Need your help fellow PC enthusiasts!

[little P]

Ok, so my son is looking to get his first PC, he's looking to play some games on it on a 1080p 60Hz monitor, some video editing, maybe stream a bit at low settings (he wants to be the next hit twitch streamer lol). So my question to you is what can you come up with for a low budget system build? I mean as well know it's easy to build a monster rig, just visit your chosen parts retailer and buy all the best stuff. But building a gaming rig on a budget is actually a challenge and can be more fun imo!

Things we can save on - no need for an expensive SSD, I mean we could go small size SSD for the OS and a 1TB HDD for his storage and the majority of games. Or just go for a full HDD system if it saves even more money. The GPU, this is a tough one. He wants to play some fortnite, rocket league, trials games, nothing too demanding but it would be good to be hitting the 60fps at 1080p mark for these kinds of games. I was thinking a 4gb card should do fine? I am in your hands with this one though. Also the CPU. I am well behind on what is an acceptable cpu these days so am totally in your hands with this one. For reference, I am still running a i7 2700K (not overclocked) and a 980Ti with a 1440p 144Hz monitor and I'm still able to run everything at max (largely thanks to the ROG swift G-sync monitor) but he doesn't need anything like that performance even which is far from top of the line these days!

We are looking at 60fps at 1080p performance, for the cheapest possible outlay! Peripherals we have sorted already.

Thanks guys, and looking forward to seeing what you come up with!

Edit: would prefer team green as I know my way around shadowplay and can help him set up his twitch streaming easier as I'm familiar with Nvidia control panel etc. Cheers!

 

[Ogami Itto]

How urgent is this quest? Just pieced parts for Deb and finding the good AMD stuff was a certifiable nightmare between Pandemic and CNY issues. When B550 drops, those boards should be real good value for say a Ryzen 3600X and have the distinct advantage of being available. I did a X570 rebuild for less than $450 earlier this spring and couldn't be happier (same video card).

 

[little P]

Well, he's saved and saved his pocket money and money earned for jobs (bless him) and he is looking to buy asap, but I hear what you're saying, I didn't know it was an issue really, maybe it isn't so much over this side of the pond? Most things seem to be in stock on the sites I usually use (Scan.co.uk and Amazon.co.uk) to buy parts. I guess if someone could come up with a system I can certainly try to source the parts over here. I just need to know what to get really and I'm out of the loop with everything but GPU's to be honest

And just to re-iterate we are going for as cheap as possible system here for him to game at 1080p, a gentle introduction in to PC gaming

 

[Skid_Marc_]

There isn't much, if any, money to be saved going HDD over SSD. Just buy a small 500GB SSD and add more storage later.

Also, have you checked the used market? Linus Tech Tips has done a lot of video's recently about running new titles on older hardware. 1080p60 is a pretty easy target to hit, if you're willing to do a little research.

 

[Deb]

@little P, if I can pull the PS out of my old computer, I would be happy to ship it to you. It is an Antec EA-650 green 650W. I also have a WD 1 TB SATA 64MB Cache WD10EZEX HDD that I could send as well. I don't need either and I can pick up the shipping on that, no problem. I could send you the case but I would think it would be cheaper to buy one since it is so big and heavy. I think you guys are in the UK, is that right?

 

[little P]

@little P, if I can pull the PS out of my old computer, I would be happy to ship it to you. It is an Antec EA-650 green 650W. I also have a WD 1 TB SATA 64MB Cache WD10EZEX HDD that I could send as well. I don't need either and I can pick up the shipping on that, no problem. I could send you the case but I would think it would be cheaper to buy one since it is so big and heavy. I think you guys are in the UK, is that right?

Wow @Deb that's very kind of you thankyou, yes we are indeed in the land of tea and crumpets! I can get him a decent case for £40. I've been having a look on https://www.logicalincrements.com/ and basing a build around the "modest" heading.

This system would be comprised of your parts and the following components;

Mobo: https://www.amazon.co.uk/GIGABYTE-B450M-DS3H-S-ATA-Socket/dp/B07FKNM8FQ/?tag=logicaincre05-21

CPU: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Processeur-AMD-RYZEN5-Socket-YD1600BBAFBOX/dp/B07XTQZJ28/?tag=logicaincre05-21

GPU: https://www.amazon.co.uk/XFX-Radeon-RX570-Internal-Graphic/dp/B06Y64PV2X/?tag=logicaincre05-21

RAM: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Crucial-PC4-19200-Single-288-Pin-Memory/dp/B019FRBCQE/?tag=logicaincre05-21&th=1

CASE: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Antec-GX202-Window-White-Fan/dp/B07MWCGMM5/?tag=logicaincre05-21

With your generous help Deb this would come to a total of £407.78 with 16gb of ram instead of 4gb, because I don't think 4gb is enough really. He has saved £340 so far, so he is almost there. I'll make up the rest, Deb are you sure you are okay with shipping? I feel I should pay for shipping as you are donating parts? If not and knowing you you'll insist then that is very kind of you and on behalf of my son I say thankyou <3 You'll be called Auntie Deb from now on lol

What do we all think of this build? It seems pretty good and should be fine for 1080p 60fps right? It does seem you get more bang for your buck with AMD including the GPU, but I've had a look and they have their own version of shadowplay called "relive" so I'm sure it will be easy enough to figure out.

 

[ElektroVodka]

Too bad you're going for team Green, i still have a team red R290X collecting dust here, if you're interested tho let me know, it's free for anyone in this family.
It should handle 1080p60 just fine.

 

[little P]

No way EV that's amazing! I'd already decided that team red was the way to go to get the most bang for the buck, the RX570 I listed above is 4gb and it looks like your one is 4gb too so that would be fantastic mate thankyou He's over the moon!

 

[Deb]

No problem @little P, happy to do it I'll pull it out of the case and get both shipped to you asap. Don't worry about shipping, my way to thank the community for all the support we provide to each other

 

[Ogami Itto]

@little P might I talk you into saving 40 quid and getting a better case here!

 

[little P]

Hey @Ogami Itto yeah I'm open to all advice! What makes this one a better case amigo?

 

[little P]

Never mind, I showed it to him and he prefers the look anyway, so I've cancelled the other one and got this instead. Still interested to hear your reasons why though!

 

[Ogami Itto]

Corsair has made nice cases for a number of years, rubber gormmets on the cable management system for a cleaner look and less rub, better Amazon reviews from owners...these are the things I see.

 

[little P]

Corsair has made nice cases for a number of years, rubber gormmets on the cable management system for a cleaner look and less rub, better Amazon reviews from owners...these are the things I see.

Yeah it does look good doesn't it. I don't think this case comes with an exhaust fan though, but a 120mm fan is cheap as chips so no problem there I think I like the USB 3.0 port on the front of the case too, good find mate thankyou!

 

[Deb]

@little P, I was just talking to @Ogami Itto and he thought my CPU should still be good. It is the mobo that has the issue of not recognizing the M.2 slot. The CPU is an Intel Core i5-4670K Haswell 3.4GHz LGA 1150, overclocked. I can send that along as well, if you think that would be useful to you. I know you were thinking of going with AMD, so not sure if you are interested in the CPU.

 

[little P]

Oh wow, that would be fantastic thanks Deb! I'll have to get a different mobo though, any recommendations @Ogami Itto? Something basic with wifi would be good, although I can always add in a cheap wifi card if it's more economical?

 

[little P]

I am very humbled by the way, you're all awesome <3

 

[Ogami Itto]

I disagree that the mobo needs to change. It just didn't recognize an M.2 SSD but it would still work off that HDD if you formatted the drive and re-installed, SATA recognition was not a problem. The cooler was a nice Corsair AIO so that is getting repurposed in her new build. She made the decision that it was time to build new if she had to do a complete re-install with a RMA'd board to get her SSD to work. RAM in it is G.Skill Ripjaws varient so you should be good there, you'd just need a CPU cooler.

 

[Deb]

@little P, I packed up all the pieces and will ship it to you tomorrow. I am including the Mobo, CPU, wifi card, etc. and you can decide what y'all want to use. Like @Ogami Itto said, the mobo was not recognizing the M.2 drive, I use the M.2 drive as my boot drive. But it was still recognizing the HDD, so if you can build around not having the M.2 drive, the mobo may still work for you. The CPU is still attached to the mobo as well as the RAM. I hope you can use all or most of these parts and that should make a pretty inexpensive first build for your son

 

[little P]

Wow! Thankyou so, so much. He is going to be over the moon.

@Ogami Itto What I meant by the mobo needed to change was I'd ordered an AMD motherboard as I was going to use an AMD CPU but then after Deb said she could send the CPU I cancelled the order for the AMD board, but now it's all a moot point anyway as the mobo is making the journey with it! Deb and EV I'm grateful from the bottom of my heart for the parts and good luck with the build Ogami! Thanks for the advice Looking forward to seeing some pictures in the build thread I'll post some up of ours once done and you will be able to see how the transplant went

Thankyou again, what a great community we have <3