$400 gaming PC - worth it or not?

[Jonnusthegreat]

Lmao $400 gaming pc. I spent double that on just my graphics card.

[Kagthul]

Lmao $400 gaming pc. I spent double that on just my graphics card.

lol elitist f**kw*d.

You dont need an 800$ to game on.

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A lot of butthurt people here - stick to it, don't cheap out on the PSU, but buying expensive is not good either. Do the research on good PSUs (incremental upgrades has a guide).

You don't need a GPU, your Ryzen APU is fine for low-end games and even highend on medium/low graphics, don't listen on elitist jerks here. As for ram: brand doesn't matter much, only make sure to get the highest frequency your motherboard can support (and perhaps get a different one to support higher). Get 2x4GB, it's better than a single 8GB stick. Most of your budget will be playing around how much you can afford your RAM.

That said - getting another 100€ to get a better PSU and RAM will give you the biggest improvement. A SATA 128GB SSD will do just fine, but don't expect to be able to have all the games, you have one or two at a time only and this is something you can definitely invest in more in the long run. So yeah - you're really in a super awkward spot where you could really use one or two hundred dollaridos more to solidify your build with good RAM and an SSD.

You might want to check out the build i posted instead.

[Infracted]

[Saphyron]

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant


CPU: AMD - Ryzen 3 1200 3.1 GHz Quad-Core Processor ($94.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: MSI - B350M GAMING PRO Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard ($49.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: Corsair - Vengeance LPX 8 GB (1 x 8 GB) DDR4-2666 Memory ($66.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital - Caviar Blue 1 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($44.84 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: MSI - GeForce GT 1030 DDR4 2 GB Video Card ($82.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Rosewill - GRAM ATX Mid Tower Case ($19.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: EVGA - SuperNOVA G2 550 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($39.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $399.78
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-11-20 20:09 EST-0500

Best system for 400$ that I could work out.
I would say aim for used at that price. You will get better parts at lower cost.

[Jonnusthegreat]

lol elitist f**kw*d.

You dont need an 800$ to game on.

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You don't need a computer period. We don't live in a world of needs. We live in a world of wants. I could never game on anything less than 60 fps at the highest graphics level. The game just wouldn't be worth it for me. I earned my money and I can spend it the way I want. I have no clue what a $400 PC could do but consider how expensive my computer is it literally made me lol.

[valax]

Hey, I want to build a cheap beginner PC for my little brother for christmas. I found this build on 25PC.

Processor: RYZEN 5 2400G
Motherboard: GIGABYTE GA-AB350M-DS3H
RAM: Crucial Ballistix Sport
Case: MicroATX Mini Tower
Power Supply: EVGA 400 N1

Can anybody recommend a Hard Drive/SSD to add to this and let me know of any issues you can see?

It’s not the best build I know but I only have $400 to spend. I don’t want to get him an Xbox or PS4. I want him to upgrade and build this up himself. Right now he usually just plays Fortnite and Minecraft on my build when I’m at work. Appreciate any replies, I will read them all.

I don't know how to feel advising you to spend money on a pc for gaming that lacks key components . This rig relies on that single 8gb ram stick to work , integrated gpu means no dedicated memory for graphic purposes , games today can take up to 3-4gb of ram and windows 10 without tweaks sucks balls ..
Basically you are giving a pc that will perform poorly/discretely for today standard based on components listed .

I advice compromising a bit on the processor maybe but squeeze a graphic card in that pc

[Kagthul]

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant


CPU: AMD - Ryzen 3 1200 3.1 GHz Quad-Core Processor ($94.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: MSI - B350M GAMING PRO Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard ($49.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: Corsair - Vengeance LPX 8 GB (1 x 8 GB) DDR4-2666 Memory ($66.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital - Caviar Blue 1 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($44.84 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: MSI - GeForce GT 1030 DDR4 2 GB Video Card ($82.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Rosewill - GRAM ATX Mid Tower Case ($19.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: EVGA - SuperNOVA G2 550 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($39.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $399.78
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-11-20 20:09 EST-0500

Best system for 400$ that I could work out.
I would say aim for used at that price. You will get better parts at lower cost.

This is pretty awful, TBH.

No reason to ever use the R3 1200. The R3 2200G is 5$ more, has an iGPU, and is clocked faster.

Never use single-channel with Ryzen. Unlike Intel, Ryzen is extremely sensitive to both dual-channel and RAM speed.

NEVER use the GT 1030 for anything other than an HTPC and certainly NEVER use the DDR4 version for ANYTHING.

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I don't know how to feel advising you to spend money on a pc for gaming that lacks key components . This rig relies on that single 8gb ram stick to work , integrated gpu means no dedicated memory for graphic purposes , games today can take up to 3-4gb of ram and windows 10 without tweaks sucks balls ..
Basically you are giving a pc that will perform poorly/discretely for today standard based on components listed .

I advice compromising a bit on the processor maybe but squeeze a graphic card in that pc

Nothing you said here is remotely true. The R5 2400G can play modern gamesa at 1080p on medium settings just fine. I built one for my son. It works fine. At stock clocks its just shy of a GTX 1050, and better if you overclock the GPU portion which you can do even on the included cooler.

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You don't need a computer period. We don't live in a world of needs. We live in a world of wants. I could never game on anything less than 60 fps at the highest graphics level. The game just wouldn't be worth it for me. I earned my money and I can spend it the way I want. I have no clue what a $400 PC could do but consider how expensive my computer is it literally made me lol.

So, you rignorance and arrogance excuse shitposting?? Yeah, no.

This isnt about you. Its about the OP, and his kid. 1080p/60/med-high settings is absolutely fine for 90% of gamers. Its not about me, or you, or anyone else. If you’re not going to be provide something useful for OP... fuck right off.

[Jonnusthegreat]

So, you rignorance and arrogance excuse shitposting?? Yeah, no.

This isnt about you. Its about the OP, and his kid. 1080p/60/med-high settings is absolutely fine for 90% of gamers. Its not about me, or you, or anyone else. If you’re not going to be provide something useful for OP... fuck right off.

Since when is having an opinion different from yours shitposting? Oh yeah, nevermind, it's 2018. I'll just leave my 2c at the door. I advise you do the same.

[Kagthul]

And ignored.

[Nihilist74]

What is the Nvidia equivalent of the GPU that those ryzen cpu's have?

[Kagthul]

What is the Nvidia equivalent of the GPU that those ryzen cpu's have?

The R3 2200G is less powerful than a GTX 1050, but is vastly more powerful than any other iGPU on the market. Itll do 1080p/low-medium at decent framerates, or if you step down to 1600x900, actually quite playable framerates at medium-high settings.

The R5 2400G is still less powerful than a GTX 1050, but much closer. It can be overclocked to outperform the 1050 or hang even with it even with the included cooler. I OCed my son's 2400G iGPU about 15-16% on the stock cooler without a noticable rise in temps. It performs about as good as a 1050 or just a bit better in some games.

The GT 1030 is utter garbage. Its useful as a cheap 4k-capable HTPC GPU... but then again the R5 2200G's iGPU is just as good in that role too.

The DDR4 version of the GT 1030 is an atrocity that should never have existed. Its useful for literally nothing.

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The primary benefit of going with the 2400G for this build for his son is that the iGPU will work fine for now for the games he plays, and it is a quite solid CPU on its own - 4 core/8 thread, and overclockable to ~4ghz with a cheap aftermarket cooler like an EVO (which they can add later).

Then at any later time they can add anything up to a mid-high range GPU (GTX 1070/Vega 56) to turn the system into a completely capable 1080p/Ultra or 1440p/high setup. Even just plopping in an RX 570 for ~100$ later turns it into a 1080p/60 gaming rig immediately. Since the motherboard has 4 RAM slots they can upgrade to 16GB RAM when needed, as well.

[Wries]

From the perspective that learning to use a PC could lead to multiple job opportunities (whether it be expected to know the basics, programming or creative software) in the long run I think it's a great idea to introduce one for your little brother regardless if you get "better gaming graphics" on a console for that price point. After all a console is strictly a toy.

The 2400G is also fine. For the purpose maybe even the 2200G would be fine. There are multiple reviews up on youtube and the consensus seems to be that you can get away with esports-level of games quite easily and most other games can be adjusted to medium-low and run fine on 1080p. Edit: to clarify and agree with other posters: Needs two sticks of RAM for dual channel, else memory bandwidth will be too low, especially for the iGPU.

Regarding power supply quality. The PSU came off as barely ok on Jonnyguru and they recommend the 430W supply instead. However I don't foresee the PSU blowing up because it simply doesn't seem like it would be that bad. Regardless, whichever cheap PSU you end up buying, do stick your head into Jonnyguru to check if they have a review of it first, to make sure you don't buy total crap.

[Coldkil]

I went with a similar build for a guy that doesn't need the pc for gaming (like at all) so a 2200G or 2400G is an incredible deal also given the Intel current prices and stock.

Maybe you want to consider a discrete GPU though (don't need it right now but you can snipe the market for a used 1060), and go with dual channel RAM. Then you'll have a perfect entry level gaming pc.

[Linkedblade]

Never buy a Pentium unless you're building a purely web browsing machine. Dual cores are borderline non-functional for modern games, even with hyperthreading. Hell, even quad cores without HT are starting to stutter and bottleneck GPUs in games like Battlefield 5 and Assassin's Creed Odyssey.

Op's use case was Minecraft and Fortnite. A pentium/i3/ryzen 3 paired with a low end gpu like a 560/570/1050 is perfect for that use case. I'm not saying itll push high/ultra settings, but it'll be more than playable.

[Courierrawr]

Op's use case was Minecraft and Fortnite. A pentium/i3/ryzen 3 paired with a low end gpu like a 560/570/1050 is perfect for that use case. I'm not saying itll push high/ultra settings, but it'll be more than playable.

Yeah but in the long term how well do you think any of those CPUs are going hold up? The 2400G is going to be a respectable CPU for the foreseeable future and gives him a lot more flexibility when choosing a GPU. I doubt OP's little brother is only going to play Fortnite and Minecraft, eventually he'll branch out into other, more demanding games.

[Deleted]

Stick with the APU you chose, don't go into 1030 GPUs, these people don't know what they're talking about. Perhaps ask for more opinions on reddit /r/buildapc or something.

[Hoofey]

I would listen to Kagthul, hes giving out good advice. 2400G seems like a good option in this case.

Since when is having an opinion different from yours shitposting? Oh yeah, nevermind, it's 2018. I'll just leave my 2c at the door. I advise you do the same.

Lmao $400 gaming pc. I spent double that on just my graphics card.

Yeah, theres a difference between voicing your opinion and laughing at peoples budget just because you have a more expensive build.

[Nattwenny]

So many really helpful posts here.....

[Triggered Fridgekin]

This thread is pretty much why I rarely browse the computer sub-forum now. You get a couple people who actually know what they are talking about only to get buried by a mountain of garbage or toxic posts by amateur case modders and elitists who can't even be assed to read the OPs post.

Me and @Kagthul have had our differences in the past but he's someone folks should definitely listen to.

I strongly recommend exploring the Buildapc sub-reddit.

[Linkedblade]

Yeah but in the long term how well do you think any of those CPUs are going hold up? The 2400G is going to be a respectable CPU for the foreseeable future and gives him a lot more flexibility when choosing a GPU. I doubt OP's little brother is only going to play Fortnite and Minecraft, eventually he'll branch out into other, more demanding games.

I agree going with ryzen has better upgradability. But either way the specs were talking about should remain decent for a few years.

[Hoofey]

Me and @Kagthul have had our differences in the past but he's someone folks should definitely listen to.

I strongly recommend exploring the Buildapc sub-reddit.

Got the same experience with him. Probably not the easiest guy to talk to, but his technical knowledge is usually on point.