Budget setup to play Planet Coaster

Mark M

Mark M

Mark M

Soldato
Joined
6 Jan 2006
Posts
3,423
Location
Newcastle upon Tyne
Used to be a massive fan of Roller Coaster Tycoon and have just seen that Planet Coaster is coming out soon so will be good to visit my youth and give this new one a go! My PC is about 10 years old, was half decent at the time I could probably do with a new one anyway as something is probably going to give up the ghost at some point.

Below is the game spec so could someone suggest a budget build for this? I wont be playing any more complex games than this. I can keep the existing HDD as a backup drive but Id like an SSD in there as the main drive. Will also keep existing monitor, mouse and monitor. Case is ok but might fancy a new one.

Operating System (OS): Microsoft Windows 7, 8 or 10 (64-bit only)
Processor (CPU): Intel Core i5-2300 (or better), AMD FX-4300 (or better)
Memory (RAM): 8GB DDR3 Ram
Graphics Card (GPU): Nvidia GTX 560 / ATI Radeon 7850 2GB (or better)
Storage Space: 6GB
DirectX: Version 11

Thanks.
 
 
Thanks for the spec, looks great. You have included an i3 processor but the spec says i5? Will that matter at all or is the i3 you have included more powerful that the required i5?
 
It was the upcoming planetc coaster that made me build a pc recently too! Game looks so good.

I would however say that if you can go to an rx470 gpu it would be worth it for this. Game is apparently quite intensive and the last thing you want is roller coaster track with low resolution squareness to it.
 
The specs listed are minimums and old hardware, the i5 in that list was discontinued 2012 I think, quad core, 4 core - 4 thread, 2.8Ghz.

The i3 listed is a 2 core -4 thread, 3.7Ghz and reasonably capable.

I will assume the game benefits from four cores/threads due to that minimum spec list.

An i5 adds about £80 to £120 to the bill, £180 for a 2.7Ghz 6400 i5, and £230 for a 3.9Ghz 6600K. And still only offers 4 threads, but the 6600K is the gaming CPU of choice for higher end gaming systems.

A budget gaming system is just that, and with some games starting to require four threads the i3 is the cheapest option until Intel release a cheaper Pentium Quad core.

I would rather have four threads at a high clock for that game, maybe even 16gb if they are saying 8 as a minimum? It would be worth asking on their forum too.

https://forums.planetcoaster.com/showthread.php/7335-Can-my-computer-run-Planet-Coaster/page2


Set a budget as well as it may make it easier to spec a PC, if you plan on upgrading the PC through time, than it's worth a little more investment in core components such as the motherboard.
 
Sorry, I should have said what I was looking to spend but somewhere in the £500 region if possible.
 
Almost the build that Lemin posted above, swapped to an RX470 4GB and with an i5 if you can stretch to it. This doesn't include the OS by the way- your post doesn't say if you need this or not.

I included only one fan as the PSU will exhaust on this case, and the GPU I included will too as it is a blower style.

My basket at Overclockers UK:

Total: £568.93
(includes shipping: £0.00)
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What case and PSU do you currently have?
 
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Thanks looks a good build for the price. Is is worth paying the extra and going for a i5-6600 if its the CPu of choice?

My case is just a cheap generic thing but Im not adverse to reusing it and I have no idea what the PSU is but I think I bought it for my previous rig so it could be 10+years easy.
 
It's another £20 for the i5-6600 which only gets you an extra 0.1 Ghz. It's then another £20 again for the i5-6600k which is a decent jump up but to make the most of it you would need a better Z170 motherboard as well, and a 3rd party cooler.

Unless you are willing to pay for the 6600k chip with the extras I think the 6500 is a better choice than the 6600.


Edit - sorry I've just seen that the 6500 turbo boosts to 3.6 Ghz whereas the 6600 turbo boosts to 3.9 Ghz, so there is a bit more of a difference there than I thought. For £20 more it could be worth it.
 
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