This Ultra Low-Cost Gaming Combo Might Surprise You in 2023

[@Altair112pl]

a huge perk of PCs is a gigantic library of amazing older games which you can play through on a cheap low end system. so even if you're not into esports, there's a shitload of stuff to enjoy. hell, even on a modern setup, Diablo 2(with mods) is my most played game by far.

[@RandomGaminginHD]

Yeah I mainly play fallout new vegas and the original San Andreas so I could have a core 2 quad and still be happy haha

[@JRose-zn7iw]

@@RandomGaminginHD F.N.V.4EVER

[@iwilltouchyourtoes]

​@@RandomGaminginHDtale of two wastelands is absolutely unreal

[@Altair112pl]

@@RandomGaminginHD true, but there are some great modern games too, like Elden ring for example, so if you can afford a nice PC you get both old and new games. (...ignoring all the recent botched PC ports, of course...)

[@IlMemetor72]

San Andreas, Vice City, IV Mafia 1 and 2 Assassin's Creed 1,2, Brotherhood, Revelations, Black Flag CoD4, WaW, MW2,3 Bo1 Bo2 Skyrim, New Vegas, Oblivion Halo CE, 2, 3 ODST, Reach Need for Speed Most Wanted, Hot Pursuit, Underground Diablo 1,2 Saint's Row 1,2 Far Cry 2,3,4 Add more to this list.

[@emdotrod]

The i5 2400 was just like Core 2 Quad Q6600 of today. It's basically the bare minimum of gaming and unless devs start taking radical changes that forces the 2400 to become obsolete, it will be a solid very low end gaming system for probably years to come

[@BOXabaca]

i5-2400 only downfall is lack of AVX2, which can impact more modern games if you ever decide to upgrade GPU. I'd recommend a used i5-6400 or i5-6500 as the used market is saturated with them.

[@emdotrod]

@@BOXabaca just like Q6600 that got obsolete because many games use specific instructions that the processor don't have. The Skylake will become the next Sandy Bridge I think

[@RealHero101111]

that cpu wont be enough for Dead Space remake or The Last of Us

[@diegoleiva7242]

I'd give that honor to the i7-2600, personally. I reckon you could get a 2600 for the same price of the 2400 if you take your time, and enjoy things a bit more.

[@peterpan408]

​@@BOXabacaIndeed. Prevalence of AVX2 was the end of all Core earlier than 6th gen Core.

[@Nittylovesvr]

ive went from a i3 2nd gen no graphics card to a i7 2600 gtx 750 ti to a i7 6700k gtx 1660 ti, its crazy seeing the comparison between the models, prices and generations and its done me a solid

[@DualPerformance]

then is a similar pc to mine, I7 3770 4.1 & GTX 1660 Ti

[@R3TR0J4N]

Mine was a 1060 3GB and a Xeon E3-1230v2 (it's a non IGPU 3770)

[@Nittylovesvr]

@@R3TR0J4N 1060’s are elite cards bro

[@M1keTh0mas]

This is a great combo for esports titles. I personally found it to be a little underpowered for me, so i upgraded it to an i7-2600 and and 1060 3gb and 16gb ram. Plays most games at 1080 low with a 45+ average

[@Hughesburner]

I just built/sold a budget gaming PC on marketplace with a i7 2600/GTX 970, bought specifically for fortnite. I haven't heard back from them in a few months, so they must be happy.

[@barrycheesemore2928]

Some pretty decent results on that hardware, and if you only want older games then the CPU/GPU combo is not bad at all, nice one!!

[@lolok.9656]

You are 1 of the best KZbinrs. I can see a younger me trying this one out, thanks for always making videos for Budget Segment, you understand the levels in this budget category really well. I always wanted a Gaming PC through my teens, but parents couldn't get it for me, coz it would put them in deep financial burden, so I let it go. These days I work a job, so I got myself I decent PC that can all games and give me a great experience.

[@bonniscootor]

This makes me feel so much better. I just put together a similar system for my friend's son who wanted to play simple stuff like Minecraft and Fortnite, except with a GTX980 and 16gb of DDR3. It's good to know that he'll be able to enjoy all of his favorites with similar/better graphics than the Xbox One he's currently playing on!

[@JRose-zn7iw]

Beautiful backdrop, I'm a bit of a gardener myself.

[@vincentvega3093]

Insert willemdafoe.jpeg

[@RTMonitor]

Lol

[@Nekudza]

Had exactly the same config for years in my slim desktop, upgraded a card from HD 5570 to 1050 2GB and then to 1050 Ti 4Gb first and later on sold it after 7 years of very happy usage. Sandy Bridge was a monster platform back in the days

[@immortaljellyfish1051]

An i7 2600 is £20 at cex. With the extra 4 threads and a few extra 100mhz it's a big step up

[@RandomGaminginHD]

Yeah will have a 2600 video soon!

[@immortaljellyfish1051]

@RandomGaminginHD upgraded my nephews i5 2320 and 1050 2gb to a 1650 super then a few weeks ago added the i7 2600. It's massive. Love the content

[@ghosttheoremproductions5469]

The i5 4590/4670 is readily available for $10 and includes modern instruction sets (unlike that 2400). Would let you stretch to an RX 470 4gb (or equivalent) for a big performance boost. Same price with a bit of hunting or maybe just a pizza price difference. Motherboard/cpu/ram combos are also all over for dirt cheap. --- Plus, there's a few OEM office PCs of that generation which accept standard ATX power supplies. Which means that it's much easier to drop in a GPU. Can be a better deal sometimes.

[@Trick-Framed]

I commented this too. Haswell is the entry point imo as it’s a nexus point for budget or entry level systems. It has all the new instructions the consoles have but it can be found really cheap. Avx2 being the big sell. X99 Haswell E also kicks much butt on the cheap.

[@DualPerformance]

but does the newer instruction set boost the performance over the previous gen in current aaa games? i have an I7 3770 overclocked and is doing very well compared to the 4770k, been playing Spiderman remastered with very smooth 60 fps

[@ghosttheoremproductions5469]

@@DualPerformance - I mean, AVX2 was introduced with 4th gen and is an order of magnitude better at encoding/decoding. --- Are the dozen different instruction sets that were added required for everyone. No, of course not. Only matters if you're doing something that uses them. TSX is a great example as you don't see it used much outside of emulation. Likewise, all games that use Denuvo fequire FMA3. - So, 4th gen or better is a requirement for some things but some people will never bump into the issues. The big thing to notice is that it's little or no price difference for a platform which will never run into those issues. So, why choose to spend the same money for a platform which might?

[@Trick-Framed]

@@DualPerformance Yes. Especially with newer games. Also an i7 3770 is slower than an i7 4770k from jump, even without an OC on the 4770k as the 3770 can't oc. Unless you meant 3770K in which case you can achieve a higher max OC on the 4770k AND it already has greater IPC than the 3770k at stock.

[@DualPerformance]

​@@Trick-Framed With Sandy Bridge and its Ivy Bridge successor, Intel allowed limited overclocking on regular Core i5/i7 CPUs that aren’t part of the K series, I have my I7 3770 overclocked to 4.1 ghz on all cores by just setting the multiplier to x41 so should be close to the 4770K at stock settings that would sit at 3.7 ghz at max load on all cores

[@famv7]

I love how you always cover us budget-poor gamers😅, keep it coming 👌🏿

[@nerdjournal]

Er. I'm budget and poor, I used one of the covid checks to build a decent pc. So I have a half way decent system, but I still love these videos.

[@dans3035]

Nice to see Sandy Bridge still getting some love in 2023! I bought a 2500K at launch and it is still running today. I am using it in a fileserver (running 24/7 in an unconditioned garage) in an old HP prodesk with 32gb ram and a couple old spinning rust HDDs and a cheap SSD for boot. It's especially hilarious to remote into the system in the winter (northern US) and see the CPU temps in the 5c range. Definitely got my mileage out of this piece of silicon!

[@Vile-Flesh]

That is awesome. I love reading how others do stuff like this with hardware they've had for a long time.

[@dingchavez1960]

OMG stop being so mean to your faithful little computer! At least give it a corner of a room or something, lolz.

[@dshadow01]

as someone who actually does still have this cpu (plan to upgrade to an r5 3600) two things: 1.) in forza horizon 5, the game becomes pretty much unplayable if you're racing in a quick car and against quick cars (s1-s2). Since the average speed is higher, the assets need to be loaded much quicker, thus completely wrecking your CPU. Try any S2 race in guanajuato and you'll see what I mean. At one point, the game will softlock with the map being partially loaded in, the cars wil all stop until the cpu catches up. This can take anywhere from 1-2 seconds to 10+ seconds. If you're playing online, it makes you pretty much unable to compete. 2.) CSGO as you've mentioned is extremely cpu limited. The 1% lows are absolutely terrible. Not just because 30 fps is unacceptable or anything, but the sudden drop from 100+ frames to 30 is akin to a massive stutter. From my experience this also happens right when you're about to fire your weapon (and of course, when you die). That's a huge bottleneck when competing with players online. I think the sandy and ivy bridge i5s (and quad cores in general) are still passable for single player games (if you cap the framerate to 30fps), but if you want an actually ultra-low cost gaming setup, I'd go for a first gen ryzen 5 1600. They're only a tiny bit more expensive on the used market (at least here), but it should improve your gaming experience exponentially.

[@RandomGaminginHD]

Thanks for sharing your experiences :)

[@dshadow01]

@@RandomGaminginHD thank YOU for making these videos. Older hardwares are not always deprecated, and more people need to be made aware of this. Your videos are very much needed, they fill a huge hole as far as viewers go. Techtubers seem to forget that most people simply do not buy top end hardware.

[@baljeetsingh_i]

6:28 “documents” 😂

[@RandomGaminginHD]

😂

[@bmanrockwell2174]

I remember back when I had a 750 Ti I dreamed of how great a 1050 Ti would have been. Now I have had a 1070 for a while and am planning out my next PC build.

[@DarkLordJman]

Lets gooo he uploaded 💪🏾

[@SmithBeatZ1]

I've always gravitated towards your content because we like to do the same things. I focus a lot of my customer builds on the same things you like to do. Anyone can builds a brand new top tier rig, but I love used price to performance builds and getting the most out of older hardware.

[@MadIIMike]

If the MB you have supports it, you could try putting a old Xeon on it. I also respect the strength it took you to use a 1050 instead of a 750Ti. :P

[@edgarzakarian1649]

I appreciate the beautiful scenery outside when you show the hardware.

[@nintendoatarikiller]

I upgraded my i5-9600 to a i7-9700 for the extra 2 cores/threads just to future proof it a bit more. Also picked up 2x8gb sticks of RAM since DDR4 prices have dipped. I should be good for the next decade and a half lol

[@EhEhEhEINSTEIN]

I respect the 2nd gen and 1050 in the vid but both cores of my gaming pcs are 9th gen beasts that I found on CL for crazy cheap. Patience and a discerning eye have saved me literally $thousands.

[@leangxd]

nice little entry-level gaming setup thank you buddy)))

[@JamesManukonga]

I think you'd certainly be better off hunting for 960 4gb for basically the same price, vram is just too important lately to be recommending 2gb cards. As for the cpu lets face it, the i7 2600 being roughly 20pounds as you said in a recent video, they're certainly worth saving up for

[@EverythingBestHirun]

In that case, the cpu will be definitely bottlenecked. I had a gtx 1050 ti which gives the same performance as the 960 with i5 2500. It was not the smothest combo because gpu only utilize 50-80% because the cpu cannot handle it

[@JamesManukonga]

@@EverythingBestHirun that would depend on the title. And yes it would create a bottle neck but it would open up the opportunity to play games that just aren't possible with 2gb, and 8 threads will smoothen out most the remaining hitches in the percentiles. Imo the 960 4gb is the best 4gb card at its price (granted you can find it at the price it should be I know they're less common now) and its incredibly efficient

[@tz8785]

@@JamesManukonga It is also essentially the last nvidia card with WinXP drivers if you plan on building a retro machine. Strangely, GTX 970 and 980 (including Ti) didn't get official drivers for XP.

[@Sandmansa]

I enjoy watching these budget gaming setup scenarios and seeing how they stack up today. I have a old i7 930 system, paired with a R9 390X. And it's still a pretty decent rig for playing a lot of older games. Even some newer games play well enough.

[@TheDondarrion]

Dope video! This had me thinking that Warframe should make it onto some of the older card tests etc for a couple of reasons, its very easy to run (sipping resources with some settings adjustments on older hardware as well as new) It's also free much like the esports titles that older systems can still run well but gives people with those machines an option to play a PVE game rather than a competitive PVP one. (:

[@OriginalC0dePr0xy]

Your videos are entertaining.

[@uglybob7505]

Im all about the budget market, recently forked out for a RX580 8GB from AliExpress and have paired it with a AMD 1700 and they performed great !

[@pyro226]

Possibly better to get a Ryzen 5 1400 or 1500X with DDR4 and an early A series motherboard. Main reason to go for Sandy Bridge is prebuilt come out cheaper for the full system, but ideally want newer than Sandy Bridge and higher than 4c/4t by now. 10th gen i3 are also a strong candidate, but they likely cost more.

[@ghosttheoremproductions5469]

Used AM4 motherboards cost more than that CPU/GPU combo, lol. Of course it's better but it's several times the cost.

[@RPS13DRlFT]

They practically give those old intel systems away where as a a320 is gonna cost you 60 atleast

[@Trick-Framed]

@@RPS13DRlFT Where I’m from they are giving away A320s I also got a free X470. Also I can find the cheapest A320s for $20 or so usually if they aren’t in a garbage bin.

[@Trick-Framed]

All of those chips, believe it or not, have held value like intel chips. I find deals here and there but the rule has been that the Ryzen chips, regardless of gen, hold decent value.

[@Trick-Framed]

As an example I can find the r7 2700, 8 core 16 thread cpu for $50. But an r5 1600 is the same price.

[@Insanemembrane93]

Love this dudes videos

[@RandomGaminginHD]

Thanks :)

[@michaelthompson9798]

Another enjoyable and entertaining episode my good chap 🥰😇👍. You voice was made for this content creation work ……very relaxing and easy to listen to🥰😇👍

[@MarcosCodas]

Wish you’d run these looow budget tests both with and without FRS. This is where FSR can make or break a game and not all cards behave equally in all games. I know it’s more testing time but I believe it is super relevant information. FSR perhaps even moreso than native in some cases.

[@pielkop5123]

i love your videos man all the way from South Africa 😁

[@RandomGaminginHD]

Thanks for watching :)

[@PrashantMishra-kh1xt]

​@@RandomGaminginHD Yeah yours and zWormz gaming. Love from India.

[@natneo2722]

i recently upgraded to an i7 2600 but I admit, the i5 and I had a very good run. Such a magnificent CPU till this day.

[@CFWhitman]

Depending on what you can find, you might be better off getting one of the Xeon 4 core, 8 thread processors that will fit the 1155 socket. Sometimes you can get those for not too much money because they were harvested from old servers. You just have to find the right price/performance ratio. The extra threads can give these an edge over the i5 for newer games. Edit: I see someone already mentioned this.

[@kyles8524]

yeah but you need a certain type of lga 1155 board that supports that, I have a few some high end ones but some of them are really basic, the higher end ones can actually use 2nd and 3rd gen and xeon cpu's but the basic ones are stuck using 2nd gen processors and thats it cause those basic boards wouldnt even boot with a 3rd gen chip or xeon even with a bios update

[@Dfm253]

@@kyles8524I’ve dropped Xeons in several boards, even prebuilt Dell and HP systems, never had an issue personally.

[@kyles8524]

@@Dfm253 just depends

[@HungryHippo7S]

So can it fit in a micro atx case cause I plan on buying a motherboard but it dosent specify the type of MOBO

[@GoranObal]

Beautiful flowers! ;) But seriously, lovely video as we came to expect from you anyway. :)

[@weatheronthe8s895]

A rather coincidental video, considering I am currently in the process of replacing my i5 2400 system in a way. I still plan to use it for things like emulation and light gaming on other monitors, or perhaps Linux. However, the chip is definitely starting to show its age. Things still work okay, but I can't say a whole lot of things run what I would call great anymore. It still has its uses definitely, and I imagine anyone using one as any sort of main system should be able to stretch it a bit longer. However it is definitely starting to show it's age just a bit. Considering the age of the chip though, it has aged remarkably well compared to a 12 year old chip when the i5 2400 was new. It is still just fine for basic tasks and as this video shows, even some lighter gaming. I couldn't see myself saying that about a Pentium 3 12 years ago.

[@olnnn]

This is the first gen of intel cpu with AVX instructions, older than this might have compatability issues with a few games. No AVX2 which came with haswell but dont think much require that yet and whatever does probably wont be playable on this setup anyhow.

[@peterpan408]

There is no reason to consider anything older than Haswell. In fact anything DDR3 is not worth considering. 6400, 7400 are the in-between generations.. The 8400.. now that's an interesting CPU. 6C6T which stomped first gen Ryzen in games.

[@olnnn]

@@peterpan408 At this price level its really going to be mostly whatever you can randomly find for cheap ideally locally rather than looking for something very specific. But yeah. Haswell and newer can also be found for very little these days unless you live somewhere with very limited access.

[@RolanTheBrave]

this is pretty close to what i put together for my 10 year old son - an old HP desktop with a 4th gen i5 with 16gb ram, i added an old 500gb SSD and a GTX 1050 2gb. All in around £100. I already had an old monitor, keyboard and mouse. it runs fortnite very well, which is all he wants currently

[@MaxIronsThird]

I swapped my old i3 2100 from when i was a kid for the I7 2600 in 2018 for dirt cheap $30 on AliExpress, overclocked it to 5Ghz and that thing ran games smooth AF, most of the time i was GPU bound at 1080p/900p with the 1050Ti. 16Gb of 1333Mhz DDR3.

[@dodgydruid]

What is it you do to your flowers? They are just so vibrant :) Maybe do a vid on upgrading ones petunias etc ;)

[@junaidunar9148]

One of my best friends had i5-2400 + Gigabyte GTX 1050 2gb, he had great time with it for many years, he still uses his i5-2400 with different GPU though. He plays modern titles with whatever settings he can run those titles on.

[@forzahorizon5pulse11]

can you try the i7 2600 + rx 570 or 580?

[@RandomGaminginHD]

Have planned a 2600 and 2060 video as well. Wonder if there’s a huge bottleneck

[@kawafahra]

he already did exactly that, not long ago.

[@b0ne91]

If you are looking into that CPU, do yourself favor and buy the much cheaper E3 1240, 1270 or 1230 v2 - maybe even 1240 v2. They will always work in the same socket, cost much less and perform within 1% of the equivalent i7.

[@forzahorizon5pulse11]

@@RandomGaminginHD it depends on the game but from my experience the more modern the game, the bigger the cpu bottleneck (i have a 2600 in my 2nd PC and have used it with various GPUs including rx 570 and rx 6600 and funnily enough the 570 was more stable and performed better overall due to the pcie 2.0 which the i7 is limited to and also the fact that the rx 6600 only has x8 pcie lanes vs the x16 on the 570 so the 6600 was running at a slower 2.0 x8 while the 570 was running at 2.0 x16 Which really made the newer gpu super bandwidth starved and caused huge spikes and stutter as well as extremely low fps on games such as forza Horizon 5(even on the lowest settings with the rx 6600.

[@vibavy]

someone was selling a 1060 6GB for £20 as faulty, they said it wouldn't display anything, i tried a different display port and it worked💀

[@RandomGaminginHD]

Nice!

[@mrln.bllmnn]

Earlier this year I found a good deal on a Haswell Office PC: 20 € for a full desktop with an i5 and 4 gb ram. After upgrading it with an ssd, 16 gb ram and a gtx 1060 6 gb it worked surprisingly well, however sons of the forest struggled even at lowest settings at 1080p.

[@Eppopower]

Hi Steve, you express your love for the non-hyperthreaded old i5's, but could you try the i7's of those gens too? I'd like to know how they compare. Prices don't differ much over here

[@nicusoramelin9380]

I currently have a q6600 and i want to upgrade to this i5 ,thanks to your video i don't have any doubt about it Next time please test Minecraft java editin ,not the bedrock one

[@ClayWheeler]

But in your other comment, you said you have Core i5 3470. Why would you want Core i5 2400?

[@nicusoramelin9380]

@@ClayWheeler i had a i5 3470 ,but i have sell it ,and now i have a q6600

[@Dirtyz1234]

I just refurbed an old Z77 tower for my nephew. Stuck a 3770 in with 8GB kit of ram (16 total now) and a 6650 XT. Seems pretty promising.

[@WGK90]

I think a Ryzen 5 2600 which you can get in CEX for 40 quid, and an RX580 8GB which are around £70-80, would be a way better option for not much more money, you cna pick up a decent old AM4 pre built for less than 100 quid with a decent MB/PSU/HD/RAM and youve got a decent system.

[@PhoticSneezeOne]

I don´t know the UK used market prices for the ryzen 5 2600, or the near identical Ryzen 5 1600AF but here in austria you can get them for as crazy low as 25-35€ I think this cpu is the new value king at the moment

[@PhoticSneezeOne]

@@Flex-cx7uj You can get a320 boards for next to nothing

[@ClayWheeler]

​@@Flex-cx7ujfirst gen AM4 high end X370 are cheap now

[@fistingendakenny8781]

I have this build and honestly, it's ok, the only thing that holds it back is the lack of the sata 6

[@unitybeing777]

Hero of budget builds.

[@gorjaharchangel2267]

Really nice video with a great perspective on a budget combo. I would like to see you make a sort of upgrade for these parts. That were exactly the core components of the pc I used for "office" work (video calls, online teaching, word and pdf files etc.) for about a year. At first I used it with 8gb of RAM but 4-5 months later I replaced it with 16 for some peace of mind. Whenever I had some spare time I played Rise of the Tomb Raider and GTA V with ease. At the moment I am not really using this PC and I use its parts for testing. I might put it together permanently again in the near future with a GTX 1070 that a friend of mine might give me after he upgrades his own, and probably a Xeon e3 1240 because the i7 2600 (and the i7s in general) are considered something like gold in my country.

[@HappyBeezerStudios]

From the 2500 there are basically on the 2600, 2700, 3570 and 3770 and their overclockable counterparts. And the Xeons, which gave i7 performance for i5 price back in the day, but without OC. Not much considering the whole platform is that old already and buying twice is just too much money.

[@mortysmith2192]

i actuallly have that exact same cpu and have been trying to get my hands on a cheap gpu for a while now so this is really cool for me to see

[@Randomness662]

GTA V will go down in history as the greatest example of what great optimization can do for triple A on low-end hardware

[@RandomGaminginHD]

Yeah and interestingly it will still stress high end hardware when it’s turned way up. Great for all users

[@ShashaParallax]

4:03 Overwatch has definitely improved. I don't know if it's because of having 1 less hero in game. I had a gtx 1060 3gb back when Overwatch was new, paired with an i5 7400. I could not hold a steady 144+ fps it was mostly over that but will dip down under 144 from time to time, which is why I mever went ahead with the purchase of a 144hz monitor. But now a 1050 is running it at 147 avg.

[@chocobro7]

1050 is a fantastic card, been holding strong for years now. Bought brand new for $100 when it first came out.

[@gargolgaming8101]

Hear me out- e3-1240, P106-90, ebay 2011 board, salvaged ram, and if you can salvage ram you can probably salvage a case. 1240 goes for 15 dollars on ebay, p106-90 goes for around 45, board can go from 30 to 45. so overall about 100 dollars for a full setup.

[@losingmyfavoritegame8752]

The performance of this pairing surprised me!

[@RandomGaminginHD]

Same here!

[@computerrefurbishment9748]

That socket is great for a cheap esports build. Also recommend 1150.

[@spooper3631]

I still own a 1050, i've owned it for like 4-6 years, can't really remember, but hopefully by next month i will be able to get a rx 7600, but the 1050 has served me well and its surprising how good it still is, even on non esports titles

[@infinity2z3r07]

Point of the video is well taken, but going just one generation newer (ivy bridge) gets you PCIE 3.0. In my experience even cards as low as r7 250 feel better in % lows

[@labradorgeek]

i ran a similar combo for a nice while - i7-2600 and a low profile 1050 gtx. had it when Doom Eternal dropped and did quite well!!!

[@HappyBeezerStudios]

As someone with a not so different, but slightly faster setup (i5-3570K @4.3, GTX 1060 6GB, 16 GB DDR3-2000) I can see the limits of the system already. It is really for lightweight games up to maybe 2015/16. But it will struggle with anything bigger. Fallout 4, Planetside 2, a large rocket in KSP or a big city in Cities Skylines will hurt.

[@Motishay]

Oh yess, please show us the absolute limits of 2&3rs core series! I got quite a few laying around and wondered what card can I reasonably buy for those to play witcher 3 and rdr2

[@thaddeus2447]

I like such videos its just a proof that even with lowest end hadraware which is many years old you can still play many games with enjoyable fps

[@JDStickland]

I've been selling a bunch of similar systems as budget builds. I'll use any 1155 i5 that I have on hand, 8GB DDR3, RX 460 2GB, 512GB SSD. It's a great price to performance option and the parts are readily available to replicate it.

[@dlbutters7164]

I used to game on an i3 7100 and an RX570 for years, only now i'm seeing the true potencial of the RX 570 now that i've upgraded my CPU to a Ryzen 7 5700g... The RX570 is way freaking better than i ever thought!

[@scpnoobers]

I need a recommendation. Should I get a gtx 1650 for 50 USD? All answers will be considered.

[@hirizero]

For this price is a great deal, just make sure your psu can handle it, i have a gigabyte one that needs a 6 pin pcie power cable even though the reference design is powered by only the motherboard. It doesn't even post to windows if i don't have the power cable plugged in so be careful with that, otherwise its a great card with excellent 1080p gaming performance

[@scpnoobers]

Thank you for the recommendation.

[@randomisedaccessgaming1876]

Would love to see a comparison video with the same games but where you swap out the CPU for a i7 2700k just to see if you hit 100% CPU usage, and let's be fair the i7's are probably dirt cheap to pick up

[@justsomeguy5103]

Agreed! I noticed the 2400 was bottlenecking the 1050 in several games. Would be interesting to find out which CPU is the best match.

[@peterpan408]

Although an i7 should be cheap also, it likely isnt because it is the fastest CPU for that platform, and fewer were sold when new. Everyone thinking I'll just get the i7 second hand in a few years was SOOL because there weren't that many for sale, and those that had them were still using them.

[@pablo_p_art]

Actually, they performing better than expected. Seems like i5 is bootlenecking GTX 1050 in most cases. I guess i7 2600 with GTX 1050Ti should give more smooth experience. Also, in CeX I saw Ryzen 7 1700 for £40, so this maybe better option.

[@TheSpotify95]

Ryzen 7 1700 being so cheap will be because of a lack of Windows 11 support... you need 2nd generation Ryzen for Windows 11. A bit like how you need 8th generation Intel or newer for Windows 11.... though I'm sure most people who are technically minded can hack Windows 11 onto anything that ran Windows 10 well.

[@peterpan408]

Bottlenecking a GTX 1050 😂

[@MichaelCH911]

CS GO: when it stutters, that means an enemy has spotted you 😂

[@danatmonst3594]

lol

[@rengoku2915]

Oh wow steve tbh i didnt expect that number of fps from those pairs haha

[@RandomGaminginHD]

Me neither haha

[@rushnerd]

I'm a diehard fan of the 2700K. OC's to a freakin' GHz over stock on basic mobos. But these days I would not advise them simply because of outdated instruction sets and compatibility. I'm still on a 9700F and frankly it's still a good choice even for hardcore gaming and I'm sure it doesn't cost that much these days.

[@RandomGaminginHD]

Yeah love the 2700k!

[@rushnerd]

@@RandomGaminginHD That's why you're the best RGHD! It's like the 1080ti, the most economical bang for buck to ever happen. I somehow don't think we'll see those kinds of things happen again unless the computer market slows way down.

[@Josue31627]

I feel that in some older CPU-bound games Sandy Bridge gets some driver overhead with GPUs newer than Maxwell 2.0. For newer games I don't think it's as noticeable. Still solid performance. Even the I5-750 or the I7-860 can be acceptable except in new games from this decade.

[@andrew_edwards]

4:31 fortnite's problem isnt the core and thread count, it runs fine on my 4670k. fortnite's problem is with the overrall power of the cpu. It even ran OK on my 4130 from before i upgraded.

[@nightshadelenar]

note: use Minecraft Java edition for uncapped play. Minecraft for Windows is indeed capped at 120FPS and uses the CPU in an odd way. Minecraft 1.14 on my old GT710 and E6600 had averages around 140 with a low of i think 22 (at least that i remember, blowing up a creeper. xP)

[@Grizouette]

For me, i used for many years my gtx 1050 (no ti) with my i7 4770, now i use my new 1660 (i buy bcs i play destiny 2, and i was boring to play with 50-70fps) and im veryyy happy !!! i5 2400 is a little beast go buy this old cpu guys

[@johnnopeyy4129]

I still have an I5-2400 paired with an GTX-1660 .... It can play both cyberpunk 2077 and Baldurs Gate comfortably with FSR on. The I5-2400 must have been a f'in beast in its time.

[@godz-5759]

This was basically my old Pc and I had such a good time. Now I'm with a Ryzen 5 4500 in pair with a Rx 580 8gb, not the top of the line but a very capable system, 1080p and low settings for the newest tittles and it can hit 60fps in most of the cases.

[@ethangoldwyre]

one issue im pretty sure you'll have with fh5 is that the CPU probably won't be able to keep up with streaming the map at high speed, I had it happen with a 3770k whenever i went above 250mph for over a minute, as a result your car will stop where it is and the game will just leave you floating whilst the map is streamed in.

[@DAG_M]

The great i5 2400. I used to have one. I was entirely pleased with performance.

[@TheSpotify95]

Personally, I'd have turned things up a bit in quite a few of the titles tested in this video. For example, in Overwatch 2, the settings could be bumped up a little to get the game to look better (given you had plenty in hand), and if the percentile figures in Fortnite are a mess in Performance mode, and the CPU is the limit, then you might as well try and balance the system a little by putting more on the GPU, hence I'd probably go with the standard DX11 Low Preset. (Maybe even Medium if the CPU/GPU could handle it.) I'd also definitely turn CS GO up to at least Medium given the high average, and (if it is a CPU intensive game) trying to shove more load onto that GPU. Oh yeah, I'd do the same with Valorant too - given it can run over 100fps easily on a 1050ti at high mode, and a 180fps average at Low, even the 2nd gen i5 and 1050 can comfortably run it at Medium, maybe even High too. Overall, seems like a nice pairing, but even with the 1050 (2GB), my personal preference would be to maybe go with the i7 instead of the i5. 2nd gen and 3rd gen Intel is going to be super cheap now - heck, even CPUs like the i5-4460 (as seen in my secondary rig) would probably be cheap enough to get nowadays.

[@Silvahhhhhhhhhh]

I agree on the Fortnite part, as it is a CPU intensive game, increasing resolutions could help, but it's not guaranteed. But when it comes to boundless e-sports, no, I wouldn't bump graphics, the higher your FPS, the better the experience, you need frames to have an edge.

[@HappyBeezerStudios]

With the whole esports angle of those games better graphics won't do much to improve the experience. Rather the opposite. I totally understand keeping the resolution "normal" instead of "pro"

[@Nekudza]

You are not improving things loading your GPU more in CPU-limited scenarios. Average figure may not decrease significantly, but overall choppines will be even worse

[@TheSlowDude]

I was running a i7 2600 and a GTX 970 (3.5gb actual VRAM) until last year. @1440p most games ran good enough. My honest opinion: don't game on a 60hz Display! 120hz min. :-) No matter if 1080p or 1440p, but even these old setup's give you a waaaaay better experience on a faster monitor. (with variable refresh rate)

[@SuperKendoman]

Friends, will this be able to play Resident Evil 4 remake? I would be happy with at least 30 fps if possible whilst playing mostly indie games like Dead Cells or Hades. Thank you for your time ❤

[@theHardwareBench]

I did a load of Fortnite videos with cheap builds, you need a really fast clock speed for a 4 core with no hyperthreading. If you want to record gameplay hyperthreading is a must. Old i7 is the minimum for gaming now, a 4770K is only £40 from CEX with a warranty, when we're talking pence like this i5's are dead.

[@NukaOrQuantum]

I don't have much experience with older gen, ultra budget builds, but your videos are helpful. I already have a PC, however after watching this video I want to do a i5-2500 and 1050ti build lol. The total list came out the $241 with 16GB of DDR3 1600. Do you have any other CPU or GPU recommendations for these types of builds?

[@Trick-Framed]

I5 2500 supports DDR3 1333.

[@NukaOrQuantum]

@@Trick-Framed Thank you, I am aware already BTW. 1333 and 1600 are the same price, so does it really matter? Or are they incompatible? I don't know that much about builds of this genre.

[@Trick-Framed]

@@NukaOrQuantum If the kit you get doesn't support the JEDEC spec you want it won't work. Most DDR3 sticks have 1333 as their base JEDEC but some have DDR3 1600 as base so will not run correctly or at all. Simply, check the memory type before you buy or test yourself if you already have it. Also, my apologies. It's more often that I am talking to someone that has no idea what they are talking about than I do. So I always come off as an authority instead of just another user. I'm working on it.

[@NukaOrQuantum]

@@Trick-Framed You don't have to apologize, I thank you for helping me. I'll refine the list to ensure proper functionality.

[@Trick-Framed]

@@NukaOrQuantum That was kind of you. I appreciate you.

[@ToysForTheGods]

I have a 2600k with a 1060 3gb about 4 feet from me that I recently retired. What a beast it was

[@acaptainwithoutaship5192]

People in some PC and even IT are saying these chips arent good for anything. This really shows how wrong they are. I Built a 4790 system with a Vega 64 a few months ago and alot of the comments on FB were about how poorly the system would perform. Thing ran like a dream! XD

[@KimBoKastekniv47]

I personally wouldn't go with anything older/slower than an i7-4790 if you want to dabble with newer titles.

[@AntiGrieferGames]

6:40 Can you test Java Minecraft too after Bedrock Minecraft? Im pretty sure it can run.

[@pidojaspdpaidipashdisao572]

I have that card and all I can say is that you've got massive hands.

[@Himsag1]

It’s crazy that the rog ally runs games better. Like technology has gotten amazing

[@mapesdhs597]

Another interesting alternative is the i7 4820K (4c/8t) which is just 8 UKP from CEX; it has the same 40 PCIe lanes as other IB-E parts and can be oc'd a great deal. I suppose the trickier part is finding suitable X79 mbds, but the 4820K is effectively like having a 3770K with more than double the PCIe lanes and double the mem bw, providing Gen3 PCIe aswell (though the 2400 does have an iGPU which can be handy for diagnosing GPU issues). Or there's the 6c/12t i7 4930K which is only 15 UKP.

[@Trick-Framed]

The i7 4960x is around $50. 6 cores 12 threads OCs to 4.5 ghz average.

[@Trick-Framed]

Around £30

[@mapesdhs597]

@@Trick-Framed It isn't worth the extra cost (I have one), the 4930K is easier to oc and generates less heat. At the same clock they're basically the same speed. The only significant difference I found was for SuperPI, but that doesn't translate into gaming. At this budget level one is much better off ploughing the cost difference into a better GPU (or mbd). FYI I've done a lot of X79 testing, probably more than most. Indeed, unless one needs PCIe Gen3 (which for this budget level of GPU is unlikely), the 3930K is even easier to oc, and cheaper, 4.8+ being typical, which makes up for the IPC difference. I have a 3930K @ 4.7 with 64GB @ 2133, driving quad GTX 580 3GB, so the chip can certainly handle a hefty load. If one is going to oc though, then finding a solid mbd is the more difficult aspect. I have lots of ASUS R4Es, P9X79/E WSs and suchlike, with which oc'ing is easy, but these are expensive on the used market now, while even entry boards are typically well above P67/Z68/etc. on the used market. There are Ali boards, but I wouldn't rely on their oc'ing capabilities. So the CPUs are cheap, but the overall cost equation may pan out in favour of SB, HW, XEON, early Ryzen or something else.

[@proCaylak]

about minecraft: the one you were playing was "bedrock" edition. it would be great if you also tried "java" edition. java is less centralized than bedrock, but to many people, that's the point of minecraft. I think java edition would be more relevant to those who play minecraft regularly.

[@aquss33]

I already have a ryzen 5 2600 and rx 6650 xt with 32GB of ram, but I just couldn't resist buying an i5 4590 and gtx 960 for 60€, I don't know what it is about it, but I just have more fun playing on those older systems, of course playing rdr2 at 4K medium and getting 80 fps is definitely not possible like on my main system, but just seeing what it can do before inevitably selling it for a tiny profit is just so much fun... I do gain a lot of experience and knowledge building and testing these PCs even if I don't film it...

[@ionamygdalon2263]

Thank you for including Battlefield Better edition 😉

[@vmiki888]

For older games this is still pretty good cpu+pu combo. What kind of storage are you using for older games or everything goes on ssd?

[@Trick-Framed]

So, You can get an i5 Haswell for about $10 more. Boards are the same price. Nothing if you look hard enough, and with the GPU you are suggesting, would allow even new games to launch. but they would play like a slideshow on anything over 720p low.

[@matthewl5434]

About the Minecraft frame cap, it may be the "variable refresh rate" setting in Windows causing that problem

[@Red19487]

Had an i5-650 with an AMD 5570. GPU upgrade to a 1050 in 2017 and a CPU upgrade to an R5 3500x in 2020. It was a pain till I got a 2060 in 2022 xD