Gaming PC Evaluation

[josh.fidler]

Hey guys,
I have a friend selling a pc that I was looking at maybe purchasing for around the $1200 (USD) price point (may be able to get a bit cheaper). As someone new to the PC world I was wondering what kind of performance would it have and would it be worth purchasing as well if the price point is reasonable. I live in Australia by the way if that helps at all and the earliest parts of the PC were purchased in 2016. Also how long would it take for me to have to upgrade the PC to run big AAA titles coming out in the future like Cyberpunk 2077?
Thanks!


- Intel Core i5-6600K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor
- NZXT Manta Matte Black and Red Mini ITX Case
- G.Skill Ripjaws 4 16GB (1x16GB) DDR4 3200 Mhz
- EVGA SuperNOVA G1 Gold 650W Power Supply
- MSI Z170I GAMING PRO AC Mini ITX LGA1151 Motherboard
- MSI (RX 480 GAMING X 4G) 4G RX-480 Gaming X PCI-E VGA Card
- NZXT Kraken x62 CPU cooler
- Samsung 960 EVO M2 DRIVE 500GB
- Samsung 850 PRO SSD 120GB
- Samsung 750 EVO SSD 250GB
- Seagate 2TB HDD
- Fractal Design Dynamic X2 GP 140mm Fan (x2)
- Noctua Redux 120mm Fan
- Deepcool RGB 350 Colour LED Strip Kit

 

[vapour]

Can you spare more? I will build using new parts. OKish buy but coffee lake is better to have now, single stick ram is not ideal and mini ITX?! I won't do that for gaming pc.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel - Core i5-8400 2.8GHz 6-Core Processor ($248.00 @ Shopping Express)
Motherboard: Gigabyte - B360M DS3H Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($90.91 @ Amazon Australia)
Memory: Corsair - Vengeance LPX 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3200 Memory ($239.00 @ Umart)
Storage: Crucial - MX500 250GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive ($105.00 @ PCCaseGear)
Storage: Western Digital - Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($57.50 @ Shopping Express)
Video Card: EVGA - GeForce GTX 1060 6GB 6GB SC GAMING Video Card ($400.83 @ Amazon Australia)
Case: Cooler Master - MasterBox Lite 5 ATX Mid Tower Case ($64.00 @ Shopping Express)
Power Supply: Corsair - TXM Gold 550W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($105.00 @ Shopping Express)
Total: $1310.24
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-06-13 04:44 AEST+1000

 

[WildCard999]

Love them ITX gaming builds! As long as you have good airflow putting a powerhouse of a system into a small package is quite fine.

I'd go with something like this if possible budget wise.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel - Core i5-8400 2.8GHz 6-Core Processor ($248.00 @ Shopping Express)
Motherboard: ASRock - H310M-ITX/ac Mini ITX LGA1151 Motherboard ($129.00 @ Mwave Australia)
Memory: G.Skill - Ripjaws V Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2400 Memory ($239.00 @ IJK)
Storage: Kingston - A400 240GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($74.00 @ Shopping Express)
Storage: Western Digital - Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($57.50 @ Shopping Express)
Video Card: GALAX - GeForce GTX 1060 6GB 6GB OC Video Card ($399.00 @ Mwave Australia)
Case: Phanteks - Enthoo EVOLV ITX TG (Black) Mini ITX Desktop Case ($129.00 @ PCCaseGear)
Power Supply: Corsair - CXM (2015) 450W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($75.00 @ Shopping Express)
Total: $1350.50
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-06-13 05:00 AEST+1000

Or if you can't exceed $1200.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel - Core i5-8400 2.8GHz 6-Core Processor ($248.00 @ Shopping Express)
Motherboard: ASRock - H310M-ITX/ac Mini ITX LGA1151 Motherboard ($129.00 @ Mwave Australia)
Memory: G.Skill - Ripjaws V Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2400 Memory ($239.00 @ IJK)
Storage: Kingston - A400 240GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($74.00 @ Shopping Express)
Storage: Western Digital - Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($57.50 @ Shopping Express)
Video Card: Inno3D - GeForce GTX 1050 Ti 4GB Twin X2 Video Card ($249.00 @ Umart)
Case: Phanteks - Enthoo EVOLV ITX TG (Black) Mini ITX Desktop Case ($129.00 @ PCCaseGear)
Power Supply: Corsair - CXM (2015) 450W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($75.00 @ Shopping Express)
Total: $1200.50
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-06-13 05:02 AEST+1000

 

[cryoburner]

Is a copy of Windows included on that friend's computer? If so, that might be around $120 AUD saved versus these alternate builds, unless you chance a copy through some key-reseller site for less. While I'm not super-familiar with the exact pricing of components in Australia, judging by these other builds, that one is probably a good option for the money. I do notice you listed that system's price in USD though, while these other builds are listed in AUD. What was the asking price for this system in AUD?

The CPU is a recent unlocked quad-core with a very capable cooler. Compared to the 6-core 8400, the 6600K might managed slightly better per-core performance, but of course it will have a couple less cores. Most current games are still designed for quad-core processors, and will perform fine on them, but a 6-core might show more benefit in more of the games coming out a couple years from now. If you were to upgrade to a 6+ core processor later on, you would also need a new motherboard. Alternately, the Hyperthreading on an i7-6700k might similarly improve multithreaded performance, so that might be another upgrade option, if you could find one used at a reasonable price. The current used pricing for a 6700K isn't much better than buying a new 6-core with a motherboard though.

16GB will likely be plenty of RAM for nearly all games released in the next few years, and DDR4 3200 is fast. The system appears to have a good power supply, and a decent small form-factor motherboard, even if that motherboard can't support the newest processors.

The RX 480 is a decent mid-range graphics card, almost on par with a GTX 1060, and well above the performance level of a 1050 Ti, and should be good for playing most current games at high settings at 1080p. It also might be more competitive with the 1060 in future games that utilize newer APIs like DX12, though you might feel the need to replace any of these cards within a couple years or so, if you want to keep settings relatively high in the games being released then.

That system also appears to have a lot of fast SSD storage, which would be good for holding not only the OS and applications, but also a decent number of games, and the 2TB hard drive should provide a lot of additional room for bulk data storage or a large extended game library.

Overall, I'd say that system seems a bit better than these alternate suggested builds, with the only thing potentially lacking a little being the quad-core processor. It's fast for a quad-core, but again, its possible that the games coming out in a couple years might run a bit smoother with more cores available. If the system's price were somewhere around $1500 in AUD though, you might be able to make a custom build with performance that is in more ways better for gaming though, such as by including a faster graphics card.

As for Cyberpunk, I suspect that game is still at least a year away from release. They haven't announced a release data yet, but I would suspect they are planning a late 2019 release, if not 2020. I suspect the game would be playable on this hardware, but it's difficult to accurately assess how smooth it might run at this point.