Is this a decent low-end gaming rig?

[dave_the_nerd]

OCed G3258 @ 4.0Ghz+ is not "mid-range" anymore? It used to be, "quad-core" was "high-end". Am I just living in the past, where dual-cores still have a purpose and a place in rigs?

2C/2T has been low end since 2010.

 

[whm1974]

Dual-Cores still have a purpose.....albeit for web browsing and everyday tasks. NOT for gaming or anything that requires heavy multi-tasking. I sell a lot of G4400 cpu's in my systems, but for people who mostly browse the web, some word docs, and facebook. All my entry level gaming pc's start with an i3-6100 and higher.

I'm starting to think that even for everyday tasks and web browsing, I wouldn't go below an i3-6100 if I was building a system now.

 

[cbn]

Well, ECS has claimed in the past, that their "-PK" line of boards ("Pentium K", aka Anniv. Edition Pentium), have a "one-click overclock" setting to get 4.4Ghz out of them. Most of my G3258 chips, I've only been able to get 4.0Ghz out of them fully DC stable, and one 4.2Ghz. So I'm really kind of insanely curious, if I get some of those boards, if they will be able to clock them higher for me.

Here is a review on the ECS Z97-PK (with links to the one key OC):

http://www.legitreviews.com/ecs-z97-pk-deluxe-matx-motherboard-review_151695/5

http://www.legitreviews.com/ecs-z97-pk-deluxe-matx-motherboard-review_151695/17

With that mentioned, for gaming I would recommend a used Core i3 4150. These are going for $85 shipped these days on ebay buy it now auctions. (So that is only $15 more than a ECS Z97-PK)

 

[cbn]

Today's games are requiring more threads, and a dual-core without HT just isn't cutting it, regardless of the clockspeed.

An OC G3258 can still work fine, but stuttering can sometimes be a problem.

This stuttering can be cured (in one way) by having enough GPU bottleneck.

Unfortunately that means the dGPU has to be rather small.

P.S. Thinking back to when the G3258 first launched (mid 2014), I'll bet a decent combo would have been a used midrange (or slightly better) AMD or Nvidia 40nm card.

(Notice how even a GTX 460 is barely faster than a HD 7770....which I paired with my own OC G3258 in the form of R7 250X)

https://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/AMD/HD_7850_HD_7870/26.html

These days if leaning towards a used card I would probably be thinking of a GTX 750 Ti (a GPU which is still extremely popular, being #3 on the Steam Hardware Survey)

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-2015-budget-gaming-pc-guide

Nvidia's GTX 750 Ti is much slower on paper than AMD's Radeon R9 270X and R9 285, both of which are available for not much more money, in the UK atleast. Unfortunately, AMD's DirectX 11 driver is inefficient compared to Nvidia's, meaning poor performance in CPU-heavy titles resulting in lower frame-rates and off-putting stutter when the processor is under load. We simply can't recommend an AMD card at this time in scenarios where CPU power is limited.

 

[whm1974]

So for someone building a new gaming system, he shouldn't even consider getting anything less then a i3-6100.

 

[monkeydelmagico]

Want to get ECS Z97-PK motherboards for these rigs to replace the Gigabyte H81 mobos, in the hope that I'll be able to get 4.3-4.4 out of these CPUs, along with PCI-E 3.0 and DDR3-1600 speeds.

snip

Edit: To be clear, this is my current PC. I was wondering more about upgrades, that would be cheap. Not really interested in "hardcore" gaming, no BF4 MP, so no need for an i5 / i7.

ECS Z97-PK is around $70.-. All the effort to buy, replace, reinstall, and tweak for a few measly mhz/FPS? Unless you eventually plan to drop in an i5 k series I probably wouldn't go to the trouble.

i3-4160 is around $100.- and runs 3.6. That's pretty quick so should play the older games nearly as well as G3258. It has the added benefit of performing better in some more recent games. http://www.anandtech.com/show/8232/...y-edition-review-the-intel-pentium-g3258-ae/3


Then sell G3258 for $40-50 on ebay. You come out around $20- ahead and save a lot of time.

If you don't mind used parts i5 4570 and 4590 can be had on ebay for around $100.- as well. Then all you really need to do is swap out GPU's every 3 years or so for the next decade.

 

[whm1974]

ECS Z97-PK is around $70.-. All the effort to buy, replace, reinstall, and tweak for a few measly mhz/FPS? Unless you eventually plan to drop in an i5 k series I probably wouldn't go to the trouble.

i3-4160 is around $100.- and runs 3.6. That's pretty quick so should play the older games nearly as well as G3258. It has the added benefit of performing better in some more recent games. http://www.anandtech.com/show/8232/...y-edition-review-the-intel-pentium-g3258-ae/3


Then sell G3258 for $40-50 on ebay. You come out around $20- ahead and save a lot of time.

If you don't mind used parts i5 4570 and 4590 can be had on ebay for around $100.- as well. Then all you really need to do is swap out GPU's every 3 years or so for the next decade.

If I was going to replace the motherboard and CPU, I would get the current ones not tech that is three years old. especially this of the year when there are plenty of discounts.

 

[monkeydelmagico]

If I was going to replace the motherboard and CPU, I would get the current ones not tech that is three years old. especially this of the year when there are plenty of discounts.

Totally agree but that does not appear to be an option. Larry's original idea is get ECS Z97-PK and further overclock G3258. To do that he would need to spend around $70.-. I presented options within that budget that would perform better.

If you can find a current year mobo and CPU for $70.- that upgrades his current rig then please post it. I'd probably buy it too.

 

[whm1974]

Totally agree but that does not appear to be an option. Larry's original idea is get ECS Z97-PK and further overclock G3258. To do that he would need to spend around $70.-. I presented options within that budget that would perform better.

If you can find a current year mobo and CPU for $70.- that upgrades his current rig then please post it. I'd probably buy it too.

To be honest, I would have built Ken6 basic build minus Windows in the first place instead of what Larry is doing. Use the money saved by using Linux to upgrade the video card and add an SSD. Gain a much better low end gaming system then Larry's.

 

[monkeydelmagico]

To be honest, I would have built Ken6 basic build minus Windows in the first place instead of what Larry is doing. Use the money saved by using Linux to upgrade the video card and add an SSD. Gain a much better low end gaming system then Larry's.

Ken's basic overclockable build featured the G3258 for a while...... your batting 0 for 3 so far. If you had $70.- to do an upgrade on Larry's box what would it be?

 

[whm1974]

Ken's basic overclockable build featured the G3258 for a while...... your batting 0 for 3 so far. If you had $70.- to do an upgrade on Larry's box what would it be?

Just reread Larry's OP, just notice it was over a year old. I need to be more mindful in the future when reading threads... Anyway that is a tough one as he already has an SSD. A one TB HDD or another SSD maybe? I haven't used a HDD for gaming or personal files for over three years, now so I forget how slow a HDD will be for this sort of thing.

 

[cbn]

If you don't mind used parts i5 4570 and 4590 can be had on ebay for around $100.- as well. Then all you really need to do is swap out GPU's every 3 years or so for the next decade.

That must be auction pricing. Here is what I am current finding for buy it now pricing:

Core i5 4570 starting @ $140 shipped
Core i5 3570 starting @$92 shipped
Core i5 2500 starting @$65 shipped

 

[VirtualLarry]

Well, I'm not interested in getting an ECS Z97-PK board anymore. (Not the least bit because they sold out of them, must have been a clearance sale.)

Anyways, now I'm interested in getting (a few) G4560 Pentium Kaby Lake 2C/4T 3.5Ghz CPUs. Basically similar to an i3-6100, only $64 rather than $119. Pair that up with an Asus H110M-A/M.2 board, throw in a 256GB Intel 600p M.2 NVMe SSD, and a GTX1050/1050ti/1060, and you've got yourself a gaming box on the cheap. Well, sort of. A 1060 3GB is hovering around $195-200 at the cheapest. And the CPU is $65, the board is $47, 8GB of DDR4-2400 is like $45-50 (and creeping higher), 600p 256GB was $90 from Newegg on ebay, now $130. At that price, an Adata SU800 3D TLC SATA 2.5" SSD is the better buy, with similar performance.

Wishing that ASRock would follow-through with their release of their H110M-DS/Hyper board, but it seems that one was discontinued, most likely at the behest of Intel. (Can you imagine, a 4.5-5.0Ghz Pentium with HT, on a cheapy H110 OC board? Crazy!)