Help me build a budget pc !!!

[Dredae23]

Hello, I'm building a Arcade cabinet and need help building a strong enough pc to run a lot of emulators . I want to be able to up to a ps2, dc,gamecube and etc. Please help !!! 

 

Semi-Noob

[Dilated18]

My core i5 6600k, gtx 960 desktop run ps2/GC pretty good. I been playing Tales of Beseria on it no prob. Wouldnt go any lower then that but havent built a pc in awhile

[Dredae23]

3 minutes ago, Bain408 said:

My core i5 6600k, gtx 960 desktop run ps2/GC pretty good. I been playing Tales of Beseria on it no prob. Wouldnt go any lower then that but havent built a pc in awhile

Okay cool, any other specs?

[Metalzoic]

I recommend you look up gaming PC builds from PC Mag, Toms Hardware etc... then check out their budget builds and use one of those or mix-n-match from those. They've already done the research, bought the parts and tested & benchmarked them so why try to guess and reinvent the wheel?

 

I use the Toms budget build from 2014 I think for mine, but gave it the next step up video card from their mid build and it came in around $400 or $500 and can emulate anything as well as run any PC games so far at 1080 and 120+ fps. It's an i3, R9 280 amd card with 8 gigs or ram (maybe 16 can't remember).

[Soloflight]

Yet a $600 PC set here that already has a GTX 1060 ... https://thegreatsetup.com/builds/

Or just as easy here https://thegreatsetup.com/builds/best-gaming-pc-under-400/ 

a $400 PC with GTX 1050Ti, not as tough as 1060 for sure but ... it's a $400 set dude.

[griffin518]

Another good option is to scour Ebay for corporate refurbs... lots of i5 machines out there for cheap, and most include a Windows license.

[Soloflight]

On 7/4/2017 at 8:19 PM, griffin518 said:

Another good option is to scour Ebay for corporate refurbs... lots of i5 machines out there for cheap, and most include a Windows license.

I wouldn't recommend buying refurbs ... you may go for only the used Graphic card, the rest of your build should be sealed.

[griffin518]

12 hours ago, Soloflight said:

I wouldn't recommend buying refurbs ... you may go for only the used Graphic card, the rest of your build should be sealed.

I disagree... in my experience most corp refubs are incredibly gently used. Larger companies either lease or depreciate their PC equipment over 3 - 4 years, then dump them and refresh for tax reasons. They also typically come with a valid Windows pro license, which is worth $100 by itself. About a year ago I picked up a 4th gen i5 (3.2GHz) with a Windows 10 pro license for $185 all in. It came with 4GB of RAM (which I upgraded to 16GB), a 300GB HD (which I swapped for a SSD), and has a couple of PCIe slots (which I put a $50 video card in). The thing screams... total cost was probably $375. The power supply in it was even brand new.

If you're handy enough to disassemble and clean the components, and re-apply thermal grease, you're good to go.