Good morning Slowtwitch. I am looking at used gaming PCs to run Zwift, Netflix, Zoom etc. I am hoping to see Zwift in all it’s 4K glory and I have been using this article as a guide - https://zwiftinsider.com/zwift-pc-guide/ I blame Slowman for getting me thinking about this after his recent post. I am trying to keep to an undefined but sensible budget! For those who understand these things can you check the following specs and let me know what I can expect performance wise, what upgrades would be desirable/necessary and if it is a good price. This is a little outside of my wheelhouse so I would appreciate the advice.
HP Omen 870-224
i5-7400 processor8GB DDR4-2133 SDRAM1TB HDNVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060
It comes with keyboard and two monitors (60Hz rather than the recommended 144Hz)
All of the above for $500 which seems good unless I have to replace one of the monitors and the CPU to get 4K. It looks like the Computer can be had new for a little over $700 at Best Buy. I will add an SSD. I don’t know how important the fps are for the monitor or if I would need to replace the CPU now or in the near future.
I would love to pick this up today (or cross it off my list) so that I can stop thinking about it!! Thanks in advance!
Well if you want 4k, you will have to buy a 4k monitor of course. Don’t bother with 144hz. Don’t get me wrong, its amazing for the right games (First person shooters mostly), but no need for zwift. If you can get all of that for $500 INCLUDING 2 monitors though, there’s no reason not to get that and then just grab a 4k monitor. The 1060 should be able to handle the 4k with zwift fine, though you may have to tweak a few settings down. Not too familiar with the true requirements of zwift. And that’s the correct call to throw in an SSD. Biggest quality of life improvement you can do on any computer that doesn’t already have one. Your CPU will have zero problems with anything. I’m pretty sure it’s been awhile since the CPU bottlenecked anything graphics related.
It looks like the performance constraint for 4K and the other graphics effects is a good external GPU. Memory, CPU, and hard drive may not be a factor as long as you meet basic minimums. That computer looks like it checks the GPU box.
At $500 including peripherals (monitor/keyboard/etc) the Omen is a fair price. It’s on par with a budget gaming pc performance, but that wouldn’t be including the peripherals.
On the flip side… you are buying dated equipment. The i5-7400 and GTX 1060 are both long in the tooth for modern gaming. Zwift isn’t terribly demanding, so that’s not really a worry, but if you plan on any other games, set your expectations moderately low.
It just really depends on what the “etc” in your post means. If basically the only game you plan to play is Zwift, it’s a fine multi task pc that can handle zwift. If you plan on more 3D based applications or demanding work, or if you plan to replace the monitors/peripherals anyways… you can build a much stronger PC for $500. Just depends really.
Just when I had made my mind up! I have been playing with pc parts picker and everything I tried came out comfortably above $800. My only current use is Zwift, netflix and occasionally zoom (not sure I like sweating it out with others on a zoom call!) but who knows in the future. Presumably there would be nothing to stop me up grading as and when I need to? I had found a pc that ticked all the boxes but it’s a longer drive and the guy is very unresponsive so I gave up. That was $550 for the pc and I would have to get everything else on top. How would you build a Pc for around 500 bucks? Thanks
Just when I had made my mind up! I have been playing with pc parts picker and everything I tried came out comfortably above $800. My only current use is Zwift, netflix and occasionally zoom (not sure I like sweating it out with others on a zoom call!) but who knows in the future. Presumably there would be nothing to stop me up grading as and when I need to? I had found a pc that ticked all the boxes but it’s a longer drive and the guy is very unresponsive so I gave up. That was $550 for the pc and I would have to get everything else on top. How would you build a Pc for around 500 bucks? Thanks
The issues with upgrading one of these HP gaming boxes is often space and motherboard compatibility. This (and future) generation GPU’s are BIG. I think the 1060 in the Omen is the 3gb model as well… which isn’t going to age well with the next gen platforms coming out by Christmas. The Power Supply is also a little questionable (for upgrading) - it’s 500w, but it doesn’t specify if it’s bronze/gold/etc (which probably means it isn’t) and replacing the PSU might be a challenge.
Personally, I’d go with a current gen AMD CPU (the 3300x is a great gaming cpu for budget that won’t bottleneck a GPU until you start getting into $1k+ 2080ti territory.) on a B450 motherboard (no real purpose getting a B550 and an x570 is a bit over budget) 16gb of DDR4 from G.skill should be ~ $60 - a SATA SSD (you can cheap out if you want, get like a sub 500gb just to run your OS on, then buy a cheap HDD if you need storage for games/movies/etc) a 500w PSU 80bronze+ or better, whatever case you like (plenty of basically free options) and then spend the rest/stretch the budget as far as you can on GPU. You can snag AMD RX580 or Nvidia 1070 GPU’s on ebay all day for ~$100 and those are both pretty solid cards for ~1080p gaming even in current AAA titles.
Also… if you can wait until roughly September… the next gen of GPU’s are right on the horizon, and one could expect a lot of people to unload their current GPU’s at discount (as well as stores trying to clear stock if you want to stay with new) when they go to upgrade.
*another totally reasonable option if you want to split the difference (save $ now but get you up and running and able to play zwift, but also able to wait and buy a better dedicated GPU in a few months if you want) Is the AMD APU’s (3200g is $99)which covers the cpu and gpu of your build.
While I agree with all of this, for someone relatively new to PC building looking for something to run a low spec game, I think that Omen is fine.
Not having to worry about peripherals and OS is a big plus for a new PC builder and the investment is low enough that if in a year they decide it’s not enough, they can resell or cannabalize it without being down much money. That plus the fact that this will still easily handle everything they want makes me think it’s a good choice.
yep not disagreeing with you on that, for a contained setup (and just looking to run zwift, everyday pc use) it’s perfectly reasonable. I actually run Zwift on high settings on a ~10 year old PC (it was a nice pc 10 years ago to be fair) and anything from the last 5 years will stomp that thing.
But, kind of like bikes… you never build your own bike just to save money.
Now… just for fun and because I’m bored, I’m going to throw out what I’d build on a budget today. I’ll preface this again agreeing with Ben, the Omen will do what’s needed and you get the peripherals. (OS… you can download win10 from Microsoft and run it with no license for free forever. Or buy a $2 key from one of those ebay sellers if the watermark bothers you ) Just throwing it out there for anyone reading. (and because I love to play on pcpartpicker )
This is what I put together on pcpartpicker if you went apu route, and considering you wanted to buy new as opposed to used (and from their listed vendors, often better deals out there) - it comes in just slightly under $500.
The heart of it is the 3200g APU, and it’s going to pull double duty as your CPU and GPU. It’s not “exceptional” as either, but it does both for less than $100, and it can run most games on medium settings at 40-60fps at 1080p. By upgrading the cooler from stock to the Gammaxx, you should have a little headroom to overclock the 3200g for increases to those numbers.
The Tomahawk Max board is arguably the best B450, and it’ll allow an upgrade path to Zen3 in the future. The Aegis ram gets you dual channel (important for Ryzen) 16gb at a reasonable speed. The Adata SSD is kind of a middle ground if you just want a single storage device. 512gb will hold a fair amount, but if you do a lot of gaming you’ll have to uninstall titles you aren’t playing at the moment. Aerocool case is totally replaceable, but it’s not total junk at the low price point. Power supplies are like gold right now because stocks are so low… I like EVGA, but so long as it’s at least an 80+ bronze and 500w any of the big brands PSU’s will do. (I always recommend spending as much as you can on the PSU… lots of problems that are hard as hell to diagnose can stem from crappy power supplies)
This will definitely play Zwift on high settings as is. The upgrade path is (currently - things always change) future proof as well. The first thing would be to buy a dedicated GPU (and in general, spend the most you can on a GPU as it’s the #1 thing driving FPS in every non-competitive e-sports setting - not zwift e-sports:D ) and run it with the 3200g only doing processor work until you upgrade the processor to a dedicated CPU as well. All the other parts will play nice with those down the road.
Just checking on the desire for 4k. I have a dedicated zwift setup with a HD (non 4k TV) and a 22" monitor. So I stream tv to one and have zwift on the other, or during lockdown had one for zoom with the rest of my tri-club and then zwift running on the other.
Now I also have a 4k-TV connected to my PS4-pro and that does look great for playing Last of us in full HDR glory, but that’s a really different thing than glances when sweat is falling into my red misted eyes on zwift. For me all I want is no lagging on screen or the streaming, and you would really have to work hard to find something that wouldn’t work. I paid NZ99 (so US$63) for the computer, then another US50 to upgrade the video card (the original motherboard based one did work in low res) and although not necessary then a $25 for a 120gb SSD to replace the hard drive as I was bored of waiting for 2 mins to boot up at 5am when I was wanting to zwift. Makes no difference to actual play though.
So for zoom/zwift/streaming there is really currently no ‘floor’ to what’s needed from a PC- think about it, it runs on 5 year old ipads so it’s not at all process or ram intensive, and given their need to keep appleTV and ipad functionality then I can’t see that it would increase the needs going forward either.
I’m not saying don’t spend more on the PC if you want. But I would say that you will enjoy zwifting way way way more if you spend $300 less on the PC and spend $300 more on a remote control fan or two, matting for the floor, and even some cool pictures / posters for motivation when riding.
Honestly I run zwift on a 6 year old Lenovo tiny desktop. It has an obsolete intel cpu and some random onboard video card though I did invest $60 to max out the memory which zwift needs a ton of - I have 32gb of it. I have it set to render at 720p and it looks great.
Thanks for the detailed response. I will look up those parts to see what I come with. I actually went to collect the Omen yesterday but in doing a factory restore the owner said that the hard drive failed. So he knocked $100 off but I would need to replace the hard drive ($50) and get Windows on a disc ($30). Going to let him know today. Still tempted as it is one stop solution and I am sick of thinking about it haha. It would be fun to do a new build but I can’t justify the cost right now. I appreciate your point about case size and some of the components. Perhaps there is a cheaper unit out there that is more suited to future upgrade if/when I feel it is necessary.
Missed this when I wrote my reply. This is a great idea and you are right, it is just like building bikes. There is something satisfying in the DIY approach and although this is new to me it would be nice to learn more. I like the idea of something that will do the job now but is upgradeable. Thanks for the great link to PPP. If I went with a dedicated GPU initially what CPU would you select? I realise that this will bump up the price
As I mentioned above I did go to collect yesterday but the HD failed. Still tempted as I was going to get an SSD anyway and to your point it it is plug and play (HD aside). I enjoy tinkering so I do like the idea of a machine that can be upgraded but as you say I could always sell it next year if I want something better. Pretty sure I am over thinking this but as has been stated it is like bikes!
Thanks for the response. You make a good point. I cracked the screen on my mac (part of the reason for wanting a dedicated setup) so I’ve been using Zwift on my phone or an old surface pro. The suface pro does ok for an hour or so but then the screen gets shaky. Really weird. I wouldn’t try and stream netflix to a second screen using that. I would like to experience Zwift at it’s best but you are right, once those intervals start I can’t really see straight anyway!
Everything else the same in the list but with CPU/gpu
CPU I would go with either a new AMD 3300x or a nos/used r5 1600/2600. Any of those should be under $150. The 3300x is current gen, but the r5 chips have more cores. For the most part it’s a wash, all are great processors. A 3100 is a step down but it also comes in under $100.
GPU the budget choice is always used. AMD rx580 (or 570/590) sell around $100 all day and stomp pretty much anything you can throw at it for 1080p on ultra.
If you wanted new, you can get a 570 or a Nvidia 1650 super for around $175.
Thanks for the response. You make a good point. I cracked the screen on my mac (part of the reason for wanting a dedicated setup) so I’ve been using Zwift on my phone or an old surface pro. The suface pro does ok for an hour or so but then the screen gets shaky. Really weird. I wouldn’t try and stream netflix to a second screen using that. I would like to experience Zwift at it’s best but you are right, once those intervals start I can’t really see straight anyway!
4 year old surface pro 4? Funny that’s what I had and it developed the same heat related hardware fault. Common fault and they extended the warranty to 3 years because it’s a design fault. Nothing to do with zwift as it was actually way more powerful than the off lease desktop I use to drive the twin screens.
Intersting. I hadn’t realised that it was a common problem with the Surface Pro. I thought it would be a good enough solution for Zwift but I have had too many rides where I think the thing is going to die. Plus my vision gets shaky enough without my laptop joining in! Did you replace yours under warranty or find another solution? Mine is certainly out of warranty.
Awesome thanks. This is a big help and it is tempting as it would be nice to learn how to build a pc. If a one stop solution comes up in the mean time I will jump on it though. I have spent too long researching this already haha.
If you’re not already familiar with it, /r/buildapcsales is your best friend, and your wallet’s worst enemy. If you’re tempted on something, read the comments to see if it is actually a great deal or fairly commonplace.
) Just throwing it out there for anyone reading. (and because I love to play on pcpartpicker 
)