Building low end gaming rig

[dy26197]

I'm thinking about building a low end gaming rig to use as a living room gaming console. The majority of games that will be played on this rig are 2d platformers and shooter, emulators for NES, and SNES, and the occasional modern FPS games like Call of Duty (lowering graphics settings to play these kind of games is ok with me). For budget reason was thinking about going with an APU. I priced a build on Amazon with an A8-6600k, gigabyte fm2+ mobo, 8gb DDR3 ram, DVD drive, and 1tb HHD for $260.00. Will these specs work for what I'm wanting? If not can you suggest a better build for around the same price?

Thank you

 

[tical2399]

I'm thinking about building a low end gaming rig to use as a living room gaming console. The majority of games that will be played on this rig are 2d platformers and shooter, emulators for NES, and SNES, and the occasional modern FPS games like Call of Duty (lowering graphics settings to play these kind of games is ok with me). For budget reason was thinking about going with an APU. I priced a build on Amazon with an A8-6600k, gigabyte fm2+ mobo, 8gb DDR3 ram, DVD drive, and 1tb HHD for $260.00. Will these specs work for what I'm wanting? If not can you suggest a better build for around the same price?

Thank you

What what you're planning to do, I think it will work fine.

 

[dy26197]

Ok good to know that I'm not a total dummy for considering this build. How about the price? Would this be a good build for $260.00 or could I build something even better?

 

[tical2399]

Ok good to know that I'm not a total dummy for considering this build. How about the price? Would this be a good build for $260.00 or could I build something even better?

$260 for an apu build from scratch sounds about right. I'm a work now, leaving in 10 mins. If you havent got a good answer by the time i get home, kiss the wife and all that family stuff i'll price up the parts to see if it looks good.

 

[Wisecracker]

The A8-6600k 'Richland' APU has 256 'Turks' shaders.

The A10-7850K 'Kaveri' APU has 512 'Cape Verde' GCN shaders for $115. It essentially has a mini HD7750 on board.

 

[dy26197]

So basically the A10 has double the shaders for double the money. But for what I'm planning to do with it will that really make much difference? Price is the biggest factor for me. This build cannot exceed $300.00. I'm not planning on playing a lot graphically demanding games. As I said its mostly going to be playing Nintendo emulators, and the 2d games on steam. But I do occasionally like to play Call of Duty, and Battlefield. But I dont expect to get a bazillion fps on max setting with this rig. As long as the rig will play modern games with a playable framerate I'll be happy (even if I have to turn down the graphics to do so)

 

[Wisecracker]

I understand.

The Kaveri APU is also DX12 compatible, has FreeSync, OpenGL 4.4, OpenCL 2.0, AMD Mantle, and HSA features.

Using DDR3 2133MHz RAMs, it will likely run 50% more FPS in COD & BF4 than the 6800K --- so it's priced about right.

 

[dy26197]

Now you're making me want to go with the A10 🙂... Is there any way to fit the A10 into a $300.00 build?

 

[Wisecracker]

Here are the FM2+ Combos from New Egg

There is an A10 7850K combo for $300 that includes an SSD and 1TB HDD (but it comes with a less-than-great power supply).

There are other A10-7850K combos for $150 or so than include CPU/Mobo. Happy hunting!

 

[tical2399]

Don't get sucked into the performance talk. These guys will have you end up with a $1000 rig if you let them. You said you're going to mainly play nes/snes era emulator and an modern game every now and then. For what you're asking for that 360 build is fine. of course its not going to play the divison at 1080p 60 fps, but that's not what you're after anyway.

 

[Wisecracker]

The A8-6600k 'Richland' APU will play BF4 at 20fps low-medium - almost a 'slide-show.' The A10 7850K beyond 30fps. For a 'minimum console' with a bit of cross-over it's likely the best entry point, and it has a future upside with DX12 support and FreeSync.

 

[tical2399]

You got links to review to prove that or to youtube videos to prove that?? I'm at work so i cant look at TY here, but ones i've seen show it playing fine at 720p and low or mixed settings. The op wants an emulator box to play a bigger game once in a blu moon, his initial setup is fine for that.

 

[Wisecracker]

They're all over the place if you go looking --- I believe Bit-Tech has the 2 APUs 'side-by-side' in BF4