yet another "consol killer" project...

[Coty0010]

Hey guys it's been a while since I showed my face around here, but recently there has been allot of talk everywhere about building a price competitive PC that can out pre-form a console. I'm finding this hard to believe because consoles like the xbox one have some power and it's only putting a $350 hole in you're pocket.

What I'm trying to do is actually make this happen, I'm a little out of the loop on modern hardware as I haven't really needed to upgrade my old c2quad machine very much at all and still am getting acceptable performance from it... Plus I bought an xbox one and so my rigs just kinds turned into a work station now LOL *prepares for attack*

Anyway I've been getting the itch to build something again and really want to make an attempt at a low cost console killer, I want to go with a mini itx and because I'm a strong believer in having a GPU work harder than the CPU I want a discrete graphics card so this is what I'm looking at right now.

Zotac low profile GT 740 - (This is chosen because it should be better than a 640 and in real world tests I found my gtx650 only slightly out ran a friends gt640) plus this is only $80...

ASrock QC5000-ITX - This motherboard includes an AMD A-4 5000 quad core CPU at 1.5 GHz for only $64 and it appears to be overclocable so I might be able to get it a little higher on that on the stock cooler... I think I'd be happy getting it to 1.6...

Crucial Ballistix Sport 2x4GB - Only $54 for 8GB!

silverstone 300w SFX PSU - $54

Sentey SS1-2429K Slim Computer Case - I wanted on from silverstone but this was 1/2 the cost at only $29.99 and isn't that bad looking.

120GB Kingston Hyper X SSD - $77 I've had allot of luck with this drive over the last 3-4 years I've ran it in my primary rig. So at half of it's original cost I might as well get it again

Total sums up to $360.94... Don't know how I feel on the CPU but bench marks show it sitting with intel CPUs costing as much for just the CPU as I'm paying for the CPU AND mobo.

I'm posting this here for input... I'm trying to get the most killer rig at the same cost as an xbone, and while I think this is close I think maybe one of you can offer better solutions.

inb4isayscrewitandjustbuythatnewfancy8corei7andatitanleavingmywalletcryingforthenextfewmontsh

 

[ATMINSIDE]

That build isn't going to come close to performing like the consoles.

 

[Coty0010]

That build isn't going to come close to performing like the consoles.

I love your post it has much depth and insight and your recommendations are on par. thank you.

 

[ATMINSIDE]

I love your post it has much depth and insight and your recommendations are on par. thank you.

Not sure where to start, you're nowhere near console performance.

The CPU is going to be borderline garbage for gaming, along with the GPU.
You get 1/4 the storage that you do on the Xbox One, even if it is an SSD.
The PSU doesn't leave much room to upgrade parts.
You're highly limited on cooling because of the case being a slim.

About the best you can do on price, with decent performance, is $550-$600. Depending how you catch sales.

 

[Coty0010]

Yes, but keep in mind this isn't a serious build, what I'm trying to do is actually see how close I can really get to console performance as the same price, I mean I've thought about going with a celeron, quite honestly probably the best choice per dollar right now, but it just runs to much to squeeze into the range I'm trying to cramp it into. Pretty much this thread is were I personally have come to a dead end and I'm trying to find some way to bounce more power. I'm thinking perhaps dropping the discrete GPU and going APU but that's tough as I've never seen any really good power from APUs.

A4 I thought as maybe a good base because I had one in a laptop a while ago that also was a 5000 and it didn't seem to bad when I was playing biotic infinite on it, It appeared that all the bottle necking was the APU and not the CPUs performance it's self.

Just looking for any relevant ideas, before I call it a bust.

Heck for just $100 more It'd be much to easy to double what I have right now with a pentium and going up to a gtx750, but spending money is the easy part... LOL

 

[ATMINSIDE]

Yes, but keep in mind this isn't a serious build, what I'm trying to do is actually see how close I can really get to console performance as the same price, I mean I've thought about going with a celeron, quite honestly probably the best choice per dollar right now, but it just runs to much to squeeze into the range I'm trying to cramp it into. Pretty much this thread is were I personally have come to a dead end and I'm trying to find some way to bounce more power. I'm thinking perhaps dropping the discrete GPU and going APU but that's tough as I've never seen any really good power from APUs.

A4 I thought as maybe a good base because I had one in a laptop a while ago that also was a 5000 and it didn't seem to bad when I was playing biotic infinite on it, It appeared that all the bottle necking was the APU and not the CPUs performance it's self.

Just looking for any relevant ideas, before I call it a bust.

Heck for just $100 more It'd be much to easy to double what I have right now with a pentium and going up to a gtx750, but spending money is the easy part... LOL

If you can get to an A10 instead of the CPU and GPU you have picked now, you'd be a LOT better off.
The GT 740 isn't good for much more than video playback and the like.

Or, if you already have your main desktop running Steam, you can use a box over Ethernet to play remotely.
It works very well, in my experience (I have an HTPC doing this), and you can use almost any system this way.

 

[Coty0010]

Yeah, I don't know... I'm nearly burnt out on this concept... I don't think the gt 740 should be overlooked though, it's going to kick harder than any APU I've seen so far... Sure it's not gaming optimized like the GTX series but it still is nearly comparable. I'll look into the a10 but really thinking of scrapping this idea because right now at this time from scratch and new parts I don't know think this is possible. Obviously though used parts might get it work out...

 

[bob4933]

Id take a kaveri apu over a 740 any day of the week.

A10 kaveri is the only way to get close to console performance at "console" prices.

Your build also needs

- Keyboard/Mouse
- Windows product key
- way more than 1.5ghz of cpu power

Assuming we plug this into a TV, you will also need an hdmi cable as well (if that motherboard even has hdmi... VGA would be a deal breaker imo).


Now, on the flip side, that motherboard/cpu combo would be killer for a small htpc type build...

- - - Updated - - -

Check this puppy out.

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/VQgmpg

or if you REALLY want that SSD...

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/vPcvQ7


rationale ->

- A10 7850 would absolutely destroy the a4 5000. Graphics performance is also pretty decent for 1080p medium ish settings (What consoles run at essentially..) edit: For some AAA titles, a drop in resolution would be recommended to get the best result for sure. Still viable performance though!
- gskill ram because they are good
- 1tb hdd for mass storage, cheap and easy if you will. SSD's can always be added on later!
or
- 250gb of the best SSD money can buy. 20$ more, but 20$ well spent.
- literally grabbed the cheapest case on their. This one actually looks pretty slick though!
- evga 500b is a really decent psu. GREAT price on this at the time of writing (30$), and is MORE than plenty to put pretty much any gpu upgrade you wish in the mix if you so decide later.

 

[Coty0010]

Id take a kaveri apu over a 740 any day of the week.

A10 kaveri is the only way to get close to console performance at "console" prices.

Your build also needs

- Keyboard/Mouse
- Windows product key
- way more than 1.5ghz of cpu power

Assuming we plug this into a TV, you will also need an hdmi cable as well (if that motherboard even has hdmi... VGA would be a deal breaker imo).

I Litterly Have a box of keyboards and mice and like 3 win7 home keys from back when building/upgrading PCs for me was an everyday thing haha... Now it's been years and I've gotten a much different job, been using nothing but laptops and dragging my poor old q6600 around with a cheap GPU since my 260 gave out. HDMI cables... eh there is probably a few somewere around here, otherwise Imma just steel it from my PS3.

Anyway This idea is a bust, I've decided to just build a nice little theater rig instead.

I'll be using:
a Pentium G3258 (YES the 20year anniversary 3.2Ghz dual core UNLOCKED Pentium)
Silver stone Milo Z - Mini ITX case, I wanted this one anyway.
sliverstone 450watt - vs the 300w I was going to use.
GTX 750 Ti FTW from evga
after market Silverstone low profile cooler...
same ram, slightly larger SSD like said above only $20

total: $520.

 

[bob4933]

Thats a far better build.

Is this build for you? You kinda made it sound like it was a "recommended build" kinda thing.

 

[fcomstoc]

You could always go used if you want to go cheap, a few years ago I picked up a Dell Optiplex 780 (3.0 GHZ, 8 GB DDR3 Ram, 500GB HD) w/ kbd, mouse, monitor, and legitimate Windows 7 Pro License for $225, I bought a nVidia 750 OC for another $100 or so. It was fast enough to run most of my games at mid-high settings, and it was not bad for while I was in school. It is just a media server now but it was ok for gaming.

Although I must admit, I did recently pick up an Xbox One and love that, the games are so much better than they used to be (my main issue was that console games had no character progression, that all has changed now).

Good luck with your build if you decided to go that route.

 

[Coty0010]

Yeah I'll be using this, I was just trying to see if it was really possible to compete with the xbone and ps4 since so many people on youtube and reddit say it's possible. And I really wanted it to be, I mean just have a little box sitting under my TV smaller than my xbox putting and playing the same games as good as it does, but with the ability to be a complete PC. I mean, that sounds like a dream! right? well after days of looking I failed to find this kind of thing and resorted to n00bish and decided to ask. Defeated my itch to build had been re-ignited once more and I really wanted to go through with a nice TV rig so that's what I'm doing.

NOW I NEED FEDEX TO HURRY UP AND GET MY THINGS HERE! LOL

 

[fcomstoc]

The thing about consoles though is they get insane deals on hardware, so its hard to compete on the consumer level. I am glad that you got something though, I am sure that I will be building a new system too, although I am gaming mostly on the XB1 for now I am sure that will change

 

[ATMINSIDE]

The thing about consoles though is they get insane deals on hardware, so its hard to compete on the consumer level. I am glad that you got something though, I am sure that I will be building a new system too, although I am gaming mostly on the XB1 for now I am sure that will change

This, combined with the better optimization for consoles by devs, makes it nearly impossible to compete with hardware available to us consumers.