Question What "cheap" current processor/MB should I be looking at for "gaming light"?

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Lil'John

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Dec 28, 2013
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I'm starting to do some research for a system upgrade mid to late fall maybe even Christmas. I'm looking to keep it cheap as just about anything will do better than what I have. The system will be web browsing and 'light' gaming.

From a gaming standpoint, I am doing older games like Battletech with Roguetech upgrade(ie memory hog), Shadowrun Returns, and Warhammer 2. None of them are that big of a deal and are usable on an antiquated 4690k with 16GB ram and a pair of 560ti cards :eek: They also did okay on a Skull Canyon NUC:joycat:

I am NOT going to be buying a video card of any sort but I believe that anything current generation will have onboard graphics that are much better than the 560ti in SLI.

Size of motherboard isn't a concern. I don't care if I go regular ATX or smaller. I'm hoping for something compatible with my current power supply; EVGA NEX650G.

I'm not stuck on any brand of CPU or MB. But historically, I've leaned Intel and ASUS. Am I crazy to think a Pentium or AMD equivalent will do what I need?
 

Thunder 57

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Aug 19, 2007
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Ok is not double as I was remembering, from newegg Ryzen 5600 is $66 or ~60% more expensive and 12400F is just $53 or ~50% more expensive vs Core i3 12100F

And performance with GTX 3090Ti in Spiderman


Maybe a good compromise would be to go with the 12100 and use the money saved and put it towards an RX 6600. The 12100 is certainly strong for being a quad core. He could always upgrade either the CPU or GPU. I guess it comes down to what to put more priority on? Also, I would hardly consider Spiderman: Remastered "light gaming".

EDIT,

I didn't even mean to post that yet. I wanted to add that the OP said:

My case, processor, and drive(s) are all in good shape so I will reuse them.

I don't get what we are even talking about anymore if he intends to keep his CPU, unless by processor he means GPU.
 
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Lil'John

Senior member
Dec 28, 2013
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Wait, so you plan to reuse your CPU? I don't get the question then at all. I think you would be just fine with a 5600G and a B450/B550 motherboard with it. Spend the rest on RAM as it sounds like you will need a lot.
Brain fart and an edit didn't take :rolleyes: I meant power supply. I've edited the post you quoted to fix that.

I think the current CPU bit the dust. The system is acting like the 6700k that died much earlier this year.
 

Lil'John

Senior member
Dec 28, 2013
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Maybe a good compromise would be to go with the 12100 and use the money saved and put it towards an RX 6600. The 12100 is certainly strong for being a quad core. He could always upgrade either the CPU or GPU. I guess it comes down to what to put more priority on? Also, I would hardly consider Spiderman: Remastered "light gaming".


I don't get what we are even talking about anymore if he intends to keep his CPU, unless by processor he means GPU.
Posted above... I brain farted processor and meant power supply. I fixed that post.

I am certainly willing to consider a discrete GPU but again, I'm way out of current info. Back when I cared about NVidia stack, it was <>60 = mid, <>70 = up- mid, <>80 = high end, <>90 = double high end, titan = nothing left in walleto_O $250 for a video card isn't in the budget for this upgrade. I might consider it come x-mas
 

OlyAR15

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Oct 23, 2014
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Then you have a big decision to make. SLI-capable motherboards are expensive, and you will largely be limited to AMD, so something like a 5600x or so. You will need to check the cost of keeping your current obsolete video cards and buy a more expensive motherboard, or buy something more reasonable and get a newer single video card (even a used one like a 1050ti will likely be faster than your SLI setup, to say nothing of more recent cards).
 
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Lil'John

Senior member
Dec 28, 2013
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Then you have a big decision to make. SLI-capable motherboards are expensive, and you will largely be limited to AMD, so something like a 5600x or so. You will need to check the cost of keeping your current obsolete video cards and buy a more expensive motherboard, or buy something more reasonable and get a newer single video card (even a used one like a 1050ti will likely be faster than your SLI setup, to say nothing of more recent cards).
I'll take a look at the 1050ti. If I can find a cheap/used graphics card that is at least as good as the SLI 560s, I may jump on it. My quick search so far is showing 1050ti being in the ~$100 range which is cheaper than the one or two SLI capable AMD boards.
 

Lil'John

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Dec 28, 2013
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I got a used 1050ti on the way. I'm hoping before end of month to get rest of system.

Would going with:
Gigabyte Z690I AORUS ULTRA LITE
Corsair Vengeance 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR5-4800 CL40 Memory

be a good setup for a 12100F?

The MB and memory wouldn't add to much in cost over a B660 MB and ddr4 setup. I'm still trying to check video on ddr4 vs ddr5 with 12100 but it is a thought.
 
Jul 27, 2020
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I'm still trying to check video on ddr4 vs ddr5 with 12100 but it is a thought.
Not bad for future proofing your build (you can upgrade to an i7 or i9 13th gen after a few years and use very high speed DDR5 with those). Based on your use case, I don't see any reason why the slight performance decrease in single threaded tasks with DDR5-4800 CL40 would make you regret it. Go for it.

I can't vouch for Corsair RAM though. It's not as good as Kingston in my experience.

How about this: https://www.amazon.com/Kingston-Technology-5600MT-Computer-KF556C40BB-32/dp/B09T8WL54M

It should allow you to reduce the CAS latency a bit more if you intend to run at 4800 MT/s or just run it at 5600 MT/s with CL40 for more multithreaded performance.

Corsair is cheaper with CL36 if you wanna risk it: https://www.amazon.com/CORSAIR-Vengeance-2x16GB-PC5-44800-1-25V/dp/B09NCNF2ZQ
 
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Lil'John

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Dec 28, 2013
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Just a quick update and thanks for all the feedback provided.

The motherboard ended up being a ASRock B660M MicroATX. Price drove this. As noted, I just needed a black and yellow board that said motherboard; basically no frills. Since the CPU can't overclock, I don't feel I needed a z690 and I missed out on a deal.

The memory is 32GB G.Skill Aegis Series 3200 CL16. Price drove this and from my research, anything over 3200 is more geared to overclocking.

I went with a Scythe Big Shuriken 3 Rev.B to cool a 12100F. I tried to use a se226xt cooler but it ended up being 1/2" too tall for my case.

I went with a used ASUS 1050ti.

For the OS(Win11), I went with a SK Hynix M.2 SATA 128GB SSD. For storage, I went with a pair of 240GB Intel 535 SSD 2.5".

So far, I am VERY happy with the results and the price. It is doing better than the system it replaced.

I got rabbit holed with Mechwarrior 5 for a bit. It plays smoothly and isn't running too hot. I briefly fired up Roguetech and it is running fine. Oddly, it seems to take less memory than the old system.