Question Cheap GPU recommendations for a low-budget PC ?

[dzastyr]

Hi all, I'm here hoping someone could be kind enough to recommend a cheap GPU to use with a (very) low-budget PC I bought a few days ago.

I picked up this cheap rig the other day, but when I unboxed it today I realized I hadn't paid enough attention to the case size or the fact that the listing doesn't show any PSU specs. It only comes with an integrated GPU so I just assumed I'd be able to pop in the Geforce GTX 1060 from my other PC, but this system needs a low-profile card. It's only got a 180W power supply, and I'm hoping to not have to spend more than the price of the system for a compatible GPU.

I'm thinking I'll probably just end up returning it, but before I do I figured it couldn't hurt to reach out to some more knowledgeable people. Any input would be appreciated.

Thank you!

 

[Darkbreeze]

Honestly, I'd return it. You're going to run into MANY problems with this type of system if you try to upgrade anything like graphics card, PSU, etc. But in the event you don't or can't, how much are you willing to budget for a card because you are usually going to pay MORE for the same card model in a low profile, SFF or mini ITX type design.

 

[Ralston18]

Seconding @Darkbreeze

Return the "rig".

Then update your post to include your computer requirements and budget.

Requirements being what do you expect that the computer will be able to do?

There may be other options.

 

[ohio_buckeye]

Return. That system doesn’t officially support windows 11 due to the age of the cpu.

 

[dzastyr]

I figured as much as soon as I saw it. Thanks for the replies.

 

[dzastyr]

Honestly, I'd return it. You're going to run into MANY problems with this type of system if you try to upgrade anything like graphics card, PSU, etc. But in the event you don't or can't, how much are you willing to budget for a card because you are usually going to pay MORE for the same card model in a low profile, SFF or mini ITX type design.

I picked up a GTX 1060 last year for my well-aged PC when Counter Strike 2 came out. All I really played for years was CS:GO, which ran just fine, but it couldn't really handle the update. Lately I'm playing Elite: Dangerous but my CPU is under spec for the game so I'm getting some nasty fps drops when loading in planetary terrain. I'm not looking to spend more than a few hundred bucks but I'm hoping to find a cheap system that can balance out well with my 1060.

Any recommendations on a good place to shop around?

 

[Darkbreeze]

Are you capable of assembling it yourself?

Would you list the parts that you can or plan to reuse from the existing older PC?

What are the specs for the system that has become too weak? Because it must be pretty old if your upgrade is an 8 year old Kaby lake system.

 

[ykmtx]

Going second hand in your budged might be better

 

[Darkbreeze]

Going second hand in your budged might be better

Can easily put a system together for a couple hundred bucks, especially if there is some existing hardware that can be reused. Even more so when you consider that almost anything including some of the lowest end models is going to offer world's of improvement from whatever they had since Kaby lake was going to be an "upgrade". Not even that difficult especially if you've already got a suitable PSU, graphics card and storage devices you can reuse. Even more so if you have a usable case.

 

[dzastyr]

Are you capable of assembling it yourself?

Would you list the parts that you can or plan to reuse from the existing older PC?

What are the specs for the system that has become too weak? Because it must be pretty old if your upgrade is an 8 year old Kaby lake system.

Oh it's old. I built it in 2012 for like $400 to play CS:GO. It's got a first-gen Lynnfield i5-750 so a Kaby Lake would have been a welcome upgrade. When I first put it together it was the i5-750, 4gb ddr3 ram, and a 2gb GeForce gt600 on a gigabyte h55m board.

The PC sat in a closet for a long time after a move but a couple years ago I decided to bring it back to life. A stick of RAM had died somehow so I upgraded it to 8GB DDR4 (max the board can handle), and my 2GB GT600 to a 6GB GTX1060. All I ever really played was CS and metroidvania games so it's never been a big deal, and $180 for a i5-7500, 16gb of RAM and a 256gb NVMe seemed like a good, cheap lineup to go with my GPU.

 

[Darkbreeze]

Ok, so what parts do you have that can be used with a new build, or are you not interested in assembling it yourself and only interested in some kind of prebuilt? Because if so, that is going to REALLY limit your options on trying to get something decent for cheap.

 

[dzastyr]

Ok, so what parts do you have that can be used with a new build, or are you not interested in assembling it yourself and only interested in some kind of prebuilt? Because if so, that is going to REALLY limit your options on trying to get something decent for cheap.

The only thing I think worth trying to transfer to a new build would be the card, and yes I can assemble it myself.