Building a low budget gaming PC?

[David Wolfe]

(Please check the latest post, this topic has changed a lot)
Original Title: Laptop or Desktop for Low end gaming?
Hello everyone, I am gathered enough pocket money (£250) in the last 4/5 years to buy what I want...
Anyway...so I never had a proper gaming thing...I own a PS2 and a Wii (and trust me, the Wii is the biggest regret to my money) and now my birthday is coming up, my laptop is broken since the last 6 month and it was those 1GB intergated AMD ones (Which suprisingly, still could run COD: WAW at 25fps...it was just a normal school laptop too...)
Now...I'm not a die hard gamer...but I think a desktop in the long run would be better, but a laptop is portable and would suit my daily needs.

My plan is that if I'm getting this pre-built (unfortunately, building one is NOT an option for me...for now...) desktop (specs here) (£229.99)
Windows 8.1
Intel® Pentium® Processor J2900
4 GB DDR3
1 TB HDD, 7200 rpm

EDIT: This computer is now out of stock, I did notice another computer with same specs (except it has 500GB and the case is small, its a Lenovo H500s model)


And then, after 2 years...adding a new graphics card to it like maybe GTX 750 (which might become cheaper in the next 2 years?)

Edit: a GTX 750 would be impossible to fit in, so
Edit: According to my research, a GTX 750 ti actually CAN FIT inside a H500s...

But I'm someone who goes around the house and like I said, I'm not a die hard gamer so i wont mind playing Battlefield 3 on Low 48 FPS.

So then there is this laptop. (£249.99)
AMD A4-6210 APU
4 GB DDR3L
AMD Radeon R3 (At first, I was getting happy because I thought it was dedicated, then realized that it's the GPU that comes with the APU...ah well...)
1 TB, 5400 rpm SATA

I COMPLETELY do not mind playing games on low setting.

The only thing I might upgrade to the laptop in 4 years time is the ram and add an SSD.
So what should I do? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

[Chocolate]

Forget the laptop.

Laptops will never be on the same price/performance of desktops.

Your budget is absolutely tiny. You should save up more.

But if you can't, you should buy a used prebuilt and add a 750 Ti to it.

Look for a prebuilt with 4GB of RAM and an Intel i3.

[Air]

İlk olarak Level 30 Grand Weeaboo Wizard tarafından gönderildi:

Your budget is absolutely tiny. You should save up more.

Yeah, that budget won't get something that even good for low-end gaming, especially for a laptop.

[Zένø™ 👌]

go for desktop,when you will have more money you will be able to upgrade

[David Wolfe]

Thank you for the help, I have decided to take on a cheaper computer known as a Lenovo H500 which has all same specs except the harddrive and the fact that the case is small.
Now there is a GT640 which looks like it can fit inside that small case.
http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/components-upgrades/graphics-cards/graphics-cards/evga-nvidia-geforce-gt-640-pci-e-graphics-card-2-gb-21426698-pdt.html

If I could have that video card as well, in total...that would be
PC: £199.99
Video Card: £79.99
Total: £279.98

Which means...
1) I buy it right now and extend my budget just a tiny bit (unlikely)
2) I buy the video card later (fine by me)

1 problem though...
The CPU...when researching the CPU, all I get it "LOLOLOL IT RUNS INTEL HD"
and im standing their...like...
"Ok...which one?"
SO there's that problem, if I knew which HD it was running...I would reconsider the video card option.

[Andrius227]

After a bit of googling i found that the j2900 cpu in the lenovo h500 use something called 'Intel HD Graphics Desktop (Bay Trail)', and from the few comparisons that i found, its a bit slower than Intel hd 2000. So basically, it's the worst thing ever. Probably worse than integrated graphics in your old laptop. I would NOT recommend buying it. The cpu in that pc is also really bad. Celerons are the worst. I also could not find any info about the motherboard in that pc, not sure if it even have a pcie x16 slot for a dedicated gpu, most other pc's under £400 dont have it.

I would recommend saving up more money, or borrowing some. And then buy a proper pc for around £400. Something like this:
http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/desktop-pc-monitors/desktop-pcs/refurbished-pcs/hp-pavilion-500-250ea-refurbished-desktop-pc-21898264-pdt.html
It's refurbished, but it's not a problem. But it's got a very nice cpu with good integrated graphics (intel hd 4600), you would not even need a dedicated gpu for basic gaming. This integrated graphics is not much worse than the gt640 that you want to buy for £80. And it does have a pcie x16 slot for a dedicated gpu if you want to upgrade.
A pc like that could be easly upgraded with top end hardware if you wanted. Replace the psu, put in a gtx 970, and you have a high end gaming pc.

[David Wolfe]

İlk olarak Andrius227 tarafından gönderildi:

After a bit of googling i found that the j2900 cpu in the lenovo h500 use something called 'Intel HD Graphics Desktop (Bay Trail)', and from the few comparisons that i found, its a bit slower than Intel hd 2000. So basically, it's the worst thing ever. Probably worse than integrated graphics in your old laptop. I would NOT recommend buying it. The cpu in that pc is also really bad. Celerons are the worst. I also could not find any info about the motherboard in that pc, not sure if it even have a pcie x16 slot for a dedicated gpu, most other pc's under £400 dont have it.

I would recommend saving up more money, or borrowing some. And then buy a proper pc for around £400. Something like this:
http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/desktop-pc-monitors/desktop-pcs/refurbished-pcs/hp-pavilion-500-250ea-refurbished-desktop-pc-21898264-pdt.html
It's refurbished, but it's not a problem. But it's got a very nice cpu with good integrated graphics (intel hd 4600), you would not even need a dedicated gpu for basic gaming. This integrated graphics is not much worse than the gt640 that you want to buy for £80. And it does have a pcie x16 slot for a dedicated gpu if you want to upgrade.
A pc like that could be easly upgraded with top end hardware if you wanted. Replace the psu, put in a gtx 970, and you have a high end gaming pc.

Hello.
I thank you for your time.
£400 is WAY too much for me, you mentioned that the CPU is bad.
How about this computer?
http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/desktop-pc-monitors/desktop-pcs/desktop-pcs/lenovo-h520e-desktop-pc-10011086-pdt.html#cat-0

It has an I3 (Intel HD 2500) and I think that this just be good enough for £280.

[Rumpelcrutchskin]

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Fierce-Powerful-Pentium-PC-Computer/dp/B00MNHRGOG

You can use it with Linux until you manage to get copy of Windows.
GTX 750 Ti graphics card, way better then CPU integrated graphics.

[Zένø™ 👌]

I think you should go for AMD,their cpu's are cheaper and their integrated graphics are way better than the intel ones so you can play in amd integrated graphics till you will be able to buy a proper graphic card.With an A8 model you should be just fine.

[Rove]

If you build your own and use Linux OS for free (Steam OS Beta is a type of Linux) you can build a good basic PC that can be upgraded with a R9 series GPU to turn it into a gmaing rig:

http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/sjcsjX
Total: £252.86

I know you said "I don't want to build". Looking at the quality and performance of the prebuilt options though this is the only thing I feel good suggesting. It will make a huge difference to get this above them. Also building this is easier than a Lego set.

[David Wolfe]

İlk olarak Rumpelcrutchskin tarafından gönderildi:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Fierce-Powerful-Pentium-PC-Computer/dp/B00MNHRGOG

You can use it with Linux until you manage to get copy of Windows.
GTX 750 Ti graphics card, way better then CPU integrated graphics.

Hello, I am sorry to say but I do not wish to buy anything online, which is one of the reason why I am not able to build my own PC, maybe I'm able to spend £30 a month on parts which Rove suggested but I cannot afford to blow all my pocket money at once. Sorry.
Linux is't a problem though, I have experience with Linux (Ubuntu, Lubuntu, Linux Mint) and I guess I won't mind emulating the low end games (Should be noted, 75% of the games I like are already native-linux)

İlk olarak Xeno tarafından gönderildi:

I think you should go for AMD,their cpu's are cheaper and their integrated graphics are way better than the intel ones so you can play in amd integrated graphics till you will be able to buy a proper graphic card.With an A8 model you should be just fine.

I was thinking the same thing, if I had a choice, I would try an APU since those are the most interesting component.

İlk olarak Rove tarafından gönderildi:

If you build your own and use Linux OS for free (Steam OS Beta is a type of Linux) you can build a good basic PC that can be upgraded with a R9 series GPU to turn it into a gmaing rig:

http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/sjcsjX
Total: £252.86

I know you said "I don't want to build". Looking at the quality and performance of the prebuilt options though this is the only thing I feel good suggesting. It will make a huge difference to get this above them. Also building this is easier than a Lego set.

Thank you for your time in choosing/making a build for me. Really appreciate that.
Honestly, I am disappointed that I can't make my own PC because this PC is perfect (for the cost)
As I said before, Linux isn't a problem, I think I can wait a year before call of duty games become Linux compatible but yeah.

I think it's best that I should explain why I can't build my own parts.

- As I mentioned before, my parents are not familer with online-shopping. Every item we brought from ebay are under £10.
- they believe that I can be electric shocked from touching electronics.
- This is coming from me, I'm just afraid I might screw something up, I HAVE *ahem* "built" a pc in some random school maths trip (built being in marks because I just plopped them together instead of actually taking it out and doing all that stuff, I just slapped it in and the PC worked)

However, I think in my school, they teach how to build a pc but I'm 1 year away from that so....

Rove, I have made an adjusted PC build to my suiting.
http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/qJfLf7

I have removed the HDD and adjusted the items to PC WORLD BUSINESS and AMAZON (Cause like mentioned before, I will try buying less from online)
(Although -_- it did make stuff more expensive)

So I planned on adding an SSD, but I dont think a 128GB ssd was worth like £50.
So I decided to go non-HDD!
PC Gamers be like "I need a GTX 9999 to play Crysis 3! Omg what should I do!?"
I'll be like "I NEED A HDD TO DO ANYTHING! WHY!?!??!"

*ahem*

Well, on a serious note, I mentioned I had my laptop broken like 6 months ago, so I could just salvage the laptop and use the HDD from it (160GB HDD)
I also have a family computer (which is how I'm sending this) which is Pentium 4, 1GB ram, integrated card (86MB) and is 12 years old, VERY CLOSE TO BREAKING any minute because the motherboard already has the problem of resetting the clock and it's living like that since 2 years now.
The family computer has a 465GB HDD.
So in total, I would be getting 625GB of storage.
And since the family computer is nearly broken, I guess I can let my parents use the 160GB HDD, after all...they cant do ANYTHING that can break it...Linux gets very less virus and the only thing I can be worrying about is them accidentally overclocking.
ha...ha.........
ha.....
*ahem*

So I guess I SHOULD make my own PC, even if I have to wait a year or 2...
What do you think?

[Rove]

Problems:

*You really needed the fast DDR3-2133 RAM I had in there. Without it the integrated graphics won't work as well. That APU (CPU + integrated GPU) is meant to run DDR3-2133.

* Laptop & or or old HDD may not be compatible. Laptop SATA is not Desktop SATA. Most motherboards only have SATA, if your old desktop is something else it won't work unless you can find a motherboard supporting it.

Building a PC isn't that hard.

View the motherboard manual online for the model I picked you. It will show were most stuff goes.

[_I_]

rove is so far behind the times on his builds

the apu with 2133 cl11 ram will not be any faster than a r7 250
and adding a gpu for hybrid crossfire is a waste, just get a gpu that will beat them combined
and it then it will leave it with a cpu bottleneck

you can get a pentium g build for around the same price as the bottom end apu build

if you plan on adding a dedicated gpu, go with a pentium g or i3

this is only £100 more, and you can upgrade to an i5/i7 and any single gpu

http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/2dyN23

[russy23]

i spent £330 on my pentium g built, very happy with it, and building it myself i know what parts went into it, i couldnt tell you about the onboard graphics as i chucked the 750ti straight into it, which i managed to get for £80 new..

[David Wolfe]

İlk olarak _I_ tarafından gönderildi:

rove is so far behind the times on his builds

the apu with 2133 cl11 ram will not be any faster than a r7 250
and adding a gpu for hybrid crossfire is a waste, just get a gpu that will beat them combined
and it then it will leave it with a cpu bottleneck

you can get a pentium g build for around the same price as the bottom end apu build

if you plan on adding a dedicated gpu, go with a pentium g or i3

this is only £100 more, and you can upgrade to an i5/i7 and any single gpu

http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/2dyN23

Sorry, way too much for my budget.

İlk olarak russy23 tarafından gönderildi:

i spent £330 on my pentium g built, very happy with it, and building it myself i know what parts went into it, i couldnt tell you about the onboard graphics as i chucked the 750ti straight into it, which i managed to get for £80 new..

I think an APU is best for my style, I understand that your cpu is good, but you have a dedicated gpu, i wont if i have choose Rove's build.

[tigerxs1]

the cpu and graphics would be poor on your listed one,id say buy a used computer,just make sure you see it working and test it a little if possible,some people make nice pcs and never really play on them then sell them,ebays a fine example i had a tasty pc but wanted a car so sold it on there pff £2000 pc for £300 sumone got a bargin.