The Perfect, UE4 Running Homemade Desktop.

Community Community & Industry Discussion
1

For once in my life I want to create my own desktop, I have always wanted to use laptops for everything, but now, I am going to be making my own video game & I am going to be making my own business & all that. So this desktop needs to be used to run:
-Unreal engine 4 (As smooth as possible!)
-Any & All beta versions of my video games
-Good for internet surfing & research
-Good work computer
-WINDOWS 7

And since I will be out of school soon, This will be my gift from my mom. It will have to be under $500. But that can’t be too hard since you can save a good $300 by not buying one from a company. HAS TO BE WINDOWS 7.

is what I have to take into account for what I have spent:
$500 - UE4 software = 500 - 19 = 481

That is all really, So can we make this or what!

2

You won’t do it for $500, more like $1000 minimum, do you need a screen as well?

A graphics could cost you $500, and plenty more, alone. Do you plan to build it yourself or buy a prebuilt desktop?

3

It’s nearly impossible to buy a good PC with just $500 -> you can just reach that price when you buy everything as a second-hand article

But of course when you already have RAM, a screen, motherboard,… then it should be possible ^^ ( I did it like that)

4

Plenty desktops run smooth, I am sure that if I get a list of items & look in just a right spot, I will find cheap stuff.
I can buy a monitor from Goodwill because sometimes they have a good one come in occasionally, same thing goes for the case.

I just don’t know what RAM, Motherboard, CPU, PCU, Etc.

Could you guys maybe just give me a list of recommended stuff? Then I can try using my super shopping skills?

5

You should start with the processor you want and go from there, the motherboard depends on the processor, and then you choose the ram and graphics card.

6

RAM is pretty cheap so, I want 6 or 8 GB, at MINIMUM.

For the CPU, I hate anything that isn’t Intell, So I think I will go for a Intell i7 quad processor, that is a good one correct?

7

And then choose a PSU that can handle the whole thing

8

And I don’t know what kind of Motherboard to get, I do know I want, 3 USB ports (minimum) , Wi-Fi & non Wi-Fi connection port, Bluetooth.
That is all I can think of right now, but I’m sure I know more stuff, Like the Cache, and etc.

9

So could you guys, Point me to a good motherboard, PSU, & CPU? Also, Graphic Cards, I couldn’t choose a graphic card for my life, The names confuse me & all that.

10

Get a motherboard that can support what you will need. IF you want to have more than one Graphics Card, how much RAM you will buy, etc.

Since you are low on budget, get only enough of what you will use, and think about upgrades later.

11

I’m only gonna get one Graphic Card, And I think I will have the sound integrated with the motherboard. Sound isn’t as important as the graphics.

But seriously, Someone, Show me a link to a motherboard they recommend!!!

12

I just put together a new rig for UE4 but it hasn’t arrived yet so I can’t comment on how well it works, but it should have plenty of oomph.

is link for reference if it helps, the motherboard gets good reviews for being fairly inexpensive: ://pcpartpicker/user/tiggus/saved/4vCU

PS You can save a few bucks and there if you don’t use Amazon for all the parts, I just prefer to get my stuff all from the same place and I like how Amazon has treated me in the past with RMA’s.

13

for 500$, that pc wont really run UE4 properly, not evn counting hardcore development and programming. Spend 1000 at least for a proper development pc. the 500$ builds are mostly targeted at cheap gaming(those builds to compare to ps4) and all those have a medium range GPU(fine), and a ****** CPU(terrible for UE4, gimps further improvement)

14

I personally would recommend my setup:

  • asus gtx 660 ti
  • 8 gb RAM (of course more would be better ;))
  • intel i5-3570
  • a cheap motherboard from amazon (I dont know where I can see which motherboard I’m using ^^)

For my setup I paid around 550€/$760 and I run the UE4 and any other programs very smoothly.

15

I doubt this very much, Not to offend your knowledge, But I was first introduced to UDK3 via a summer 2 day program on a college computer that is mass produced to be sold cheap, maybe the graphics are not as good as other computers, But this had UDK3 running like a charm, So when I say I can make this with only $500 I do believe that I can, And this time it will just run UE4 & will have better graphics.

I don’t know what y’all’s term of smooth & laggy are, But mine is to see software working good with a constant & non buffering view when moving around on the screen.

16

Just for the stuff that I mentioned above it is possible (gpu, cpu, ram, motherboard), but when you also need a screen, pc case, fans, power supply,… then it will get a little bit tricky :wink:

I would also recommend you to take a look at some other setups which have been posted this forum and answerhub -> just search for them, then you can get a pretty good overview of which specs you will need. And another small hint: don’t buy all the stuff at just one supplier, search for the best offers all over the internet. Of course it will take longer until you have everything together, but you will save a lot of money

17

For 500 you’re not going to a computer that will run UE4 smoothly in the graphically intense situations thats a fact.
BUT you can go on ebay and other sites like that to find great hardware very cheap, just becarefull of the seller.
Use this site: pcpartpicker <- There you can concept your build and pick parts

But that is only to todays current prices for parts, if you can wait another year im sure more stuff like the 750ti will come out where its cheap and powerfull

18

UE4 is a lot more ressource hungry than UE3. A cheap GPU and CPU won’t cut it. Also, I would not even consider doing C++ without a SSD and an i7. Compilation times are a nightmare with a HDD.

19

You could maybe save on the SSD and go for a RamDisk, never set one up before but they use the system memory as a temp HD, might work well for compilation if you are able to set such a thing up. Also, CPU’s are generally very robust and don’t generally fail AFAIK, so maybe get a second hand one from ebay.

20

Visual Studio is a bloated software with registry keys and stuff everywhere, not really portable, so I don’t think RamDISK would work. Also, if you have less than 16 Gb, don’t even think of it.

Also I just noticed it is 500$ and not €, and you also want an OS. Oh boy, I wish you luck.