Old Man's Budget Gaming Build

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SidDithers

Commendable
Aug 12, 2016
5
0
1,510
Hi folks,
all parts for this build except the motherboard have already been purchased. Prices are in Canadian funds. Let me know your take on this ultra-budget build. For use with Fallout 4 and (hopefully) Civ 6. Are these 2 mobo's worthy for this build or should I consider a better board? Hoping to overclock to a stable 4.1 Ghz. Any suggestions regarding this build is greatly appreciated. Thanks.

MOBO's
1) ASRock Z170 Pro4S Socket 1151 ATX
$139.99 (After Mail-in Rebate$104.99)
http://www.canadacomputers.com/product_info.php?cPath=26_1207_1206_1460&item_id=086881&sid=v66jpjfik7evbudhoe3vk7t1n6
OR
2) ASRock Z170A-X1/3.1
$134.98 (After Mail In Rebate: $99.98)
http://www.ncix.com/detail/asrock-z170a-x1-3-1-intel-skylake-1151-84-122225.htm
*************************** Parts already purchased **************************
CPU
Pentium g4500 cpu $84.98
http://www.ncix.com/detail/intel-pentium-processor-g4500-3m-c6-116973.htm

MEMORY
Kingston HyperX Fury Black 16G 2X8GB 2133MHZ DDR4 Non-ECC CL14DIMM Dual Channel Memory $89.98
http://www.ncix.com/detail/kingston-hyperx-fury-black-16g-d5-128866.htm

PSU $84.98 before $10.00 MIR
XFX 550W TS Series 80+ Bronze Single Rail ATX 12V 44A 24PIN ATX Power Supply (made by Seasonic but branded under XFX)
http://www.ncix.com/detail/xfx-550w-ts-series-80-a0-59615.htm

GPU $138.98 before $10.00 MIR
XFX Radeon R9 360 2GB GDDR5,2x DVI, HDMI, Dual Fan, DirectX 12
http://www.ncix.com/products/?sku=SY5517490

SSD
Kingston HyperX Fury 120GB 2.5” SATA 3 Solid State Drive (SSD)
$59.99
http://www.ncix.com/detail/kingston-hyperx-fury-120gb-2-5-5f-100151.htm#CustomerReviews

Total: w/o mobo 458.91 CDN or approx US 350.00 US

 
Solution
g-unit1111
2. You'd be better off forgetting OCing the pentium, and picking up an i3+ H110 board. A Z170 board + The pentium is going to put you over/around $210 with a Dual-Core (before rebates, of course). An i3 + H110 board, so no OCing, but stronger performance, comes in at the same cost originally, and can have a $25 rebate:
Click to expand...

Yeah I agree 100% here. I would drop that and invest the difference in getting a Core i3-6100 and possibly a GTX 950 if you can afford it.

That looks pretty decent. A few suggestions I would make:

1. Drop the 16GB of RAM to 8GB. You can always add the other 8GB if you need it.

2. With the money saved upgrade your SSD to a Samsung 850 Evo - much better drive than the Kingston.

3. That GPU is OK, better would be...
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Barty1884

Barty1884

Retired Moderator
Apr 16, 2015
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Can you still return any components? As you're on totally the wrong track there.

For example:
1. There is no 'R9 360', there's an R7 360. The link shows $160, but even at $140 it's overpriced for what it is. That's a $125-$135 card most places, and it's a pretty pointless purchase. A R7 370 (a good bit better than a 360) can be had for $150.... or a GTX 950 for ~$160-$170.

2. You'd be better off forgetting OCing the pentium, and picking up an i3+ H110 board. A Z170 board + The pentium is going to put you over/around $210 with a Dual-Core (before rebates, of course). An i3 + H110 board, so no OCing, but stronger performance, comes in at the same cost originally, and can have a $25 rebate:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i3-6100 3.7GHz Dual-Core Processor ($147.98 @ DirectCanada)
Motherboard: ASRock H110M-DGS Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($39.98 @ NCIX)
Total: $187.96
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-08-18 20:39 EDT-0400

3. A 120GB SSD doesn't hold too much these days. You could get an A-Data 240GB for $75

4. Good choice on the PSU, but it's a bit overpriced. You could have similar quality, for a little less, without having to worry about rebates - the SeaSonic S12II 520W

5. "RAM is RAM". $90 is a bit high for 2x8GB. $70 is more like it.

I've essentially changed the whole build, but here it is:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i3-6100 3.7GHz Dual-Core Processor ($147.98 @ DirectCanada)
Motherboard: ASRock H110M-DGS Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($39.98 @ NCIX)
Memory: GeIL EVO POTENZA 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2400 Memory ($69.99 @ Newegg Canada)
Storage: A-Data Premier SP550 240GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($74.99 @ DirectCanada)
Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 950 75W 2GB Video Card ($159.00 @ Vuugo)
Power Supply: SeaSonic S12II 520W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($79.99 @ Newegg Canada)
Total: $571.93
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-08-18 20:43 EDT-0400

Of course, that assumes you can return most of it.
 
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g-unit1111

g-unit1111

Titan
Moderator
Jul 27, 2011
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2. You'd be better off forgetting OCing the pentium, and picking up an i3+ H110 board. A Z170 board + The pentium is going to put you over/around $210 with a Dual-Core (before rebates, of course). An i3 + H110 board, so no OCing, but stronger performance, comes in at the same cost originally, and can have a $25 rebate:
Click to expand...

Yeah I agree 100% here. I would drop that and invest the difference in getting a Core i3-6100 and possibly a GTX 950 if you can afford it.

That looks pretty decent. A few suggestions I would make:

1. Drop the 16GB of RAM to 8GB. You can always add the other 8GB if you need it.

2. With the money saved upgrade your SSD to a Samsung 850 Evo - much better drive than the Kingston.

3. That GPU is OK, better would be a GTX 950. But I'm not sure if that's possible on your budget.

What about case? I didn't see a case listed.
 
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Solution
Chugalug_

Chugalug_

Titan
Jan 28, 2016
16,502
4
74,965
Ditto.
8GB of RAM, an i3 6100, and a 750ti/950 is the best option here.
Drop the Z170 board and get a H110M budget board like the Gigabyte H110M-A.
Leave out the SSD, as you will need a decent sized hard drive to store games etc.
Get the WD Caviar Blue 1TB.
 
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S

SidDithers

Commendable
Aug 12, 2016
5
0
1,510
Very good answers from all so far. Thank you. I haven't yet unboxed the Pentium, so perhaps I can exchange it for the i3-6100 and go with the H110M-A. Although I was impressed with the g4500's benchmarks alongside the i3-6100. That's why I thought it would be worthy running it o'clocked on a Z170 until the more expensive Skylakes fall in price. http://www.cpu-world.com/Compare/292/Intel_Core_i3_i3-6100_vs_Intel_Pentium_Dual-Core_G4500.html Good point concerning the Kingston SSD vs the A-Data Premier. I may be able to exchange the SSD, but I have to go with the 16GB RAM ( exchange only on defective). If I cannot exchange the G4500, should I forget over clocking and run it on the Gigabyte H110M-A?
 
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Barty1884

Barty1884

Retired Moderator
Apr 16, 2015
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The Pentium has decent price vs performance results when viewed on single-threaded applications. Realistically, 'gaming' isn't very 'single-threaded' these days (albeit some games are). Some newer titles point-blank refuse to run on dual-cores though, so that's what limits the feasibility of a pentium-based 'gaming' rig in 2016+.

If you can't exchange the Pentium, you have to OC it. It's almost worthless without it, it's pretty much the only reason to buy it. Then you'll have a Z170 board for a future upgrade (And an $85 'lesson' with the Pentium).

16GB RAM certainly isn't going to hurt, but it wouldn't have been where I would've spent the money. Since you can't return it (unless it turns out to be defective), then use it.
 
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Chugalug_

Chugalug_

Titan
Jan 28, 2016
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Yep. It may perform similarly, but realistically it has half the cores of the i3, and will bottleneck in generally any reasonably demanding gaming application.

Give me a budget for your remaining parts including the CPU, i'll put something together.
Also as I said above, return the graphics card if you can! ;.;

 
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S

SidDithers

Commendable
Aug 12, 2016
5
0
1,510
I appreciate the speedy and erudite input regarding this build. You guys are good. I realize now that the better build would have been to allocate more funds for GPU and CPU, placing the two into a budget board which could be upgraded later. It's better to clarify that: I'm so far behind the gaming crest that I still enjoy older games that were published almost five years ago. There are so many older titles in the Steam (and elsewhere) budget bins that I look forward to playing now. Therefore, I shall use (and possibly overclock) the G4500 in a z170 mobo. For it will permit me to enjoy a bevy of older games until I'm ready to upgrade with a better cpu (Wifey gets the old system :-D). The SSD drive is to run a speedy dual Windows 10 and Linux config, regardless of gaming (I'll go with this one http://www.canadacomputers.com/product_info.php?cPath=179_1229_1088&item_id=095459&sid=1llsjg2r5cqauc03s5vvuq7qh7 ). I have several TB drives and cases kicking around from previous systems, and so I shall use them in this build. Many thanks.
 
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g-unit1111

g-unit1111

Titan
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Jul 27, 2011
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I appreciate the speedy and erudite input regarding this build. You guys are good. I realize now that the better build would have been to allocate more funds for GPU and CPU, placing the two into a budget board which could be upgraded later. It's better to clarify that: I'm so far behind the gaming crest that I still enjoy older games that were published almost five years ago.
Click to expand...

I hear that. There's so much stuff out there now that it's almost impossible to keep up with everything.
 
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