Building a cheap gaming PC. (to expand in the future) Suggestions?

Hi guys, I am building a cheap PC mainly for gaming and would like some feedback and suggestions. Basically, I want to be able to play the newest games on my TV (and watch videos), but don't really care about running things at optimum settings.

I already have:

A case,
500W power supply,
2x SATA HDs,
1x IDE HD (no great loss if I don't use),
2x optical drives,
Card reader/USB ports (and a floppy drive lol)
Peripherals

...but I'm not much of a hardware buff and was wondering how well some components will work together, and where the bottlenecks would be.

So far I am looking at:

CPU: Intel Core i5-4460

GPU: Geforce GT 730

Motherboard: MSI B85M-E45

And something like 2x 8GB RAM

Availability in Australia is also a factor. (Intending to buy from PCCG)

Cheers guys!

My first suggestion is to invest in a larger power supply to allow for the planned obsolescence and ever more speedy (power necessary cards). Everything else can be purchased cheaply as used or NOS (New Old Stock) components as they make themselves available.

Dude I wouldn't even bother with a 730... get a 750 ti at the very least. A very cheap alternative option is to get an APU instead of a CPU. You don't have to buy a graphics card that way because the APU is a combination of a CPU and a GPU. I would look at the AMD A10 7870K or something in that range. You can also use a much smaller case if you don't need it to house a large graphics card. I haven't really checked but I'm fairly certain the A10 7870K would perform much better than having a separate 730. But don't expect it to play on high settings on modern games. The safest bet is probably a 750 ti, they are such a power efficient card you cannot really go wrong.

EDIT: also keep in mind that if you do go the APU route you should also get very fast RAM because the system memory is used in place of dedicated graphics memory. You can get a huge boost in performance by choosing the right RAM and also by using a SSD instead of a HDD.

a reply to: BombDefined

Can't help with tech advice but there's a site for parts that are rated by users, there's also a forum.

pcpartpicker.com...

originally posted by: notmyrealname
My first suggestion is to invest in a larger power supply to allow for the planned obsolescence and ever more speedy (power necessary cards). Everything else can be purchased cheaply as used or NOS (New Old Stock) components as they make themselves available.

I totally agree about the power supply. 500w is way under powered for a gaming PC especially with any kind of expansions.

a reply to: notmyrealname

a reply to: Metallicus

Cheers guys.

Just to check though, would my current power supply work for that theoretical setup and I replace it at a later date when i expand?



Also, this website seems to say 500W is enough.

All this is well and good , but what games are you looking to run ? Are you ok with turning down some of the graphics to run them, or are you looking to run full blown and all out ?

a reply to: Gothmog

The two main games I am looking at is MGS5 Phantom Pain and the Fallout 4 after it's been out a while. Still want to keep playing older games though.

I am generally pretty happy to run on low settings (if not the lowest).

I don't know if I saw one up in your list of items, but an SSD would definitely assist in making the GPU the bottleneck of your system. Which would also be bottlenecked from the powersupply.

Don't forget to follow this guide to ensure your SSD is optimized properly, so you get extended life and better performance. There are also other guides out on the interwebz that should answer a bunch of questions.

Don't forget good thermal paste. Might seem like something easy to overlook, but proper application is key to getting good heat transfer from all those sensitive components.

And don't forget a cooler for your CPU. I like these better than the fan-only ones, but I guess it's a matter of preference.

Have fun, and enjoy the build, it certainly is fun.

My specs, I think she's 4 or 5 yrs old now.
i5-2500k (4.2Ghz OC), ASUS P8P67 PRO, 8GB RAM, 128 GB Samsung SSD, two 1 TB Caviar Black HDDs, nVidia GTX 970, GTX 570 (Phyxs card), Win 7
love my rig, the 970 was an awesome investment at $350.

originally posted by: BombDefined
a reply to: Gothmog

The two main games I am looking at is MGS5 Phantom Pain and the Fallout 4 after it's been out a while. Still want to keep playing older games though.

I am generally pretty happy to run on low settings (if not the lowest).

I dont know the availability but here is my non-serious rig
Asrock 970 extreme R2
AMD 6 core processor (dont recall which one , but it is the black box edition for OCing)
Histech OCed from factory r7 270
16gb Corsair 1666 memory
2x Seagate 1 TB drives (refurbed)
Themaltake 650 w power supply

Was cheap to buy. Will play Witcher 3 and Dragon Age Inquisition with a lot of goodies turned on .

a reply to: BombDefined

Also, this website seems to say 500W is enough.

It should be enough for a 730 or 750 ti because they both have a very low tdp. It should also be enough for an APU but don't quote me on that as I've never built an APU system before but I plan too soon.

The two main games I am looking at is MGS5 Phantom Pain and the Fallout 4 after it's been out a while. Still want to keep playing older games though.

My guess is that with a 750 ti you'd get around mid range performance for Fallout 4, probably on par with consoles. With a 730 you'd be playing near the lowest settings, if you were able to play it at all.

a reply to: Gothmog

Sounds like a nice setup, but I still feel inclined to go with Intel.

I will probably start with cheaper components and replace them over time...

a reply to: ChaoticOrder

Cheers,

MGS and Bethesda games are must-haves for me, so good to know.