Looking for a decent modern gaming-tier PC. Are those iBUYPOWER ones any good? I mostly want to be able to run current games and stuff like SSF (the Saturn emulator), but won't pay more than $500. What are some good deals?
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Looking for a decent modern gaming-tier PC. Are those iBUYPOWER ones any good? I mostly want to be able to run current games and stuff like SSF (the Saturn emulator), but won't pay more than $500. What are some good deals?
The PC you''re going to get for $500 from IBuyPower will likely have to FX-4300 and a graphics card less powerful than what the current consoles have. It also might not have an operating system.
what's a good purchase just for PS2 and Saturn emulation though?
The PS2 stuff will work on a decent core2duo CPU. You'll probably want a quad core like the i5 or the i3 with hyperthreading for the Saturn emulation.Quote:
Originally Posted by Jeckidy
You can pick up a refurbished PC like this from MicroCenter. You'll need to get a good 400 watt power supply and something like an RX-460 or GTX 1050.
http://www.microcenter.com/product/4...se_Refurbished
There you go, all new parts, plus small form factor, transparent case, low power consumption, silent (power supply is inaudible), Intel's recent HD 530 graphics and latest i5 quad core powerhouse. Just get old keyb mouse, monitor and windows elsewhere ;)
http://pcpartpicker.com/list/9zByVY
You can skimp on cpu and get and i3 6100 which is dual core with HT, and get a discrete video card (Geforce 750 is for around the price you save on the cpu), but if I were you I'd prefer to get a proper quad core cpu and spend on a video card later if you really need it, which I doubt atm. Truste me, intels hd 530 is way more powerful than people thinks. I do play gta v with my i3 6100 on it
Intel's HD 530 graphics are barely on-par with the Xbox One. The RX-460 and GTX 1050 are about as powerful as the GTX 770 and are only @$100.
take my pc bundle (you'll have to assemble it, though) with video card's advice from gamevet (go for a gtx 1050 if you find it for those hundred dollars). I'm not that into graphic cards but as you can see intel's skylake+ integrated ones are very powerful and unbeatable for the price. My bundle already includes wifi, thermal paste and cpu fan. You don't need anything else and the parts are carefully picked. You can ditch the SSD and downgrade to a i3 6100 if you need to spend on other things.
I figure that someone who has to ask about it, probably isn't going to want to assemble, or have the knowledge to do so. Your build also needs an operating system Chilled.
I suggested the system I did, because it has Windows 7 Pro, which is going to be more reliable for emulators and such.
For
I wish I could say. I made my gaming PC but I have access to used parts and that is something people typically don't. Even so, I still ended up spending $200 for CPU and $200 for video card and $125 for monitor, even if I saved money on all the other stuff. Those 3 parts end up not really having any cost savings because they were all new.
So for example, my original costs:
CPU: free (sample)
motherboard: $60 (used)
RAM: $40 for 8GB new
Video card: $200 new
Case: free (re-purpose from other PC)
Monitor: $125 new
Boot HDD: free (used SSD)
data HDD: $35 new
dvd drive: free (used)
Keyboard/mouse: $15 new
power supply: $80 new
So that is over $500 right there. I was not in a rush to do it, because I still have my other PCs. It took maybe 5 months or so before I had enough parts to fire it up. And then I found I couldn't really use the dual core CPU, so I bought a quad core CPU which costs starting at $200 pretty much across the board.
Buy a refurbished Alienware Alpha from Dell's outlet.
300-400 bucks, 860m with 750Ti performance. Low-mid settings, cheap and powerful enough to trade blows with PS4.
I'm not sure how the 4th gen i5 option performs with specific emulators though. The form factor is that of a console, which might not matter to you.
I saved a lot of money by using a monitor from a previous PC, a keyboard and mouse from another PC, etc...etc...Quote:
Originally Posted by Tripredacus
I took baby steps from 2002, to 2009, with power supply updates, memory updates and graphics cards updates on the PC I had from 2002 to 2009. I ended up replacing it with a $600 HP media PC that had 8GB DDR2 RAM and a Pentium (Dual-Core) E6300 @ 2.83Ghz. I upgraded the 250 watt power supply with a cheap 600 watt PSU, so I could install 1 GTS 250. I replaced that GPU in 2010 with a GTX 460 and then I used $225 in Amazon Gift cards to purchase a $325 Q9650 to replace the Pentium DC. I wanted to add another GTX 460, but the HP board didn't support sli, so I found a XFX 750i Extreme motherboard ($75) in late 2010 and used a Best Buy gift card to buy a $100 mid-tower case. I overclocked the CPU and sli'd a couple of GTX 460s and it ran flawlessly for a couple of years, before I started noticing that it wasn't keeping up with Crysis 2 in 2012.
I found an open box Asus Z68-V board for $50 at Fry's and I opted to purchase the i5-2500k from MicroCenter for $159 to make a new build in 2012. I paired it with the 460's until the summer of 2012, when I got an EVGA GTX 670 FTW for $325. I ran that setup until the fall of 2014, when the price of the EVGA GTX 780 Classified dropped down to $525 with the release of the 780 Ti. I had a tower case by then, so I had no problems fitting that huge card into it. I started noticing that the i5-2500k (4.7 Ghz) wasn't keeping up with the 780 in certain games, so I started looking at other options.
I found an Asus Z87-WS board at MicroCenter for $100 (it was a $325 board). The Z97 boards had just come out, and this board could be flashed to run with the Devil's Canyon CPU. I used 8 GB of my DDR3 from the i5-2500k build and picked up the i7-4790k for $279 from MicroCenter @ January of 2015. Add an SSD drive here and an HDD there, get another case and now I have 3 PCs in my house. The i5-2500K went into the livingroom with the GTX 670, the Q9650 went back into the HP media PC with a single GTX 460 and the GTX 780 Classified sits in my main rig, until I find the cash to get a GTX 1070.
I also have a Pentium G3258 and a Z97 board just sitting around, with the hopes of one day putting that together for something.
Don't forget to check Craigslist, a lot of good stuff gets tossed out there for cheap and you might be able to get a couple of machines and make a Franken-Computer. As far as a monitor, I have to suggest a Sony FW900 if you can get one for cheap. 2304x1440 resolution at 80hz, and it a CRT which is very easy on the eyes for extended playing.
Yes you are right gamevet. You can save even more money if you are transitioning a PC. Unfortunately, I didn't want to get rid of the old one so I didn't have that luxury. So now I am actually running 2 computers.
Here you go!Quote:
Originally Posted by Jeckidy
It's only $450.
It has an i7-950 @ 3.07 Ghz
A 256 GB SSD for fast boot
Windows 7 Professional
GTX 260
16 GB of memory
You could easily upgrade the GPU later on, if you want to play more graphics intense games with this. The power Supply should be good enough for any single card, considering that this thing is using a power hungry GTX 260.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Dell-Studio-...3edbe#viTabs_0
Dude, that's 7 yr old cpu that is power hungry (and has no integrated graphics). Same for the vga. If I were him I'd get new parts of recent hardware. This has no room for any expansion, the ram is slow (16gb is overkill, heck, even 8gb is way too much imho) and the pc will get old way sooner. Plus small disk drive. The cpu is slower in single core than modern i5s like the one I choose. Emulation and most programs still use only one core.Quote:
Originally Posted by gamevet
But oh well if it's just for console emulation, maybe it'll do the trick and your advice is the simplest option. I am proud of my pcpartpicker build, though :)