Suggestions For Light Gaming W10 Desktop

[nomdeplume]

Out of the blue a family member casually asked me to find them a cheap desktop to replace their 6 y/o HP Enve M6 laptop with AMD A10-4600m. My response was to drive up to Microcenter and then install W10 and the purchased 850 EVO SSD into their laptop.

Don't expect the budget here will allow building anything from scratch. I have no parts to contribute to this build and would have to buy everything. I'm mostly looking for suggestions for pre-made options that could be found on the used market. If you have a better idea please feel free to expand upon it. Very open to ideas and have some time to make this happen now that the laptop is usable. Gaming is pretty far from my bailiwick and I've seen some stellar budget builds ideas here in the past. Any help is greatly appreciated.

Rough idea of specs

• Intel i5 4590 or AMD equivalent
• 8 GB RAM
• HDMI on MB or through discrete GPU
• Capable of playing a modern game at lower settings
• Fairly cool and power efficient
• Couple hundred dollars max
• Stable

 

[therealmeep]

4670k+z87 mobo+8gig ram on ebay for 250$
Throw in some extra ram possibly
Hyper 212/Budget cooler >30$
GT1030 90-110$ or 1050 120-150$ --1050 is probably overkill, mobo graphics would probably work fine
400/500 Watt PSU 20-30$ but get a decent company like EVGA or something that you recognize the name on
Microcenter special case 20-30$
Drives can be carried over or 1TB blues ~30-40$ new
370$ without GPU
~500$ with a 1050
~460 with a 1030
4590? Exceeded
RAM? met
HDMI on mobo? check
Recent games? possibly on mobo if not on GPU
cool/energy? good
stability? at stock you should be good

 

[nomdeplume]

That was a very proficient answer. The specs were basically a stab in the dark. You have done good to steer me in the correct direction.

 

[Vayra86]

Decent list up there for budget building, just be wary of second hand PSUs. Reason: why would someone sell a PSU; most get a second life in a (lighter) rig down the road and if they don't, there is a high risk of it having some kind of problem. Replacing a fan on a 20-30 dollar PSU already adds 50% to the purchase price but does not remove the uncertainty and a bad PSU is a recipe for killing a rig, or a plague of 'vague issues' that take a lot of troubleshooting to really pin down.

 

[Jetster]

I would stay clear of used all together, unless its from someone here. You might find a scratch n dent, refurbish, sale on a Dell or CyberPower PC.

 

[Hood]

If you want new parts, the new $100 Ryzen 3 2200G APU has the same CPU performance as the aforementioned i5-4590, and the Vega graphics chip is probably twice as fast as Intel's HD 4600. He might not even need a dedicated GPU. AM4 motherboards start at $50. RAM will cost another $100/8GB. So, for the same $250 as that used ebay rig, you get brand new parts, better performance, and a clear upgrade path. I usually recommend only Intel, but for the price, AMD has become very competitive for certain budgets.

 

[thebluebumblebee]

Have you thought of selling them your system? Just add a low profile GPU. I was going to suggest trying to find a refurbished system much like yours before I saw what you have. If you live near a bigger city, and the fact that you have a MC nearby suggests that you do, are there any computer recyclers nearby? If you get one of the factory systems that has a ~250 watt PSU, you can easily add a GPU, such as the GTX 1050.

 

[eidairaman1]

4670k+z87 mobo+8gig ram on ebay for 250$
Throw in some extra ram possibly
Hyper 212/Budget cooler >30$
GT1030 90-110$ or 1050 120-150$ --1050 is probably overkill, mobo graphics would probably work fine
400/500 Watt PSU 20-30$ but get a decent company like EVGA or something that you recognize the name on
Microcenter special case 20-30$
Drives can be carried over or 1TB blues ~30-40$ new
370$ without GPU
~500$ with a 1050
~460 with a 1030
4590? Exceeded
RAM? met
HDMI on mobo? check
Recent games? possibly on mobo if not on GPU
cool/energy? good
stability? at stock you should be good

There is this.
https://www.techpowerup.com/forums/...eir-combat-crate-bundles.243595/#post-3832775

 

[nomdeplume]

Have you thought of selling them your system? Just add a low profile GPU. I was going to suggest trying to find a refurbished system much like yours before I saw what you have. If you live near a bigger city, and the fact that you have a MC nearby suggests that you do, are there any computer recyclers nearby? If you get one of the factory systems that has a ~250 watt PSU, you can easily add a GPU, such as the GTX 1050.

Yes, plenty of options. The more I think about this a used mb + processor looks appealing.

I accidentally downloaded Cinebench and ran it on the computer in my profile. Reminded me of the seriously contested booby prize for lowest score in the CPU-Z thread.

 

[Vario]

Buy a dell desktop with a quad core and then throw a 1050ti into it.

 

[nomdeplume]

Bumping this thread even though the intended owner and usage has changed.

After much thought and considerable amounts of research I accidentally discovered TPU has a front page! Not only that but it offers a wealth of information and links to articles tackling common questions. Very recently parted ways with a HP 8200 Elite SFF w/ i5-2400 and someone purchased all XX off lease Z240 moments before I was able to complete a planned purchase to replace it. As stated in the other live thread I've started; No gaming, lots of photography and music with other uses to be determined.

I'm currently eyeing building a new computer based around the i5-8400. This would be my first build and I would greatly appreciate insights towards where I might be better served. Yes I'm being very cheap to account for DDR4 prices

i5-8400 - local private seller
(??? motherboard) Asus Prime H310M-A $64
Cooler Master MasterCase Pro 3 $22 after rebate
Seasonic S12II 520w PSU $25 after rebate
4GB of DDR4 just to get this running and wait out the mining craze @$50

If the right Z240 pops up after the holiday at a good price I might still go that direction based on the workstation level mb and build quality. Better to replace a computer running as well as the day it left the factory than one that died unexpectedly.