Building Help/ Request

[IllidariCouncil]

New to these PC threads but hopefully I can post this here, if not let me know or mod move it.

Budget: Cheap as possible but around $500ish
Resolution: As good as I can get
Games / Settings Desired: Something that can run at least the new GTA or let me livestream.
Do you need an OS?: Windows 7 or 8 64bit

I bought a custom PC back in 09 & I think its run its limits.

Not good with PCs but I just want something that can run the newer PC games. Right now its so bad I cant even stream without it crashing.

Im not looking for anything techinal or something thats going to be a pain to put together. Just some good cheap parts that will do the job. Thanks

[Deleted]

500 bucks with os won't happen. You need close to 100 for o/s alone and 200 for a gpu as a ballpark. Meaning you are left with barely budget for the cpu not to mention all the rest. That is for a "gaming pc" that you will be able to play at decent settings new games while streaming as you mentioned...

[IllidariCouncil]

500 bucks with os won't happen.

Thats fine, before I put my budget I also put "Cheap as possible". So maybe help in that regard, just list the cheapest parts that I would need to achieve what I want? But trying to look smarter than me & not help could also work if you want.

[Kagthul]

Do you have any parts you can re-use?

Case?
PSU?
RAM?

Might help significantly.

- - - Updated - - -

500 bucks with os won't happen. You need close to 100 for o/s alone and 200 for a gpu as a ballpark. Meaning you are left with barely budget for the cpu not to mention all the rest. That is for a "gaming pc" that you will be able to play at decent settings new games while streaming as you mentioned...

Streaming, actually, is apparently now an easy thing on any Intel CPU with an iGPU. Quick Sync almost entirely removes the overhead for streaming.

- - - Updated - - -

Also, the full specs on your current PC cant hurt. Might be from 09, but there hasn't been a HUGE increase in CPU power since then, so you may find that 500$ wont buy you a better machine than you already have.

[IllidariCouncil]

Do you have any parts you can re-use?

Case?
PSU?
RAM?

Might help significantly.

- - - Updated - - -



Streaming, actually, is apparently now an easy thing on any Intel CPU with an iGPU. Quick Sync almost entirely removes the overhead for streaming.

- - - Updated - - -

Also, the full specs on your current PC cant hurt. Might be from 09, but there hasn't been a HUGE increase in CPU power since then, so you may find that 500$ wont buy you a better machine than you already have.

Thanks for the awesome reply man. Ill list all the specs that I know of. Like I said, not good with pcs. The fan I have should work, I also have some ram that can probably carry over.

This is my case http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811148013 if you need to look at it and see if the parts you will recommend will fit in it.

[Kagthul]

The case looks like a standard ATX case, so it should fit just about any parts.

Im not sure id trust the PSU it shipped with though, i'd probably repalce that just to be safe.

What -kind- RAM is it, do you know? DDR3-1333, DDR3-1600, DDR-2 of some kind?

Your CPU is pretty decrepit at this point.

[IllidariCouncil]

The case looks like a standard ATX case, so it should fit just about any parts.

Im not sure id trust the PSU it shipped with though, i'd probably repalce that just to be safe.

What -kind- RAM is it, do you know? DDR3-1333, DDR3-1600, DDR-2 of some kind?

Your CPU is pretty decrepit at this point.

Im really not sure about the Ram. I could replace it tho.

I just need some parts that are good & cheap.

[Kagthul]

Alright, looking it up, it used DDR-3 1333. You have two options here - newer CPUs will still support DDR-3 1333, so you could re-use your current RAM to save a bit of money, and upgrade it later. There is not a *massive* performance difference between 1333 and 1600.

Here's my suggestion:

Re-use your case, and temporarily continue to use your current Power Supply. You can repalace it later, and it should hold up to what im about suggest fine.

Re-use your current RAM

Re-use your current HDD if you can (i cant imagine you cant - it should be SATA, just maybe not SATA3. You wont notice a giant difference in speeds. You can always upgrade to a new HDD cheaply later if you run into an issue.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i3-4360 3.7GHz Dual-Core Processor ($129.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-B85M-DS3H Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($55.98 @ Newegg)
Memory: Corsair 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR3-1333 Memory ($34.99 @ NCIX US)
Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 960 2GB Video Card ($189.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 (OEM) (64-bit) ($86.98 @ OutletPC)
Total: $497.93
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-05-02 15:32 EDT-0400

Just under your budget, and should run most modern games quite well.

Replace the PSU at your earliest opportunity. Something like this:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Power Supply: Silverstone Strider Essential 500W 80+ Certified ATX Power Supply ($54.99 @ Directron)
Total: $54.99
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-05-02 15:35 EDT-0400

Will do you fine. Any 80+ 500W+ from a reputable manufacturer will be fine.

Note - there ARE some sacrifices with this rig - you're sticking with DDR3-1333, which IS slightly slower than DDR3-1600; in most cases we're talking single-digit percentage points of performance difference if it is perceptable at all. You're stuck with your old HDD for now, which may be slower (though if it is a 7200 RPM drive, youw ont notice much difference between SATA 3Gbps and SATA 6Gpbs in real-world applications).

But the GPU is strong enough to run almost all modern games at High/Ultra at 1080p, you have a full 8GB of RAM, and the CPU is a fast Core i3 which run rings around your current rig. (both are 2 core/4 thread parts; The COre i5 650 you have CPUBenches at 3144; the Core i3 above at 5473). It should let you stream at 720p or so without too much issue because of Intel's QuickSync technology, which uses the CPU's onboard GPU ("Intel Integrated") to remove streaming overhead from the CPU almost entirely. There are tutorials on how to set it up.

[IllidariCouncil]

Alright, looking it up, it used DDR-3 1333. You have two options here - newer CPUs will still support DDR-3 1333, so you could re-use your current RAM to save a bit of money, and upgrade it later. There is not a *massive* performance difference between 1333 and 1600.

Here's my suggestion:

Re-use your case, and temporarily continue to use your current Power Supply. You can repalace it later, and it should hold up to what im about suggest fine.

Re-use your current RAM

Re-use your current HDD if you can (i cant imagine you cant - it should be SATA, just maybe not SATA3. You wont notice a giant difference in speeds. You can always upgrade to a new HDD cheaply later if you run into an issue.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i3-4360 3.7GHz Dual-Core Processor ($129.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-B85M-DS3H Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($55.98 @ Newegg)
Memory: Corsair 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR3-1333 Memory ($34.99 @ NCIX US)
Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 960 2GB Video Card ($189.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 (OEM) (64-bit) ($86.98 @ OutletPC)
Total: $497.93
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-05-02 15:32 EDT-0400

Just under your budget, and should run most modern games quite well.

Replace the PSU at your earliest opportunity. Something like this:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Power Supply: Silverstone Strider Essential 500W 80+ Certified ATX Power Supply ($54.99 @ Directron)
Total: $54.99
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-05-02 15:35 EDT-0400

Will do you fine. Any 80+ 500W+ from a reputable manufacturer will be fine.

Note - there ARE some sacrifices with this rig - you're sticking with DDR3-1333, which IS slightly slower than DDR3-1600; in most cases we're talking single-digit percentage points of performance difference if it is perceptable at all. You're stuck with your old HDD for now, which may be slower (though if it is a 7200 RPM drive, youw ont notice much difference between SATA 3Gbps and SATA 6Gpbs in real-world applications).

But the GPU is strong enough to run almost all modern games at High/Ultra at 1080p, you have a full 8GB of RAM, and the CPU is a fast Core i3 which run rings around your current rig. (both are 2 core/4 thread parts; The COre i5 650 you have CPUBenches at 3144; the Core i3 above at 5473). It should let you stream at 720p or so without too much issue because of Intel's QuickSync technology, which uses the CPU's onboard GPU ("Intel Integrated") to remove streaming overhead from the CPU almost entirely. There are tutorials on how to set it up.

This is what I needed! Thank you so much!