# PC hardware buying guide 2018 4th quarter {European edition}



## The red spirit (Sep 29, 2015)

I have nothing to do, so I decided to write computer hardware guide. Some of you might want to build one before Christmas. Just don't be scared, it's as easy as 2+2. In this guide there will be various combinations of budgets and computer types. As title suggests, prices of parts will be the ones in European market, more specifically Lithuanian.

I wanna make it clear, there are no accessories like keyboard, mouse, speakers, monitor in these builds and OS too. If you don't have that, you will have to buy that. I may give recommendations what you should get, but no pricing included. Just something that looks somewhat reasonable.

So let's start

Budget: Under 300€
Purpose: Office build, for work and for general usage.
Computer name: Hemorrhoid
Motherboard: MSI A320M PRO-VH PLUS 60.34€
CPU: AMD Athlon 200GE 55.59€
CPU cooler: AMD stock cooler
RAM: Patriot Viper 4 8GB 3000MHz DDR4 CL16 KIT OF 2 69.49 €
GPU: integrated
SSD: A-Data Ultimate SU650 240GB 35.47 € + A-Data SSD Adapter Bracket 2.5" to 3.5" Blue 5.40 €
HDD: no
Case: Chieftec Mini Tower Libra LT-01B-OP 30.21 €
Fans: no
PSU: Thermaltake Litepower 450W 35.53 €
Optical drive: LG DRW GH24NSD1 RBBB 10.99 €
Sound card: integrated
Additional stuff: nothing
Total cost: 303,02€
Part choice rationale: The cheapest decent parts were chosen. Pretty much nothing special, but at least half decent case, no time bomb PSUs. Athlon 200GE, should hum nicely along with office tasks and help you grow hemorrhoids. PC case sort of reminds that it's not gonna be a fun PC, just something to pay taxes and do other things.
Computer maximum load wattage: around 150 watts.
Recommended accessories: Logitech K120, Logitech M90, low end 1080p 60Hz TN screen and Creative A250.
Recommended OS: Windows 10 home or maybe linux if you want more hemorrhoids.

Budget: Under 600€
Purpose: Gaming
Computer name: Scrooge's Savior
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-970A-DS3P 68.69 €
CPU: AMD FX-8350 77.43 €
CPU cooler: stock
RAM: Corsair Vengeance Blue 16GB 1600MHz CL10 DDR3 KIT OF 2 105.00 €
GPU: MSI Radeon RX 570 Armor OC 8GB 191.42 €
SSD: Crucial BX500 SSD 240GB 39€ + A-Data SSD Adapter Bracket 2.5" to 3.5" Blue 5.30 €
HDD: Toshiba P300 1TB 40.83 €
Case: Thermaltake Versa H24 36.64 €
Fans: only stock cooling or something that comes with case
PSU: XFX XT 500W 45.16 €
Optical drive: no
Sound card: integrated
Additional stuff: nothing
Total cost: 609.47 €
Part choice rationale: It's really the lowest anyone should go, when buying gaming PC. I cheaped out on cooling, it's better to have cooling fans and their controller on front too. Yet PC should work just fine with what comes with parts. Other than that motherboard, updatability could have been just great of it. Anyway, it's cheap and fast, better not be overclocked even with upgraded cooling (poor VRMs and low wattage PSU). This thing would be pretty much perfect for 1080p gaming and would do good enough at 1440p. But at 1440p "good enough" most likely would be with medium settings. At 1080p it may be often reasonable to set stuff to ultra. Still, this PC will waste quite a bit of electricity and will be often warm or loud, perhaps, explains Scrooge part. Also it's spartan, so yeah.
Computer maximum load wattage: around 400 watts
Recommended accessories: Steelseries Rival 110, Thermaltake AMARU gaming keyboard, Steelseseries Qck mousepad, decent 1080p 1ms 60Hz TN monitor, Edifier Studio R1280T speakers.
Recommended OS: Windows 10 Home

Budget: Under 900 €
Purpose: Small HTPC
Computer name: Microbe
Motherboard: MSI B450I GAMING PLUS AC 123.38 €
CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 2400G 153.15 €
CPU cooler: Cooler Master Hyper H411R 23.99 €
RAM: G.SKILL Aegis 16GB 3000MHz CL16 DDR4 DIMM KIT OF 2 130.00 €
GPU: integrated
SSD: A-Data XPG SX8200 PRO 256GB 63.37 €
HDD: Western Digital Blue HDD 2TB 5400RPM 60.86 €
Case: Fractal Design Core 500 51.75 €
Fans: nope
PSU: Seasonic Focus Plus 450W 69.64 €
Optical drive: Asus BW-16D1HT/BLK/B/AS 65.46 €
Sound card: Creative SoundBlaster Z 77.99 €
Additional stuff: nothing
Total cost: 819.59 €
Part choice rationale: It's small and it's powerful. HTPC at this price point will not need graphics card. There's not bad sound card inside. After market cooler to reduce noise. Bluray player for movies. Modular PSU for less mess. 2TB low RPM HDD for keeping stuff. Case is very functional for its price and elegant. CPU choice is obvious, it just has great integrated graphics and more than enough CPU power for HTPC tasks. For its price, it's very reasonable HTPC, that can do a lot.
Computer maximum load wattage: Around 240 watts.
Recommended accessories: Logitech K400 Plus, TV with IPS panel and HDR, Logitech Z906.
Recommended OS: Windows 10 Home

Budget: Under 900€
Purpose: Workstation
Computer name: Brokeon
Motherboard: ASRock X370 PRO4 90.99 €
CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 1600X 146.37 €
CPU cooler: stock
RAM: Corsair Vengeance LPX Black 16GB 3000MHz CL16 DDR4 KIT OF 2 125.17 €
GPU: DELL Radeon Pro WX 4100 4GB 301.52 €
SSD: Toshiba OCZ TR200 240GB 41.64 €
HDD: WD Purple 2TB 67.92 €
Case: Corsair Carbide SPEC-01 Blue
Fans: 3x Xilence 120mm XF039 3x 2.92 €
PSU: Fortron 600-50ARN 80+ Silver 53.59 €
Optical drive: nope
Sound card: integrated agony
Additional stuff: Thermaltake Commander F5 fan controller 21.49 €
Total cost: 902.96 €
Part choice rationale: Cheapest thing that could be called workstation. Emphasis is on decent PSU, adequate cooling and workstation components. It's has lots of threads, quite bit of RAM, decent HDD (which should be better than WD Blue) and even workstation GPU. Due to budget constraints, there is no ECC memory or support for it (official support), GPU isn't very strong, but not too horrible. On the nice side, this PC has fan controller and nice number of quite silent fans, so cooling should be great. CPU is decent for many workstation tasks.
Computer maximum load wattage: around 320 watts.
Recommended accessories: Asus ROG Sagaris GK1100 keyboard, Steelseries Qck mousepad, Steelseries Rival 310, 1440p or 4K IPS screen with at least 100% sRGB support, Edifier Studio R1280T speakers, memory card reader.
Recommended OS: Windows 10 Home or Pro.

Budget: Under 900€
Purpose: Multimedia
Computer name: Small bang
Motherboard: Asus PRIME B360-PLUS 95.17 €
CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 1400 115.52 €
CPU cooler: Arctic Freezer 33 Plus 29.38 €
RAM: Corsair Vengeance LPX Black 16GB 3000MHz CL16 DDR4 KIT OF 2 125.17 €
GPU: MSI GeForce GTX 1050 Aero ITX OCV1 2GB 138.05 €
SSD: A-Data SSD Ultimate SU800 256GB 49.49 €
HDD: Seagate Barracuda 4TB 5400RPM 107.00 €
Case: Aerocool Quartz 59.42 €
Fans: 3x Thermaltake Riing 12 Green LED 12.02 €
PSU: Seasonic Focus Plus 450W 69.64 €
Optical drive: nope
Sound card: Creative SoundBlaster Z 5.1 77.99 €
Additional stuff: nope
Total cost: 902.89 €
Part choice rationale: First of all, multimedia PC has to be good at multimedia. For that reason it has sound card. 4TB HDD should hold quite a bit of lossless music library and 4K movies. GPU is mostly for video outputs and for 3D video capabilities. Also, I think that multimedia PC should look great and be reasonably quiet. Aerocool Quartz case looks very nice and with 3 Thermaltake Riing fans on front it will look even better. For quietness CPU has nice Arctic cooling Freezer 33 Plus cooler and very efficient Seasonic Focus Plus PSU. While I haven't included bluray drive, I think it would be nice addition. Overall multimedia PC should scream "I want to party!" and it shouldn't disappoint at that.
Computer maximum load wattage: 280 watts.
Recommended accessories: Mechanical keyboard with backlight, Steelseries Qck mousepad, USB Bluray drive, Steelseries Rival 600, Logitech Z506, WiFi adapter, nice TV or IPS monitor.
Recommended OS: Windows 10 Home or linux distro for multimedia.

Budget: Under 1300€
Purpose: Gaming
Computer name: The red essence
Motherboard: MSI B450 GAMING PLUS
CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 1600X 146.37 
CPU cooler: Arctic Freezer 33 eSports ONE Red 32.60 €
RAM: A-Data XPG Z1 16GB 3000MHz CL16 DDR4 KIT OF 2 Red 131.96 €
GPU: MSI GeForce GTX1070 8GB 477.00 €
SSD: Samsung 970 EVO 250GB M.2 81.98 €
HDD: Toshiba P300 2TB 62.36 €
Case: SilverStone Redline RL05 56.76 €
Fans: Xilence 120mm XF039 2.92 € + 3x Xilence XF050 140mm 3x 4.07 €
PSU: XFX XTR2 650W 88.27 €
Optical drive: nope
Sound card: Creative SoundBlaster Z 5.1 77.99 €
Additional stuff: Asus PCE-AC56 wifi card 56.43 € + Thermaltake Commander F5 fan controller 21.49 €
Total cost: 1353.48 €
Part choice rationale: A great PC for gaming. It has nice and fast AMD 1600X CPU, which is faster version of 1600. It's plenty for games. GTX 1070 8GB should run all games at 1440p ultra settings. There's M2 SSD, big 2TB hard drive. Computer has black and red theme and case has window, so it looks nice. It should bee cool and quiet with Arctic cooler and some fans, which are with controller. This thing plays games well, is cool and quiet, almost perfection of gaming PC. Sound card is essential for decent sound reproduction.
Computer maximum load wattage: Around 420 watts.
Recommended accessories: Creative Kratos S3 or Logitech Z623, 1080p 1Hz 144Hz TN monitor or 1440p 1ms 60 Hz monitor, Steelseries Qck mouse pad, Razer Deathadder elite optical, Cooler Master Masterkeys L MX Brown.
Recommended OS: Windows 10 Home

Budget: Under 1600€
Purpose: Multimedia/Hi-Fi
Computer name: Mello
Motherboard: ASRock Fatal1ty X470 Gaming K4 181.00 €
CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 1600X 146.37 €
CPU cooler: Scythe Ninja 5 60.59 € (remove one fan plz)
RAM: Corsair Vengeance LPX Black 16GB 3000MHz CL16 DDR4 KIT OF 2 125.17 €
GPU: Palit GeForce GTX1050 Ti KalmX 4GB 194.00 €
SSD: Samsung 970 EVO 250GB M.2 81.98 €
HDD: Seagate BarraCuda 8TB 5400RPM 231.00 €
Case: Fractal Design Define R5 112.19 €
Fans: nope
PSU: SilverStone Nightjar 520W 168.76 €
Optical drive: Asus Blu-Ray BW-16D1HT/BLK/B/AS 65.46 €
Sound card: Asus Xonar Essence STX II 232.61 €
Additional stuff: nope
Total cost: 1599.13 €
Part choice rationale: Multimedia/Hi-Fi PC must be quiet and be perfect for all it does. For such purpose fanless GPU and PSU were chosen. 8TB HDD is working at lower than standard RPMs and is in Fractal Design Define R5 case, which is great at sound dampening. It has Bluray drive to play high definition movies. Components were also chosen in a way that voltage delivery should be great. This might help to reduce EMI inside PC and deliver cleaner power to sound card, which in this build is the most important component. It's possible to make this build cheaper and get decent external DAC instead, but improvement would be tiny and the only thing that you could save cost would be slightly cheaper PSU. Decent external DAC can also cost way much more than this sound card does and what it's possible to save in this build. While the focus of Mello is on sound, it should be great with video files and streaming, making it pretty much ultimate PC for such purposes, not to mention expensive one.
Computer maximum load wattage: Around 340 watts.
Recommended accessories: Studio monitors like Presonus eris E5s, 4K TV or monitor (IPS would hell out a lot, as well as HDR), Steelseries Rival 310, Steelseries Qck mouse pad, Logitech K280e (scissor switches), WiFi card for wireless streaming.
Recommended OS: Windows 10 Pro or specialized linux distro for multimedia.

Budget: Under 1600 €
Purpose: Workstation
Computer name: Gulag
Motherboard: MSI B450-A Pro 96.00 €
CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 1700X 204.89 €
CPU cooler: Thermaltake Contac Silent 12 26.97 €
RAM: Corsair Vengeance LPX Black 16GB 3000MHz CL16 DDR4 KIT OF 2
GPU: AMD Radeon Pro WX 7100 8GB 677.19 €
SSD: Corsair Force MP510 M.2 240GB 72.12 €
HDD: 2x Seagate SkyHawk 2TB 5900RPM (RAID 1) 75.99 €
Case: Cooler Master N400 54.35 €
Fans: only included ones
PSU: Enermax Platimax D.F 600W 135.91 €
Optical drive: ASUS DVD Super Multi DL 18.99 €
Sound card: Asus Xonar DGX 33.77 €
Additional stuff: Thermaltake Commander F5 fan controller 21.49 € + Akasa Card Reader USB 2.0 3.5" with Bluetooth 16.50 €
Total cost: 1635.33 €
Part choice rationale: This PC must be perfect workhorse. It has 16 threads and all of them are strong. It has 16GB RAM, which is not ECC, but should be enough for mid range workstation. AMD Radeon card is really fast at serious tasks and absolutely slays nVidia here. This PC has 2 hard drive RAID 1, for safe storage needs. DVD drive, memory card reader are for extended IO for easier work transfers, bluetooth is nice addition. Power supply is very good one, it should provide stable electricity and clean voltage. Case while is cheap, it's very functional and has lots of space inside. Cooling is better than stock to ensure lower temperatures and less noise. Fan controller controls included fans here and should help in reducing noise. Sound card can help a bit if there would be occasional audio work.
Computer maximum load wattage: Around 400 watts.
Recommended accessories: Steelseries Qck mouse pad, Steelseres Rival 310, Cooler Master Masterkeys L MX Brown, 1440p or 4K 100% sRGB monitor (Preferably more than 8 bit one, calibrated and IPS. even better color reproduction would be nice), Presonus eris E5s.
Recommended OS: Windows 10 Pro

Budget: Under 2000 €
Purpose: Gaming
Computer name: Nonseona
Motherboard: Gigabyte X470 AORUS ULTRA GAMING 177.00 €
CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 1800X 264.48 €
CPU cooler: Scythe Ninja 5 60.59 €
RAM: Corsair Vengeance LPX Black 16GB 3000MHz CL16 DDR4 KIT OF 2 125.17 €
GPU: Gigabyte GeForce GTX1080 8GB 580.15 €
SSD: Corsair Force MP510 M.2 240GB 72.12 €
HDD: Seagate Barracuda 4TB 5400RPM 107.00 €
Case: Fractal Design Define R6 124.36 €
Fans: 5x Be Quiet! Pure Wings 2 140mm 5x 8.40 €
PSU: Enermax Platimax 750W 160.76 €
Optical drive: nope 
Sound card: Creative Sound Blaster X AE-5
Additional stuff: Thermaltake Commander FT Fan Controller with Touchscreen 39.20 € + Asus PCE-AC88 WiFi card 86.22 € + Arctic Accelero Xtreme IV 57.70 €
Total cost: 2041.75 €
Part choice rationale: Like its name implies, this PC makes no sense XD. Anyway, if you want lots of FPS in most demanding game, this is for you. Intel was a consideration in this build, but when you buy two 1800Xs for price of i7, Intel wasn't a consideration anymore. Motherboard could help a bit in OCing CPU, even if I wouldn't recommend to OC it. GPU is simply a beast, AMD just doesn't have any viable alternative, especially at this price. There's more than enough RAM in this build. 4TB hard drive should hold pretty heavy game collection. Cooling in this build was series consideration, so there are 5 140mm fans and with touchscreen fan controller to slow them down a bit. Scythe Ninja 5 cooler is absolutely a beast, it performs better than Noctua NH-D15 and is quieter and costs much less than it. Absolute win. GPU also got aftermarket cooling treatment with monstrous Arctic Cooling Accelero Xtreme 4 cooler. There's also high end WiFi card and good gaming sound card. 
Computer maximum load wattage: Around 450 watts.
Recommended accessories: High end 1440p 144Hz TN 1ms gaming monitor, Steelseries Qck mouse pad, Steelseries Rival 710, Das keyboard 4 Ultimate MX Brown, Logitech Z906 or Logitech Z623 or Microlab Solo 6C.
Recommended OS: Windows 10 Pro

Budget: Under 3000 €
Purpose: Workstation
Computer name: 1 and 0 Factory
Motherboard: Asus PRIME X399-A 357.98 €
CPU: AMD Threadripper 1920X 417.30 €
CPU cooler: Be Quiet! Dark Rock 4 64.77 €
RAM: Kingston 32GB 2133MHz CL15 DDR4 ECC Registered KIT OF 4 434.01 €
GPU: AMD Radeon Pro WX 7100 8GB 677.19 €
SSD: SanDisk CloudSpeed Eco Gen. II 480GB 2.5" 182.00 €
HDD: 2x Seagate SkyHawk 6TB 7200RPM (RAID 1) 2x 182.70 €
Case: Fractal Design Case Define R6 USB-C 137.30 €
Fans: 5x Be Quiet! Pure Wings 2 140mm 5x 8.40 €
PSU: XFX XTI Black Edition 1000W 206.55 €
Optical drive: nope
Sound card: Asus Xonar Essence STX II 232.61 €
Additional stuff: NZXT Touch Screen Fan Controller 46.70 €
Total cost: 3163.81 €
Part choice rationale: AMD absolutely rips Intel at any price in high end market, no contest here. Motherboard is "low end" for TR4 platform, but it's more than enough for pretty much anything. Finally ECC memory and whole 32GB of it, now that's some serious size. SSD is server class and has MLC flash memory. RAID 1 of two Seagate Skyhawks should provide enough safe and fast storage for all projects to store. Case is just like always Fractal Design Define R6, because it's pretty much most silent case on the market and it offers lots of features for its price and monstrous EATX size mobo fits in it. PSU should have enough guts to run this beast properly and provide clean power and while doing so, do it efficiently. Cooling is high end, but with slight focus on quietness, it truly ensures that this PC wouldn't ever overheat. Great sound cards makes this PC totally suitable for quite heavy audio work. While this build isn't absolutely the best thing money can buy, it's great for almost any workstation task anyone could imagine. Upgradability of it is great, you can add shit ton of RAM, crossfire Radeons and put in even 2990WX. Literally you can upgrade to the most ultimate PC available today.
Computer maximum load wattage: Around 500 watts
Recommended accessories: UPS, WiFi card if needed, Das Keyboard 4 Ultimate, Steelseries Rival 710, Steelseries Qck mouse pad, Presonus Eris E8s, 4K or 5K IPS 10 bit with higher than 100% sRGB rating and closer to Rec. 2020 (calibrated).
Recommended OS: Windows 10 Pro

Hopefully someone found this guide useful, ask questions if something is unclear.


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## contradictionary (Apr 1, 2018)

I like the sound of gulag 

Nonsense about the nonsenseona, radeon 64 or even 56 could be competitive enough to trump 1080 any day. There should be no greenish red allowed :wink:

_Sent sans PC_


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## The red spirit (Sep 29, 2015)

contradictionary said:


> Nonsense about the nonsenseona, radeon 64 or even 56 could be competitive enough to trump 1080 any day. There should be no greenish red allowed :wink:


I certainly watched LTT review of Vegas, while 64 beat 1070, it couldn't touch 1080. Maybe Finewine is already kicking in, but Radeon like will eat much more power than GTX. 

Here's pricing of cheapest Vegas:
Vega 56 - 486.82 € (Asus ROG Strix)
Vega 65 - 513.32 € (Gigabyte Gaming OC)

I wouldn't be too sure about better performance of Vegas, but I would be sure of their higher power usage. 

BTW AMD was always green team and ATI was red team. Right now AMD is orange team and RTG is red team.


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## The red spirit (Sep 29, 2015)

Small update to this thread.

Budget: Under 1200 €
Purpose: Extreme emulation
Computer name: Arkadia
Motherboard: Gigabyte Z390 M GAMING 139.61 €
CPU: Intel i3-8350K 189.70 €
CPU cooler: Be Quiet! Shadow Rock 2 42.49 €
RAM: Corsair Vengeance LPX Black 16GB 3000MHz CL16 DDR4 KIT OF 2 125.17 €
GPU: Sapphire Pulse ITX Radeon RX570 4GB 197.12 €
SSD: Corsair Force MP510 M.2 240GB 72.12 €
HDD: Western Digital Blue HDD 4TB 5400RPM 105.40 €
Case: Cooler Master N200 42.94 €
Fans: 4x Noiseblocker ITR-XL-1 120mm 4x 8.25 € (for intake and exhaust, but leaving side fan bracket empty for CPu cooler clearance)
PSU: XFX XTR2 750W 99.98 €
Optical drive: Asus Blu-Ray 16X BW-16D1HT/BLK/B/AS 65.46 €
Sound card: Creative SoundBlaster Z 5.1 79.38 €
Additional stuff: nope
Total cost: 1192.37 €
Part choice rationale: Emulation is very hard on CPU and often workloads are poorly threaded, so absolutely fastest single core performance must be achieved. i3-8350K provides all that at the lowest cost and I would recommend overclocking it to 5GHz or more. GPU is RX 570, but most likely it will not be fully utilized in emulation. It's just there to provide some omph when it might be needed. Bluray drive is for PS3 game loading and it works as DVD drive too, so it can load X360, PS2, PS1, XBOX games too. Small and fast SSD is for loading OS and emulators, meanwhile slow and big HDD is for ROM storage. I went with mATX form factor as there's no need for ATX and I guess it would be nice to treat this PC more like console, put it under TV. Cooling system is beefy and is ready for overclocking. Noiseblocker fans were chosen for extreme quietness of PC. If anything, this PC should be perfect for emulating almost any console imaginable, even Nintendo Switch. It might be even capable of upscaling resolution pretty high, because who wouldn't want to replay Gran Turismo in 4K or Crash Bandicoot in 1080p? 
Computer maximum load wattage: Almost 500 watts at 5GHz, around 400 watts at stock speed.
Recommended accessories: Original shape controllers or X360 controller for starters, big TV, nice 2.0 or 2.1 setup (hell even studio monitors)(bookshelf speakers most likely), Logitech K400 plus, Cartridge adapters. 
Recommended OS: Windows 10 Home (it simply has best emulator support and always emulators come first to it)

As extra explanation why emulation is heavy and problematic (explained in-depth):
https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2011...-3ghz-quest-to-build-a-perfect-snes-emulator/


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## VinnieBob (Mar 24, 2014)

I did all that last weekend
meh its ok


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## The red spirit (Sep 29, 2015)

vinniebob said:


> I did all that last weekend
> meh its ok


You did what? Finally bought a PC? No more Macs?


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## Eren Jaegerbomb (Nov 13, 2015)

I know this is specifically a European thread but somebody may be able to help. I live in Australia just to clear that up.
I need some advice for my dad's friend. He's not really tech savvy (and I'm not savvy with hardware beside stuff that everybody else knows like where to plug in cords etc he just uses his computer for games such as Command and Conquer. (Like old 98 and XP games I think.) He just wants to use it for his games and not much else. He doesn't use the internet, and doesn't plan to. 
Nothing too expensive. Besides I've heard you can build a decent PC for $700 (AUD) if you know what you're doing anyway.


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## contradictionary (Apr 1, 2018)

I am not in europe and kamerad red spirit is sleeping. So, go post #1 and select hemorrhoid or microbe. 

_Sent sans PC_


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## The red spirit (Sep 29, 2015)

Armeen Arlerrt said:


> I know this is specifically a European thread but somebody may be able to help. I live in Australia just to clear that up.
> I need some advice for my dad's friend. He's not really tech savvy (and I'm not savvy with hardware beside stuff that everybody else knows like where to plug in cords etc he just uses his computer for games such as Command and Conquer. (Like old 98 and XP games I think.) He just wants to use it for his games and not much else. He doesn't use the internet, and doesn't plan to.
> Nothing too expensive. Besides I've heard you can build a decent PC for $700 (AUD) if you know what you're doing anyway.


So here's a thing about computer like that. You want to match era of hardware and software, else compatibility will be unpredictable. If you say Windows 98 and XP games, then build 98 PC. It more likely work better with older games and should work not bad with XP games too.

I would definitely suggest custom build here:
AMD Athlon XP 
cheap new cooler like Arctic Cooling Alpine 64 GT
ATI Radeon 9700 Pro AGP 8x
512MB RAM, maybe 1GB if Windows 98 SE supports that much (most likely DDR)
PATA HDD, with at least 40GB or you can try going with SSD and converter, but compatibility isn't guaranteed
DVD Drive
Creative Audigy ZS
Windows 98 SE
PSU with strong 5V rail
All cables needed
Floppy Drive 3.5"

Total cost around 200-300 bucks 

You can buy new case and you should get modern PSU. For motherboard just look for something that is compatible with all hardware, don't buy OEM motherboard from Dell or HP! You will need thermal paste for GPU and take apart its cooler to clean it.

If he is more into Win 98 era, then build will have to look a bit different:
AMD Athlon or Pentium 3, at least 800 MHz
If CPU you will find isn't cartridge get new cheap cooler
GPU depends on games, but Raadeon 9700 Pro AGP 8x will do mostly fine, if interest is more in 90s games, then 3DFX VooDoo (AGP most likely, PCI ones are too old probably) and preferably in SLI
512MB RAM (may not be DDR)
PATA HDD, with at least 40GB of space
DVD Drive
Aureal Vortex 2 or Creative Sound Blaster Live! (I would recommend Aureal, but maybe Creative card has better support for spatial audio)
Windows 98 SE
All cables needed
Floppy Drive 3.5" or 5.25"

Total cost around 200-300 bucks

If you really bad with money, get prebuilt like Dell or Gateway with similar specifications ,then add graphics accelerator and sound card, but I warned you with these things. Their BIOS are often locked and may be pain in your ass to operate, also PSUs in those machines may be almost dying if not dead yet. There's a possibility that they have modified PCI connectors that don't supply standard voltages and you will not be able to plug in your graphics accelerator. Just don't get that, if you aren't broke and hopeless.

If you don't wanna mess with old hardware then get something like:
AMD Athlon X4 845
4GB DDR3 
nVidia GT 730 GDDR5 
At least 160 GB SATA hard drive or an SSD
DVD drive
Creative Sound Blaster Audigy Rx
Windows XP 32 Bit better get Pro, yet home version should work just fine.

Then pray that all that works well with Windows XP 32 Bit and if it works, pray that all software works. 

I think you should see some Phil's Computer Lab videos to get the idea of how everything will look like:





Or videos from Victor Bart:










And final notice is that you shall not get Pentium 4 machine, unless deal is too good to turn down.

But you said he plays already those games, so he does have a PC, right? What happened, did it broke down or something. If anything I would rather fix it. We know it was suitable for him and it would be less pain in the butt to get parts. Unless it's a laptop.


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## orion83uk (Mar 13, 2018)

Hi @The red spirit
I guess you're a fan of team red then when it comes to processors ;-)

Have to admit, the Athlon 200GE is pretty impressive, but personally I'd rather build around the Pentium Gold (each to their own) for a budget system.

Hurrah to the Phil's Computer Lab mention. Spent hours watching his stuff. Almost wanted to start sourcing socket 7 components after watching his series on he various socket 7 processors.

Do you ever watch any of Linus Tech Tips stuff?


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## The red spirit (Sep 29, 2015)

orion83uk said:


> Hi @The red spirit
> I guess you're a fan of team red then when it comes to processors ;-)


I guess I can agree on that, but I also like to see competitors and what they do.



orion83uk said:


> Have to admit, the Athlon 200GE is pretty impressive, but personally I'd rather build around the Pentium Gold (each to their own) for a budget system.


In Lithuania and in many parts of Europe Pentium is twice as expensive as Athlon. Due to such conditions it's poor choice for now. Maybe after Intel's 14nm CPU shortage things will change, but right now it's game over for them. That's not only Pentium, but all their CPUs. i3 costs as much as Ryzen 7 1700, i5 costs more than Ryzen 7 2700X and i7 as entry level Threadripper. i9 as entry-mid level Threadripper. There's just no way Intel CPU could be recommended for budget builds, when AMD is such a great value picks. I included i3 8350K, which is so hated CPU in emulation build, because Intel is better at that task and AMD can't match it. Anyway, that's an exception to the rule. If Intel isn't going to do anything, they will continue losing marketshare and they couldn't be recommended for PC builders.




orion83uk said:


> Hurrah to the Phil's Computer Lab mention. Spent hours watching his stuff. Almost wanted to start sourcing socket 7 components after watching his series on he various socket 7 processors.


Go for it if you want it, but when you do so, remember that parts are old and can start malfunctioning. Things will not work as well as in his videos. When I built Athlonium 64, I thought it's gonna be easier, but it wasn't. If you want to, do it, just be realistic.



orion83uk said:


> Do you ever watch any of Linus Tech Tips stuff?


I actually do and did since god know how long. I really saw how big he got and saw his humble beginnings. Right now, I often am just disappointed in his content quality and his lack of knowledge, but I can't just quit watching him. His peak was definitely kitchen days, late kitchen days. Once he moved into bigger studio, it was constant downhill. After moving channel super fun isn't the same as it has been. Without Luke and NickyV videos are just not so fun. I definitely think that he needed a proper studio or at least storage space for his stuff, but sadly that somehow affected him and his videos are just lacking. If I watch his videos, I watch either l already knowing my stuff or just for entertainment, I don't expect to learn something. Besides poor content, I think I should mention new camera man and editors. Camera work is piss poor lately, often shaky and out of focus. Editors just often put distasteful memes and stupid effects. Thumbnails have been horrible, but Linus did a video about them and said that he doesn't see a problem with them, but I saw that as useless defense from his side. They are horrible and he probably knows that, but I think he probably just doesn't want to say that to his team, which he spends a lot on maintaining and spent a lot of time hiring all those people. He probably just can't make things personal, when he is an actual businessman. 

So my answer is yes, I do watch his videos, but I don't enjoy them much.


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## orion83uk (Mar 13, 2018)

Here in the UK, the Pentium Gold is around £10 (approx €12) more than the Athlon 200GE. Not to bad. However, as you say, the cost of the other chips is steadily increasing in price. The i3-8100 when it was first launched here was retailing at around £95 (approx €105), but it now sitting at around £125 (approx €140). 

I'm actually a big fan of the i3. Our desktop PC, which is ancient, has a first gen i3 (i3 550) - I've upgraded quite a few components in it...and it isn't used gaming haha. Amazing how quick even they can still be when mated to an SSD.



> Go for it if you want it, but when you do so, remember that parts are old and can start malfunctioning. Things will not work as well as in his videos. When I built Athlonium 64, I thought it's gonna be easier, but it wasn't. If you want to, do it, just be realistic.


Haha, it won't be happening. The reality is, if I did manage to source a motherboard + a Cyrix MII or K6-2 processor and a Voodoo 3 3000 graphics card (my card of choice from the era), I'd likely build it, load Windows 98SE, test out Descent 2 on it, then never touch it again.

I did recently build a system using the Q6600, basically just for the fun of it (the parts are insanely cheap). Sold it off immediately after building. Obviously past it for gaming, but when mated to an SSD it still flew by at general tasks. Add in a cheap GT 710 and it happily ran 1080p videos without breaking a sweat, including on YouTube content (not bad for what will soon be a 12 year old processor).




> I actually do and did since god know how long. I really saw how big he got and saw his humble beginnings. Right now, I often am just disappointed in his content quality and his lack of knowledge, but I can't just quit watching him.


I only started watching his stuff about 6 months ago. Really liked the Scrap Yard Wars series. I'll need to scroll down and look at his earlier stuff to compare - I think the oldest video of his I've watched was him building a system using the G3258.


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## The red spirit (Sep 29, 2015)

orion83uk said:


> Here in the UK, the Pentium Gold is around £10 (approx €12) more than the Athlon 200GE. Not to bad. However, as you say, the cost of the other chips is steadily increasing in price. The i3-8100 when it was first launched here was retailing at around £95 (approx €105), but it now sitting at around £125 (approx €140).


Pricing in Lithuania:
Pentium G5400 - 91 €
Pentium G5500 - 113 €
Pentium G5600 - 121 €
Athlon 200GE - 56 €

Athlon murders Pentium.



orion83uk said:


> I'm actually a big fan of the i3. Our desktop PC, which is ancient, has a first gen i3 (i3 550) - I've upgraded quite a few components in it...and it isn't used gaming haha. Amazing how quick even they can still be when mated to an SSD.


That's something new I hear. I never heard people saying that they are fans of i3s. Maybe they were sort of good then, but later, there was FX 6300 and it just aged better.




orion83uk said:


> Haha, it won't be happening. The reality is, if I did manage to source a motherboard + a Cyrix MII or K6-2 processor and a Voodoo 3 3000 graphics card (my card of choice from the era), I'd likely build it, load Windows 98SE, test out Descent 2 on it, then never touch it again.


K6-2 is better than Cyrix.



orion83uk said:


> I did recently build a system using the Q6600, basically just for the fun of it (the parts are insanely cheap). Sold it off immediately after building. Obviously past it for gaming, but when mated to an SSD it still flew by at general tasks. Add in a cheap GT 710 and it happily ran 1080p videos without breaking a sweat, including on YouTube content (not bad for what will soon be a 12 year old processor).


I'm not a fan of Intel Q6600, but they held up well, now they aren't viable for gaming anymore.




orion83uk said:


> I only started watching his stuff about 6 months ago. Really liked the Scrap Yard Wars series. I'll need to scroll down and look at his earlier stuff to compare - I think the oldest video of his I've watched was him building a system using the G3258.


The first scrapyard wars were good, then everything was worse and the last ones without internet were good ones again.

I can make it easier for you if you looks for old videos. Here are ancient videos:









Old video:





Kitchen Linus:


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## contradictionary (Apr 1, 2018)

orion83uk said:


> Hi @The red spirit
> I guess you're a fan of team red then when it comes to processors ;-)
> 
> Have to admit, the Athlon 200GE is pretty impressive, but personally I'd rather build around the Pentium Gold (each to their own) for a budget system.
> ...


Hi orion,

Turned out that given right motherboard an athlon ge can be unlocked. 

https://www.techspot.com/review/1758-amd-athlon-200ge-overclocking/

_Sent sans PC_


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## The red spirit (Sep 29, 2015)

contradictionary said:


> Hi orion,
> 
> Turned out that given right motherboard an athlon ge can be unlocked.
> 
> ...


But people only achieve 3.8GHz or similar. That's small improvement from 3.2GHz.


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## contradictionary (Apr 1, 2018)

The red spirit said:


> But people only achieve 3.8GHz or similar. That's small improvement from 3.2GHz.


The main point is the ability to unlock things which aren't advertised as such, at that price range.

Isn't that just ... superb?

_Sent sans PC_


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## orion83uk (Mar 13, 2018)

contradictionary said:


> Hi orion,
> 
> Turned out that given right motherboard an athlon ge can be unlocked.
> 
> ...


Hey hey @contradictionary

Long time no speak.

I Didn't realise that. Do you need to spend much more on the motherboard to achieve that?


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## orion83uk (Mar 13, 2018)

@The red spirit



> Pricing in Lithuania:
> Pentium G5400 - 91 €
> Pentium G5500 - 113 €
> Pentium G5600 - 121 €
> Athlon 200GE - 56 €


Yeah, based on those prices, deciding what to have is a no brainer.



> That's something new I hear. I never heard people saying that they are fans of i3s. Maybe they were sort of good then, but later, there was FX 6300 and it just aged better.


Much as I find computers interesting, I'm not really into gaming, so the i3 has always been more than sufficient, but it's the knowledge that if I ever did fancy trying out gaming, the i3 (well the modern ones...not my now ancient 1st gen haha) will mate nicely with a mid range card like a GTX 1050 Ti or 1060, and allow for a respectable taster of trying modern games out at 1080p.



> K6-2 is better than Cyrix.


No argument there. even better if you can get a K6-3 or K6-3+ and overclock. Always remember that the Cyrix MII was THAT processor to be found in the bottom, entry level computers. The infamous Packard Bell Club 30 instantly springs to mind:

https://planetbotch.blogspot.com/2012/12/packard-bell-club-30-pc-all-or-nothing.html
(Posting this link just for fun more than anything)



> I'm not a fan of Intel Q6600...


:exterminate:



> I can make it easier for you if you looks for old videos. Here are ancient videos:


Well I know what I'll be doing after work this evening


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## The red spirit (Sep 29, 2015)

contradictionary said:


> The main point is the ability to unlock things which aren't advertised as such, at that price range.
> 
> Isn't that just ... superb?
> 
> _Sent sans PC_


No, it's not. I think you miss the point of that thing. It's very power efficient office CPU. It only eats 35 watts and does everything office lady will need. Overclocking it will not make it much better. Seriously, it's only dual core CPU, even overclocked it will still be slow. 

I remember people overclocked Atoms on netbooks. I guess it was cool, but really there was pretty much zero practical benefit of doing that.

Edit:
Athlon X4 950 available for pretty much same price point is unlocked from factory and I bet it will clock higher. It has base clock of 3.5GHz and I think 4.5GHz is not the highest it could go. While it's not much faster than Athlon 200GE and it still isn't exactly quad core, I think it's closer.

Also Athlon 200GE overclocking is just a hack. I don't think that AMD would make it unlockable. I remember AM1 times with Athlon 5350. It had stock clock speed of 2.05Ghz and one mobo had core clock, not multi unlocked. So some guys achieved some crazy results. There definitely was madman with more than 4GHz overclock.


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## The red spirit (Sep 29, 2015)

orion83uk said:


> Much as I find computers interesting, I'm not really into gaming, so the i3 has always been more than sufficient, but it's the knowledge that if I ever did fancy trying out gaming, the i3 (well the modern ones...not my now ancient 1st gen haha) will mate nicely with a mid range card like a GTX 1050 Ti or 1060, and allow for a respectable taster of trying modern games out at 1080p.


Only that? It should take Vega 56 or GTX 1070 and be sufficient at 4K (CPU side of things, not GPU). Anyway, modern i3 costs as much as Ryzen 1700, so Ryzen 1700 wins in such case and it's superior CPU in pretty much every way.





orion83uk said:


> No argument there. even better if you can get a K6-3 or K6-3+ and overclock. Always remember that the Cyrix MII was THAT processor to be found in the bottom, entry level computers.


That's why I said K6 was better.


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