Trying to get a cheap PC, slightly above par with current-gen consoles (PS4). Could anyone help me?

Borty The Bort

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I have been a console gamer since I've been born, but I'd really like to move to the PC platform, due to games like Hearts of Iron and CK2 having piqued my interest. Could anyone give me any advice as to how much that would cost me? So far I've found good guides on Reddit, with one of the best deals I've found is worth about $400 - $450 (Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/pcmasterrace/wiki/builds#wiki_the_crusher)

Is there anyone who could offer any good ways of cutting down on cost? I admit I am afraid to start PC building, due to the fact I'm clumsy and have a tendency to break things, so if anyone could offer advice on that behalf I would be grateful.

Also, the reason I'm not posting this on Tech Discussion is because I don't think I would get enough people providing advice. Sorry about that.
 

Avnger

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Borty The Bort said:
I have been a console gamer since I've been born, but I'd really like to move to the PC platform, due to games like Hearts of Iron and CK2 having piqued my interest. Could anyone give me any advice as to how much that would cost me? So far I've found good guides on Reddit, with one of the best deals I've found is worth about $400 - $450 (Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/pcmasterrace/wiki/builds#wiki_the_crusher)

Is there anyone who could offer any good ways of cutting down on cost? I admit I am afraid to start PC building, due to the fact I'm clumsy and have a tendency to break things, so if anyone could offer advice on that behalf I would be grateful.

Also, the reason I'm not posting this on Tech Discussion is because I don't think I would get enough people providing advice. Sorry about that.
Not sure if you've used it before, but https://pcpartpicker.com/ is a good site to play around with swapping in/out different levels of parts once you have a rough idea of what your price range and needs for power are.

I can't really help you more than that =/
 

Kyrian007

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Try not to be so nervous. Assembly and basic maintenance of computer hardware is easier than a lot of people fear it will be. Just watch a youtube tutorial or 2 and you'll be fine. And as far as cost, be sure to read customer reviews of parts and sellers and they will give you a good idea of what you are buying.

General hardware working tip, static electricity is your enemy. Particularly cheap parts may be especially susceptible. But that's easy enough to correct, try not to work on carpet and ground yourself before you start. If you have to work in a carpeted area, mix a 10:1 of water and fabric softener, put it in a spray bottle, and lightly spray the carpet you will be working on. High humidity is bad for electronics... but it also lessens static electricity. So don't work in air that's too dry. Also, a good set of tools for the tiny screws involved isn't usually that expensive. And if you just are going to use tools you have lying around the house... make sure you aren't using (or are careful with) magnetic tipped screwdrivers. Best to avoid those altogether.
 

iamzim101

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You could try logical Increments http://www.logicalincrements.com/ For a basic look on what you could by. Gives estimates on prices and performance on common games.
 

Bob_McMillan

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Kyrian007 said:
... make sure you aren't using (or are careful with) magnetic tipped screwdrivers. Best to avoid those altogether.
Oh man, in high school for computer class we would assemble and disassemble PCs using magnet tipped screwdrivers all the time. They were old obsolete PCs, but I can just imagine one of my batchmates fucking up his PC because of that.

OT: I think it would be useful if you supplied information on where you live. When I was trying to get into PC people kept on referring me to pcpartpicker or Newegg or deals on Amazon, but all of that was useful to me as I live in a country where online purchases aren't quite a thing yet.
 

Adam Jensen_v1legacy

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This is a solid entry-level gaming build, but it's a bit over your budget and it doesn't include the operating system: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/jgz96X
 

Kyrian007

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Bob_McMillan said:
Kyrian007 said:
... make sure you aren't using (or are careful with) magnetic tipped screwdrivers. Best to avoid those altogether.
Oh man, in high school for computer class we would assemble and disassemble PCs using magnet tipped screwdrivers all the time. They were old obsolete PCs, but I can just imagine one of my batchmates fucking up his PC because of that.

OT: I think it would be useful if you supplied information on where you live. When I was trying to get into PC people kept on referring me to pcpartpicker or Newegg or deals on Amazon, but all of that was useful to me as I live in a country where online purchases aren't quite a thing yet.
It usually won't be a problem unless the screwdrivers have unusually strong magnetic tips, but I have seen them do damage. Static too, the company I work for bought really cheap parts for some rack mounted audio processors and satellite receivers. Then several months ago one of our hosts grabbed his microphone (about 4 feet away from the rack mounts,) felt a static shock, and 3 mic processors and one satellite receiver in the mount died. It also killed that audio port on the sound board which wasn't a cheap part but that's why it just killed that port and not the entire board.
 

iseko

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I understand your pain about the budget. But for me I like investing in the future. If you buy a 450$ pc now. In two years (max) it will be pretty obsolete. Depending on what you are buying now it is going to be pain to upgrade.

What I did (1.5 years back) was buy a 900$ pc at the start of the new SKYLAKE CPU generation. Basically

i5 (dont need i7 for gaming)
1*8 gig ram (put in a second plack of ram 2 months ago)
gtx 970 (past generations of the X70 series were always better or on par with the (X+1)60 series. So far this holds up. the GTx 1060 performance wise is similar to the 970. So I will prob upgrade the GPU with a 1170 when it comes out)
2gb HDD (allthough prices are weird now, you are better off buying 3gb. More GB/$)
256 gb SSD (which I regret, 500gb was a bit more expensive but my 250gb drive is almost always full with 60+ gig games nowadays).
Coolermaster case (they have some nice entry class cases, around 40$ but very good)

Another point: buy a 22-25 inch screen at 1080p resolution and no higher. Its good enough and else you are going to seriously fuck with your gpu. 4k is nice but requires high end GPU's.

My point is, I will probably upgrade this pc in 2 years or so. Right now Im playing titanfall 2, max settings at full hd and never drop below 45 fps (usually stable at 60). In 2-2.5 years its going to be about time for a generation switch from skylake to...? So then it is time to upgrade my pc. Im not talking about upgrading to the new generation (would need to buy a new motherboard and stuff... F that). I mean buying end of stock on the cheap. With an initial investment of 960$ (I think it was) and an upgrade of 300-400$ in total, I'm set for 6-7 years (at least) and prob playing at max settings most of that time.

Buying a 450$ pc is never going to play at max settings. Not having an ssd is going to be a pain in the ass (do they even make pc's without ssd's anymore? xD). You can upgrade it in 2 years but its still not going to run anything very well.

You could always try and buy like a 970 second hand. You can get some good deals from people who want to upgrade to a 1070. And a 970 will kick the shit out of a brand new gt 1050. Which is probably what you are going to be buying if you are budgetting at 450$.

Just my 2 cents

tl;dr:
450$ - shit pc
800-1000$ - playing at 1080p max settings for years with minimal upgrade investments
1500-2500$ pc - 4K gaming but who dafuq has money/time for that?

Edit: if I were you id go for the the exterminator or annihalator in your link. Add an ssd (256gig minimum) and you are good to go imho. Im not a fan of amd cpu's since they use a lot more power and you often dont need 6 cores for gaming... Or rather its not supported by the game. But they are a butload cheaper in initial purchase so there is that.

The gtx1060 is performance/$ the best gpu available. But as stated above. You might be able to find a 970 cheaper secondhand and performance wise it will be the same.
 

JUMBO PALACE

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If all you are really interested in are a couple lower fidelity PC exclusives you could definitely do worse than the PC you linked to. However, speaking as a card carrying member of the PC Master Race here, I'd stay away from building a "budget" gaming PC. What is the point? To have something (admittedly) better than current consoles but a machine that's woefully outdated even before you start buying the parts? No thanks. If you plan on making the PC your main platform going forward save up some dough and get yourself something nice.

The G4560 is not going to hold up and the 1050ti is not a particularly potent GPU. You will have a fresh and shiny new PC but you'll be disappointed that you're not having a religious experience. I wouldn't recommend anything lower than an i5 and a 1060 for a "gaming PC", but this is coming from a guy who spent $700 on a monitor alone. Your mileage may vary.
 

KaraFang

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Just a really REALLY fast hunt.

AMD Ryzen? 3 1200, S AM4, Quad Core, 4 Thread, 3.4GHz, 10MB Cache, 65W, CPU, Retail,+ Wraith Stealth Cooler - ?100
ASUS PRIME B350M-K AMD RYZEN MATX Motherboard - ?66.90
500GB Toshiba SATA III 7200RPM Hard Drive - HDD - ?35
Corsair VS550 550 Watt 80+ White Rated ATX PC Power Supply - ?40
Crucial 8GB (1x8GB) 2133MHz DDR4 - ?60
PALIT NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 3GB DUAL Graphics Card + FREE GAME! - ?197 (ouch)

total = GBP converted to USD 642.37 - I know it's 200 USD above your budget, but I did a VERY quick hunt - With a bit of bargain hunting and offers you could go WAY lower. Also, if you can get some refurbished units from companies (with a guarantee) you could save even more cash. (and UK prices for tech are usually higher than the USA)

The HDD drive could be switched for an SSD and HDD combo, but in most consoles you get the above (they STILL sell the 500gig drive ones in my local game).

One advantage of the above? The quad core Ryzen gives you a LOT of headroom for more powerful GPU's in the future.

The main cost, and major issue you will have right now when on a budget, is crypto-currency miner peeps are forcing the GPU prices in the PC market to be sky high right now : Example is when I bought my 1070, it was ?365 quid, the same GPU at the moment is pushing ?490 due to high demand. So, you could hold out until the GPU's finally drop price a bit.

Monitor - use your TV.

Buy any cheap keyboard/mouse (I leave that up to you. but you can get them for a tenner. I kid you not.)
 

votemarvel

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The only advice I can offer that hasn't been mentioned is to avoid anything branded with "Gaming".

More often than not they carry a hefty markup for little to no performance gains that couldn't just be obtained by a simple overlock.
 

Vausch

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http://www.pcgamer.com/build-guide-the-best-cheap-gaming-pc/ Follow this, check the comments and you'll see a lot of people chime in with alternatives to what they have put in and you'll probably find yourself something nice.

Personally, I'd go a little over budget (500 or so) and buy the parts over the course of a few weeks or months. Keep searching Amazon, Newegg, all the good places and buy the parts when they're on sale with a good discount or promo code available. If you do that, you can easily shave hundreds off your retail price and build a good PC.