Best places online for gaming pc

[LukeBrown66]

I am not very learned when it comes to PC's but am about to embark on a new one, I have a budget, bout a grand plus if good bits are out there, so am hoping I can find something half decent I know that is nowhere near top line.

Best places to go? Any other tips, is it RAM, memory, Graphics card>? I dont play brand new games older stuff mainly but even on my machine some of that I cant play on decent settings

[mmm-five]

What resolution are you wanting to play at?

• £1000 might get you a decent 1080p machine (a 1660 Super or RTX2060 eats about £400 of that)
• £1500 will get you a fair 1440p setup (an RTX3060Ti eats about £600 of that).
• £2000 will get you a high-spec 1440p or low-spec 4k set-up (an RTX3080 eats about £1000 of that).

The GPUs are still going to be eating up most of your budget.
I got mine from PCSpecialist...but wherever you buy from, if they have a support forum, please make use it to help you optimise any build(s) you configure...as you don't want to end up with a huge HDD for your games, an office-spec PSU and motherboard that is too basic for future upgrades.

If you've got a Windows licence to transfer from your old machine, then you can save £100 there.

You can save time & money by going for a pre-built, rather than a custom-build, but you'll rarely get the best or most-upgradable components...and some places won't even give you a detailed list of the components in there...other than the headline-grabbing GPU, RAM & SSD specs.

[Condi]

Do you want to spec it yourself, or buy an off the shelf system?

I bought an off the shelf gaming PC from Ebuyer 2 years ago and it's been good value IMO. Others may disagree, and say there is better offers out there, but I've been very happy with it.

https://www.ebuyer.com/store/Computer/cat/Desktop-...

[mmm-five]

Condi said:

Do you want to spec it yourself, or buy an off the shelf system?

I bought an off the shelf gaming PC from Ebuyer 2 years ago and it's been good value IMO. Others may disagree, and say there is better offers out there, but I've been very happy with it.

https://www.ebuyer.com/store/Computer/cat/Desktop-...

There's nothing inherently wrong with pre-builts...as long as they list all the components they're using.

AlphaSync is Ebuyer's in-house brand, and at least they show you the full spec, so you can see where they're using budget/last gen components to save the buyer some cash.

I'd stay away from the pre-builts from Curry's though, as they really are built to a budget.

Until the OP tells us what resolution, what games, self-build, pre-built, custom-built...it's all guesswork.

[LukeBrown66]

Off the shelf would be preferred as it is just easier. I have no idea on resolution I game mainly playing racing sims, but am now suffering with graphics etc.

Do use it for movies would prefer a mix of HD and SSD. As only have HD at the moment.

Have looked at ebuyer for instance and some OK, found one place but everything they sold came with HDD which seems odd these days.

[mmm-five]

LukeBrown66 said:

Off the shelf would be preferred as it is just easier. I have no idea on resolution I game mainly playing racing sims, but am now suffering with graphics etc.

Do use it for movies would prefer a mix of HD and SSD. As only have HD at the moment.

Have looked at ebuyer for instance and some OK, found one place but everything they sold came with HDD which seems odd these days.

What is the model number of the monitor that you're connecting the PC to - that will let us find out the resolution...and recommend a minimum spec for you to look out for!

BTW, what is the spec of your current machine? If it's not that old, it may be possible to upgrade some components instead.

[LukeBrown66]

Ok let ,me ad a few bits

Intel CPU 3.50GHz

GTX 1050Ti

16 RAM

HD only

res 1920x1080

[mmm-five]

The GPU looks like it will be fine for 1080p gaming...unless you're looking at using ray tracing in some specific title, or are seeing issues.

Few more questions though:

• What model & generation CPU (i3/i5/i7/i9 and 4/5/6/7/8/9/10/xxx - see diagram below)?
• What speed RAM?
• What motherboard (let's us know if you can add M2 SSDs or not)
• Everything is on the single HD? What sizes is it? How full is it?
• Are you happy to have a separate drive for the OS and applications, and one for games (and maybe one for backups or infrequently used items like videos/photos)?

If the machine is just feeling 'slow' then it might be the years of software detritus that's been collected. An SSD (M2 or SATA depending on your motherboard) will make things feel snappy again, as will a wipe & reinstall of the OS (bit not as fast if you stick to the slow HDD).

Edited by mmm-five on Sunday 20th February 13:57

[LukeBrown66]

Have tried to copy as much as I can from Steam, dont have much confidence in doing so much, and yes you are right Windows is massively bloaty so have stopped updates as I have for the graphics card which presume is the reason I might be struggling a little.

Apologies for the screen dump


Processor Information:
CPU Vendor: GenuineIntel
CPU Brand: Intel(R) Pentium(R) CPU G4560 @ 3.50GHz
CPU Family: 0x6
CPU Model: 0x9e
CPU Stepping: 0x9
CPU Type: 0x0
Speed: 3504 Mhz
4 logical processors
2 physical processors
HyperThreading: Supported
deo Card:
Driver: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti
DirectX Driver Name: nvldumd.dll
Driver Version: 27.21.14.6677
DirectX Driver Version: 27.21.14.6677
Driver Date: 6 8 2021
OpenGL Version: 4.6
Desktop Color Depth: 32 bits per pixel
Monitor Refresh Rate: 60 Hz
DirectX Card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti
VendorID: 0x10de
Number of Monitors: 1
Number of Logical Video Cards: 1
No SLI or Crossfire Detected
Primary Display Resolution: 1920 x 1080
Desktop Resolution: 1920 x 1080
Primary Display Size: 18.90" x 10.63" (21.65" diag)
48.0cm x 27.0cm (55.0cm diag)
Primary Bus: PCI Express 16x
Primary VRAM: 4095 MB
Supported MSAA Modes: 2x 4x 8x

Sound card:
Audio device: Speakers (Realtek High Definiti

Memory:
RAM: 16331 MB

VR Hardware:
VR Headset: None detected

Miscellaneous:
UI Language: English
Media Type: Undetermined
Total Hard Disk Space Available: 953252 MB
Largest Free Hard Disk Block: 810938 MB
OS Install Date: Nov 02 2020
Game Controller: Logitech G25 Racing Wheel USB detected
MAC Address hash: 0bf89868c43885e0624c56025e971fe0d5b5cd1e

Storage:
Disk serial number hash: d79c851
Number of SSDs: 0
Number of HDDs: 1
HDD sizes: 1000G

[mmm-five]

LukeBrown66 said:

Have tried to copy as much as I can from Steam, dont have much confidence in doing so much, and yes you are right Windows is massively bloaty so have stopped updates as I have for the graphics card which presume is the reason I might be struggling a little.

Apologies for the screen dump


Summarised:
Intel(R) Pentium(R) CPU G4560 @ 3.50GHz (2 cores / 4 threads)
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti (4GB)
Monitor 1920 x 1080 @ 60hz
1TB HD
Total Hard Disk Space Available: 953252 MB
Largest Free Hard Disk Block: 810938 MB
OS Install Date: Nov 02 2020

Here goes:

• The CPU is a quite slow Pentium - not even an entry-level Core i3 processor.
• Monitor won't show you anything faster than 60fps, so a more powerful GPU won't help here
• HD seems nearly empty if the figures above are correct (1TB total, and 0.8TB free?)

I'd suggest a faster CPU and SSD of some sort - but without the motherboard model it's difficult to know what it would support. The CPU you've got uses an LGA1151 socket which was in use up to and including the 9th gen Intel Core CPUs...so one of them would 'physically' fit...assuming the motherboard manufacturer supports it with chipset/bios updates.

If you start going down the CPU, SSD, motherboard upgrade path (which might also mean a new PSU), then you'd be better off getting a new machine...as you'd still be at a dead end with the LGA1151 as the new ones use LGA1700 sockets.

You could look for something on ebay, where a seller is either selling their old machine as they've upgraded...or where they've bought a pre-built with a decent GPU just to strip the GPU out. You could then either use whatever GPU they've left in, or swap your's over.

[mmm-five]

Gilberto66 said:

I also want to buy a gaming PC for myself. I want to play a big game like Minecraft or xBoxOne. What kind of configuration do I need to play those kind of games?

To play XboxOne you'll need an XboxOne!

If you genuinely want advice, then please start your own thread and we can go through your requirements there.

[LukeBrown66]

My original idea was always to buy something new, I realise you will often be limited with a lower budget, but can anyone suggest decent places they might have gone to or that they know to try, some of them are very geeky and nerdy with stands of info, I know I should know more, but it is a bit off putting, I know very basics but not much more

[S6PNJ]

Would you be prepared to build yourself? If so....

Is your existing memory DDR3 or DDR4? Do you know? What's the motherboard? The processor you have will work with both DDR3 and DDR4 so I can't tell from that.

If it's DDR4, then you might just need a new CPU (and cooler), new motherboard, new M2 SSD and keep your old case, PSU and other bits and pieces.

I've just built my (79 yr old) father a gaming PC for not too much money - with a second hand GPU sourced from FB Marketplace, less powerful than yours!

New CPU - AMD Ryzen 5800X (any with a suffix G have a built in GPU which you don't need) - increase spec based on your budget. Some will come with a cooler, some won't, so buy one if you need one. Compare any AMD or Intel CPUs via https://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu_list.php to see if you are better off going AMD/Intel and what generation / spec etc.
New motherboard - I used a B550 chipset - bought a Gigabyte DS3H micro ATX AM4 motherboard.
New M2 SSD - I bought a Kingston KC2500 250GB M.2-2280 PCIe 3.0 x4 NVMe - use your existing storage for more, slower, capacity.

Whichever MB you choose, make sure it has an interface for your GPU (a quick Google says PCI-E but not which speed).

If you've never built before, use the partpicker website ( https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/ ) to confirm compatibility, then it's simply a case of plugging it all together and it should work.

I think I bought from a mix of Amazon, Scan, CCL, and ebuyer!!