Buying a Restricted Budget PC Dos and Don'ts.

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Mightysword
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Re: Buying a Restricted Budget PC Dos and Don'ts.

Post by Mightysword » Sun, 7. Jan 18, 19:23

Magnu wrote:I want to buy a PC for my daughter but I only have about £700 max to spend.

She does the usual kid stuff and plays the Sims with all the wallet draining packs installed and her old PC is starting to feel the strain.

Can someone give me some recommendations and the dos and don'ts of buying a cheaper gaming PC? I don't have a clue and am worried about getting burned by a slick salesman.

Thanks.
Is she playing Sims 3 or Sims 4?

When it comes to the Sims, especially if your daughter want to have everything on it, I would say the 2 most critical stuffs to get are an SSD drive to install the game on and good RAM, especially if she plays Sims 3. Other stuffs won't matter much if she got decent rams. The same things can be said for Sims 4 as well, but if she only play Sims4 then a normal HDD will do, the game has better loading. I think a good I5 or I7 core is standard these days no matter what your budget, just don't pick an overly expensive one. 8GB Ram is decent, can always add more later.

What you DON'T need:

- An expensive Video card: a budget one is enough for that game.
- A killer Motherboard.

And if you're not looking to build one, this is decent option for your price range:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/ADMI-GTX-1060- ... =gaming+PC

or this one if you also want the monitor included:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Fierce-APACHE- ... =gaming+PC

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Post by Chips » Sun, 7. Jan 18, 19:47

A 1060GTX with 6Gb of memory?

The recommended specs for the game are
REQUIRED: Internet connection required for product activation.
OS: 64 Bit Windows 7,8, or 8.1
PROCESSOR: Intel Core i5 or faster or AMD Athlon X4
MEMORY: 4GB RAM
HARD DRIVE: At least 9 GB of free space with at least 1 GB additional space for custom content and saved games
DVD-ROM: DVD ROM drive required for installation only
VIDEO CARD: NVIDIA GTX 650 or better
SOUND CARD: DirectX 9.0c Compatible
DIRECTX: DirectX 9.0c compatible
INPUT: Keyboard and Mouse
The card in the recommended specs is £80 - so a £250 gfx card is a bit overkill.

Again, this needs way more info. Is the computer supposed to be good for other games, or is it literally just playing the SIMs as that's it?

At the moment this feels very much like when you go to a shop and say "I just want a laptop that i can use to check email and perhaps watch some youtube" - to which they reply "Well, you would need an i5 minimum, but really an i7 is best for checking email"...

Codswallop :D

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Post by Redvers Ganderpoke » Sun, 7. Jan 18, 21:13

My daughter has been playing Overwatch on an AMD 5350, 8gb ran 120ssd and a Nvidia 1030. That was way under £700.
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Post by Magnu » Fri, 12. Jan 18, 08:09

Wow. It seems I have a lot to consider.

Sorry I haven't responded too the replies but I've been so ill I can barely lift my head from the pillow. I'll read through the thread again in a few days when I'm feeling better.

Thanks for your time, all.

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Post by Rice » Fri, 12. Jan 18, 09:07

Magnu wrote:Wow. It seems I have a lot to consider.

Sorry I haven't responded too the replies but I've been so ill I can barely lift my head from the pillow. I'll read through the thread again in a few days when I'm feeling better.

Thanks for your time, all.
Chips wrote:A 1060GTX with 6Gb of memory?

The recommended specs for the game are
REQUIRED:
PROCESSOR: Intel Core i5 or faster or AMD Athlon X4
MEMORY: 4GB RAM
HARD DRIVE: At least 9 GB of free space with at least 1 GB additional space for custom content and saved games
DVD-ROM: DVD ROM drive required for installation only
VIDEO CARD: NVIDIA GTX 650 or better
The card in the recommended specs is £80 - so a £250 gfx card is a bit overkill.

Again, this needs way more info. Is the computer supposed to be good for other games, or is it literally just playing the SIMs as that's it?

At the moment this feels very much like when you go to a shop and say "I just want a laptop that i can use to check email and perhaps watch some youtube" - to which they reply "Well, you would need an i5 minimum, but really an i7 is best for checking email"...

Codswallop :D
the actual summarize would be, what is present and maybe salvaged for the new PC if theres the option you can Plug the compoments together on your own ( sacred of an operation at the PC or not) ;) . besides 1-2 answers based up on their own childs which plays overwatch or other games.
But keep in mind other recommendations may be not optimal atleast on this broad topic of dos and don'ts,
for one its a don'ts to grab a "lowbudget" PC instead of looking what i need and not and plug them together on my own.
The most Multimedia pcs lacking a decent GPU ( if any atall as they may just have the onboard or GPU chip build inside the CPU) and only have so-so CPU atall etc.
and it seem we are lacking Experience on which Rigs the Sims 4 ( ? ) with each addon runs pleasant at all.
if i have to reference to the previous installments Sims 1 & 2 with each addon, the recommendated Specs were still not enough for mid-late game :P
Redvers Ganderpoke wrote:My daughter has been playing Overwatch on an AMD 5350, 8gb ran 120ssd and a Nvidia 1030. That was way under £700.
Mightysword wrote:
Is she playing Sims 3 or Sims 4?

When it comes to the Sims, especially if your daughter want to have everything on it, I would say the 2 most critical stuffs to get are an SSD drive to install the game on and good RAM, especially if she plays Sims 3. Other stuffs won't matter much if she got decent rams. The same things can be said for Sims 4 as well, but if she only play Sims4 then a normal HDD will do, the game has better loading. I think a good I5 or I7 core is standard these days no matter what your budget, just don't pick an overly expensive one. 8GB Ram is decent, can always add more later.

What you DON'T need:

- An expensive Video card: a budget one is enough for that game.
- A killer Motherboard.

And if you're not looking to build one, this is decent option for your price range:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/ADMI-GTX-1060- ... =gaming+PC

or this one if you also want the monitor included:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Fierce-APACHE- ... =gaming+PC
For reference a friend of mine recently got this build https://au.pcpartpicker.com/list/QJGqYr
It is in AUD and a bit over budget but if you sub out the GTX1070 in that build with a 1050 then you would probably have something more in your price range (it would move the price to around $1200 AUD which is roughly £700).
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Post by theeclownbroze » Sat, 13. Jan 18, 03:20

Don't skimp out on a cheap Power supply unit, no matter the budget, or at least get one with good warranty, for example, some PSU's come with 5-10 year warranty so go with them.

Having more watts may mean you have enough wattage to upgrade to more powerful hardware in the future too.

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Post by pjknibbs » Sat, 13. Jan 18, 07:04

theeclownbroze wrote: Having more watts may mean you have enough wattage to upgrade to more powerful hardware in the future too.
However, you should bear in mind that the efficiency of a PSU tends to tail off markedly when it's running very close to its rated output or when it's running at a very low power output--if you over-specify the PSU you'll be wasting more electricity as heat losses in the PSU. If you get one which is rated "80plus" then it's guaranteed to be 80% efficient when running at 20%, 50% and 100% of rated load, which mitigates that somewhat.

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Post by Magnu » Tue, 6. Feb 18, 10:01

Hi.
I'm sorry I haven't responded. I caught the flu and developed pneumonia, was taken to hospital and suffered a minor stroke while I was there. I'm told I have a good chance of mking a full recovery but finding some things very difficult at the moment.

Thanks to you all and I hope to be back soon.

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Post by pjknibbs » Tue, 6. Feb 18, 12:18

Jeez, you don't need to apologise for being ill! Get well first, then worry about frivolous stuff like new PCs.

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Post by zazie » Tue, 6. Feb 18, 13:45

If you haven't decided yet and if you want to think about different approaches I'd suggest you check this thread on the Forums of "Computerbase".
Yes, it is in German, but the names and specs of the PC-Hardware are 'international'.
Why do I 'promote' that thread here? The recommandations for a GAMING rig (and the alternatives to every recommandation) are tested by the community, free of commercial interest, always up-to-date (last update today, February 6) and in most cases based on Hardware that is available (so paper launches are not taken into consideration).

You will have to find a shop for that hardware in yourt country though, as long as you do not want to buy in Germany.

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Post by Tamina » Tue, 6. Feb 18, 15:02

zazie wrote:If you haven't decided yet and if you want to think about different approaches I'd suggest you check this thread on the Forums of "Computerbase".
Yes, it is in German, but the names and specs of the PC-Hardware are 'international'.
:O Only an i3 for an >1100 $ PC. :O
GPU and RAM got way too expensive.

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Post by korio » Tue, 6. Feb 18, 15:10

Tamina wrote:
zazie wrote:If you haven't decided yet and if you want to think about different approaches I'd suggest you check this thread on the Forums of "Computerbase".
Yes, it is in German, but the names and specs of the PC-Hardware are 'international'.
:O Only an i3 for an >1100 $ PC. :O
GPU and RAM got way too expensive.
The new i3-8xxx are powerfull, they are like old i5.

GPU and RAM is starting to "lower" their price, and you can find some good deals, atleast here on spain.

They are still way overpriced.

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Post by burger1 » Tue, 6. Feb 18, 15:13

Tamina wrote:
zazie wrote:If you haven't decided yet and if you want to think about different approaches I'd suggest you check this thread on the Forums of "Computerbase".
Yes, it is in German, but the names and specs of the PC-Hardware are 'international'.
:O Only an i3 for an >1100 $ PC. :O
GPU and RAM got way too expensive.
It looks like they started using RAM production facilities for other stuff so demand has increased but supply hasn't. This effects v ram also. It might take a few years for production facilities to adapt/grow. Computer sales have decreased.

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Post by Redvers Ganderpoke » Wed, 7. Feb 18, 16:41

I priced up a budget build for my daughter and roughly:-

CPU ~£100
MB ~ £50 to £100 (depends on CPU that new Kaby Lake i3 needs that fancy MB!)
RAM 16mb ~£200
PSU ~ £50
SSD ~ £70 (240mb)
GFX ~ £150 (1050ti - anything above this seems to be siily prices!)

I wonder if the new Ryzen with built in GFX or the new Intel Kaby LAake G chips will make good budget PC.

It's the DDR4 RAM that's expensive - my build from last year used DDR3 and 16gb was £75.
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Post by Axeface » Wed, 7. Feb 18, 17:07

I just built a budget pc and it runs great, can run all games on medium settings well (even games like the witcher 3). Intel G4560, GTX 1050 2gb, msi H110M Pro-vh plus, 8gb ram.

I'de recommend these parts for a budget build.

PS: Buy Intel/Nvidia, not AMD. I built 2 budget amd pc's a while back, 1 CPU came with ALL the pins bent to one side (I had to used a credit card to bend them back straight....) and one of the amd gpus has already burnt out - i've owned so many intel/nvidia pc's over the years and only had 1 failure (I ignored temps on a 6 years old gpu and it fried).

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Post by Tamina » Wed, 7. Feb 18, 18:32

On the other hand my non-partner Radeon 5700 is still running after 9 years - just to give you another perspective.

Personally, I am all in for RyZen because of that (if X4F would be already available), even though lots of friends told me that Intel/AMD doesn't work that well/at all... they were wrong.

Support stopped after 7 years with a notice, Intel stopped support after 4-5 but without telling me.

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Post by pjknibbs » Wed, 7. Feb 18, 23:11

Redvers Ganderpoke wrote: I wonder if the new Ryzen with built in GFX or the new Intel Kaby LAake G chips will make good budget PC.
Those Ryzen-based APUs aren't released for a week or so, so I don't think anyone's likely to know how good they are as yet. They definitely look interesting, though. The main problem with integrated GPUs like those is that they generally take a chunk of your system RAM for the GPU's use, so you need more RAM in the first place, and regular system RAM isn't as fast as dedicated graphics RAM on a plug-in card.

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Post by Redvers Ganderpoke » Thu, 8. Feb 18, 12:57

pjknibbs wrote:
Redvers Ganderpoke wrote: I wonder if the new Ryzen with built in GFX or the new Intel Kaby LAake G chips will make good budget PC.
Those Ryzen-based APUs aren't released for a week or so, so I don't think anyone's likely to know how good they are as yet. They definitely look interesting, though. The main problem with integrated GPUs like those is that they generally take a chunk of your system RAM for the GPU's use, so you need more RAM in the first place, and regular system RAM isn't as fast as dedicated graphics RAM on a plug-in card.
It looks like the KABY Lake G are destined for laptops but seem to include 4GB or GFX RAM. (As far as I can make out as Intel likes to make everything as possible as complicated as possible.)
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Post by Hank001 » Mon, 19. Feb 18, 17:13

Here's a thread that had me grateful I have an EET and accounts at newegg and amazon and links to parts sites.
Granted that it's not as easy as it used to be, still I might be considered "odd" thinking building computer systems is fun, Windows after XP took some of the fun out of things. At least it broke the 3 TB barrier with 7. 8 was maddening requiring a touchscreen until 8.1. UEFI only MB's are great. For single drive Windows computers. Worthless for "Other OS" users booting Linux. Sure it works both ways, but why make the penguin jump through hoops? It's a time where with WIN 10 when the graphics overhead is outstripping processor tasking unless your doing realtime simulation... Wait we are. It called X3.
Now a good graphic card costs more than the MB., 6 core chip, power supply, HD and if you're that into audio past most MB's built on Realtech audio those cards are getting cheaper. Ram used cost more than video cards. Not that long ago. Up until the 1070's I could build a screaming PC for under $500 US easy. Now you can't buy a video card of any quality for that. It used to be the 8 gig of ram I needed that was the killer. Now it's 16 gig for 3DS Max and Win 10 or it dogs. Oh well. I just made a 3D starship on this Android smartphone. Cropped my avatar in Photoshop on my smart phone. I should keep quiet or they'll find some way to jack up the price for these...oops they did. They're called iPhones. Well Mac's getting there's I suppose.
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Post by Redvers Ganderpoke » Sun, 25. Feb 18, 17:57

Redvers Ganderpoke wrote:
pjknibbs wrote:
Redvers Ganderpoke wrote: I wonder if the new Ryzen with built in GFX or the new Intel Kaby LAake G chips will make good budget PC.
Those Ryzen-based APUs aren't released for a week or so, so I don't think anyone's likely to know how good they are as yet. They definitely look interesting, though. The main problem with integrated GPUs like those is that they generally take a chunk of your system RAM for the GPU's use, so you need more RAM in the first place, and regular system RAM isn't as fast as dedicated graphics RAM on a plug-in card.
It looks like the KABY Lake G are destined for laptops but seem to include 4GB or GFX RAM. (As far as I can make out as Intel likes to make everything as possible as complicated as possible.)
There are out and reviews are moderate to good, the graphics is effected by the RAM you buy, the faster the better. Looks like the slower one,2200g, is good value and the faster one, 2400g isn't as it's about the same price as an i3-8100 with a 1030gfx card and is slower.
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