Budget PC Build - Where to skimp?

[Jason_E]

Evening all,

To put it simply, I'm being a cheapskate here. For a sub £400 budget I'm going to build up a little gaming PC to put my Logitech G27 to good use! (rFactor 2, Project cars, Assetto Corsa etc. etc.)

The system will sit with my 42" TV, and probably just be used to run the games above. May play with GTA V and modding, but I'm not the serious gamer I was as a teenager. This will mainly play stuff that my MacBook Pro can't! Possibly will the system as and when I need to.

My question is really, where should I skimp? I've got a 500GB SATA hard drive already thats not being used, so my parts list needed is:

Case + PSU
MotherBoard (Intel.... see below)
CPU (Intel... see below)
GPU (nVidia 750ti)
RAM (DDR4, 8GB)

I've built a couple of shopping baskets up which both are sub £400 as per my requirements. One of them I've gone for a better chipset (Z170) and a lower spec CPU (Intel Core i3 6100). The other, a worse bored (H110 Chipset) and a better CPU (i5 6400).

But which would be the better option? The cheaper Dual Core CPU with a motherboard that is a little more expandable in the future? Or... a system that has the advantage of a quad core CPU now?

 

[Cookie]

i5 over i3, chipset isn't going to matter much if you aren't overclocking

 

[SharkyUK]

I think you're really going to struggle at sub £400. Maybe worth getting a console and steering wheel for that? Assetto Corsa is due out on consoles at some point.

 

[Jason_E]

i5 over i3, chipset isn't going to matter much if you aren't overclocking

Yeah I was thinking that, but I may want to upgrade in the future. Not sure how well the i5 will perform on a cheap board and low spec DDR4?

I think you're really going to struggle at sub £400. Maybe worth getting a console and steering wheel for that? Assetto Corsa is due out on consoles at some point.

I don't really care graphically, if I have to run at minimum settings I will. What I've priced up is a similar/better spec than a few friends running similar games on fairly high settings. I would agree if I was chasing FPS at 4k with all the latest games, but I think I can just about sneak it for a while with a lower spec machine.

As for consoles, have an Xbox One and the G27 Wheel isn't compatible. I'd rather a PC anyway!

 

[iain187]

as per sharky, sell G27 and buy compatible wheel for xbox. I'm sure there is a new generation equivalent now

 

[BoatNonce]

How much is a 750ti these days? May be worth getting a second hand MSI 780 Twin Frozr.

If only someone had one for sale...

 

[Ex-User (19928)]

Save up a bit more IMO.

You'll want i5 for games these days, it does make a difference over an i3 for a lot of titles. Motherboard can be cheap, it won't affect your framerates in games by more than 1 or 2.

Essentially...

i5 CPU, cheap motherboard, RAM is cheap anyway, get basic Crucial stuff, graphics card is where you'll want to spend as much as you can afford. The rest is just ancillaries.

Not sure you'll get much for £400 without buying 2nd hand and waiting for bargains at that.

 

[Darren S]

I think you're really going to struggle at sub £400. Maybe worth getting a console and steering wheel for that? Assetto Corsa is due out on consoles at some point.

I'd agree with Andy here. You're really going to be scraping the barrel in terms of overall performance for that kind of money. You can get lucky and find someone selling kit that they don't really know the value of - but personally I'd hang fire and wait until you could muster £600-£700. That would open up a whole world of much better options.

And trust me - when you try to run a game on low settings on your £400 PC and it still runs like turd - you'll be pissed!

 

[SharkyUK]

The 970's have dropped in price with some vendors. I see the BT Shop (of all places) were offering the 4GB GTX 970 at 219.99 with £20 cashback (although might be a BT customer only deal). That said, the 970's can be had brand new for under 200 quid now.

 

[SharkyUK]

I believe something along these lines would be a bare minimum these days for a cheap gaming PC...

https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/view/Vortex-500-Gaming-PC/

I'd still want to be nudging up the GPU a touch though. The 750 Ti is 'ok' but I'd look for something with a little more grunt and Maxwell architecture based, too. Obviously this will affect budget though. As above, look at the Intel quad core CPUs. More and more software will start to take advantage of them (including games and productivity software).

 

[Ex-User (19928)]

You'd probably be better off keeping your eyes on eBay or local listings as gaming PCs are worth naff all once used. Might come across something a few generations old where the person is just looking for an easy sale. Much better doing that than buying something new and compromised in every way.

 

[Jason_E]

Cheers for the replies people!

I was just going to have a £600 budget to begin with, but as above I'm being a cheapskate.

As for graphics cards new, the R9 380 gets a lot more prize for not a lot more cash it seems.

I'm currently watching a few SandyBridge i5/i7 listings on eBay. They are all "old kit" with a motherboard and some ram. Seems to be a lot of bargains from people looking to upgrade. Which means I can spend more on a GPU. the GTX 960 seems to be dropping in price, and I'm watching a few on eBay too.

Or I could stop being a cheapskate and spend more. But I don't fully see why I need to yet? A lot of the games listed above show what I've specced as above the "recommended settings".

The main reason I'd buy newer tech would be to future proof it a bit, give me more upgrade options etc.

 

[Jason_E]

Example for £430 (new) is: GTX960, core i5 and 8gb ram. ~£430

Some of the older tech i5/i7 bundles on eBay going for sub £200 so that'd leave even more for a higher spec GPU. But obviously I'd be running older gear.