Pentium budget option with H81

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tenpole

tenpole

Senior member
Aug 21, 2013
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The story.
My sister-in-law (she calls herself Hotkitt online) would like a budget computer for £100. I said it cant be done you will have to buy second hand which unfortunately she did over summer from her neighbours mother. She purchased this without any consultation to me, although I think she did ask her next door neighbour the other side who allegedly is good with computers. A little knowledge is a dangerous thing.

She now refers to it as a pile of junk as it is so slow and frequently crashes. I think it might be the chipset before 775 or maybe older.

The purpose of the pc would be internet browsing, going on Facebook and just being able to play world of Warcraft even if it was on low resolution.

I have not had a look myself at the pc but I know it has a 15' monitor (beige) which I had to borrow in August while setting up the wifes i5 4570.

My sister-in-law has asked even pleaded for me to get a set up that at least works. I was thinking rather than the second hand route of parts maybe looking at a budget Haswell cpu and h81 mobo which gives the advantage having any of my hand me downs later on. She would be fine using the case, monitor and her old windows. Hard drives I have got or can get hold of no problem.

So what would you think about the Pentium G3220 and a H81 mobo. I might have to ask her to stretch the budget for a bit of ram but over than this it will have to be scour ebay for parts or have nothing.
 
Yuriman

Yuriman

Diamond Member
Jun 25, 2004
5,530
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Some parts are safe to get second-hand. I would probably trust a processor from the classifieds, feel a little more hesitant about video cards and power supplies, and will generally not touch mechanical hard drives and RAM because of the failure rates.

That said, an Ivy Bridge Pentium is a pretty solid chip, and would be a great choice given certain conditions. HD2500 is pretty weak, so getting an i3 with HD4k graphics would do a lot for her WoW experience. You can probably find a discrete card that would be faster for ~$20 which would be fine when paired with the Pentium.

OTOH, you might be able to make the machine she has not crash for next to nothing. My experience with old systems is that it's usually software problems, followed by a stick of RAM gone bad.
 
VirtualLarry

VirtualLarry

No Lifer
Aug 25, 2001
56,587
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The G3220 is a Haswell Celeron, not an Ivy Bridge CPU.

I think that a G3220 and an H81 is a fine solution. Bonus points for finding a cheap (refurb? used?) SSD for her.
 
NTMBK

NTMBK

Lifer
Nov 14, 2011
10,526
6,051
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Sounds like a solid plan. I'd normally recommend an AMD APU in this situation (wanting to play WoW on a very tight budget), but your plan of passing on your Haswell parts to her is a good one.
 
tenpole

tenpole

Senior member
Aug 21, 2013
265
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Yuriman said:
That said, an Ivy Bridge Pentium is a pretty solid chip, and would be a great choice given certain conditions. HD2500 is pretty weak, so getting an i3 with HD4k graphics would do a lot for her WoW experience. You can probably find a discrete card that would be faster for ~$20 which would be fine when paired with the Pentium.
Click to expand...

I wanted to go down the Haswell route as the wife has an i5 4570 but what I wanted was a i7 (don't we all). If I get the money to waste then out goes the i5 and plop an i7 in. S-i-L gets a i5.

The i3 ivy bridge second hand still commands to high a price, not much difference to the i3 haswell second hand when they come up. I am not too sure on the second hand price of the ivy bridge pentium but the motherboards do hold only slightly smaller cost the a used haswell. I would not rule the Ivy bridge option out. I may not get rid of the i5 and this is not my money I am spending.
 
tenpole

tenpole

Senior member
Aug 21, 2013
265
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VirtualLarry said:
The G3220 is a Haswell Celeron, not an Ivy Bridge CPU.

I think that a G3220 and an H81 is a fine solution. Bonus points for finding a cheap (refurb? used?) SSD for her.
Click to expand...

That would only be a 32Gb which is no good for anyone, unless your running something other than windows. In time I think SSD will become the norm but for this budget I think they are out.;)
 
tenpole

tenpole

Senior member
Aug 21, 2013
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SPBHM said:
"The purpose of the pc would be internet browsing, going on Facebook and just being able to play world of Warcraft"

Pentium Haswell + H81 should be great for this.
not sure about how well the IGP is going to handle WoW but it should be playable.
Click to expand...

This was a concern of mine as well but it could be improved a couple of months later with a cheapo £20 graphics card. Which would still be better than the integrated graphics, I hope.
 
inf64

inf64

Diamond Member
Mar 11, 2011
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I think that IGP would handle OK the WoW game. Maybe add-in the cheap discrete card later if she needs something faster.
 
NTMBK

NTMBK

Lifer
Nov 14, 2011
10,526
6,051
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tenpole said:
This was a concern of mine as well but it could be improved a couple of months later with a cheapo £20 graphics card. Which would still be better than the integrated graphics, I hope.
Click to expand...

No, it wouldn't be. £20 graphics cards are utter shite. (Trust me, I put one in my girlfriend's PC!) Don't mess around with things like the HD5450 or HD6450, they just aren't an improvement over a modern IGP. Save up for a while longer, and get something like a (GDDR5) 6670, or a 7750- that's the level where you'll actually see some improvement.
 
NTMBK

NTMBK

Lifer
Nov 14, 2011
10,526
6,051
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tenpole said:
OMG hope she was not too harsh on you. The wife goes ballistic if my "improvements" have detrimental effects.
Click to expand...

Haha, thankfully the PC I was upgrading had some old nForce chipset graphics so it was just about an improvement... just :p

The HD7730 might be a good choice, actually. It's a bit faster than the old 6670 and you can get it for about £55. (Just make sure you get the GDDR5 version!)
 
NTMBK

NTMBK

Lifer
Nov 14, 2011
10,526
6,051
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tenpole said:
See theres the thing £55. More than half the budget.
Click to expand...

Oh, I'm not saying get it straight away. Go with your plan, get the Pentium and a H81 motherboard, and see how she gets on with it. But if WoW doesn't run well, that's the minimum graphics card you should even think about getting- anything less than that is just a waste of money! If it needs a graphics upgrade, save up and at least get the 7730- otherwise you'll do what I did and buy a 5450 for £25, then have to spend another £50 on an actually decent graphics card six months later :p
 
sm625

sm625

Diamond Member
May 6, 2011
8,172
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Playing WoW on a pentium IGP would be a nightmare.

Buy a used pc with an E8600 and install a low profile 7750 card.
 
Charlie98

Charlie98

Diamond Member
Nov 6, 2011
6,298
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tenpole said:
The wife goes ballistic if my "improvements" have detrimental effects.
Click to expand...

I know what you mean... o_O

Pentium Haswell + H81 should be great for this.
Click to expand...

This^^^ ...if you want to stick with new tech. There are still some IB chips available but then you are tied to an old tech 1155 mobo, and from what I have seen there isn't much of a price difference... but there is some... if you are really pinching pennies.

For what it's worth, I'll be getting the very same combo (G3220/H81) for my in-laws build, all they do is surf the internet and check email (no gaming.) I think it's a pretty good combo for a budget build.
 
VirtualLarry

VirtualLarry

No Lifer
Aug 25, 2001
56,587
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tenpole said:
But it would work, this is not the best wow player, there will be no raid play, partying only with the wife probably.
Click to expand...

I used to (casually) play WoW on an NV 6150 chipset IGP. Talk about slow. I think I got 10-18 FPS, in the jungle area with the raptors.
 
S

seitur

Senior member
Jul 12, 2013
383
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1. For webbrowsing, watching videos, skype, etc it will absolutely fly and be super-fast. If not WoW and gaming - I would absolutely reccomend Haswell Pentium with iGPU.

2. For World of Warcraft it won't be pleasant experience, even for casual player.


3. So imo you have two options:

a ) go best AMD APU your budget can get

b ) go G1610 or some Pentium + cheapo 7750 GDDR5 (important !!) Graphic Card or something similar from Nvidia with GDDR5.

Ofc option b ) will be more expensive and over budget, but will provide much better experience.
 
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NTMBK

NTMBK

Lifer
Nov 14, 2011
10,526
6,051
136
Have we actually seen any benchmarks for Haswell GT1 graphics? It's got 10 EUs in it, so between that and the more powerful/efficient EUs in Ivy Bridge and Haswell, it should be pretty close to Sandy Bridge's HD3000... I think it might be okay, and should certainly be alright as a stop-gap.
 
tenpole

tenpole

Senior member
Aug 21, 2013
265
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Wifey is using the I5 IGP for wow. It is a smoother experience but the detail is not as great with her old Pentium 775 and GTX260. I know it is smoother because of the faster pprocessor and heaps more RAM but she happily plays it with no heavy demands "I thought you was getting me a grahics card" demand.
 
NTMBK

NTMBK

Lifer
Nov 14, 2011
10,526
6,051
136
tenpole said:
Wifey is using the I5 IGP for wow. It is a smoother experience but the detail is not as great with her old Pentium 775 and GTX260. I know it is smoother because of the faster pprocessor and heaps more RAM but she happily plays it with no heavy demands "I thought you was getting me a grahics card" demand.
Click to expand...

Sounds promising, which i5 was that?
 
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