gaming computer
Discussion
Hi All
My son's 14th birthday is coming up and he wants a new 'gaming computer'
He has it in his head it will be cheaper to build his own, it's been a while since I have played around with building computers so am out of touch with how easy/hard it is to build one these days.
He/we have a budget and I have been looking at the components separately and it all begins to add up.
I guess my question is...
Is it cheaper to build your own and how easy is it?
I have also seen gaming computers on the dreaded e-bay that seem very good value for money, for £300 you seem to be able to get quite a highly rated pc.
Your comments and options would be appreciated.
regards
Andy
My son's 14th birthday is coming up and he wants a new 'gaming computer'
He has it in his head it will be cheaper to build his own, it's been a while since I have played around with building computers so am out of touch with how easy/hard it is to build one these days.
He/we have a budget and I have been looking at the components separately and it all begins to add up.
I guess my question is...
Is it cheaper to build your own and how easy is it?
I have also seen gaming computers on the dreaded e-bay that seem very good value for money, for £300 you seem to be able to get quite a highly rated pc.
Your comments and options would be appreciated.
regards
Andy
Random thoughts
If that's your budget I'd stick with a console and spec a basic PC for homework and other stuff. A decent gaming PC is going to cost nearer a grand - and if you don't spend that initially you may well as it gets upgraded over time
You could spec up a gaming PC at PCSpecialist or Overclockers and then look at the real total cost (including any tools, cable ties, OS, thermal compound, etc) of building it yourself - there's probably not that much saving
Building, upgrading and maintaining a PC is a useful skill for him to have; those are the real reasons for doing it, rather than cost
If that's your budget I'd stick with a console and spec a basic PC for homework and other stuff. A decent gaming PC is going to cost nearer a grand - and if you don't spend that initially you may well as it gets upgraded over time
You could spec up a gaming PC at PCSpecialist or Overclockers and then look at the real total cost (including any tools, cable ties, OS, thermal compound, etc) of building it yourself - there's probably not that much saving
Building, upgrading and maintaining a PC is a useful skill for him to have; those are the real reasons for doing it, rather than cost
Building your own is fun but I've given up now as I just couldnt save any money doing it. For a Gaming PC nowadays well my kids have 4th Gen i5 K series (overclockable), 16GB high speed RAM, 1TB of storage and GTX970 graphics cards.
Its the graphics card that you need and it is the biggest cost when building a gaming system - but dont scrimp on it or you'll be very disappointed.
Last time out I bought from Novatch, picked up a good solid base i5 with no graphics card and bought card separately as their 'gaming' machines are a bit overpriced and dont have the best GPUs. Make sure you get a good sized power supply , check the GPU specs as a normal desktop PSU wont be powerful enough.
Its the graphics card that you need and it is the biggest cost when building a gaming system - but dont scrimp on it or you'll be very disappointed.
Last time out I bought from Novatch, picked up a good solid base i5 with no graphics card and bought card separately as their 'gaming' machines are a bit overpriced and dont have the best GPUs. Make sure you get a good sized power supply , check the GPU specs as a normal desktop PSU wont be powerful enough.
As has been said above, 300 is not enough for shaming computer. I went down the route of a cheap dell Inspiron i7 and added a graphics card. Only problem was that the card (nvidea 960) was too big and had to take a hacksaw to the drive bay and moved the hard drive. I think the warranty may be voided due to this.
Asterix said:
£300 is good for a decent Graphics Card, let alone a full PC.
I was just about to say that too.And then you'll need a high end PSU to power it, that could be £100 just for that.
Also I'd fit a better CPU cooler as well because that's going to get hot playing high end games. Plus a decent case with extra fans. Another £100 there. Plus hard-disks, SSD for the OS, MoBo, RAM and so on. £700-£800 plus monitor(s). £300 is not going to get you very far really.
Edited by snuffy on Sunday 2nd August 13:45
All this talk of needing a grand to build a Gaming PC, yes if you want to play BF4 at max on a 27" monitor, but if you're at 1080p or less, a grand is not required.
The AMD APUs are supposed to be pretty good nowadays for light gaming, granted you won't be playing at max settings.
OS is the most costly item at ~£80 which isn't included in the below spec.
Quick example
Going second hand, you could probably get a bit higher spec, might be able to squeeze a Pentium G3258 based system into £300 second hand.
The sort of games he wants to play will have a huge bearing on what sort of PC is required and whether it will fit into the budget.
The AMD APUs are supposed to be pretty good nowadays for light gaming, granted you won't be playing at max settings.
OS is the most costly item at ~£80 which isn't included in the below spec.
Quick example
Going second hand, you could probably get a bit higher spec, might be able to squeeze a Pentium G3258 based system into £300 second hand.
The sort of games he wants to play will have a huge bearing on what sort of PC is required and whether it will fit into the budget.
Cerberus90 said:
All this talk of needing a grand to build a Gaming PC, yes if you want to play BF4 at max on a 27" monitor, but if you're at 1080p or less, a grand is not required.
The AMD APUs are supposed to be pretty good nowadays for light gaming, granted you won't be playing at max settings.
OS is the most costly item at ~£80 which isn't included in the below spec.
Quick example
Going second hand, you could probably get a bit higher spec, might be able to squeeze a Pentium G3258 based system into £300 second hand.
The sort of games he wants to play will have a huge bearing on what sort of PC is required and whether it will fit into the budget.
While you are quite right that the OP has not specified what games it should run or a budget to work to, what you have specified is definitely not a gaming machine. To be honest it's barely a PC.The AMD APUs are supposed to be pretty good nowadays for light gaming, granted you won't be playing at max settings.
OS is the most costly item at ~£80 which isn't included in the below spec.
Quick example
Going second hand, you could probably get a bit higher spec, might be able to squeeze a Pentium G3258 based system into £300 second hand.
The sort of games he wants to play will have a huge bearing on what sort of PC is required and whether it will fit into the budget.
at £20 for 4Gb RAM it's just not worth saving 20 quid - get 8Gb
120Gb ssd - you'll get two decent games on that + OS before you're struggling for space.
no graphics card
450W PSU is insufficient to support a decent GPU anyway.
IHO the sweet spot for price/performance for graphics cards is the NVidia GTX970 (or equivalent AMD)
that and a 700W PSU (don't scrimp on this), i5 (or AMD equiv.) 8Gb RAM and a 256Gb ssd (possibly a 1Tb HDD for other media etc.) would be a low-medium spec gaming rig.
should cost about 600-700 with case I would have thought.
I think you'd be quite surprised by what those AMDs can do gaming wise, sure, it's not a GTX970, but then that costs a hell of a lot more.
Even the lowly little AM1 processors can comfortably play quite a few indie games.
Also bear in mind that these CPUs are of the same generation as those in the PS4 and Xbone.
I'm not even running an i5 and 970 in my main PC, I'm on an i3 with GTX660s in SLI (was only one and that was fine but wanted to scratch the SLI itch), and up until a month or two ago, I was still on my old Q6600 with 4GB RAM and a single 660, it played everything I wanted it to at 1080p. Even a second hand system based on that wouldn't cost a grand, and could probably be squeezed into £300. I sold CPU/mobo/ram and cooler for £69 on ebay, add around £100 for a second hand graphics card, and there should be plenty left for a case/PSU/HDD etc.
And since when does anyone go and spend a grand on their first gaming PC?
I know I didn't (I got stuck with a S754 Athlon and an AGP 9800SE) and I'm sure plenty of others didn't. You start at the bottom with a cheap but capable PC, and then as the bug bites you, you upgrade more and more and end up with a higher end rig.
£6-700 for a low end rig is ridiculous. Low end, but higher than my above AMD spec for me would be :
i3 4130
Asus H81-M Plus
4GiB RAM (possibly 8GiB if you want)
2GiB Gigabyte GTX960 ITX
1TB HDD
500W Corsair PSU
Case
For a total of ~£415
And you can nudge it under £400 by switch from an i3 to a Pentium G3258K, which with a single 960 should still be plenty.
Even the lowly little AM1 processors can comfortably play quite a few indie games.
Also bear in mind that these CPUs are of the same generation as those in the PS4 and Xbone.
I'm not even running an i5 and 970 in my main PC, I'm on an i3 with GTX660s in SLI (was only one and that was fine but wanted to scratch the SLI itch), and up until a month or two ago, I was still on my old Q6600 with 4GB RAM and a single 660, it played everything I wanted it to at 1080p. Even a second hand system based on that wouldn't cost a grand, and could probably be squeezed into £300. I sold CPU/mobo/ram and cooler for £69 on ebay, add around £100 for a second hand graphics card, and there should be plenty left for a case/PSU/HDD etc.
And since when does anyone go and spend a grand on their first gaming PC?
I know I didn't (I got stuck with a S754 Athlon and an AGP 9800SE) and I'm sure plenty of others didn't. You start at the bottom with a cheap but capable PC, and then as the bug bites you, you upgrade more and more and end up with a higher end rig.£6-700 for a low end rig is ridiculous. Low end, but higher than my above AMD spec for me would be :
i3 4130
Asus H81-M Plus
4GiB RAM (possibly 8GiB if you want)
2GiB Gigabyte GTX960 ITX
1TB HDD
500W Corsair PSU
Case
For a total of ~£415
And you can nudge it under £400 by switch from an i3 to a Pentium G3258K, which with a single 960 should still be plenty.
Edited by Cerberus90 on Sunday 2nd August 16:42
Cerberus90 said:
I think you'd be quite surprised by what those AMDs can do gaming wise, sure, it's not a GTX970, but then that costs a hell of a lot more.
Even the lowly little AM1 processors can comfortably play quite a few indie games.
Also bear in mind that these CPUs are of the same generation as those in the PS4 and Xbone.
I'm not even running an i5 and 970 in my main PC, I'm on an i3 with GTX660s in SLI (was only one and that was fine but wanted to scratch the SLI itch), and up until a month or two ago, I was still on my old Q6600 with 4GB RAM and a single 660, it played everything I wanted it to at 1080p. Even a second hand system based on that wouldn't cost a grand, and could probably be squeezed into £300. I sold CPU/mobo/ram and cooler for £69 on ebay, add around £100 for a second hand graphics card, and there should be plenty left for a case/PSU/HDD etc.
And since when does anyone go and spend a grand on their first gaming PC? I know I didn't (I got stuck with a S754 Athlon and an AGP 9800SE) and I'm sure plenty of others didn't. You start at the bottom with a cheap but capable PC, and then as the bug bites you, you upgrade more and more and end up with a higher end rig.
£6-700 for a low end rig is ridiculous. Low end, but higher than my above AMD spec for me would be :
i3 4130
Asus H81-M Plus
4GiB RAM (possibly 8GiB if you want)
2GiB Gigabyte GTX960 ITX
1TB HDD
500W Corsair PSU
Case
For a total of ~£415
And you can nudge it under £400 by switch from an i3 to a Pentium G3258K, which with a single 960 should still be plenty.
What you've spec'd there is just a PC that might play the odd game. It's a million miles away from a gaming PC that will turn in even a half reasonable performance. Even the lowly little AM1 processors can comfortably play quite a few indie games.
Also bear in mind that these CPUs are of the same generation as those in the PS4 and Xbone.
I'm not even running an i5 and 970 in my main PC, I'm on an i3 with GTX660s in SLI (was only one and that was fine but wanted to scratch the SLI itch), and up until a month or two ago, I was still on my old Q6600 with 4GB RAM and a single 660, it played everything I wanted it to at 1080p. Even a second hand system based on that wouldn't cost a grand, and could probably be squeezed into £300. I sold CPU/mobo/ram and cooler for £69 on ebay, add around £100 for a second hand graphics card, and there should be plenty left for a case/PSU/HDD etc.
And since when does anyone go and spend a grand on their first gaming PC?
I know I didn't (I got stuck with a S754 Athlon and an AGP 9800SE) and I'm sure plenty of others didn't. You start at the bottom with a cheap but capable PC, and then as the bug bites you, you upgrade more and more and end up with a higher end rig.£6-700 for a low end rig is ridiculous. Low end, but higher than my above AMD spec for me would be :
i3 4130
Asus H81-M Plus
4GiB RAM (possibly 8GiB if you want)
2GiB Gigabyte GTX960 ITX
1TB HDD
500W Corsair PSU
Case
For a total of ~£415
And you can nudge it under £400 by switch from an i3 to a Pentium G3258K, which with a single 960 should still be plenty.
Edited by Cerberus90 on Sunday 2nd August 16:42
I agree that £600-700+ gets you started for something that can pass as a games machine.
Cerberus90 said:
And since when does anyone go and spend a grand on their first gaming PC? I know I didn't (I got stuck with a S754 Athlon and an AGP 9800SE) and I'm sure plenty of others didn't. You start at the bottom with a cheap but capable PC, and then as the bug bites you, you upgrade more and more and end up with a higher end rig.
I did as well but the first upgrade was to a half decent GPU that then popped the PSU. So that was upgraded and then it was very clear that the CPU was a huge bottleneck and then I had cooling issues. The machine became very unreliable, a right pain in the arse so I bit the bullet and built a reasonable rig from scratch. I know I didn't (I got stuck with a S754 Athlon and an AGP 9800SE) and I'm sure plenty of others didn't. You start at the bottom with a cheap but capable PC, and then as the bug bites you, you upgrade more and more and end up with a higher end rig.I haven't had to do any upgrades for 18 months and it runs everything fine to a great level.
My next upgrade will be to a three-screen set up and then I'll probably upgrade the GPU. I've built in headroom with the cooling and PSU so the financial impact will be minimal when I do so (screens apart).
OP - perhaps do a deal with your lad that some of his pocket money each month can be put aside to upgrade stuff down the line, or to 'pay off' a higher spec machine now. Nothing more frustrating than compromising on one element now that hinders the performance of the other components.
Funk said:
What you've spec'd there is just a PC that might play the odd game. It's a million miles away from a gaming PC that will turn in even a half reasonable performance.
I agree that £600-700+ gets you started for something that can pass as a games machine.
That £415 one would easily play BF3 & 4, GTA V, Project CARS, The Crew or any other recent release at 1080p at mid to high settings, so not sure how you can say it's a million miles from a gaming PC.I agree that £600-700+ gets you started for something that can pass as a games machine.
Cerberus90 said:
£6-700 for a low end rig is ridiculous. Low end, but higher than my above AMD spec for me would be :
i3 4130 £90
Asus H81-M Plus £40
4GiB RAM (possibly 8GiB if you want) £25 (£40)
2GiB Gigabyte GTX960 ITX £170
1TB HDD £40
500W Corsair PSU £45
Case £30
Windows £80
For a total of ~£415 £520
Approximate Prices taken from Scan.co.uki3 4130 £90
Asus H81-M Plus £40
4GiB RAM (possibly 8GiB if you want) £25 (£40)
2GiB Gigabyte GTX960 ITX £170
1TB HDD £40
500W Corsair PSU £45
Case £30
Windows £80
For a total of ~£415 £520
I'm assuming a copy of Windows would also be required adding another £80, and a monitor, gaming mouse and keyboard could add another £100. We're now looking at around £620 for a machine that doesn't even meet the minimum spec listed for some current games.
I'll accept minimum spec isn't always required but it does give you an idea.
For example Wolfenstein: T.N.O. Gives an Intel I7 and HD6850 as minimum specification. It was playable on my 7 year old Q6600 with a Radeon 6770 at 1050x1600. The graphics card was, and still is, the limiting factor as upgrading to a I7 4790K made very little difference.
If you can get your hands on a core i5 2500k, 4 or 8 GB ram and something like a 670 or 770 graphics card then you could have a decent little machine for around £400. Used of course! I was playing BF3 and 4 with the same setup although on an SSD.
An SSD is nice but a luxury. Go mechanical at first and maybe add an SSD later.
If you go cheap to begin with you can easily then spend the same again within a year to eighteen months on upgrades. Better to buy well to begin with. I've been using the core i5 2500k over clocked to 4.2GHz and only added an SSD (luxury, not necessity remember), an extra 4 GB ram and have changed the graphics card twice. 95% of all games are still GPU limited so this is where you should spend your money.
I5 2500k overclocked + Air cooler
Suitable board that allows overclocking
4GB Ram
1TB hard drive
Nvidia GTX 670/770
550-650w PSU from a reputable brand (Corsair, EVGA, Superflower, Antec)
Case (something cheap and functional!)
1080p monitor
Mouse, keyboard, headset
OS.
An SSD is nice but a luxury. Go mechanical at first and maybe add an SSD later.
If you go cheap to begin with you can easily then spend the same again within a year to eighteen months on upgrades. Better to buy well to begin with. I've been using the core i5 2500k over clocked to 4.2GHz and only added an SSD (luxury, not necessity remember), an extra 4 GB ram and have changed the graphics card twice. 95% of all games are still GPU limited so this is where you should spend your money.
I5 2500k overclocked + Air cooler
Suitable board that allows overclocking
4GB Ram
1TB hard drive
Nvidia GTX 670/770
550-650w PSU from a reputable brand (Corsair, EVGA, Superflower, Antec)
Case (something cheap and functional!)
1080p monitor
Mouse, keyboard, headset
OS.
Wow thanks for your answers all.
As most of you have said just to learn how to build a PC is a good skill to have.
While he says he wants a gaming PC I don't really think it's what he needs, he doesn't play the latest top end games.
He is into his filming/editing and he likes the idea of a x2/3 monitors setup.
While the games he plays now are fairly low key he will be 14 later this month so I expect his games will improve/need more PC power.
As for budget... he says he wants to spend £300-400 this is just for the tower, no monitor, mouse or keyboard.
I can possibly put it through the business so he wont pay the vat element.
What do we think of this one?:
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/scan-gamer-intel-co...
What would be the weak link that would possibly need upgrading later on this system?
Thanks guys
Andy
As most of you have said just to learn how to build a PC is a good skill to have.
While he says he wants a gaming PC I don't really think it's what he needs, he doesn't play the latest top end games.
He is into his filming/editing and he likes the idea of a x2/3 monitors setup.
While the games he plays now are fairly low key he will be 14 later this month so I expect his games will improve/need more PC power.
As for budget... he says he wants to spend £300-400 this is just for the tower, no monitor, mouse or keyboard.
I can possibly put it through the business so he wont pay the vat element.
What do we think of this one?:
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/scan-gamer-intel-co...
What would be the weak link that would possibly need upgrading later on this system?
Thanks guys
Andy
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