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Gaming PC on budget suggestions.


procreate

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So my son wants a gaming PC, at least to play CS:go on. I told him I would pay for half but he has to search out parts and build it (obviously with my help)... But being out of things I am not sure what one needs for decent gaming on PC without spending a small fortune. Seems fairly easy to build one with no spending limit, but finding a good balance between money and power is more difficult.

 

Anyway thought maybe I could pick your brains about what's good currently on a budget.

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So my son wants a gaming PC, at least to play CS:go on. I told him I would pay for half but he has to search out parts and build it (obviously with my help)... But being out of things I am not sure what one needs for decent gaming on PC without spending a small fortune. Seems fairly easy to build one with no spending limit, but finding a good balance between money and power is more difficult.

 

Anyway thought maybe I could pick your brains about what's good currently on a budget.

 

I gotchu... Budget? Also CS go runs easily on most hardware...

 

Does he have 144hz monitor? Does he need a monitor/mouse/keyboard/headset etc too?

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Just mobo/CPU/memory/GPU/HDD/case... He may splurge for keyboard and mouse on his own dime.

 

I was thinking somewhere in $600-700 range for those items. Have PSU/monitor/keyboard/mouse already. I have some HDDs and possible a SDD I may let him have after I bit copy it. It has my win10 upgrade on it from my workstation I bitcopied from my win7 SDD so I would have the free upgrade when I felt like moving up to it. I just switched professions about a year ago and no longer really use my workstation as much, though still need it... Just have been using my laptop more.

 

Would a mATX mobo be realistic? He is already looking at the lighted mid towers but I was trying to have him keep it more compact. Space savings. Is i5 adequate? I assume he should splurge most on GPU? Is 8GB RAM enough?

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Just mobo/CPU/memory/GPU/HDD/case... He may splurge for keyboard and mouse on his own dime.

 

I was thinking somewhere in $600-700 range for those items. Have PSU/monitor/keyboard/mouse already. I have some HDDs and possible a SDD I may let him have after I bit copy it. It has my win10 upgrade on it from my workstation I bitcopied from my win7 SDD so I would have the free upgrade when I felt like moving up to it. I just switched professions about a year ago and no longer really use my workstation as much, though still need it... Just have been using my laptop more.

 

Would a mATX mobo be realistic? He is already looking at the lighted mid towers but I was trying to have him keep it more compact. Space savings. Is i5 adequate? I assume he should splurge most on GPU? Is 8GB RAM enough?

an i5 processor would be good enough and 8gb ram is ok for a game such as CSgo.

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Just mobo/CPU/memory/GPU/HDD/case... He may splurge for keyboard and mouse on his own dime.

 

I was thinking somewhere in $600-700 range for those items. Have PSU/monitor/keyboard/mouse already. I have some HDDs and possible a SDD I may let him have after I bit copy it. It has my win10 upgrade on it from my workstation I bitcopied from my win7 SDD so I would have the free upgrade when I felt like moving up to it. I just switched professions about a year ago and no longer really use my workstation as much, though still need it... Just have been using my laptop more.

 

Would a mATX mobo be realistic? He is already looking at the lighted mid towers but I was trying to have him keep it more compact. Space savings. Is i5 adequate? I assume he should splurge most on GPU? Is 8GB RAM enough?

 

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/mfZ3zM

 

Missing a video card since the mining of crypto-currency has the price of video cards sky rocketing. If you do find any in stock they are way above price... Although I may be replacing my RX 470 soon and could sell it to you for a normal price. It would be more than enough to run CS:go

 

Also don't worry about Windows ;)

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What about something like a GTX 1050? Finding those around $130.

 

So just single 8gb ram stick? Well at least he can add another 8gb later. Part of why I want him to build it himself so he can learn how it's put together and how stuff works so he can upgrade/fix it himself later on.

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Also is it worth going the AMD route being on a budget. I have always stuck to intel, except my htpc which was a budget build on amd... And right now even with a gtx950 GPU it can no longer handle the HD ota streams from networks.

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What about something like a GTX 1050? Finding those around $130.

 

So just single 8gb ram stick? Well at least he can add another 8gb later. Part of why I want him to build it himself so he can learn how it's put together and how stuff works so he can upgrade/fix it himself later on.

 

Exactly why I picked a board that has 4 ram slots available. Upgradability. You could throw in an i7 with 32 gigs of ram and a GTX 1080 TI and turn it into a  beast PC

 

As for a video card I'd go with a 1060 if you can find one. Preferably the 6 gig model cause 3 isn't really enough. The 1060 is double the performance of a 1050

 

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Also is it worth going the AMD route being on a budget. I have always stuck to intel, except my htpc which was a budget build on amd... And right now even with a gtx950 GPU it can no longer handle the HD ota streams from networks.

 

No AMD, they're first generation and although cheaper it would only be a difference of maybe $50. Intel is on their 8th generation and has pretty much got it down by now lol

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You weren't kidding about the mining fiasco... Really screwing up GPU for regular people.

 

http://www.pcgamer.com/its-a-terrible-time-to-buy-a-graphics-card/

 

1060 is his whole budget. 1050 2gb are around $150 still. He can upgrade once this mining stuff has died down .

 

I saw a 1070 TI for around MSRP but it's very rare to find now

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1050ti are $300-400, The bitminers are kind of annoying. I was wanting a 1080ti when they were $699 and then got distracted with a new business... Now they are >$1200. It's insane. Not even the animation studio render farms have impacted supply like this. Hope the market crashes soon. I've just told him to get a 1050 for $150 until market corrects itself. It's really this recent Bitcoin boom causing issues... Just didn't realize how bad. Would love if we could find a 4gb card for $200... But unrealistic.

 

This is whole reason though why I am making him research it and build it himself. So he knows the costs, what he needs to take it to next level and how to upgrade it.

 

So he ended up with a mobo with 2x m.2 slots, found a Samsung m.2 SSD for $100... Going to make it his OS drive. For $20 more than sata SSD it's current system splurge. I tried to find a mATX with optical out for his Astro mixamp but only ATX seemed to have it. Guess he could buy a soundcard for one but then it just adds to cost.

 

Going to go with CPU you recommend. Similar memory. I don't remember memory being this high either. I have 32gb of Corsair dominator memory in my workstation and don't remember spending this much for it.

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I don't remember memory being this high either. I have 32gb of Corsair dominator memory in my workstation and don't remember spending this much for it.

 

I got 16 gigs for the price of that 8 so I don't know what's happening.

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1050ti are $300-400, The bitminers are kind of annoying. I was wanting a 1080ti when they were $699 and then got distracted with a new business... Now they are >$1200. It's insane. Not even the animation studio render farms have impacted supply like this. Hope the market crashes soon. I've just told him to get a 1050 for $150 until market corrects itself. It's really this recent Bitcoin boom causing issues... Just didn't realize how bad. Would love if we could find a 4gb card for $200... But unrealistic.

 

This is whole reason though why I am making him research it and build it himself. So he knows the costs, what he needs to take it to next level and how to upgrade it.

 

So he ended up with a mobo with 2x m.2 slots, found a Samsung m.2 SSD for $100... Going to make it his OS drive. For $20 more than sata SSD it's current system splurge. I tried to find a mATX with optical out for his Astro mixamp but only ATX seemed to have it. Guess he could buy a soundcard for one but then it just adds to cost.

 

Going to go with CPU you recommend. Similar memory. I don't remember memory being this high either. I have 32gb of Corsair dominator memory in my workstation and don't remember spending this much for it.

https://slickdeals.net/share/iphone_app/fp/358503

 

Can’t beat that

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DRAM and NAND shortages.

That and I'm completely ignorant to this whole crypto currency thing. Seems completely ridiculous to me. Wasting energy for mining fictitious money whose value goes up and down almost as fictitiously as it's created, let alone spending it. Guess I just have my head in the sand on this one. Some of us have actual work that needs to be done this is impeding upon.

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So I ended up just getting him a Dell Inspiron laptop, i7quad/8gb RAM, expandable to 32gb, 128gbSSD+1tbHDD, gtx1050-4gb video. Not too bad at $799 and portable for college. If he takes care of it should last a long while. Was $1000.

 

I know it probably won't run as fast as desktop and misses him building it... Which that's the biggest loss of it, but maybe he will take some interest in building one later on. I have to upgrade my htpc now that my ota HD signals have become too difficult for the computer to handle. It's old as dirt running a AMD athalon x2 I think. Has a GTX 950 so it plays HD movies just fine off HDD, but my antenna won't work anymore. I'll just have him help me build that instead so he learns how.

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So I ended up just getting him a Dell Inspiron laptop, i7quad/8gb RAM, expandable to 32gb, 128gbSSD+1tbHDD, gtx1050-4gb video. Not too bad at $799 and portable for college. If he takes care of it should last a long while. Was $1000.

 

I know it probably won't run as fast as desktop and misses him building it... Which that's the biggest loss of it, but maybe he will take some interest in building one later on. I have to upgrade my htpc now that my ota HD signals have become too difficult for the computer to handle. It's old as dirt running a AMD athalon x2 I think. Has a GTX 950 so it plays HD movies just fine off HDD, but my antenna won't work anymore. I'll just have him help me build that instead so he learns how.

https://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/7s434f/this_is_why_gamers_hate_miners_so_much/?st=JCQ8IP5U&sh=261460a4

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Man that is disgusting... And comments made my morning read. On side note, my htpc has decided to start shutting down on it's own :( need to check the event log and see what's up with it... Just haven't had a moment to do so.

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