Cheapest Decent gaming rig?

Murray

Murray

Murray

Soldato
Joined
18 Sep 2010
Posts
9,468
Location
Sheffield
Hi was wondering what would be the cheapest i could get a gaming rig for even if it can't play everything on high even medium with some lows?

Already have a Case,Monitor,Keyboard and Mouse. :)

Edit : i have a old computer that i got a couple of years ago that i could maybe get some parts from if theres anything that isn't that important.

Edit 2 : just in case you wanted any more information my monitor is a 24" Wide Screen TFT LCD Monitor DIGIMATE DGM, Mouse is a Logitech MX518
 
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The resolution of your monitor is 1920x1200- that's the most important bit of information to consider when building a gaming PC.

The absolute baseline would be the following, possibly with a cheaper PSU if you're willing to risk it (no biscuit guaranteed):

HIS ATI Radeon HD 5670 512MB GDDR5 ICEQ PCI-Express Graphics Card (H567Q512) £71.48
(£59.57) £71.48
(£59.57)
Gigabyte GA-880GM-UD2H AMD 880G (Socket AM3) microATX DDR3 Motherboard £60.67
(£50.56) £60.67
(£50.56)
AMD Athlon II X3 Tri Core 445 3.10GHz (Socket AM3) - Retail £59.99
(£49.99) £59.99
(£49.99)
OCZ StealthXStream 2 500W Power Supply £46.97
(£39.14) £46.97
(£39.14)
GeIL 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz VALUE PLUS Dual Channel (GVP34GB1600C9DC) £38.99
(£32.49) £38.99
(£32.49)
Sub Total : £231.75
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £10.00
VAT is being charged at 20.00% VAT : £48.35
Total : £290.10

If you're willing to spend over that, I'd upgrade the graphics to a 5770 (extra £24), 6850 (£72) or GTX 460 1GB (£92), consider getting a better PSU (£20) and swap the X3 445 for an X4 630 (£16).
 
Thanks doesn't look to bad my current setup i dunno as wasn't me that built it and its died on me, Using my laptop right now.
 
Coolermaster Elite 430 Windowed Case - Black (with 500w Elite Power PSU) £53.61 1 £53.61
Asus M4A78LT-M 760G (Socket AM3) DDR3 Motherboard £41.69 1 £41.69
AMD Athlon II X2 Dual Core 250 3.00GHz (Socket AM3) - Retail £36.59 1 £36.59
OCZ Gold 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-10666C9 1333MHz Low-Voltage Dual Channel (OCZ3G1333LV4GK) £34.03 1 £34.03
Gigabyte GeForce GTS 450 OC 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with FREE Mouse Pad £85.10 1 £85.10
Western Digital RE2 500GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (WD5000YS) £21.27 1 £21.27
LiteOn IHAS124 - DVD±RW (±R DL) / DVD-RAM drive - Serial ATA £9.99 1 £9.99
DPD Next Day Parcel Before 12: £17.75
VAT: £52.51
Order Total: £352.54


This is what i've got.

Serves me very well. Can play everything on top settings, plus the CPU and GPU are so easy to overclock.
 
Awesome- just get my above spec then. Take as many of the upgrades as you can afford (except for the GTX 460 unless you're an nVidia fan, it's not worth paying the extra over the 6850 for)- the X4 630 with a 550VX and a 6850 is an incredible bargain at ~£400 that will max pretty much anything you throw at it, and even the X4 with my original suggested power supply and a 5770 (total £330) will excel at your resolution- just don't expect it to max out the sparkly effects on top games.
 
Seems a very good price wasn't expecting anything this cheap to mange high settings, was going to settle for medium-low if it meant a cheap price. :D
 
Murray said:
Seems a very good price wasn't expecting anything this cheap to mange high settings, was going to settle for medium-low if it meant a cheap price. :D
Click to expand...

Yeah, the value AMD can provide with its old Athlon IIs is incredible- an X4 is still overkill on most games. Although an i5-2500K beats it by a long way in terms of processor performance, you'll see very little difference in games, and it makes you wonder whether it's really worth the extra £200.
 
Much cheaper than this and you're facing severe performance losses for the price difference. All I could honestly recommend would be buying stuff second hand. If you can get a second hand 4850 from the Member's Market, there's a lot of them about, they're cheap (~£50 each iirc) and one will give a 5770 a run for its money. Obviously other parts also represent good value second hand, depending on what you can get hold of.

The X3 445 is the cheapest I'd go in the processor department, as an X2 will struggle and make a lot of games unplayable. The X4 is a good upgrade for the price, as that extra core is pretty handy now, and means your computer will be capable at up-and-coming games as well as present.

Certainly if you went with the 5670, you can afford a massive drop in PSU power even from the cheap one I mentioned, but I struggled to find one any cheaper that I could personally recommend.
 
Thanks. :D


is it worth checking my old rig for parts can remember it running most games well about 2-3 years ago, What would you suggest looking at?
 
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Depending on how old your rig is and what still works, some of it may be passable. Obviously the optical drive, case and hard drive will easily move, but to comment otherwise, I'd need to see your build.

Important points:
-What motherboard/RAM? (especially socket type)
-What's the graphics card?
-What PSU do you have and how old is it?

Also of course, whether the above actually work.
 
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