Budget-ish Gaming PC?

[A Winner Is You]

It's really about time I bought a new desktop, but the options are a bit overwhelming. I'd like to get something that can at least play current games in an acceptable quality, a solid state main drive, quiet and a subtle case with no stupid LEDs. What could I get for around £700? Thanks.

[TameRacingDriver]

Take a look here

https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/gaming-pc-build-guide/

[Derek Smith]

Can you build one yourself?

[A Winner Is You]

Derek Smith said:

Can you build one yourself?

I haven't done so before, but looks fairly straightforward

[vladcjelli]

Go to pcpartpicker website, select some things, it will tell you if those things go together or not.

My son and I have recently built one using this method. There are a few things you should know about but generally it all slots together and works. The bad old days of jumper settings and messing about with bios appear to be behind us, really impressed with it all.

We originally spent about £450 as we used an amd ryzen cpu with built in Radeon Vega 11 graphics. Not a dedicated super power gaming rig, but I was suprised how well it ran games, albeit with toned down settings.

He’s had a birthday since, so we splashed out on a decent graphics card, £200 or so. Now it blows everything through at ultra settings at, to my eye, ridiculous frame rates.

[b14]

eBay is your friend for some things by the way. Windows 10 for example, you can get a USB version of it for £40 on eBay that comes ready to use, all genuine etc. Second hand graphics cards as well can be a good way of spending the same, but for better performance. Most other components you probably won't want to go second hand.

[Fletch79]

https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/guide/2cLrxr/modest-am...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v7MYOpFONCU&t=...

Should get you a decent enough build!

[grumbledoak]

Questions should be more -
1. do you want to assemble it yourself? It isn't difficult, but you won't save any time or money
2. do you want a tiny neat box? You cannot DIY the really tiny 1L ones.

[A Winner Is You]

grumbledoak said:

Questions should be more -
1. do you want to assemble it yourself? It isn't difficult, but you won't save any time or money
2. do you want a tiny neat box? You cannot DIY the really tiny 1L ones.

Just been browsing PC builder sites and there does indeed seem to be very little difference in cost. Full size box is fine, and given I want a subtle one it might be easier to buy it ready made. I have an old desktop, which presumably I could transfer my Windows 10 key from?

[grumbledoak]

A Winner Is You said:

Just been browsing PC builder sites and there does indeed seem to be very little difference in cost. Full size box is fine, and given I want a subtle one it might be easier to buy it ready made. I have an old desktop, which presumably I could transfer my Windows 10 key from?

The cheap licenses on eBay that most self builders use are probably easier than transferring Windows. Only an issue if you self build, of course.

[Condi]

Bought one from EBuyer back in March, it was £800 or so and when I priced up the parts on their own they were about £10 cheaper than buying the full system.

Slightly over budget, but IMO something like this will play all games on the market today at one graphics setting or another, and will play most games on the highest setting. I struggle to see why the average gamer would need anything more.

https://www.ebuyer.com/982189-alphasync-ryzen-3-33...

[A Winner Is You]

Thanks for all the advice, looking on PC Specialist since all the ebuyer ones have gaudy cases. How does this sound for under £800?


Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 5 3600 Six Core CPU (3.6GHz-4.2GHz/36MB CACHE/AM4)
Motherboard
ASUS® ROG STRIX B450-F GAMING (DDR4, USB 3.1, 6Gb/s) - RGB Ready!
Memory (RAM)
16GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 2400MHz (1 x 16GB)
Graphics Card
6GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 1660 - HDMI, DP - GeForce GTX VR Ready!
1st Storage Drive
256GB PCS 2.5" SSD, SATA 6 Gb (500MB/R, 400MB/W)
1st Storage Drive
3TB SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 7200RPM, 64MB CACHE
DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Power Supply
CORSAIR 450W CV SERIES™ CV-450 POWER SUPPLY

[xeny]

Does that include a Windows licence?

In an ideal world I'd prefer a NVMe boot drive.

Similarly, how much to get a B550 rather than B450 Motherboard?

You'll get better performance with the memory as 2 same size DIMMs rather than one larger one (which I'd hope is near enough cost neutral).

2400MHz is also rather slow memory - you'd rather have say 3000 or 3200MHz. - if you can do this for say a £20 cost increase it is worth doing.

[grumbledoak]

Much as above - you can improve RAM and NVME drive

Corsair Vengeance LPX 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory is £59.99
Samsung 970 Evo 500 GB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive is £72.99

You could probably drop from a Ryzen 5 to a Ryzen 3 without noticing if you want to trade CPU for RAM & storage at no cost.

[mikef]

Do you really need a DVD drive? Many cases these days don't even have a space for them (or block out a top fan/radiator slot if you do fit one)