore, though I would still say save your money if you can't get it free or do not have a TechNet/MSDN subscription.

Yep it free with school. Thats how I got my copy. Technically its the most expensive copy of window you can buy considering tuition but still...


Seemed like people didn't like the AMD FX 6300 + Gigabyte Motherboard GA-78LMT-S2P USB3.0
Any suggestions on a motherboard for the AMD 6300 if I go that rout?

 

[Blaylock]

There are few that I would recommend for the FX 6&8 core chips and none of them are budget boards. That was the main reason I was leaning towards the FM2+ platform.