"I really ought to get a PC to play games again"
£800 will do you a real nice rig
"Hahah, I can't afford that"
This conversation happens more times than I'd like. So come on folks, what's the absolute console-beating, barrel scraping build that will work?
Instantly there are some expensive things when coming to PC gaming - monitors and Windows licenses.
So I'm guessing to keep things cheap the rule has to be "plug this into your lounge TV" or for those doing more productivity "find an old 19" monitor off freecycle".
Asking people to use Linux is never going to work - but I hear there are some pretty cheap places to buy Windows keys legally (although to MS' chagrin), not had to myself, so any hints on that front of actual costs?
Console beating graphics: I'm defining this as 1920x1080. Either visually more impressive at console framerates, or at least equally visually impressive at 60fps.
Games: Well generally it seems to be Elite with the people I chat to, but lets go with some of the more popular PC games:
GTA 5
ARK
Rainbow Six Siege
Overwatch
Battlefield 1
That sort of thing.
Peripherals: Gotta assume people don't have them, but if following the plug it into your tele approach then arguably you don't need speakers - but will probably want wireless input devices.
Brand spanking new: It's cheaper to get second hand, but lets do this new - if we can get some of these parts second hand then that's fantastic or we might even be able to upgrade a bit. But we can't rely on that as a stock answer.
So, onto the components.
CPU: Good place to start, what's really needed for gaming these days? I haven't gamed on anything lethargic in years so I don't know how easily you can get away with a "Pentium" branded dual core with 3MB of L3 cache? I remember a meg of last-level-cache being jaw-dropping.
I don't really see AMD being much use in this market space if you're going with a dedicated GPU as the equivalently priced Intel chips seem to be better when graphics are offloaded. This might change if we get cheap Ryzens. Or I might be barking up the wrong tree and my natural distrust of integrated graphics a symptom of being an old-man in IT.
Current suggestion: Intel "Kaby Lake" Pentium G4560 3.5GHz Dual-Core: < £55
or Sky Lake Pentium G4400
The box: Before getting onto other components, lets discuss form factor. Whilst I've only got a single slot left available in my full tower, I can't imagine this sort of scenario will ever call for expansion cards beyond a GPU. Ideal for ITX really, but that level of miniaturisation and relatively low popularity tends to bump the price up.
The obvious one is - do you have an old computer in the corner of a room somewhere? We can use the case from that.
Otherwise a BitFenix Neos - better air flow than the Nova. £30. They're pretty poor quality, I've got one for the Mrs, but for the price, they look reasonably smart and hold computer bits in them.
Only one fan (exhaust), is an intake necessary?
Storage: We all want M.2. But SSD full stop is out of the reaches of this build. The cost per GB is just too high. So there's not much point in requiring a chipset capable of providing M.2 on a mobo.
Most people are going to be dumping games onto rust even if their OS is on SSD. And frankly x4 SATA connections is plenty of more than capable connections for this level of computing.
Is 1TB enough? 2?
1TB ~ £40
Mobo: Probably whatever is cheapest. Nobody at this price point is going to be interested in premium chokes, SLI support, LAN teaming etc.
One thought is WiFi. Is it still the case that people put their computers on a desk next to their router so wire it in and otherwise it's all wifi? I wire everything that I can, but again, most people can't be arsed with channelling UTP into their walls.
Another is RAM slots. If we're skimping on spec, does it make sense to have 4 RAM slots for future upgrades? Or is that again, me being old-school.
Looks like an entry board with an uninspiring B250 or H110 chipset is going to cost about £60.
RAM: This follows on nicely. Dual-channel DDR4 obvs. But how much? I run 16GB, that's probably too much for games, but I easily eat 32GB at work. I cannot for the life of me get a Windows 10 virtual machine to be useful once a few office apps are open on less than 3GB. Would 4GB provide enough with the condition "you need to remember to close your website on hamsters before playing"?
8GB £50
GPU: Quite clearly the key component for any gaming rig. And probably the best place to save on cash. How much memory? 1GB wasn't enough on my 560 setup, but at 1080 I'm not seeing any issues with the last 512mb of slow RAM on my "4"GB 970s. So is 2GB still enough? And will it be enough for the next few years? I'm thinking 4GB...
Cards that jump to mind are the RX460 or 1050Ti. I think the 1050 pips it from what I can find.
1050Ti: £120
PSU: As cheap as they come. A system of this spec is most of the time going to be draw under 50W, and even with room to spare, it's not going to top 300W.
~ £35
So, so far:
PCPartPicker part list
CPU: Intel - Pentium G4400 3.3GHz Dual-Core Processor (£50.74 @ CCL Computers)
Motherboard: MSI - H110M PRO-VD PLUS Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard (£42.30 @ Novatech)
Memory: ADATA - XPG Z1 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2800 Memory (£50.63 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Seagate - BarraCuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£37.99 @ Aria PC)
Video Card: EVGA - GeForce GTX 1050 Ti 4GB FTW GAMING ACX 3.0 Video Card (£117.29 @ Amazon UK)
Case: BitFenix - Neos Black/Silver ATX Mid Tower Case (£27.97 @ Aria PC)
Power Supply: EVGA - 430W 80+ Certified ATX Power Supply (£32.88 @ Aria PC)
Total: £359.80
And we still haven't got onto peripherals or an operating system. Can further gains be made?
Of course the approach not considered here. Is it better to buy a cheap computer from a system-builder and addon a graphics card?
Thoughts for the bottom of the barrel?