Advice on building a budget gaming PC (Canada) from an old timer

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avsky_

Commendable
Nov 26, 2016
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1,510
Hey guys,

It has been at least 12 years since I built a PC, and I'm extremely out-of-the-loop with parts and have been busily trying to bring self up to speed. I've recently moved to Canada and want to build a budget gaming rig to finally make use of those Steam sales over the years and would really appreciate your help!

Budget: as close to $500 (CAD) as possible

Primary Use: Gaming, 1080p only. Titles mainly like The Witcher 3, perhaps some newer upcoming games like Spacehulk: Deathwing and Fallout 4.

Overclocking: haven't done this for ages, so I'm leaning towards NO but if I can OC something and squeeze some power for less $$$, then I'm all for it

I am planning to buy the parts staggered, not all at once but would like to start purchasing things ASAP. As such, I'm only looking for 8GB RAM which is cheap and easy enough to upgrade later on. I do plan on installing a primary SSD in future but not important right now.

As for the GPU - Looking around and trying to research, the SAPPHIRE RX 470 looks nice and should keep me going for a few years to come (???). I know there are cheaper and similar performance cards - that's where I'm asking for help & advice. Anything that's on par or close enough that I can run things 1080P with a minimum 30FPS, I'm happy to shave off as much as possible.

With that said, here's my base build for you to criticise:

[PCPartPicker part list](https://ca.pcpartpicker.com/list/mrMsnn) / [Price breakdown by merchant](https://ca.pcpartpicker.com/list/mrMsnn/by_merchant/)


*CPU Intel Core i3-6100 3.7GHz Dual-Core Processor $134.99 @ Amazon Canada
*Motherboard Gigabyte GA-H110M-A Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard $64.99 @ Newegg Canada
*Memory G.Skill NT Series 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR4-2400 Memory $49.99 @ Newegg Canada
*Storage Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive $57.98 @ DirectCanada
*Video Card Sapphire Radeon RX 470 4GB Video Card $239.99 @ Newegg Canada
*Case Corsair SPEC-01 RED ATX Mid Tower Case $33.99 @ NCIX
*Power Supply Corsair CXM 450W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply $42.98 @ NCIX

*Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts*
Total (before mail-in rebates) $664.91
Mail-in rebates -$40.00
**Total** **$624.91**
 
Solution
Aeacus
Not easy to make it cheaper when you already use the cheapest components.
Still, improved your build a bit.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i3-6100 3.7GHz Dual-Core Processor ($134.99 @ Amazon Canada)
Motherboard: MSI H110M PRO-VD PLUS Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($54.99 @ Amazon Canada)
Memory: G.Skill NT Series 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR4-2400 Memory ($49.99 @ Newegg Canada)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($62.95 @ Vuugo)
Video Card: Zotac GeForce GTX 1060 3GB 3GB Mini Video Card ($239.99 @ NCIX)
Case: Corsair SPEC-01 RED ATX Mid Tower Case ($33.99 @...
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Aeacus

Aeacus

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Mar 21, 2015
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Not easy to make it cheaper when you already use the cheapest components.
Still, improved your build a bit.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i3-6100 3.7GHz Dual-Core Processor ($134.99 @ Amazon Canada)
Motherboard: MSI H110M PRO-VD PLUS Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($54.99 @ Amazon Canada)
Memory: G.Skill NT Series 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR4-2400 Memory ($49.99 @ Newegg Canada)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($62.95 @ Vuugo)
Video Card: Zotac GeForce GTX 1060 3GB 3GB Mini Video Card ($239.99 @ NCIX)
Case: Corsair SPEC-01 RED ATX Mid Tower Case ($33.99 @ NCIX)
Power Supply: SeaSonic S12II 520W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($74.99 @ Newegg Canada)
Total: $651.89
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-11-26 06:30 EST-0500

Few words.

Put in MSI MoBo to reduce the cost.
Switched out the GPU with GTX 1060 3GB. It costs the same as RX 470 while giving about 13% more performance.
comparison: http://gpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Nvidia-GTX-1060-3GB-vs-AMD-RX-470/3646vs3640
Also switched out the low quality Corsair PSU and put in good quality Seasonic PSU.
PSU Tier list: http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/id-2547993/psu-tier-list.html

Sadly, the cost reduction on the MoBo wasn't enough to compensate PSU's higer price and build total did increase about $30.

If you need to reduce the build cost, going for cheaper GPU helps.
Here's a GPU hierarchy table to help you choose one: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gpu-hierarchy,4388.html

For 60 FPS on 1080p, you'll do fine with the GTX 1050 Ti. Even though the GPU hierarchy table doesn't contain GTX 1050 Ti (since the table needs updated with newest GPUs), the GPU performance is on par with GTX 760 that is listed there.
GTX 1050 Ti vs GTX 760, comparison: http://gpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Nvidia-GTX-1050-Ti-vs-Nvidia-GTX-760/3649vs2159
Since i have GTX 760 in my Haswell build (specs in my signature), i can confirm that you'll do just fine with GTX 1050 Ti. Depending on a game, i'm getting solid 60 FPS with my GTX 760 on high/ultra settings.

That being said, here's also a 2nd build that is considered as entry-level/ low-end PC according to the today's standards.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i3-6100 3.7GHz Dual-Core Processor ($134.99 @ Amazon Canada)
Motherboard: MSI H110M PRO-VD PLUS Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($54.99 @ Amazon Canada)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2133 Memory ($52.99 @ Newegg Canada)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($62.94 @ Vuugo)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti 4GB SC GAMING ACX 2.0 Video Card ($169.99 @ NCIX)
Case: Corsair SPEC-01 RED ATX Mid Tower Case ($33.99 @ NCIX)
Power Supply: SeaSonic S12II 430W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($59.99 @ Newegg Canada)
Total: $569.88
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-11-26 06:50 EST-0500

Again few words.

Went with 2x 4GB DDR4 RAM so you can run your RAM in dual channel. 8GB of RAM is enough for low-end PC. You'll bottleneck CPU far before you'll run out of free RAM. Here's also a comparison why using 2 sticks is better, despite the same total amount: http://ram.userbenchmark.com/Compare/HyperX-Fury-DDR4-2133-C14-1x8GB-vs-HyperX-Fury-DDR4-2133-C14-2x4GB/3555vs3554
For GPU, put in GTX 1050 Ti 4GB.
And for PSU, a good quality unit from Seasonic. 430W is more than enough to run your PC. (You'll do fine even with 300W range PSU.)

With this build, you can run The Witcher 3 on medium settings.
results: http://www.game-debate.com/games/index.php?g_id=3443&game=The+Witcher+III&popSysReqRAM=8&p_make=Intel&p_deriv=Core+i3-4370+3.8GHz&gc_make=Nvidia&gc_deriv=GeForce+GTX+1050+Ti+4GB&ram=8&checkSubmit=#systemrequirements
(Note: Since Game Debate doesn't have i3-6100 in their list, i picked the closest match, a i3-4370. i3-6100 is about 4% better than i3-4370.)
 
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Solution
A

avsky_

Commendable
Nov 26, 2016
3
0
1,510


THANK YOU.

I think what I struggled the most with is that I don't know the nuances between brands, running dual-channel and little things like this. It's a massive help! Greatly, greatly appreciated ( ͡ᵔ ͜ʖ ͡ᵔ )
 
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A

avsky_

Commendable
Nov 26, 2016
3
0
1,510


I previously looked after a friend's PC while they were away with a GTX 660 and it ran Witcher 3 on High pretty well which surprised me. I adjusted parts based on your advice: removed HDD as I can probably use an old one, swapped GPU and PSU, still running a single stick of RAM just for the time being, I do plan to add an extra stick in there ... unless you think 2x4GB would be sufficient? Would 16GB be kinda overkill for this build?


PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i3-6100 3.7GHz Dual-Core Processor ($134.99 @ Amazon Canada)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-H110M-A Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($55.24 @ Amazon Canada)
Memory: G.Skill NT Series 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR4-2400 Memory ($49.99 @ Newegg Canada)
Video Card: Zotac GeForce GTX 1060 3GB 3GB Mini Video Card ($239.99 @ NCIX)
Case: Corsair SPEC-01 RED ATX Mid Tower Case ($33.99 @ NCIX)
Power Supply: SeaSonic S12II 430W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($59.99 @ Newegg Canada)
Total: $574.19
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-11-27 02:51 EST-0500

 
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Aeacus

Aeacus

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Mar 21, 2015
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Going for 16GB of RAM is "future proofing" as most people like to say it. Basically, having 16GB of RAM sets you up for playing more demanding games (e.g Deus Ex: Mankind Divided) since those high-end games can use up to 8GB of RAM.

But if you decide to play high-end games then you need to upgrade your CPU from dual-core to quad-core (i5-6400 being the cheapest quad-core CPU).

You can run your games quite fine when using only 1 stick of RAM. Good example is my Haswell build that i haven't got time to upgrade yet (been busy building my Skylake). It too has only 1 stick of 8GB RAM and i've gamed on it quite well.
 
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