Budget PC

viiofix

viiofix

viiofix

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Joined
19 Oct 2015
Posts
22
Hi guys

I was given some great help around this time last year and the rig I got out of that has been great :D

My Fiancée is moaning now though about the super old hand-me-down that she has to play on, so I've said I'll get her a budget PC for her birthday to improve her quality if life on that front, instead of buying her clothes and other useless guff.

How does the following look for a cheap-as-chips build for World of Warcraft? She'd only play World of Warcraft and possibly browse the web. Our little girl might want to put Minecraft and possibly Rocket League on it too, but nothing cutting-edge or majorly demanding.

My basket at Overclockers UK:

Total: £368.93
(includes shipping: £0.00)
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Should I get a cooler and overclock the CPU to get the most out of it?

Is there any merit in getting a B-grade mobo?

There's a B-grade ATX mobo for the same price as this one - case would need swapping:

My basket at Overclockers UK:


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or even the B-grade version of the micro-ATX board:

My basket at Overclockers UK:


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I have a HDD for additional storage, Windows, keyboard, mouse, monitor (though this would be the next upgrade as it's not even 1080p and has an unrelated annoying problem).
 
If you can save any money and put it toward a 1060 3gb card it would do wonders. You could also most likely get more overclocking headroom with a Z97 motherboard.

I find 120gb SSD paired with 1tb HDD suits both my kids fine, my own G3258 runs on a Z97 motherboard with a 120gb OS and 500gb storage.

You could take things even further with socket 1151 though.

My basket at Overclockers UK:

Total: £491.94
(includes shipping: £0.00)
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Thanks for your input sastusbulbas, much appreciated. How do you find the G3258? Have you overclocked it?

I hope to keep this as cheap and cheerful as possible. I have a small bonus coming from work but would like to replace my decade-old bike leathers/helmet as well - safety n all that - so don't want to spend too much on this. The missus is currently playing on an Intel Core 2 Quad Pro, 2 gig DDR2 and a Radeon HD 4670 so this is going to be a big improvement regardless :D

Stepping up to 1151, DDR4 and getting a much better graphics card is a bit overkill I think, in terms of cost vs need. The 460 seems to get decent FPS in more graphically intensive games than WoW and she just needs to be able to get through some of the more populated areas with a half-decent framerate. At the moment the game almost grinds to a halt when there are more than a handful of people around. Solo PvE is generally fine.

Some things I was keeping in mind:

- I did want that case/PSU combo but they're out of stock.

- I've never overclocked. Any little boost I dare try and get out of the G3258 is a bonus - hence sticking to 1150/H81. I understand Z97 gives me more scope for overclocking but I don't see myself doing much on that front. H81 still allows for a better 1150 CPU to be put in at a later date IF it ever comes to it, right? (like my i5-4690k if/when I ever upgrade - though I'd probably upgrade socket too so she'd just get my mobo as well...)

- the 240GB SSD is only £20 more and gives a bit more breathing room for space. I've half-filled my 240GB with not much at all whilst trying to put non-primary games on my 1TB HDD. I agree that the SSD+HDD combo is good.

- I've tried to do my research. I looked everything up and it would all appear to work together, give the performance I'm looking for and fit in the case - confirmation would be great though :)

Thanks again
 
If WoW is the main game they'll be playing, then core speed is king.

The G3258 is a decent little chip, but it's constrained a bit by no hyperthreading. The opportunity to swap in your 4690K at a later date could be a good shout though.

Might be worth tracking down a motherboard with an overclocking BIOS available - I think it was called "Non-Z OC" or something like that, which allowed the G3258 to be overclocked on H81/B85 boards.
 
Would an APU not be a better bet here? I'm not too familiar with the finer point of optimisation for WoW but for saving money an APU is a great option. The price difference from the first build to the second is over £100 which is a lot at that price point
 
Hey kaku; thanks for pointing out that the G3258 can't be overclocked on the H81M-K board, that's just the kind of thing I thought I'd miss.

I might go for the B-Grade Z97P-D3 then. It's the same price and a better board. Given how basic I intend to make this build I can't imagine I'll miss anything that's missing from the box to make it B-Grade (if anything).

Everything I've read suggests that the G3258 even at stock speeds will be fine for WoW. A small overclock will make it better, gives me some experience tinkering and if I get the Z97 board then I can still hand down my 4690K at some point in the future if something better opens up for me. Looking around I can't see anything that will beat the B-Grade Z97 whilst keeping the cost as low as possible.

That being said I've not been able to find any info on what hardware component most affects coping with lots of players on screen at a time. Is it safe to assume the CPU is doing the bulk of the legwork in situations where you're surrounded by other players?

Roverno from what I can tell the Intel is the best chip around this price. I'm avoiding the second build suggested as it's socket 1151 and DDR4 which quickly ramps the cost up as you say.
 
Gonna go with the following then unless anyone knows of any incompatibility issues:

My basket at Overclockers UK:

Total: £306.95
(includes shipping: £0.00)
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SSD is out of stock so I'll grab it elsewhere.

A shame cos I'd like to get everything from one place and have had no problems with OCUK in the past. It's only one bit though and getting everything else bundled together AND free delivery works out great!

Could even have it all by tomorrow if ordered by mid-afternoon today.
 
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