Indie Gaming (Mini) PC

[prashbricks]

I am growing a big library of Indie games on steam, like starbound, besiege, gunpoint, sanctum 2, rust, scrap garden, terraria and more. I am currently trying to game on a iMac of 2009, which my parents actually bought me for educational purposes, I like the screen but that is about it. So I was thinking, maybe I can buy a gaming PC, I was doing some research on it, and the prices were to high for me to be worth it, like €800,- for a 'budget' gaming PC...

So now my question to you guys is, what should I do? What PC do you suggest for Indie-gaming?

My budget is ±€400-500,- including the price of the monitor. I am willing to spend €40,- on the case.

Thanks in advance!

P.S: If there is any way to use my early-2009 iMac as a monitor, that would be appreciated.

 

[justin.m.beauvais]

Well, unfortunately Apple in its infinite wisdom doesn't allow you to use an all-in-one as a monitor. You could attempt to get a USB video input device, but the latency will be bad and running two computers just to run one is kind of a pain.

As for your entry level gaming PC, this would be my minimum recommendation. It is a little over your budget with a retail Windows 10 key, but there are places that you can get a Windows 10 key for fairly cheap. Otherwise the 2200G has integrated graphics that will play Indie games with ease, and even handle some more demanding games at 720p. I included nice, fast, RAM so you can get the most out of those graphics. Your case is nothing special but it looks kinda cool. I went overkill on the motherboard for 2 reasons. One is that it is a good price on that board, but the more important reason is that this is a board that you can drop a Ryzen 5 or 7 and a good GPU into at any time and have a very solid mid-high end gaming PC. The power supply is a well known brand and leaves you plenty of room for upgrades later. I included a 1TB hard drive, which should be more than enough, but you should consider adding an SSD boot drive at a later date. I added an AOC gaming monitor as well which supports FreeSync. It should help keep a good smooth gaming experience.

https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/FjynLJ

Over all I think this is a very good build for its price. It is a little weak in system memory with only 8GB that it has to share with the graphics, but that is mostly due to RAM prices being all wonky. Nothing is stopping you from dropping another 8GB into it later. I think I built a pretty darn solid base for an entry level gaming computer. It has plenty of upgradability and expandability for the future as well. In 2 years or so you can spend another 500 quid on it and turn it into a pretty good gaming PC with minimal effort, without sacrificing too much performance today.

 

[prashbricks]

Well, unfortunately Apple in its infinite wisdom doesn't allow you to use an all-in-one as a monitor. You could attempt to get a USB video input device, but the latency will be bad and running two computers just to run one is kind of a pain.

As for your entry level gaming PC, this would be my minimum recommendation. It is a little over your budget with a retail Windows 10 key, but there are places that you can get a Windows 10 key for fairly cheap. Otherwise the 2200G has integrated graphics that will play Indie games with ease, and even handle some more demanding games at 720p. I included nice, fast, RAM so you can get the most out of those graphics. Your case is nothing special but it looks kinda cool. I went overkill on the motherboard for 2 reasons. One is that it is a good price on that board, but the more important reason is that this is a board that you can drop a Ryzen 5 or 7 and a good GPU into at any time and have a very solid mid-high end gaming PC. The power supply is a well known brand and leaves you plenty of room for upgrades later. I included a 1TB hard drive, which should be more than enough, but you should consider adding an SSD boot drive at a later date. I added an AOC gaming monitor as well which supports FreeSync. It should help keep a good smooth gaming experience.

https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/FjynLJ

Over all I think this is a very good build for its price. It is a little weak in system memory with only 8GB that it has to share with the graphics, but that is mostly due to RAM prices being all wonky. Nothing is stopping you from dropping another 8GB into it later. I think I built a pretty darn solid base for an entry level gaming computer. It has plenty of upgradability and expandability for the future as well. In 2 years or so you can spend another 500 quid on it and turn it into a pretty good gaming PC with minimal effort, without sacrificing too much performance today.

It looks really good, I am actually thinking about buying this, and I am sure it isn't a big problem that it is over budget, but don't I need a cooler with the CPU?

 

[justin.m.beauvais]

As long as you aren't trying to put a sick overclock on it, no. The Wraith cooler is a well designed and fairly capable cooler, and included with the CPU at no cost.

 

[prashbricks]

As long as you aren't trying to put a sick overclock on it, no. The Wraith cooler is a well designed and fairly capable cooler, and included with the CPU at no cost.

Ok, that is quite nice, thanks for this good solution!