[SOLVED] 300$ Gaming PC Recommendations

[julienruc]

Building a cheap gaming rig for my little brother.

Found a used RX 580 that looks in good condition.
Bought that PSU from a friend that never ended up using it.
Will add in a 500GB HDD I got lying around the house.
I know 16GB of RAM would be nice but I want him to get a side job/do chores and buy it himself.
I got a 8th Gen CPU in case mobo needs an update.
Will buy a case for 20$ from a computer store down my road.

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: Intel Core i3-9100F 3.6 GHz Quad-Core Processor ($71.88 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: MSI H310M PRO-VDH PLUS Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($56.99 @ Walmart)
Memory: Patriot Signature Premium 8 GB (2 x 4 GB) DDR4-2666 CL19 Memory ($35.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Silicon Power 128 GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($17.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon RX 580 4 GB NITRO+ Video Card ($100.00)
Power Supply: Corsair CV 450 W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($50.00)
Total: $332.85
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-07-31 02:29 EDT-0400

 

[Darkbreeze]

450w is not sufficient for the RX 580. You need a 550w unit, and I'd try to do better than the CV series if you can. Those are pretty much the old VS series revamped, and they are not very good.

http://www.realhardtechx.com/index_archivos/Page362.htm

If you try running that graphics card on a 450w unit, even a very good one, which that one is not, you are very likely to have problems of one kind or another.

 

[julienruc]

Yeah I wasn't sure about the PSU quality. I will see if I can find better.

Are you sure about the wattage needs? Sapphire's website recommends 500 watts and most 500w units don't even deliver 450w on 12v whereas this one does 430w on 12v.

After doing some reading, I didn't find a single benchmark online that drew past 240w on the GPU and past 120w on the CPU. The case will only support 2 HDDs max. Wouldn't a PSU with 400w on its 12v rail already be more than enough?

 

[Darkbreeze]

Sapphire's recommendation, and the recommendation of most card manufacturers for most generations, does not factor in things like spikes or degenerative electromigration effects that over time may require substantially more power to remain stable. When the 580 was a current gen model and very popular, we'd seen a fair number of systems tripping protections, even on some 550w units, so that would really be the minimum you want to target. Certainly you might "get by" with less, for now, but it's a risk, and it might be a big problem later on. Besides which, it's never a good idea to run a system on just what is required, technically speaking. Having about 40% overhead allows the unit to run in the range where it is MOST efficient, and runs cooler, which also means you'll tend to use less power, create less heat and hear less noise from the power supply as a result.

 

[julienruc]

I did not take that into account. Thanks!

 

[Darkbreeze]

👍