95 replies to this topic

[Verstaka]

Well my laptop's motherboard has seemingly shorted out and I am now left with nothing but my wife's Toshiba Satellite which can't even buffer videos properly.

So before I go off on a rant about my misfortune does anyone here have experience or advice for making a gaming tower that will be $500 or less? I don't have much money right now, and I'm not looking to make a super tower. I just want something that can run MWO and the games in my steam library without crashing or big framerate drops. I don't mind if the graphics have to be stuck on low across the board as long as the gameplay is uninterrupted.

Thanks for the help, it's really appreciated.

[Goose]

MWO on $500?

You're boned …

Seriously: Quad-core or go home.

[Kaptain]

EDIT:

I was wrong.

Get an i3 4170 at micro center and avoid AMD!

Edited by Kaptain, 30 October 2015 - 01:48 PM.

[War Executioner]

Wouldn't it just be cheaper to replace your motherboard? I mean I only paid like 130$s on a Foxcon motherboard like 4 years ago lol.

Kaptain, on 19 October 2015 - 08:53 PM, said:

That Can be done... kinda.

New Parts:
FX6350 $100
Asus a970-R2.0 $80
8GB of any decent brand ddr3 1600-2400 $50 (or less)
Power Supply (Corsair CX600) $50
Case $50? (all you need is a mid tower for that board)
DVD Drive $20
Hard drive $50
$400

That leaves you $100
Spend 50-75 on a used(craigslist) 19inch monitor (my area has lots of 1080 monitors about this size) acer/asus/lg
Buy a gtx275/280 (will play MWO at 50fps, medium settings, no AA, 1080p) $25-50 (ebay)

The only thing this rig can't do is play DX11 games thanks to the old but powerful gtx280. Down the road I would buy a used gtx660 ($100 ebay) and a Cooler Master 212 Cooler to over clock the cpu to 4.5ghz ($30 new). Even further down the road I would buy a SSD to use as your primary drive. This would be a very nice computer for your budget and once upgraded could play MWO on high/1080p @60+ fps.

For more build Ideas you can check out this thread: http://mwomercs.com/...s-500-1000-100/

Wherever you get your ram from send me the store number cause 50$s for 8gb is a steal most places want at least 80-100$s give or take.

Edited by Devil Wolf, 19 October 2015 - 08:56 PM.

[Goose]

Also: You sound like you have zero non-cash resources for this build; Thinks like a monitor and speakers, an OS to recycle, et al.

Get to $800~1000, call us back …

[Kaptain]

Devil Wolf, on 19 October 2015 - 08:53 PM, said:

Wherever you get your ram from send me the store number cause 50$s for 8gb is a steal most places want at least 80-100$s give or take.

How about links to stores instead?
http://www.newegg.com/
http://www.amazon.com/
http://www.microcenter.com/
http://www.tigerdire...CFQccaQodZeQG9Q

Just bought this for a friend:
http://www.amazon.co...ailpage_o01_s00

Should have bought this:
http://www.newegg.co...N82E16820231665

Or this:
http://www.newegg.co...N82E16820231667

Edited by Kaptain, 19 October 2015 - 09:09 PM.

[Kaptain]

Goose, on 19 October 2015 - 08:54 PM, said:

Also: You sound like you have zero non-cash resources for this build; Thinks like a monitor and speakers, an OS to recycle, et al.

Get to $800~1000, call us back …

He has a windows key on his old laptop. He could potentially get a mouse and keyboard from a friend/family member if he does not already own them. I've never shopped for a monitor in another state but here one can buy 19inch 1080 displays on craigslist all day long for $30-$80. Most people own headphones of some-kind if he does not already own speakers. The monitor may also have build in speakers. This is totally doable.

[Verstaka]

Give me 800 to 1000 goose and I'd love to goose. Unfortunately silly things like medical bills and rent get in the way of that. Sorry if i sound pissy but today has been anything but relieving.

Thanks for the link Kaptain. I know that the budget is a lot smaller than it should be for a gaming pc but im trying to be realistic. I was planning on selling the very laptop that broke today to help finance a new tower or make an external rig for a graphics card. Save for the lack of a GPU it was a great machine.

[Kaptain]

My pleasure. Don't let people discourage you. This is doable, It just takes some creativity.The build I posted above makes great use of the available funds and would allow you to upgrade the graphics card in the future to play the latest titles.

BTW just noticed cases can be had for as little as $25 shipped and hard drives for $20-25 that's another $50 that could be used on something else. You could also run the quad core 4350 at $80 but for only $20 more the six core 6300 is worth it.

Edit: What is the laptop motherboard doing? Did it just quit one day? If your handy and can manage taking it apart... you could always try baking the motherboard... so far its worked on every graphics card and motherboard I have tried it on...

Edited by Kaptain, 19 October 2015 - 09:29 PM.

[Verstaka]

Well my more tech savvy friend is going to crack open the case and have a look at it once we both have a free day. As of now im being a bit pessimistic as my luck this year has been abysmal.

[Kaptain]

If nothing got spilled on it and the connections are fine... Bake the board. I've fixed 2 motherboards and 3 graphics cards with this method so far. You have nothing to loose.

EDIT: look up a few videos of this on you tube. Basically you preheat the oven to 380f ish, set the board on tin foil blocks so that it is well supported on a baking sheet. Let it bake for about 8-10 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool for 15+ minutes. Install, check.

Edited by Kaptain, 19 October 2015 - 09:42 PM.

[Revis Volek]

I just built myself a pretty decent rig that will perform like a $1000 one at half the price....

I found a Tiger Direct location near me that was closing, I got a mother board from there which started me off right!


MSI Z97-G45 - $114 (Was 40% off...)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130771


i7 4870k @ 4.0 GHz - $279 (Got this thing pretty cheap too...Might have a Micro Center near you.)
http://www.microcent...Boxed_Processor

G.Skill TridentX Series 16GB (4 x 4GB) DDR3 - $107 (Didn't skimp on my RAM)
http://www.newegg.co...1-588-_-Product

Raidmax Agusta Case - $35 (Got the case on sale as well)
http://www.newegg.co...N82E16811156284

I had a Power Supply (550w) and a Video Card so i didnt have to b other with that, but honestly you can get a decent PSU and Video Card for around $150-$175. Dont cut corners on your power supply, it is a pain to have to upgrade it everytime you get a new Card, more fans, etc. But a decent video card like this one...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127763
Which is $89 dollars and really not that bad at all...

And this PSU @ $54
http://www.newegg.co...N82E16817139050

I am at $696....if you cut a corner or find some stuff on sale this is absolutely doable for you price with a BEAST MODE processor. Dropping it down to a i5 gets you under closer to budget....

Here it is from Micro Center again for $199
http://www.microcenter.com/product/434177/Core_i5-4690K_35GHz_LGA_1150_Boxed_Processor\

With the i5 i came in at $616 bucks....

IF you need some more in depth help or want some more pointers feel free to PM me or dig into my profile and send me an email!

Cheers!

Goose, on 19 October 2015 - 08:54 PM, said:

Also: You sound like you have zero non-cash resources for this build; Thinks like a monitor and speakers, an OS to recycle, et al.

Get to $800~1000, call us back …

I got 16GB for about 100 bucks...check the link...

Edited by DarthRevis, 19 October 2015 - 09:55 PM.

[Golrar]

The G3258 is on sale at newegg.com today for $59. That and an H81 board for another $60 would start off a cheap build.

If you already have Windows, it can be done. No you won't get the best performance at 1080p, but if you want playable at low, I submit this:

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/Vj6Tyc

[Rushin Roulette]

Btw, something no one has mentioned yet. If you are able to salvage the Hard drive from the laptop, then you can save a little that way.

The problem with upgrading from a laptop to a desktop/tower, is that there are so few compatible parts which you can take over. As is, you need everything new including down to silly little things such as cables and cable binders.

Getting the OS, mouse and HDD from the old Laptop should save quite a bit in the overall picture though.

[xWiredx]

Honestly, $500 or less is hard. Really hard.

You might be able to get the basics that you can't salvage from the laptop (case, psu, monitor, keyboard) from a donation center (goodwill, salvation army, habitat for humanity, etc). That would open up more money for parts. Keep in mind that items like that come and go at places like that, so it could be a few weeks in the making. Trust me, I've been looking for a good couch to come through and several have but by the time I can round up a truck to haul it they're always gone (most guys without sports cars want sports cars, but us guys with sports cars often want trucks). Also, there is a certain amount of risk in getting components from a donation center since they're probably pretty old. PSU may be better off getting brand new.

Once those are out of the way, I'd go with the Pentium mentioned above by Golrar. It's an excellent chip for the price.

Let us know what you can get for free/cheap and we'll go from there.

[Catamount]

How easily some people here think $800 comes about. Sure, I have a $1500 rig (as far as price of components at time of purchase), but that's because while could afford to go out and pop $650 on a 980 TI over the summer, a year and a half prior when I get the CPU/Mobo I happened upon good charity: my Australian friends funded it as thanks for having them, bought me a 3570k, mobo, PSU. Now I'm on low income again as the good summer work dries up.

I know exactly what it's like to not have gobs of cash laying around, let alone stably. For those of us who weren't born with silver spoons in our mouths, creativity can cross almost any budget gap. It's just a matter of how hardcore you're willing to get

Wired's go it: get kb/mouse from a Good Will. Monitor? It's yard sale season, go forth and find one! Craigslist also has plenty for $30-$50. If you're stuck at 1280x1024 for awhile, so what? You can get upgrades later. Cases can be scrounged up from anyone willing to part with any PC, ever (room can be a problem with prebuilts though). I once installed my old gaming PC guts into an old Compaq case, got by their proprietary wiring setup by stripping the case wires and just making connections to the mobo pins with rolled electrical tape. It held for years. If you're really desperate, no joke, I've seen mobos mounted to wooden boards before. With an hour's time, a few bucks, and some common power tools, you could make a case in an hour or two out of dozens of cheap materials available in any Home Depot or Lowes, plus you'd have the novelty! Hell if you mount the board to something you can throw it into a decent cardboard box any retail store will throw at you on truck day (easy to cut fan holes!). It's sitting in your room, not a war zone. What do you have to protect against, a cat maybe?

MWO is not that GPU heavy, just CPU heavy. Budget accordingly. If your GPU isn't 100% up to running the game flawlessly, you turn settings down. If your CPU isn't, you just suffer or don't play the game. CPU is very important. Moreover, I find cheap GPUs can be actually-powerful a lot more easily than cheap CPUs. Just find something passable. Find a 5870 laying around or something (or a 5850? There are TONS of those after the big clearing event where people got them cheap). I just sent a free 1GB GTX 750 to the UK for a friend. Low-mid end GPUs, especially older ones, are around for cheap if you can't find someone who has a spare.

http://www.ebay.com/...9wAAOSwsB9V-Igc

That's not ideal, but it shows what can work quite easily. I played MWO on a 5850, and two 5770s prior to that (so basically one 5770, because Crossfire didn't work back then, at all), and it ran well. Yes the game's taken a downturn in performance since then, but so what? A 5850 should have no trouble, whatosever, giving a smooth framerate at medium settings. For reference it's almost twice as powerful as what Kaptain was suggesting


CPU-wise, I would suggest NOT going Pentium. You can allocate more money than than, and I'd take a 3-3.5GHZ quad core over that Pentium with any OC. That doesn't mean $$$$$. Intel chips haven't increased in speed for awhile, so again, take the used market. At that point, why not step back a generation?

Say, a combo like this?

http://www.ebay.com/...Z8AAOSw~bFWJHSW

http://www.newegg.co...515&ignorebbr=1

You didn't even spend half your budget, and that will run the game, run it pretty darned well even.

PSU you'll want to buy new because they age and degrade. Okay, so find a deal, see what Rosewill has going on. We can make this work. RAM you'll also want new because you want to pick your model (by which I mean you want something from G.Skill ), and RAM fails easily. I've never had a set of G.skill Ripjaw not be compatible with a board.


Last piece of advice: look around for "I need this stuff gone" deals in the local listings! I won't assume you'll find one for putting together an example build, but believe me, they're out there: https://charlotte.cr...5260074365.html


So, shall we start assembling a hypothetical build here? I don't know where you live, so I'll use Charlotte for local listings

CPU: $130
http://www.ebay.com/...Z8AAOSw~bFWJHSW

Motherboard: $51
http://www.newegg.co...515&ignorebbr=1

Power Supply: $40 for an older EVGA unit, Johnny Guru says it's okay
http://www.newegg.co...N82E16817438016

Alright, you'll need a hard drive. Craiglist says HDD: $25, and multiple listings in that range are around
https://charlotte.cr...5218782282.html

RAM: $42
http://www.newegg.co...N82E16820231308

Case: $27 (let's just assume the worst and say you just buy one)
http://www.newegg.co...N82E16811353083

GPU: $55
http://www.ebay.com/...9wAAOSwsB9V-Igc

Windows: $100 - Oh yes, I just went there
http://www.newegg.co...6-892-_-Product

DVD Drive: $13 - promo code yeah!
http://www.newegg.co...6-393-_-Product

Total: $483

You know what I just did? I just built the WORST case scenario machine, where you can't find a case, you couldn't transfer WIndows from the old computer and didn't, erm, aquire it from your friend (you know, our pal the Internet?), you had to buy a DVD drive, and I still got you a quad core, a capable lower mid end GPU by today's standards, enough RAM to not choke, and still landed you under-budget by a few bucks. Now you just have to scrape up the funds for a monitor. If you pay $50, you're at $533, and that's worst case scenario.

In reality, I think we'll solve the Windows issue without you paying, one way or the other. Hell, I might have a spare Windows 7 key around myself that you'd be free to transfer to your machine, will look tonight. That frees up money. A DVD drive won't set you back one way or the other, but try to find one free. There's a few more bucks. You might luck out on the case, there's a few more. Freeing up money puts you strictly under budget, or hell, you could beef up the GPU more maybe.


Money's nice, but basic brains and creativity can replace the need for a lot of it

Edit: had to change GPU choice, first one was a card with one foot in the grave


You could also go new with something like this, because sales are your friend

http://www.ebay.com/...RwAAOSwF1dUN5QD

It's a few bucks more, and will perform somewhat less, but it would work absolutely fine. This is exactly the card I used as a holdover while my 980TI was on RMA.

Edited by Catamount, 20 October 2015 - 07:24 AM.

[Catamount]

The only thing that's going to be boned is this game when it tries to stop you from running it.

Edited by Catamount, 20 October 2015 - 07:26 AM.

[xWiredx]

Actually, I think even if he has to pay for windows (Windows 10 is free, right? or only upgrades?), he can probably find a windows install disc bundled with a mouse or keyboard on ebay for a lot less than $100. That's how some people are getting around the "OEM only" thing (and have been since Vista).

Other than that, I think Catamount nailed it.

EDIT: Actually, looks like its trending at around $80 on ebay, so not HUGE but $20 is definitely not nothing if you can put it toward other parts.

Edited by xWiredx, 20 October 2015 - 12:05 PM.

[Catamount]

Windows 10 is not obtainable for free anymore, sadly. The Insider Program allowed this, but the deal of free W10 in exchange for continued testing is no longer offered, imo. Now you need your own legit copy to enter that program.

It's only free if you already have 7 or 8.

Verstaka, what version of Windows does that broken laptop have? If it's 7/8, then I'd use it for that, rather than selling it. In fact, if it's new enough to have 7/8, then it's new enough to have a SATA drive and you could use the hard drive, too. Those two together are probably worth more than you'd get in this day and age for selling a busted laptop, especially if it's a bad motherboard. At that point, that machine isn't worth the shipping to send it. You'd make more gutting it for parts, selling the RAM and display as standalone parts, hell even the keyboard would make a few bucks probably (you'd be surprised: SOMEONE needs a replacement for that model of notebook keyboard, I promise you), and then taking the drive and Windows for yourself, which is basically $100+ in your pocket from the get-go.

Do advise on what kind of machine and what OS it has and we can adjust budget and expectations accordingly.


Also, tell us exactly when you're ready to put the money down, and we could probably help you bargain hunt. Tell us what city you're in and we could probably scower the local listings a bit even. I have nothing better to do some days; why do you think I'm here?

[Barkem Squirrel]

Toshiba Satellite, that is what I use to play MWO. All of 2.5 to 4.5 fps on the bog and at the highest 14 fps on alpine.

Well mine is almost 6 years old, so now I can justify purchasing a new computer over the winter, but keep the lab top for work. Now there are 4 maps that are hard to play due to the sub 10 fps and they are the mining collective, Bog and now River city and Forest colony since the reworking.

It is playable, but barely. Then again I can get onto the different leader boards for the tournaments. My highest was 6th in the griffins about a year ago. God to think what I could do in a computer with over 20 fps is just scary.