Need advice for a gaming desktop, 400 dollar budget.

[Kalastryn]

So, I finally got around to buying Overwatch. Good game from what I've seen, but there's a problem. Blizzard... is not quite the best at displaying a game's hardware requirements in an easy to see location prior to purchase. Maybe I just didn't look hard enough, I don't know. Point is, I've been thinking of getting a better rig for myself for a while now as well, and it seems that to give any purpose to the $60 I just spent on a game I would be interested in regardless, I need an upgrade. I... will admit, I know next to nothing- no, I just plain know nothing about computer hardware.

Now I'm not a guy who needs to run everything on the highest settings, I don't obsess over high framerates AND graphics settings being hand in hand. That said, I only have about $400 to burn on this, and while I've heard putting your own PC together is often a method that nets you more bang for your buck if you know what you're doing, I don't know what I'm doing, so I would just need to buy one.

That all said, I have a pretty low budget in comparison to the price of some gaming PCs that I've looked up, but if it could even get me a PC that would have the bells and whistles I do need from it, I would have no idea where to look.

So, community of the escapist, you wouldn't happen to know where I could find a... decent gaming PC for something under 400 Dollars?

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

Well if you only care about Overwatch then something like this might do the trick:

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/YD6pzM

It should actually play Overwatch at medium/high details at 1080p. You could save some money by not buying any storage whatsoever if you want to use the HDD from your current PC. So tell us what you have right now. Maybe something can be salvaged from the old rig. You need to put all of your money into performance. Then just get a friend who knows about PC's or pay someone $20 to assemble it for you.

You will need an OS as well. I take it that you have a Windows 7/8/10 license already?

If you don't have an OS license then your only options are to go over-budget to get one or buy a used PC that can run Overwatch. Third option is the illegal one, and quite frankly a stupid one. No one should ever install a cracked OS on their PC. It's just a tragedy waiting to happen, so don't do that.

 

[gorfias]

Plenty of things like this on Youtube


Are you looking for new monitor, keypad, mouse? Can you re-use any of your old PC (Case, Optical Drives, RAM, storage, OS [I would advise new power supply]).

 

[DeliveryGodNoah_v1legacy]

Luckily, Overwatch actually still manages to look really nice even on it's lowest graphical settings, so even if you only manage to build a PC that can only play it on the lowest settings at standard 1080p, you'll get eye candy anyway.

And Overwatch actually manages to run on just about anything it seems. Not always at 60FPS mind you, but "playable".

Here's a short story following the chronicles of my girlfriends woefully outdated PC here:

Spoiler: Upgrading my Girlfriend's Outdated PC

To set the stage, she was originally using a pre-packaged HP brand PC that only used a AMD APU. Yeah. Yuck. Specifically the A6-3620. She was lucky to get Minecraft to run on it.
She managed to play games on it though, at lowest settings and sub 20FPS at the best of times.

It was about 2 years ago now then that I bought her a fairly priced GTX 660 and a new Power supply, which snuggly fit in her cramped case. This did help quite a bit. She could play WoW at 1080p at respectable framerates at decent settings, and could play older titles fairly well.

Up until last week, she used this same system to play Overwatch with me for hundreds of hours now. However, she did eventually divulge to me that it often ran at about 30 FPS most of the time at the lowest settings, and often dropped to low 10's in high action, especially on maps like Eichenwalde.

Luckily, I did have a GTX 670 laying in the attic in a box, as well as my old motherboard still with an AMD Phenom II 960T processor (a fairly high regarded quad core CPU for AMD in its day). It wasn't a great processor anymore, but it is still leagues better than her APU, and the 670 was only a slight but still welcome upgrade from the 660 I gave her a couple years before. She already had 8GB of RAM, so all was good.

After a couple hours of labor (cleaning, replacing parts, transferring still viable parts, cable managing, etc.) I finally had the PC boot up, downloaded new drivers for everything, and had her test a few matches of Overwatch.

The results? Well, it's not ideal, but she is getting ~80FPS on the lowest settings at 1080p, with an absolute minimum of 50FPS in high intensity scenes. (What I found incredibly odd though, was that even cranking up graphical settings to medium or high still resulted in about 70-80FPS. Perhaps there's a bottleneck somewhere, or something that I just don't understand.)

Moral of the story, even a 4 year old graphics card and a 5 year old processor can run Overwatch very smoothly.

Unfortunately, I don't think $400 is enough for you to buy a decent pre-built system. At least in my experience. Cheapest I could find with a quick google search was almost $800.

If you're lucky to know someone that can build PCs, maybe buy the parts separately and then toss the guy $50 to put it together for you. I know I'd personally do it for a friend, likely even without the $50.

 

[Kalastryn]

Well, the computer I am using right now does have Windows 10, it's an all-in-one, touch screen enabled. Truth be told... I had a better PC, but my HDD killed itself with bad sectors, so this is what I'm using. It's... technically not mine. Family household, though it's for me to use and it's on my desk, I'm not in a hurry to take apart what I didn't get with my own money. So taking parts from one and putting it in another is pretty much a no-go (especially because I wouldn't know what goes where)

I am not looking for a new Monitor, keyboard or mouse, the issue that came up when I tried to run Overwatch was that that I didn't have any compatible graphics hardware. Though while I suppose I could try to learn how to install better hardware on what I have, I think I could still use an all around upgrade regardless.

I should kind of re-iterate I guess, that I know just plain nothing about putting a computer together, I meant more if you had any suggestions of what might work that's available for retail or some such.

 

[DeliveryGodNoah_v1legacy]

Well, the computer I am using right now does have Windows 10, it's an all-in-one, touch screen enabled. Truth be told... I had a better PC, but my HDD killed itself with bad sectors, so this is what I'm using. It's... technically not mine. Family household, though it's for me to use and it's on my desk, I'm not in a hurry to take apart what I didn't get with my own money. So taking parts from one and putting it in another is pretty much a no-go (especially because I wouldn't know what goes where)

I am not looking for a new Monitor, keyboard or mouse, the issue that came up when I tried to run Overwatch was that that I didn't have any compatible graphics hardware. Though while I suppose I could try to learn how to install better hardware on what I have, I think I could still use an all around upgrade regardless.

I should kind of re-iterate I guess, that I know just plain nothing about putting a computer together, I meant more if you had any suggestions of what might work that's available for retail or some such.

I get it, I just mean...for a retail PC at $400, I don't think you'll find one that will run Overwatch. UNLESS you spend another $150 or so for a graphics card, but then you'll have to make sure your PC has enough power with the Power Supply (which retail units typically don't unless you buy a low power drawing "Ti" graphics card from Nvidia.)

You can find refurbished PCs from retail stores for that price, but they typically don't come with much, and most likely at some point you'll have to crack open the PC case to put in a graphics card and power supply anyway.

 

[JUMBO PALACE]

Sorry to say that if you have no ability to salvage parts from another tower based PC (All-in-ones are not meant to be opened) I don't see how you could possibly build a PC for $400 that would be halfway decent. And what is your plan for a monitor? You said you're not interested in buying one but were you somehow planning on trying to have the new PC output video to the all-in-one?

A $400 store bought computer is going to be intended for nothing more than a generic workstation. You're better off saving some scheckles for a better build or returning Overwatch and buying it for a console (if you have one).

Not trying to burst your bubble but your only option here is to learn how to do this yourself (it's easy just watch a few youtube videos. PCs are like legos for grownups), and scrounge for parts from friends or Craiglist. $400, even if you had an OS license already doesn't get you very far when you're starting with nothing. At this point you need to ask yourself if one game is worth a couple hundred dollars and maximum effort on your part.

All that being said, check out the last post in this thread. The poster gives some info on the costs of the minimum requirement hardware (I can't confirm the veracity of his/her statements) which might give you a place to start. You're gonna have to look hard for crazy deals on used stuff.

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/9.944028-I-need-help-building-a-PC-for-Overwatch-on-a-150-dollar-budget

 

[DudeistBelieve]

Luckily, Overwatch actually still manages to look really nice even on it's lowest graphical settings, so even if you only manage to build a PC that can only play it on the lowest settings at standard 1080p, you'll get eye candy anyway.

And Overwatch actually manages to run on just about anything it seems. Not always at 60FPS mind you, but "playable".

Here's a short story following the chronicles of my girlfriends woefully outdated PC here:

Spoiler: Upgrading my Girlfriend's Outdated PC

To set the stage, she was originally using a pre-packaged HP brand PC that only used a AMD APU. Yeah. Yuck. Specifically the A6-3620. She was lucky to get Minecraft to run on it.
She managed to play games on it though, at lowest settings and sub 20FPS at the best of times.

It was about 2 years ago now then that I bought her a fairly priced GTX 660 and a new Power supply, which snuggly fit in her cramped case. This did help quite a bit. She could play WoW at 1080p at respectable framerates at decent settings, and could play older titles fairly well.

Up until last week, she used this same system to play Overwatch with me for hundreds of hours now. However, she did eventually divulge to me that it often ran at about 30 FPS most of the time at the lowest settings, and often dropped to low 10's in high action, especially on maps like Eichenwalde.

Luckily, I did have a GTX 670 laying in the attic in a box, as well as my old motherboard still with an AMD Phenom II 960T processor (a fairly high regarded quad core CPU for AMD in its day). It wasn't a great processor anymore, but it is still leagues better than her APU, and the 670 was only a slight but still welcome upgrade from the 660 I gave her a couple years before. She already had 8GB of RAM, so all was good.

After a couple hours of labor (cleaning, replacing parts, transferring still viable parts, cable managing, etc.) I finally had the PC boot up, downloaded new drivers for everything, and had her test a few matches of Overwatch.

The results? Well, it's not ideal, but she is getting ~80FPS on the lowest settings at 1080p, with an absolute minimum of 50FPS in high intensity scenes. (What I found incredibly odd though, was that even cranking up graphical settings to medium or high still resulted in about 70-80FPS. Perhaps there's a bottleneck somewhere, or something that I just don't understand.)

Moral of the story, even a 4 year old graphics card and a 5 year old processor can run Overwatch very smoothly.

Unfortunately, I don't think $400 is enough for you to buy a decent pre-built system. At least in my experience. Cheapest I could find with a quick google search was almost $800.

If you're lucky to know someone that can build PCs, maybe buy the parts separately and then toss the guy $50 to put it together for you. I know I'd personally do it for a friend, likely even without the $50.

What homeboy here says it's true. I have a beastly rig, but I play it on the lowest setting because I want to get most out of the FPS as I can just to give me that slight edge. The game still looks like a Pixar movie.

 

[McElroy]

I have a beastly rig, but I play it on the lowest setting because I want to get most out of the FPS as I can just to give me that slight edge. The game still looks like a Pixar movie.

Doesn't do much good unless you've got a 144Hz monitor. You do, don't you? Also the art style is more Dreamworks than Pixar ;-).

If you don't have an OS license then your only options are to go over-budget to get one or buy a used PC that can run Overwatch. Third option is the illegal one, and quite frankly a stupid one. No one should ever install a cracked OS on their PC. It's just a tragedy waiting to happen, so don't do that.

Or install Windows and never activate it. Works completely fine if you can stand the nagging. Windows 7, 8, and 10 all work indefinitely without activation.

 

[DudeistBelieve]

I have a beastly rig, but I play it on the lowest setting because I want to get most out of the FPS as I can just to give me that slight edge. The game still looks like a Pixar movie.

Doesn't do much good unless you've got a 144Hz monitor. You do, don't you? Also the art style is more Dreamworks than Pixar ;-).

Very good question... I don't know. I use a HD Television for my monitor.

 

[McElroy]

I have a beastly rig, but I play it on the lowest setting because I want to get most out of the FPS as I can just to give me that slight edge. The game still looks like a Pixar movie.

Doesn't do much good unless you've got a 144Hz monitor. You do, don't you? Also the art style is more Dreamworks than Pixar ;-).

Very good question... I don't know. I use a HD Television for my monitor.

Then it's a no. I'm afraid the tv most likely cannot show the difference.

 

[DudeistBelieve]

I have a beastly rig, but I play it on the lowest setting because I want to get most out of the FPS as I can just to give me that slight edge. The game still looks like a Pixar movie.

Doesn't do much good unless you've got a 144Hz monitor. You do, don't you? Also the art style is more Dreamworks than Pixar ;-).

Very good question... I don't know. I use a HD Television for my monitor.

Then it's a no. I'm afraid the tv most likely cannot show the difference.

Huh. Well thanks for dropping science on me, it must of been placebo effect.... I may turn the graphics back up?

I do have have 2nd monitor thats an actual computer monitor, how would I know if it's a 144hz?

 

[DeliveryGodNoah_v1legacy]

I have a beastly rig, but I play it on the lowest setting because I want to get most out of the FPS as I can just to give me that slight edge. The game still looks like a Pixar movie.

Doesn't do much good unless you've got a 144Hz monitor. You do, don't you? Also the art style is more Dreamworks than Pixar ;-).

He may not necessarily be seeing the difference, but I'm sure he can feel the difference.

Higher or unlocked framerate still feels more responsive even on monitors that don't necessarily support it. It just depends on screen tearing at that point, and I actually never see any screen tearing on Overwatch.

 

[DeliveryGodNoah_v1legacy]

I have a beastly rig, but I play it on the lowest setting because I want to get most out of the FPS as I can just to give me that slight edge. The game still looks like a Pixar movie.

Doesn't do much good unless you've got a 144Hz monitor. You do, don't you? Also the art style is more Dreamworks than Pixar ;-).

Very good question... I don't know. I use a HD Television for my monitor.

Then it's a no. I'm afraid the tv most likely cannot show the difference.

Huh. Well thanks for dropping science on me, it must of been placebo effect.... I may turn the graphics back up?

I do have have 2nd monitor thats an actual computer monitor, how would I know if it's a 144hz?

If you're using a Nvidia card, right click the desktop and look for "Nvidia Control Panel". Once that's open (may take a minute) open "Change Resolution". If should be on the monitors native max Resolution, and to the right you'll see "Refresh rate". Drop that menu down and the highest number you see should be your screen's maximum capable refresh rate.

A slightly longer method of checking if finding out the model of your screen and looking it up online.

 

[McElroy]

I'm afraid the tv most likely cannot show the difference.

Huh. Well thanks for dropping science on me, it must of been placebo effect.... I may turn the graphics back up?

The tv will try to smooth out the picture as well as it can. It cannot show all the frames (anything over 60 per second) but it will still put them parts of them on the screen. This will make the animations smoother. Like, I don't use TVs for this. I guess it's possible the higher fps could offset the TVs "natural" input lag (it's not designed to be a computer monitor after all).

I do have have 2nd monitor that's an actual computer monitor, how would I know if it's a 144hz?

Display adapter properties > Monitor > Monitor settings However you must use a DP, Dual-link DVI or a HDMI 2.0 cable to have the high refresh rate available no matter the monitor.

DeliveryGodNoah's comment is right on too.

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

Well, the computer I am using right now does have Windows 10, it's an all-in-one, touch screen enabled. Truth be told... I had a better PC, but my HDD killed itself with bad sectors, so this is what I'm using. It's... technically not mine. Family household, though it's for me to use and it's on my desk, I'm not in a hurry to take apart what I didn't get with my own money. So taking parts from one and putting it in another is pretty much a no-go (especially because I wouldn't know what goes where)

I am not looking for a new Monitor, keyboard or mouse, the issue that came up when I tried to run Overwatch was that that I didn't have any compatible graphics hardware. Though while I suppose I could try to learn how to install better hardware on what I have, I think I could still use an all around upgrade regardless.

I should kind of re-iterate I guess, that I know just plain nothing about putting a computer together, I meant more if you had any suggestions of what might work that's available for retail or some such.

Putting a computer together isn't very difficult these days. Everything just has its own slot on the motherboard. There are a ton of guides on youtube of how to do it, and if you take your time and be careful then it's quite easy to do.

The hardest part of building your own computer is really picking out the parts, but websites like PC part picker help with that, or you can get people on forums to just recommend you builds within your budget.

There's almost no way you're going to get a half-decent pre-built PC for $400 though.

 

[BadNewDingus]

Save the money and get this ..

https://www.amazon.com/CYBERPOWERPC-Xtreme-GXiVR8020A-Gaming-Desktop/dp/B01HNBLHAA

I'm like you when it comes to putting a PC together ... I don't do it. I just know how to install RAM and a GPU. Again, just save the money and don't waste it on a cheap computer. I've done that so many times, it just does more harm than good. At least with this PC, you'll get to play everything on High or Ultra. And it's cheaper than putting it together yourself, as others did the math and they seem to be losing money on this computer(probably not, but it's cheaper than putting it together yourself.)

 

[Kalastryn]

The best option in this case is ultimately going to be learning to build a PC. [http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/build-your-own-pc,2601.html] It only takes an couple afternoons of casual weekend research at most to get the gist, and you will be much better off in the long run when you end up needing to swap parts vs taking it to Best Buy or something. $400 won't get very far even with a custom build. I'd wait until you can put another $400 on top of that into something that will last a while.

Or if you really need it now, start with a good motherboard [http://www.tomshardware.com/t/motherboards/] and PSU, then get the best CPU and GPU you can for now.

Trust any PC gamer that if you plan on PC gaming for a while, the experience gained will be the most indispensable tool you'll ever need.