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Build a better extreme low end gaming box than me in the next 30 days

cbn

cbn

Lifer
Over the next 30 days I will be constructing a hypothetical extreme low end gaming box from hot deals and other specials (excluding in-store only deals).

The goal is a $350 hardware limit, but am I hoping to actually come under that amount (With the proper hot deals and other bargains I believe the sweet spot is lower).

Think of this box as a very capable performer for playing major titles at low resolution (ie, 720p TV or 1280 x 1024 monitor. With some games certainly 1080p will be possible).

Once I pick a part, It is as if I bought it and I will not be able to change it out. (Other forum members can add their own parts or use some or all of the parts I have specified for their own builds. This provided the parts are not out of stock at the time they select it)

With that all that mentioned, here is my first part for my build:

14-131-559-TS


PowerColor R7 250X Video card, $59.99 AR with free shipping:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814131559

Hot Deal Link: http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2391710

The second part of my build (added 7/20/2014 @ 6:24 pm Pacific Time) :

C283-ELITE120A_chiclet01_gfv_mn_7838765.jpg


Cooler Master Elite 120 Advanced Case for $24.99 AR and coupon, free shipping:

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...?EdpNo=7838765

Hot Deal link: http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2391938

The third part of my build (added 7/21/2014 @ 10:54am Pacific Time)

P33-9995_chiclet01x_gfv_mn_8033821.jpg


Patriot Viper Xtreme 4GB DIMM DDR3 1333, $29.99 AR and Coupon, Free shipping

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...Id_10_P33-9995

Hot Deal link: http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2392034


Fourth part of my build (added 7/22/2014 @ 12:50pm)

M69-10103_main01_gp_mn_9116213.jpg


Pentium G3258 and three red Kingwin 120mm case fans, $54.99 AR, free shipping

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...?EdpNo=9116213

Hot deals link: http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?p=36535056#post36535056

Fifth part of my build (added 7/26/2014 @ 1:17pm)

71M8prTHgBL._SX522_.jpg


EVGA 430 watt PSU, $14.99 AR with free shipping

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00H33SDR4

Hot deals link: http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?p=36563235#post36563235

Sixth part of my build (added 8/6/2014 @ 6:29pm)

TSD-1000AS7-S_main01x_gp_mn_9135211.jpg


Seagate 1TB 3.5" HDD, $49.99 After coupon with free shipping

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...?EdpNo=9135211

Hot deals link: http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2394282

Seventh part of my build (added 8/6/2014 @ 6:39pm)

MB-H81MITX_LG.JPG


ASRock H81M-ITX, $58.99 plus $5.99 shipping

http://www.superbiiz.com/detail.php?...-H81MITX&c=CJ#



TOTAL PRICE (after rebates and coupons), including shipping: $299.92
 
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Even better, if you can live with 4GB RAM:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Pentium G3258 3.2GHz Dual-Core Processor ($69.99 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: ASRock H81M-HDS Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($52.99 @ Micro Center)
Memory: Team 4GB (1 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($35.98 @ OutletPC)
Storage: Western Digital RE3 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($49.00 @ Amazon)
Video Card: XFX Radeon R7 260X 1GB Core Edition Video Card ($89.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Fractal Design Core 1000 USB 3.0 MicroATX Mid Tower Case ($24.99 @ NCIX US)
Power Supply: Corsair Builder 430W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($24.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $347.93
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

According to [thread=2389948]cbn's thread[/thread], that mobo can OC the Pentium G3258. And I got a better GPU too. 🙂 I also upgraded the PSU from Dave's, as it might not handle a good OC.
 
Nice idea for the thread, and very good choices, especially g6.

The elephant in the room though is that neither of these included a windows license, and I believe it will be impossible to bring in a decent gaming build under 350.00 with the windows license. It is open to debate I suppose, but I feel the windows license should be included, since someone building such a low end system could well be a first time builder who does not have spare windows license laying around.
 
frozentundra123456 said:
Nice idea for the thread, and very good choices, especially g6.

The elephant in the room though is that neither of these included a windows license, and I believe it will be impossible to bring in a decent gaming build under 350.00 with the windows license. It is open to debate I suppose, but I feel the windows license should be included, since someone building such a low end system could well be a first time builder who does not have spare windows license laying around.
Click to expand...

I didn't include the price of the OS because:

1.) Some people might want to use Linux for gaming (SteamOS, Ubuntu, Linux Mint 17).

2.) Folks seem to have their own preference for Windows OS.
 
With the R7 250X @ $59.99 AR Free shipping still available, a person could choose the Pentium G3258/GIGABYTE GA-B85M-DS3H combo for $86.98 AR Free shipping and only have spent $146.97 (after rebates) for cpu/mobo and video card at this point.
 
Thank you for the submissions so far.

In post #2 we have an entry that comes in more than $25 under the $350 limit and has 8GB RAM.

In post #4 we have an entry with a significantly upgraded GPU (the R7 260X).

Hopefully more builds will be one the way. (Maybe one with a SSD instead of HDD? Entry level Core i3? FM2 or FM2+ APU?, etc)
 
TidusZ said:
Curious if these builds are being used as examples in the console vs pc debates.
Click to expand...

Considering the many other differences between the two ecosystems, I think if you're making it a price argument you're hideously oversimplifying it.

And if a price argument is convincing, you don't really understand the rest of the widget.
 
PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/Rf9YmG
Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/Rf9YmG/by_merchant/

CPU: Intel Pentium G3258 3.2GHz Dual-Core Processor ($69.00 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: ASRock H81M-DGS R2.0 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($46.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: Crucial 4GB (1 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($36.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Sandisk Solid State Drive 128GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($54.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: XFX Radeon R7 260X 1GB Core Edition Video Card ($89.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Corsair SPEC-01 RED ATX Mid Tower Case ($33.99 @ NCIX US)
Power Supply: EVGA 430W 80+ Certified ATX Power Supply ($19.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $351.94
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-07-23 16:32 EDT-0400

SSD, Better VC, and just a hair over budget.

And, an alternative to allow overclocking the CPU:

PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/rvfcGX
Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/rvfcGX/by_merchant/

CPU: Intel Pentium G3258 3.2GHz Dual-Core Processor ($69.00 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: ASRock Z87 Pro3 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($79.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: Crucial 4GB (1 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($36.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Sandisk Solid State Drive 128GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($54.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: PowerColor Radeon R7 250X 1GB Video Card ($56.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Corsair SPEC-01 RED ATX Mid Tower Case ($33.99 @ NCIX US)
Power Supply: EVGA 430W 80+ Certified ATX Power Supply ($19.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $351.94
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-07-23 16:35 EDT-0400

EDIT: Guess the second option is moot as it seems some H-- boards allow overclocking, seemingly the one I already linked. 2nd option moot.
 
Last edited:
Ken g6 said:
Even better, if you can live with 4GB RAM:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Pentium G3258 3.2GHz Dual-Core Processor ($69.99 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: ASRock H81M-HDS Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($52.99 @ Micro Center)
Memory: Team 4GB (1 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($35.98 @ OutletPC)
Storage: Western Digital RE3 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($49.00 @ Amazon)
Video Card: XFX Radeon R7 260X 1GB Core Edition Video Card ($89.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Fractal Design Core 1000 USB 3.0 MicroATX Mid Tower Case ($24.99 @ NCIX US)
Power Supply: Corsair Builder 430W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($24.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $347.93
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

According to [thread=2389948]cbn's thread[/thread], that mobo can OC the Pentium G3258. And I got a better GPU too. 🙂 I also upgraded the PSU from Dave's, as it might not handle a good OC.
Click to expand...



since this thread is a challenge for something *i* would build i'm getting the G3258 and board from microcenter for $99.
 
mvbighead said:
PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/Rf9YmG
Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/Rf9YmG/by_merchant/

CPU: Intel Pentium G3258 3.2GHz Dual-Core Processor ($69.00 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: ASRock H81M-DGS R2.0 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($46.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: Crucial 4GB (1 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($36.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Sandisk Solid State Drive 128GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($54.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: XFX Radeon R7 260X 1GB Core Edition Video Card ($89.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Corsair SPEC-01 RED ATX Mid Tower Case ($33.99 @ NCIX US)
Power Supply: EVGA 430W 80+ Certified ATX Power Supply ($19.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $351.94
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-07-23 16:32 EDT-0400

SSD, Better VC, and just a hair over budget.

And, an alternative to allow overclocking the CPU:

PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/rvfcGX
Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/rvfcGX/by_merchant/

CPU: Intel Pentium G3258 3.2GHz Dual-Core Processor ($69.00 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: ASRock Z87 Pro3 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($79.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: Crucial 4GB (1 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($36.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Sandisk Solid State Drive 128GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($54.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: PowerColor Radeon R7 250X 1GB Video Card ($56.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Corsair SPEC-01 RED ATX Mid Tower Case ($33.99 @ NCIX US)
Power Supply: EVGA 430W 80+ Certified ATX Power Supply ($19.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $351.94
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-07-23 16:35 EDT-0400

EDIT: Guess the second option is moot as it seems some H-- boards allow overclocking, seemingly the one I already linked. 2nd option moot.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the submission! (I like the mix of parts. Upgraded video card with SSD together!)

P.S. I would expect the Asrock in your first build to eventually overclock the Pentium G3258 if it doesn't already (Asrock has been really good at updating their various Non-Z boards with the ability to increase the multiplier of the Pentium G3258 beyond 32).
 
Does anyone have ideas for a Core i3 build-up?

(The R7 250X Video card is still on sale for $57.99 so I think someone could still make that combo work)
 
Does anyone have any ideas for AMD APU build?

I noticed Newegg has this A8-6600K (unlocked quad core with 256 VLIW4 stream processor iGPU) for $89.99 After promo code:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...D=3938566&SID=

With a dual channel 4GB DDR3 1600 kit (as spec'd in Dave's two builds above) I wonder how well it would do at low resolution?

(Obviously 256 VLIW4 stream processors is not a lot of power, but maybe if overclocked it could approach or maybe equal a DDR3 R7 240 discrete video card?)
 
Crysis 3 gameplay @ 1280 x 1024 using the A8-6600K (with iGPU overclocked to 1000 Mhz):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UFdsGOGBjNo

The video is impressive to me, but notice the ram speed is 2133 Mhz. ( I wonder how well it would have ran on 1600 Mhz RAM?)

EDIT:

Here is another Crysis 3 A8-6600K gameplay video. Unfortunately the level/scene is a different one, but the iGPU is overclocked to 1013 Mhz with RAM Speed @ 1600 Mhz (rather than the 2133 Mhz in the first video). Resolution is 1024 x 768 in one of the open area maps:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cxN7H_l9LUI&feature=player_detailpage#t=114

(Apparently some of the open area maps are fairly hard on the cpu due to the grass blade physics, but the gameplay looked pretty smooth to me. Overall, the video impressed me, but I do wish the resolution could have been higher than 1024 x 768.)
 
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