Building the Girlfriend a Budget Gaming PC. CPU/Mobo opionions!

Hardware Hub CPU
1

Building the girlfriend a budget gaming PC with a few left over parts in my office closet and a few other cheap parts. We mostly play Warframe, Trine 1-2, Loadout, and Team Foutress 2. She will also use this machine for web browsing and netflix. I have these parts already laying around.....

Black generic midtower, Apevia 500watt PSU, DVD-ROM, OEM Westy 1TB 7200 RPM SATA3, OEM Kingston 4gb DDR3 1333 (2x2gb), EVGA 650ti SC 2GB, LCD Sony 19" 1280x1024 Monitor.

She doesn't need any bells and whistles so I been looking at the cheapest but best CPU/microATX Mobo options via 1155 or 1150 socket.

Been looking at:

1155 - Intel Celeron G2030($50) / Gigabyte GA-H61M-S1($43) = $93

1150 - Intel Celeron G3220($50) / MSI H81M-E33($45) = $95

Will these combos work together?

 

2

You definitely want to get the Pentium G3258 if you have that kind of budget.

3

I was looking at the G3258. I've heard it only works on z97 mobos and those are out of the budget. Plus its lack of instruction sets also makes me weary of it. Does it matter that it does not have all the usual instruction sets? And is there a $40-$50 mobo it works on?

4

you could also look for the Athlon 760K, in my opinnion.

But what is your total budget for cpu + mobo?

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/zRXx99

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+1

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if youre on that kind of budget, i'd probably check e-bay, honestly. tons of people have higher end parts, especially cpu's, that are just fine, but they dont need any more. im about to post my fx-8150 and hyper 212 evo cooler for about $70. ill bet you can find an excellent AMD FX combo, or even a core i3/i5 combo within your budget that would work.

7

My budget is $100 for a mobo/cpu. I did look at the 750k/760k but could not find either for $50 even on eBay. I looked at AMD first cause I have a fx8320 and 270x in my system and love it. She will not need aanything close to that performance though. 

8

I found a Pentium G3220 new in box for $40 free ship on eBay and a MSI H81M E34 mobo for $35 free ship on eBay. From what I've read these two should make a good pair along with the evga 650ti SC. I've never had a MSI mobo but the click bios 4 and command center look nice. I'm used to Asus Suite. The G3220 being on the 1150 socket will also have plenty of room for upgrades down the road "i5 maybe".   The G3220 shows very comparable performance to the AMD 760K with lesser watts and heat.  

9

Asus h97 and some msi h97 can overclock the g3258. 

 

EDIT: http://www.techpowerup.com/202196/asus-enables-overclocking-on-h97-h87-b85-and-h81-series-motherboards.html

 

"

ASUS Enables Overclocking on H97, H87, B85 and H81 Series Motherboards"

10

yes offcourse then pentium G will be good enough for her ☺

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I went with the Pentium G3220 and the MSI H81M-E34 hopefully they will be here next week. When we get it together I'll post some fps for a couple games just so everyone can see the performance level of the budget system. 

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Pics of girlfriends Pentium G3220 Build.

Budget Parts.

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The Build.

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Parts List:

Case - Generic Black Midtower (Free from co-worker)

Fans - 120mm front, 80mm rear, 80mm side (OEM PC fans $free)

CPU - Intel Pentium G3220 (Ebay New $40)

Mobo - MSI H81M-E34 (Ebay MSI Refurb $36)

Ram - 4GB G.Skill Ripjaws DDR3 1333MHz 2x2 (Ebay Used $38)

Drives - Generic DVD player (Ebay Used $10)

             WD 320GB Blue 16MB Cache 7200RPM (Ebay used $20)

             WD 80GB OEM 8MB Cache 7200RPM (Owned, No value just extra drive)

Vid Card - EVGA 650ti SC 2GB (Owned, Ebay EVGA Refurb $100)

PSU - 500watt Apevia (Owned, Value $20)

OS - Windows 7 64bit Home Premium OEM (Owned, Used Ebay $20

Total including owned owned parts - $284

So far has played Warframe, Trine 1-2, Warface, Loadout, Blacklight Retribution and Dead Island with max setting at 1280x1024 with out a hitch. Had to enable v-sync in all games as it was exceeding 60 fps most of the time.

Pentium G3220 temps with OEM cooler and Gelid GC Extreme paste. Room temp 70f, idle 28c and load while gaming 52c.

 

13

If she is playing hardcore in the future oc with aftermarket heatsink, ssd, and hd 7950 goes a long way. Cheap upgrades if you don't mind used parts. Just saying.

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In a few months to a year she'll get my Power Color 270x DEVIL and I'm gonna upgrade the Pentium G3220 to a i5 4430. If need be will also upgrade the ram to 4x4 8gb ram and a cheap ssd. As of now it has played everything she likes at max settings without even stressing the system. Just as I thought, a lot of "wise guy's" out there on the forms under estimated The Pentium G3220 and 4gb of ram. Was also trying to prove a very usable gaming PC CAN be built for $300. This system also offers tons of room for upgrades in the future.

15

That's some nice 1080p upgrades. 

4690k is $30 more and is overclockable. Probably cheaper too when its time to upgrade. Ssd is will be nice too usually can find 240g deals for around $120.

16

A 4690k nearly coast the same as her whole computer. There is no need for a CPU upgrade anytime soon. The Pentium G3220 has handled any game we've thrown at it so far. The next upgrade will be a 500GB Seagate Hybrid drive and a 24" 1080p monitor.

17

Also no point getting a K CPU with that H81 board.

18

you can play every gpu bound game on the pentium G no probs.

The dual core only becomes an issue, wenn you play gpu + cpu bound games / scenario´s. like BF4 multiplayer, Watchdogs, Metro, and such.

But still with only a GTX650Ti. you wont realy notice much of a bottleneck.

19

Pretty much every game that's coming out is gpu+cpu bound. G3220 is great for itx console killers, but a real gaming PC you'll need a 4.5 GHZ 760k or better imo. extra cores will come in handy for future games.

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Nice lil rig you got there, may have trouble with the AAA titles but great for basic games!