Low budget PC for GTA IV

[Stardrone]

Hi! I want to buy a low budget PC which will run GTA IV and EFLC without any lags on the settings the game applies at the start. The price can be up to 350€.

[OverTheBelow]

Not enough for a GTA4 capable machine.

[Jowata]

It will have to be a used computer someone is trying to sell quickly to get some quick money......

I don't believe you will be able to build a New computer decent enough to do what you are asking for........ But never say never.....

[yoječ]

I think the best PC for that money would be Phenom 955 + Radeon HD5770/HD6770, but it's not really enough, unless you don't want to use high settings.

For example Phenom 955 + HD5770/HD6770 + MSI 870-C45 + 4GBs DDR3 RAM + Sasmung HD502HJ + OCZ StealthXStream2 500W + DVD burner and decent case (with good airflow) should end up in your budget.

[Prometheus]

Once again:

Motherboard | GIGABYTE GA-A75M-S2V AMD A Series

 

Processor | AMD Quad-Core A8-3850 2.9GHz Radeon HD 6550D APU | $230

 

Video Card | Sapphire Radeon HD 6870 1GB GDDR5 PCI-Express 2.0 x16 DirectX 11 |$195

 

Power Supply | Cooler Master eXtreme Power Plus 500W | $45

 

Memory | 2xPatriot PC10600 2GB DDR3 1333MHz Unbuffered Non-ECC CL9 | $26

 

Hard Drive | Western Digital Caviar Blue 500GB 3.5" SATA 6Gbps 7200RPM 16MB | $40

 

Case | Apevia X-Trooper Jr Mid Tower Case ATX Micro ATX 1x 120mm Blue LED Fan, 1x 120mm Fan 2x USB 2.0 Ports | $40

 

Optical Drive | Sony Optiarc 24x DVD RW S-ATA Black Drive | $20

 

Total | ~$600 = €420

 

Notes |

*I used TigerDirect instead of newegg.

*The motherboard and the APU are in a bundle.

*There is a total of $30 = €20 of rebate (not included in total), your choice really.

*I think it should be quite enough to play GTA @HIGH Settings, With ENB? Not sure.

*I recommended the same build before, and I assure you, you won't find any better at €450, but at €350, We'll have to lower it down too much.

*@yojo2: Damn right it's not enough!

[yoječ]

...if only hardware in Europe was as cheap as in the US Not to mention that Phenom 955 + decent mobo will end up costing less than A8 (even after rebates), and yet it offers better performance. Llano CPUs are sligthly upgraded Athlons II.

 

PS. This Cooler Master is what its name suggests - an eXtremely bad power supply. http://www.hardocp.com/article/2009/02/16/...upply_roundup/2

Edited September 3, 2011 by yojo2

[YankeesPwnMets]

...if only hardware in Europe was as cheap as in the US Not to mention that Phenom 955 + decent mobo will end up costing less than A8 (even after rebates), and yet it offers better performance. Llano CPUs are sligthly upgraded Athlons II.

 

PS. This Cooler Master is what its name suggests - an eXtremely bad power supply. http://www.hardocp.com/article/2009/02/16/...upply_roundup/2

Mail in Rebates are the biggest scam ever created. Don't even bother with them. Read the fine print to look at the price before rebate. If something says $200 after MIR but you first pay $250, and the same product somewhere else goes for $220, buy from the store that costs you $220

[radioman]

Hi! I want to buy a low budget PC which will run GTA IV and EFLC without any lags on the settings the game applies at the start. The price can be up to 350€.

Your not going to be able to get a PC that is powerful enough to run IV/EFLC for $350 or less, as the PC's in that price range usually have the cheap Intel Video cards OR the Nvidia 6150's/ATI Radeon 4200-all of which ARE NOT able to run IV(at least at a decent frame rate)...the cheapest one you would be able to get is more than likely around $600 at minimum...The ONLY GTA's you would be able to play on a $350 or less PC would be III, VC, and SA...Just a friendly heads up.

[YankeesPwnMets]

 

Hi! I want to buy a low budget PC which will run GTA IV and EFLC without any lags on the settings the game applies at the start. The price can be up to 350€.

Your not going to be able to get a PC that is powerful enough to run IV/EFLC for $350 or less, as the PC's in that price range usually have the cheap Intel Video cards OR the Nvidia 6150's/ATI Radeon 4200-all of which ARE NOT able to run IV(at least at a decent frame rate)...the cheapest one you would be able to get is more than likely around $600 at minimum...The ONLY GTA's you would be able to play on a $350 or less PC would be III, VC, and SA...Just a friendly heads up.

Radioman, how old are you? Anybody could have seen that he said 350 Euros, not 350 US Dollars. I hope you know every country has their own currency..

 

1 Euro = $1.4356 USD = ~$1.44

 

350 Euros = $502.40, which is not enough. Also, remember that hardware costs are not the same in the US and Europe

 

@PrometheusX, I don't think you would be able to run GTAIV on 2GB of RAM...

[radioman]

 

Hi! I want to buy a low budget PC which will run GTA IV and EFLC without any lags on the settings the game applies at the start. The price can be up to 350€.

Your not going to be able to get a PC that is powerful enough to run IV/EFLC for $350 or less, as the PC's in that price range usually have the cheap Intel Video cards OR the Nvidia 6150's/ATI Radeon 4200-all of which ARE NOT able to run IV(at least at a decent frame rate)...the cheapest one you would be able to get is more than likely around $600 at minimum...The ONLY GTA's you would be able to play on a $350 or less PC would be III, VC, and SA...Just a friendly heads up.

Radioman, how old are you? Anybody could have seen that he said 350 Euros, not 350 US Dollars. I hope you know every country has their own currency..

 

1 Euro = $1.4356 USD = ~$1.44

 

350 Euros = $502.40, which is not enough. Also, remember that hardware costs are not the same in the US and Europe

 

@PrometheusX, I don't think you would be able to run GTAIV on 2GB of RAM...

I thought that was a typo, cause even here in the USA, some people put the $ sign after the amount, but most put it before, as I have never seen that sign before...Thanks for the heads up.

 

But, as you said that 350 euros is about $502, then that still isn't enoungh to get a decent PC to run IV/EFLC, as the minimum is like $600, so he would still need more money, as most PC's in that price range($500 or less), have Intel Video cards or Nvidia 6150's/ATI 4200's which are no good for these games(IV and EFLC)..?

[Garfield 2]

For 350 EUR?

Motherboard: ASUS M5A78L-M LX - €40.79

CPU: AMD Athlon II X3 450 3.2GHz - €59.87

RAM: 4GB Kingston ValueRAM PC3-8500U CL7 1333MHz - €18.35

GPU: ATI Radeon HD 5670 1GB DDR3 - €49.97

HDD: Seagate Barracuda 500GB - €33.06

DVD: LG GH22NS - €22.62

Power Supply: Corsair Builder Series 430W - €34.91

Case: Xigmatek Asgard ATX - €31.61

 

Total: €316.18 incl. shipping

 

Everything available at www.hardwareversand.de

[Prometheus]

@PrometheusX, I don't think you would be able to run GTAIV on 2GB of RAM...

Its 2X2GB.

[nightwalker83]

@PrometheusX, I don't think you would be able to run GTAIV on 2GB of RAM...

Its 2X2GB.

Let me see if my maths skill are ok 2*2GB = 4GB does it not?

[Stardrone]

Thanks for all of your replies! I have to say again that I don't want a PC to run IV & EFLC like.....perfectly. I just need a PC in that range to be able to run IV & EFLC at @30-35 fps, with LOW to MED settings, NOT high!

[unc13bud]

i'm going to make a few general recommendations, i couldn't find a computer store in Romania from my one google search:

quad core CPU, preferably 2.8 ghz and up

nvidia GPU graphics card with 48 sp (shader processors/cores) or more

no foxconn, ecs or gigabyte boards (unless the gigabyte board is really new)

[Slamman]

I will bet your dollars to donuts, I got the cheapest GTA Episodes capable machine yet, just got it fired up and running over the weekend. Asus mobo and single core 3.2Ghz Pentium 4 with PCIexpress nVidia 8600GT that has 512MB Ram. The Asus is from Goodwill/Easterseals for $2. It looked like two pins were slightly bent so I magnified them and used an XACTO knife blade to press them straight down, and Viola, WORKING as needed, I put the only available CPU I had for a start up in, and a reserve 500GB 7200 hard drive, using Windows XP Pro, SP3, and 3GB of DDR2 RAM, the only real bottle neck could be the CPU but it runs better then SA did on my earlier PCs, that game caused all sorts of slow downs. With 32bit XP, you'll end up maxing the working RAM at 3GB, but only 1.5 is required. The nVidia 8600GT is not the 8800, of course, but it's in the 8 series and capable. I'm confident that this will hold up for me, and it was a long time in coming, I set it up on a whim in the testing mobo stage, so the game was installed before I registered Windows beyond the 30 day grace period! That felt awfully risky

 

The single core is HT tech, that is Hyper Threading enabled, if you look on YouTube, you can see that HT tech will improve the game, and simulate a dual core, so having 3200Mhz and two streams, it seems only marginally effected, that is to say, the graphics SMOOTH factor, there is fill in of buildings in shorter distances, not so close it's terrible, and I opened up my speed in Middle Park to see how well things handle, and there's very little sluggishness

The Asus is from 2008, basically, quad and duo core capable and as well, capable of 16GB when I get another $300 for that much RAM and Windows 7 again

Edited September 21, 2011 by Slamman

[Prometheus]

 

I will bet your dollars to donuts, I got the cheapest GTA Episodes capable machine yet, just got it fired up and running over the weekend. Asus mobo and single core 3.2Ghz Pentium 4 with PCIexpress nVidia 8600GT that has 512MB Ram. The Asus is from Goodwill/Easterseals for $2. It looked like two pins were slightly bent so I magnified them and used an XACTO knife blade to press them straight down, and Viola, WORKING as needed, I put the only available CPU I had for a start up in, and a reserve 500GB 7200 hard drive, using Windows XP Pro, SP3, and 3GB of DDR2 RAM, the only real bottle neck could be the CPU but it runs better then SA did on my earlier PCs, that game caused all sorts of slow downs. With 32bit XP, you'll end up maxing the working RAM at 3GB, but only 1.5 is required. The nVidia 8600GT is not the 8800, of course, but it's in the 8 series and capable. I'm confident that this will hold up for me, and it was a long time in coming, I set it up on a whim in the testing mobo stage, so the game was installed before I registered Windows beyond the 30 day grace period! That felt awfully risky

 

The single core is HT tech, that is Hyper Threading enabled, if you look on YouTube, you can see that HT tech will improve the game, and simulate a dual core, so having 3200Mhz and two streams, it seems only marginally effected, that is to say, the graphics SMOOTH factor, there is fill in of buildings in shorter distances, not so close it's terrible, and I opened up my speed in Middle Park to see how well things handle, and there's very little sluggishness

The Asus is from 2008, basically, quad and duo core capable and as well, capable of 16GB when I get another $300 for that much RAM and Windows 7 again

WHY DO YOU ALWAYS TORTURE YOURSELF THIS WAY? INSTEAD OF BUYING 20 CHEAP PS3'S OR SOMETHING YOU CAN BUY 1, 1 NEW PS3! SAME THING WITH PC's!

 

If you need any help or recommendations, please start a new thread, I beg you.

 

Thx!

[SlaveZer0]

--> I want to buy a low budget PC which will run GTA IV and EFLC without any lags on the settings the game applies at the start. <--

 

ummm i hate to say it but the game scans your hardware before it applies settings... so everyones applied settings at the start are different. look at my specs below, the game auto maxed out for me except a few bs items. also without any lags at all? my system is so far the only one i have ever seen that gets no lag 100% of the time no matter the circumstances. everything else i have seen even on high end i7's with 8 gb ram and very high end video cards have one or two almost unnoticeable stutters per play session.

[Original Light]

Cut down on Speakers, keyboard and mouse, and focus on a good graphics card. Thats what I did, but my budget was a bit higher. If you save money on un-required things, you can focus on performance. Thats my little trick.

[Gilly1987]

This forum has got alot stupider since the last time i visited

[Slamman]

I just defy any one who thinks the recommended specs are not good enough. I got an i3 I've not used GTA IV on, and recently set two machines using the XPS 410 defacto Core2Duo CPU that's only 1.8Ghz, or the 3.2 Ghz Pentium D, that is not Hyper Threading alone, but the earlier dual core out on the market to compete with AMD, now if you want to chose between them, I think the 3.2 is the better gaming option, and affordable

[diablo440]

a 3CMX3CM box would costs 60-100 dollars to ship to Europe..it's an European user..

 

People under the euro currency pay more for everything..get a fusion ITX and cheap card and play at low settings or get used stuff.

 

P.S. I miss USD and US conveniences. Europe has long back-orders and nasty prices that change almost hourly..what's funny is the almost minority of employed citizens in the countries can barely afford it let alone the ones living off government or nothing.

[Prometheus]

I just defy any one who thinks the recommended specs are not good enough. I got an i3 I've not used GTA IV on, and recently set two machines using the XPS 410 defacto Core2Duo CPU that's only 1.8Ghz, or the 3.2 Ghz Pentium D, that is not Hyper Threading alone, but the earlier dual core out on the market to compete with AMD, now if you want to chose between them, I think the 3.2 is the better gaming option, and affordable

Now that the main reason I asked you to make your own topic about this. That's wrong in every way.

 

PLEASE Make a new topic, so that you can avoid mistakes like those.

[Slamman]

No way, DUDE, I came in to be the right man to ask about LOW COST rigs, that's the long AND the short of it!!

 

I spend as little as possible and look for deals, it's what anyone would do if they were wise. I paid no more then $130 for the best CPUs I own, and for graphics cards, no more then $50 these days, although $100 is a good limit for a budget, and I do mean budget

[Prometheus]

No way, DUDE, I came in to be the right man to ask about LOW COST rigs, that's the long AND the short of it!!

 

I spend as little as possible and look for deals, it's what anyone would do if they were wise. I paid no more then $130 for the best CPUs I own, and for graphics cards, no more then $50 these days, although $100 is a good limit for a budget, and I do mean budget

Look, I know you're experienced, but I thought that you would know this: Instead of buying several CPU's for $130, you could've bought one for $100, better performance and value, and used it for a while, for example Phenom X4, that's four cores, especially that you buy used ones.

 

However, why not when you want to buy again, make a thread to discuss or for recommendations from other experienced people

[SlaveZer0]

 

No way, DUDE, I came in to be the right man to ask about LOW COST rigs, that's the long AND the short of it!!

 

I spend as little as possible and look for deals, it's what anyone would do if they were wise. I paid no more then $130 for the best CPUs I own, and for graphics cards, no more then $50 these days, although $100 is a good limit for a budget, and I do mean budget

boy i hope this dude never has to buy a pace maker. cheap is cheap, lets face that fact, and you are a el cheap-o. now finding a good deal is one thing, but in electronics even at a bargain, you get what you pay for. now i wonder if this guys house is full of sh*t from the dollar store that were rejects from walmart... maybe all his furniture is from bulk trash night in his area too...

[Prometheus]

No way, DUDE, I came in to be the right man to ask about LOW COST rigs, that's the long AND the short of it!!

 

I spend as little as possible and look for deals, it's what anyone would do if they were wise. I paid no more then $130 for the best CPUs I own, and for graphics cards, no more then $50 these days, although $100 is a good limit for a budget, and I do mean budget

boy i hope this dude never has to buy a pace maker. cheap is cheap, lets face that fact, and you are a el cheap-o. now finding a good deal is one thing, but in electronics even at a bargain, you get what you pay for. now i wonder if this guys house is full of sh*t from the dollar store that were rejects from walmart... maybe all his furniture is from bulk trash night in his area too...

It's not like everyone has to have a great build, like yours, but I know that he is choosing the wrong stuff. Now he should've got an X3 and unlocked the 4th core (that's something), I don't know, a GTS 450 and overclocked it to match the 550 Ti, although there is no big difference....I don't know, do you have any recommendations for someone not willing pay thousands of dollars? and apparently hundreds

[SlaveZer0]

No way, DUDE, I came in to be the right man to ask about LOW COST rigs, that's the long AND the short of it!!

 

I spend as little as possible and look for deals, it's what anyone would do if they were wise. I paid no more then $130 for the best CPUs I own, and for graphics cards, no more then $50 these days, although $100 is a good limit for a budget, and I do mean budget

boy i hope this dude never has to buy a pace maker. cheap is cheap, lets face that fact, and you are a el cheap-o. now finding a good deal is one thing, but in electronics even at a bargain, you get what you pay for. now i wonder if this guys house is full of sh*t from the dollar store that were rejects from walmart... maybe all his furniture is from bulk trash night in his area too...

It's not like everyone has to have a great build, like yours, but I know that he is choosing the wrong stuff. Now he should've got an X3 and unlocked the 4th core (that's something), I don't know, a GTS 450 and overclocked it to match the 550 Ti, although there is no big difference....I don't know, do you have any recommendations for someone not willing pay thousands of dollars? and apparently hundreds

its really not about having a big budget, like you said its about what to choose. most here would simply wait and save up for what would work to a satisfactory means.... this guys is plain out cheap, and kind of stupid trying to play it off. let me know your budget and location, depending on area either myself or warlord can recommend a build.

[unc13bud]

i caught so many PCs on sale, i stopped going into stores to avoid being tempted to buy. my q6600 gateway PC cost $299 + tax, and that was in 2007

[Slamman]

Original 3 slot MiniATX eTower cost me $600 with a 19 inch CRT back in 2000, Celeron 700Mhz, I did hot-rod that machine with USB 2.0 and a 900Mhz for better video handling, even a PCI graphics card, it uses PC100/133 SDR memory, and you could play older GTA games on it, based on the 128MB vid spec up to SA I believe! They wanted 1Ghz or more processing power. Now that won't work for GTA IV, but it shows the price differences from then and now, $400 for the Compaq SR1220NX, with an Asustek mobo, still MiniATX and still PCI only, not the best upgrade move! hahaha

 

@Slavezero, I believe you set yourself up for throwing your money away, I see that at the end of the day, you'll face a hard sell, you may get your own satisfaction from it, but as an investment selling later?? Forget about it!

 

 

@ProX, I'm talking no more then $130 for a CPU on the market at MicroCenter, brand new! My DDR3 came from that same great store. The video cards as well, though eBay is never far away, you can score deals that do get the job done.

The CPUs I paid over $100 for are the i3 mentioned, and the Core2Quad Q8200

Edited September 28, 2011 by Slamman