Nickjs Posted December 25, 2015 Author Share Posted December 25, 2015 Hey guys. Im planning on hooking up a PC to my entertainment center for movies and retro gaming. My main concern is making sure Big Box will run smoothly. Specifically transitioning between games selected and videos for is those games. Big Box runs great on my gaming laptop but runs very sluggish on my old desktop. Do you think this will work? http://www.bestbuy.com/site/hp-pavilion-desktop-intel-pentium-4gb-memory-500gb-hard-drive-white-gray/3311063.p?id=1219579614171&skuId=3311063 Planning on adding some RAM to it if this is what I decide on. Thanks for any help! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SentaiBrad Posted December 26, 2015 Share Posted December 26, 2015 No, I personally would suggest against this. BigBox may run... but that CPU is abysmal in today's standard, but this PC is also not meant for what you're looking for. The ceiling for this machine would MAYBE be PS1 / N64 / GBA games too. If you are thinking price consciously, thinking under $400 this PC would get you to the ball game way better. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883798486 Edit: And do note, this is without a GPU too, just integrated graphics. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nickjs Posted December 26, 2015 Author Share Posted December 26, 2015 Thanks Brad! Im really only planning on running systems preN64, however I will also be running MAME so thats something to consider. Thanks for your suggestion. What would you recommend for minimum specs in general? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SentaiBrad Posted December 26, 2015 Share Posted December 26, 2015 Honestly, nothing lower than a 2.8Ghz i5 or i7, 6-8GB of RAM and a GTX 700-900 series. That will be a really decent starting off point. If you splurge on any part get a kick ass Motherboard. Make sure it has wings to upgrade with. My Motherboard is old, but the cpu in it was the max that motherboard could do for its chipset when I bought it... I've since put in max speed RAM (12GB) and a GTX 970 but my CPU is lacking and there is not a damn thing I can do about it other than buy a new motherboard, and at that point you might as well build a new PC honestly. :P Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nickjs Posted December 26, 2015 Author Share Posted December 26, 2015 Again thank you! This was a huge help!! Deff want to get something I can build on later. In fact, because this will be dedicated to Big Box Im prob going to start expanding the systems so being able to run PS1, Sega CD, etc..so it is something I need to plan for. Thanks again! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SentaiBrad Posted December 26, 2015 Share Posted December 26, 2015 Well I went to PCPartsPicker and built out a machine in there for you and it shows the price break down. I didn't go super crazy with the parts however. I went with 8GB of 1866 RAM (which I think is the max speed of that board...?) but its DDR3 RAM not DDR4 RAM because the motherboard is DDR3 (DDR4 is still pricey). As for the CPU its an LGA 1150 Socket motherboard instead of the LGA 1151 Sockets. Again, this will require you to buy the more expensive CPU just like the more expensive Motherboards. The prices on this tier (DDR4 RAM, LGA 1151) motherboard are coming down, but can still be up there. I also didn't pick out an ATX Full Tower, which are big. I went with a Mid ATX tower, modest PSU (but at least Gold rating) and I didn't go SSD for the storage or with an operating system. I went with what will be a good machine for even a lot of modern games. Though I would severely suggest doubling that RAM to 2x http://pcpartpicker.com/p/VdMZhM Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DOS76 Posted December 26, 2015 Share Posted December 26, 2015 I would spend the xtra loot and get a new 6th gen Intel processor because why build a new PC with old parts I just built two gaming HTPC's this month one with an Asus Z170i which is a smaller ITX board with only one PCIe slot which can be a deal breaker for some it has a Core i5 6500 16GB or DDR4 and a EVGA GeForce GTX 750TI. The second PC was with an Asus Z170P-D3 which also has a i5 6500 16GB of DDR3 and a EVGA GeForce GTX 750TI (but it is only half the size and doesn't have a plug from the PSU so I'm a little confused by how they have the same name on the card). Also SSD prices are way down from what they were and I always install my system on a SSD I added 5 TB drives to both my new builds to handle my PS2, PS1, GC and Wii libraries which can get rather large. I went into about $800 worth of debt and spent a few hundo out of pocket as well but I am happy with both systems so far. What ever you decide good luck with your build. I know building systems is always a fun experience. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SentaiBrad Posted December 26, 2015 Share Posted December 26, 2015 Right, my suggestions is to spend a bit on the latest boards for room to grow, but I am unsure how much the OP is willing to spend. Looking at the price in the link I tried to keep it low. I also didn't go fantastic part scouring for best price to power ratio. That /can/ take several days. :P Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DOS76 Posted December 26, 2015 Share Posted December 26, 2015 Never been to PCPartsPicker before looks like a good place to research a new build I know doing it on your own can be a pain in the ass checking for compatibility for everything. I actually set out to build one PC but ordered a DDR 3 board when I already purchased DDR4. I built the second PC because I didn't want to get hit up for the restocking fee on the return. I used a PSU, RAM and a graphics card that I already had from a PC that stopped working. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SentaiBrad Posted December 26, 2015 Share Posted December 26, 2015 Yea, PC Parts Picker will try its best to tell you about compatibility between hardware, like if you have the wrong type or too powerful of RAM, and it will tell you a guesstimate on the PSU you'll need based on that hardware. Obviously you'll need to scale because its only seeing whats in that list. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DOS76 Posted December 26, 2015 Share Posted December 26, 2015 Well I can't build any more computers for at least two years (unless there is a catastrophic failure) so I will have to remember it for the future. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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