General advice on building a budget PC for very light gaming

Whiffle

Whiffle

Whiffle

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27 Jul 2009
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Hi there.

I am after a cheap build that can play some older games at lower resolutions - i.e. nothing that requires a dedicated graphics card. In particular, BeamnG.

I already have a case and PSU (350w Super Flower) and am thinking of going with a Ryzen 5 5600G.

I have not built a PC in quite a while and would be grateful for some general advice:

1. What RAM specs should I be using with the Ryzen 5? I have heard that it can be a bit picky, given that the APU shares the RAM.
2. Will 16GB RAM be enough for the time being? Will the system take much of a hit if I buy a single 16GB stick, with a view to possibly upgrading or should I go with 2x8GB instead?
3. Are there any budget motherboards that I should be looking at, in particular?
4. I am going to need at least 1TB of storage for the time being. Should I go SSD or NVME?
 
Whiffle said:
1. What RAM specs should I be using with the Ryzen 5? I have heard that it can be a bit picky, given that the APU shares the RAM.
Click to expand...

3200 or above, but obviously don't pay silly money for the RAM, or you might as well buy a cheap GPU like RX 460 or 470.

Whiffle said:
2. Will 16GB RAM be enough for the time being?
Click to expand...

Yes, though I'd try to avoid ending up with x16 memory with only 4 memory chips, which is unfortunately rather common with 8GB sticks nowadays.

With the price of memory right now, I'd be inclined to just get a 32GB kit straight away.

Whiffle said:
Will the system take much of a hit if I buy a single 16GB stick, with a view to possibly upgrading or should I go with 2x8GB instead?
Click to expand...

Do not buy single channel memory for an APU.

Whiffle said:
4. I am going to need at least 1TB of storage for the time being. Should I go SSD or NVME?
Click to expand...

NVME.
 
Thanks guys - really helpful stuff.

Tetras said:
Yes, though I'd try to avoid ending up with x16 memory with only 4 memory chips, which is unfortunately rather common with 8GB sticks nowadays.
Click to expand...
I had never come across this before - is this the physical number of chips on the RAM itself?

mickyflinn said:
To add further what case do you have as that will define motherboard sizes and do you need WiFi
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I have two cases - one that can support mATX and one that can take a full ATX.

WiFi would also be useful. I have only ever used USB dongles but if it is cheaper to have it built in, that would be good as well.
 
2 motherboards to choose from both with WiFi, one matx and the other atx.

Gone 32gb memory but this can be dropped to 16 GB if required.

1tb pcie4 m2.

5600g comes with stock cooler but may want to invest in a quieter cooler.

My basket at OcUK:

Total: £496.94 (includes delivery: £7.99)​

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Whiffle said:
I had never come across this before - is this the physical number of chips on the RAM itself?
Click to expand...

Yes. If you google KVR32N22S6/8 and KVR32N22S8/8 (each with pdf, to find the data sheet), they're both 8GB DDR4-3200, but the first is x16 with 4 memory chips (scroll down to the bottom of the pdf), the second is x8 with 8 memory chips. You want 8 chips. FYI: DDR5 is less impacted by the issue.
 
My thoughts on RAM - If you're budget concious then I think 16GB is fine, you can't run any games on an APU that would need a ton of Video memory + System memory as they probably wouldn't have a decent fps anyway... even if a game used 4GB on the 'GPU' you're still left with 12GB system memory.
The 5600G 'technically' only supports 3200mhz but will likely do 3600 with a half decent mobo, going for 16GB saves you about £30ish, so something to consider.

If you can use wired then that saves on a wifi card/mobo with wifi.
 
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