Need Advice: Gaming PC On A $600 Budget

[jimboa24]

Not to crush your dreams or whatever, but you bought a pretty crappy PC for gaming, I'm not against i5 CPU's but a 2.8 GHz that turbo's to 3.1 is bad for games like wow, cuirrent i5's get to around 4.3 GHz and that 1 GB nvidia wont help you much either.

The other systems that were pointed to you would all perform magnitudes better for the money. I can understand that having to spend money on a computer in a pinch is far from ideal, but buying something recent and decent for a little more money sounds like a better thing to do, anyways end of rant as it's too late anyways as you already bought it.

Anything with only 1 terabyte is not an option. I need more storage space than that and everything suggested only has 1 TB. I'll just have to upgrade the processor and video card when I can afford to.

[Denpepe]

Anything with only 1 terabyte is not an option. I need more storage space than that and everything suggested only has 1 TB. I'll just have to upgrade the processor and video card when I can afford to.

You could reuse your current computers hard drive. The machine you bought now will require a new motherboard and ram if you want to upgrade the CPU later for anything modern if your case and power supply will even allow that.

[urasim]

My advice is don't.

Wait a little bit longer and save a little bit more. Black Friday and cyber Monday is coming up, too.

[Rurin]

It's already bought and paid for. Worst case, I'll just get a new video card as soon as I can afford it. This computer has 16 gigs of RAM and not 1 TB, but two. i5 processors are older, yes, but they're not terrible. It's what I've been using for 4 years and it's served me just fine.

That specific i5 was made in early 2011, it's six and a half years old. It's a joke at this point, my cheap laptop's i5 is three times more powerful than that.

16GB of RAM at that price point is not that important (and not useful in wow). Especially if it's cheap RAM, which it probably is.

If you need 2TB then buy a 2TB drive instead of a 1TB one, 2TB disks go for less 100$. Again, this PC is over five years old, the drive is probably slow as hell.

And the power supply... It's probably years old too and a cheap one. It's most likely a ticking time bomb.


Seriously, that computer is a total ripoff. Cancel and refund it, that's within your rights. Even if you have to pay for return shipping (if they have shipped it, that is), it's better to spend that money on a brand new PC.

[jimboa24]

If I could afford to just buy a top of the line new PC, we would not be having this discussion. I'm going based on what I can afford now, and the bottom line is, any computer I can buy is going to be at minimum a couple years old. And I'm sure that any computer I post that I intend on buying will be picked apart on here and every poster in the thread will take turns shitting on it.

So, here is where I am at. My hard drive is not reusable. If I'm lucky, most of the data can be recovered. If I get anything, it will have to be under $600. It doesn't have to be a gamer's wet dream, but it DOES have to have 2 TB disk space, and I at least have to be able to run WoW, SC2, Dishonored 2, Evil Within 2, etc reasonably well.

And quite frankly, no matter what I end up going with, some of you are going to hate it and call it the biggest waste of money in the world. That's too fucking bad, because when you have a budget, that's what you do: you settle for what you can afford.

Does anyone have any other suggestions on a PC that will fit my needs and stay in budget?

[Rurin]

The problem here isn't you being limited to your budget, the problem is you were going to buy one of the worst options to buy at that price point. Cancel the order if you haven't already, I can help you build a better one (and I'm sure others will chime in with their alternative options so you can choose between them)

So, first things first, what kind of computer do you already have? Is it a desktop? If yes, is the case good enough to reuse? How about the DVD drive? Does it have one, or do you even need one for your new PC? The case itself can save you over 50$ easily if you can reuse it.

Second, where do you want to/can order from? I don't know much about the American stores or pricing, so I need to know what store to check for them... Is Amazon or Newegg fine?

[jimboa24]

It's an HP desktop. I know for a fact that the case is salvageable, the DVD drive probably is too. I'll have to double check with the tech in the morning (they still have it there at the moment), but I'm pretty sure everything else needs to be replaced.

Newegg tends to be on the pricey side, but it's available to buy from in the U.S.; Amazon is pretty good too. I think most online stores ship to the United States.

[Rurin]

8GB DDR4 RAM https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0123ZBPDA/

GTX 1060 3GB https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01KQUDE2Y/

EVGA 600W power supply https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00EON40CS/

Seagate 2TB HDD https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01IEKG402/

Intel Pentium G4500 https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B015VPX190/

Gigabyte LGA1151 motherboard https://www.amazon.com/GIGABYTE-GA-H...dp/B0165YUDTM/

This will come a bit over 560$, on top of that you need the case (you can use your old one) and possibly a Windows license (if the old one can't be transferred you have to buy a new one, you can find them cheap online). Also bear in mind that the motherboard needs Amazon prime for that discount, but you can use the 30-day trial and cancel immediately after purchase.

If you want a more powerful processor instead of a better graphics card (I chose the better graphics card here), just replace the pentium with an i5 7500 and the gtx 1060 with a gtx 1050, the total price should be about the same. Both setups will play modern games pretty well, but in most games the graphics card is far more important.

Also if you don't want to build it yourself (it's really easy, just watch a few youtube tutorials, the building will take a few hours) and no friend is willing to do that either, you might have to pay someone to build it for you.

[jimboa24]

I always thought it was important to have a lot of RAM - is RAM not that important?

[Kagthul]

I always thought it was important to have a lot of RAM - is RAM not that important?

You only need enough RAM to run the things youre running wihtout causing excessive paging (stuff being transfered to and from the virtual memory on the Hard Dive or SSD). AFter that... not really that important. Having a crapload of RAM just means that a lot of the time, its sitting there doing no good.

8GB is fine for a gaming rig even with Youtube/chat client/etc running in the background. 16GB might be something that matters if youre going to have really heavy stuff running in the background. Unless youre doing heavy productivity workloads, anything more than 16GB is a complete waste.

[chazus]

My hard drive is not reusable. If I'm lucky, most of the data can be recovered.

Why? From what you described, the issues had nothing to do with it.

it DOES have to have 2 TB disk space

Why? I'm not saying you don't, but why is that a requirement exactly?

And quite frankly, no matter what I end up going with, some of you are going to hate it and call it the biggest waste of money in the world. That's too fucking bad, because when you have a budget, that's what you do: you settle for what you can afford.

People already made suggestions within your budget, and for some reason it was ignored. People don't shit on choices because you don't have a lot of money. They shit on it when you make a poor choice in light of better options available.

$600 is more than enough to make a rather respectable gaming system.

[Naffy]

If I could afford to just buy a top of the line new PC, we would not be having this discussion. I'm going based on what I can afford now, and the bottom line is, any computer I can buy is going to be at minimum a couple years old. And I'm sure that any computer I post that I intend on buying will be picked apart on here and every poster in the thread will take turns shitting on it.

So, here is where I am at. My hard drive is not reusable. If I'm lucky, most of the data can be recovered. If I get anything, it will have to be under $600. It doesn't have to be a gamer's wet dream, but it DOES have to have 2 TB disk space, and I at least have to be able to run WoW, SC2, Dishonored 2, Evil Within 2, etc reasonably well.

And quite frankly, no matter what I end up going with, some of you are going to hate it and call it the biggest waste of money in the world. That's too fucking bad, because when you have a budget, that's what you do: you settle for what you can afford.

Does anyone have any other suggestions on a PC that will fit my needs and stay in budget?

If you would prefer an Intel build :

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: *Intel - Pentium G4560 3.5GHz Dual-Core Processor ($77.77 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: *MSI - B250M PRO-VDH Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($49.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: *G.Skill - Ripjaws V Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2133 Memory ($74.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: *Seagate - Constellation ES 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($54.99 @ Newegg Marketplace)
Video Card: *Gigabyte - GeForce GTX 1050 Ti 4GB Video Card ($154.88 @ OutletPC)
Case: Fractal Design - Focus G Mini (Black) MicroATX Mini Tower Case ($54.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Power Supply: *Corsair - CXM (2015) 450W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($26.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $494.60
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
*Lowest price parts chosen from parametric criteria
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-11-20 00:25 EST-0500

Or if you prefer AMD:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 3 1200 3.1GHz Quad-Core Processor ($99.99 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: *Biostar - A320MH PRO Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard ($29.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: *Team - Vulcan 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2800 Memory ($96.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: *Seagate - Constellation ES 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($54.99 @ Newegg Marketplace)
Video Card: *Gigabyte - GeForce GTX 1050 Ti 4GB Video Card ($154.88 @ OutletPC)
Case: Fractal Design - Focus G Mini (Black) MicroATX Mini Tower Case ($54.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Power Supply: *Corsair - CXM (2015) 450W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($26.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $518.82
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
*Lowest price parts chosen from parametric criteria
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-11-20 00:26 EST-0500

[Rurin]

If you would prefer an Intel build :

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: *Intel - Pentium G4560 3.5GHz Dual-Core Processor ($77.77 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: *MSI - B250M PRO-VDH Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($49.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: *G.Skill - Ripjaws V Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2133 Memory ($74.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: *Seagate - Constellation ES 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($54.99 @ Newegg Marketplace)
Video Card: *Gigabyte - GeForce GTX 1050 Ti 4GB Video Card ($154.88 @ OutletPC)
Case: Fractal Design - Focus G Mini (Black) MicroATX Mini Tower Case ($54.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Power Supply: *Corsair - CXM (2015) 450W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($26.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $494.60
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
*Lowest price parts chosen from parametric criteria
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-11-20 00:25 EST-0500

Or if you prefer AMD:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 3 1200 3.1GHz Quad-Core Processor ($99.99 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: *Biostar - A320MH PRO Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard ($29.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: *Team - Vulcan 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2800 Memory ($96.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: *Seagate - Constellation ES 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($54.99 @ Newegg Marketplace)
Video Card: *Gigabyte - GeForce GTX 1050 Ti 4GB Video Card ($154.88 @ OutletPC)
Case: Fractal Design - Focus G Mini (Black) MicroATX Mini Tower Case ($54.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Power Supply: *Corsair - CXM (2015) 450W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($26.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $518.82
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
*Lowest price parts chosen from parametric criteria
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-11-20 00:26 EST-0500

OP already had a case, that lets you get a GTX 1060 at the price

[Naffy]

OP already had a case, that lets you get a GTX 1060 at the price

Didn't even notice them mention that, there ya go those systems would be pretty rockin

[Rurin]

I always thought it was important to have a lot of RAM - is RAM not that important?

8GB will do for almost everything. And you can always upgrade later when you have more money, it's probably the easiest thing to change

[Echohunter]

Is it better to buy a pc or a mac for gaming

Always PC. Even if you have money to burn, don't buy an Apple computer for gaming.

[Eurytos]

Always PC. Even if you have money to burn, don't buy an Apple computer for gaming.

Why is a Mac not good? I'm asking honestly. What is it about a PC that makes them better for gaming than iMacs?
Forget about the price for a moment, because I'm sure Macs are more expensive, because you're paying for more than just the hardware when you buy a Mac, obviously.

You can buy this right now on the Apple site. The iMac pro thats coming out in December would likely be far better than this, but you can get this right now.

3.8GHz quad-core 7th-generation Intel Core i5 processor
Turbo Boost up to 4.2GHz
8GB 2400MHz memory, configurable up to 64GB
2TB Fusion Drive1
Radeon Pro 580 with 8GB video memory
Two Thunderbolt 3 ports
Retina 5K 5120-by-2880 P3 display

What is lacking here? What is just a bunch of fluff that makes this look cool? What is it that a PC has that this iMac doesn't have? Let's say you're playing WoW and other Blizzard games...except, sadly, no Overwatch on Mac right now.

[Moozart]

It's an HP desktop. I know for a fact that the case is salvageable, the DVD drive probably is too. I'll have to double check with the tech in the morning (they still have it there at the moment), but I'm pretty sure everything else needs to be replaced.

Newegg tends to be on the pricey side, but it's available to buy from in the U.S.; Amazon is pretty good too. I think most online stores ship to the United States.

Dude... you are so lost its not even funny. Newegg is one of the places out there with the better prices, I get many of my system parts for customer builds from there so that I can pass on value to my clients. It is clear from all of your post and blatant disregard of all the USEFUL info these guys posted for you. That computer you got on amazon is HARLDY worth $150-$200, you are stuck on the 2gb kick when you can get an external 2tb for less than $70 with all the sales coming up. That video card thats in it isn't going to come close to running wow the way it needs to be. If you wanted to waste $400 you could had used it as toilet paper.

If the PC you purchased was a car it would be this



Why make a post here for advice if you were going to 100% ignore ALL of it...

[jimboa24]

Dude... you are so lost its not even funny. Newegg is one of the places out there with the better prices, I get many of my system parts for customer builds from there so that I can pass on value to my clients. It is clear from all of your post and blatant disregard of all the USEFUL info these guys posted for you. That computer you got on amazon is HARLDY worth $150-$200, you are stuck on the 2gb kick when you can get an external 2tb for less than $70 with all the sales coming up. That video card thats in it isn't going to come close to running wow the way it needs to be. If you wanted to waste $400 you could had used it as toilet paper.

If the PC you purchased was a car it would be this



Why make a post here for advice if you were going to 100% ignore ALL of it...

I didn't ignore it... obviously. If all you're gonna do is insult me then kindly go fuck off.

[Echohunter]

Why is a Mac not good? I'm asking honestly. What is it about a PC that makes them better for gaming than iMacs?
Forget about the price for a moment, because I'm sure Macs are more expensive, because you're paying for more than just the hardware when you buy a Mac, obviously.

You can buy this right now on the Apple site. The iMac pro thats coming out in December would likely be far better than this, but you can get this right now.

What is lacking here? What is just a bunch of fluff that makes this look cool? What is it that a PC has that this iMac doesn't have? Let's say you're playing WoW and other Blizzard games...except, sadly, no Overwatch on Mac right now.

In general, it's about getting exactly what you want. I don't mean like a 1TB hard drive or a 2 TB hard drive. I mean *exactly* what you want. But, the major factor with that machine is space.

When you're dealing with an AIO (all-in-one) like an iMac you're battling heat dispersion and thermal throttling. With a standard 6, 8, 10 whatever liter PC case, you have tons of space for airflow, which allows for better cooler and overclocking. High clock speeds means better performance. You could also just water cool everything a overclock your gpu/cpu to ludicrous speeds.

That iMac also does not allow for SLI, again, this is a space issue. With a full sized mobo/case you could stick in another gpu or tons of harddrives or whatever you want. That iMac would without a doubt play WoW well, but not at its native resolution. But you're totally gimping yourself by buying into that hardware ecosystem if performance is your game. If you went with a PC instead and smacked a GTX 1080ti/OC'd i9 in there instead, you could go all out and get a 1440p ultrawide 144hz monitor to go with it and play WoW like you've never experienced before.

If you have a limitied budget, Macs make no sense for gaming. If you have infinite money, Macs make no sense for gaming. That's just how it is right now.