Buyng a Gaming Pc for my son
Discussion
Hi all
I need some advise. My son wants a gaming pc for his birthday and although in IT I'm not an expert in this field so need your help. The first idea was to build our own unit, choosing CPU, motherboards, graphic cards etc. However i'm worried about firstly choosing the wrong components and secondly which drivers, eeproms will be required. So Im now thinking of buying a really good speced prebuilt unit from a reputable company.
i have a few questions :-
1) Can anyone suggest a good reputable company that I can use to have one built / buy one of their models ? I would like to have some form of support etc.
2) What performance / grade / specs of CPU, graphics card, storage, motherboard do I need to ensure I pick ?
3) Are curved screens good ? what is a good monitor ? Should I go for dual header ?
As well as games I will want him to use this PC for school too, so will need to run MS office etc. Not sure if this has an influence on the configuration.
Any help would be gratefully recieved.
Simon
I need some advise. My son wants a gaming pc for his birthday and although in IT I'm not an expert in this field so need your help. The first idea was to build our own unit, choosing CPU, motherboards, graphic cards etc. However i'm worried about firstly choosing the wrong components and secondly which drivers, eeproms will be required. So Im now thinking of buying a really good speced prebuilt unit from a reputable company.
i have a few questions :-
1) Can anyone suggest a good reputable company that I can use to have one built / buy one of their models ? I would like to have some form of support etc.
2) What performance / grade / specs of CPU, graphics card, storage, motherboard do I need to ensure I pick ?
3) Are curved screens good ? what is a good monitor ? Should I go for dual header ?
As well as games I will want him to use this PC for school too, so will need to run MS office etc. Not sure if this has an influence on the configuration.
Any help would be gratefully recieved.
Simon
I believe if you use pc part picker (as recommended to me on here by a few wise owls), it tells you which parts are compatible as you select to prevent you buying the wrong items.
As for fully built systems, I believe Scan get good reviews on here and have good support.
I’m sure more knowledgeable people than me will be along to comment shortly.
As for fully built systems, I believe Scan get good reviews on here and have good support.
I’m sure more knowledgeable people than me will be along to comment shortly.
I recently bought a high end setup for video work from Punch Technology (they have specific various setups that can be individually configured to your wants and needs on their website) and can highly recommend them for the purchasing process. So far, their telephone support has been excellent in answering my questions.
I bought the main components (CPU, MB, Ram) from Palicomp for my sons PC for Xmas and for my own machine earlier in the year. Prices were pretty good and you can pick and choose what you want already assembled or even buy complete systems which should be bench tested before being shipped. I sourced other parts from elsewhere like Amazon (Case, PSU, SSD etc..) to keep the costs down. Putting together a PC is very straightforward nowadays but can be a major PITA if you have issues.
I went for a strong 1080p machine using more budget components, RX570 8GB GPU, Ryzen 5 CPU. Its running Forza Horizon 4, BeamNG with high settings no problem, once you move into 4k gaming it gets expensive!
I went for a strong 1080p machine using more budget components, RX570 8GB GPU, Ryzen 5 CPU. Its running Forza Horizon 4, BeamNG with high settings no problem, once you move into 4k gaming it gets expensive!
Edited by paul99 on Sunday 27th December 08:20
I can suggest that you go with the Ryzen processor instead of the intel. Ryzen 7 3600 would be my choice. They are really powerful and not that expensive.
When it comes to the GPU that really depends on your budget because they are expensive. Your son would probably enjoy more if you got him something like nVidia GTX RTX 3090 but that will cost a lot. Still, getting a GTX 2060Ti will still be a great choice that is less costly.
When it comes to the GPU that really depends on your budget because they are expensive. Your son would probably enjoy more if you got him something like nVidia GTX RTX 3090 but that will cost a lot. Still, getting a GTX 2060Ti will still be a great choice that is less costly.
I have used and can recommend PCSpecialist for either pre-built or custom PCs; that's what they do, they're not a parts warehouse, building systems as a sideline
If you have a particular game in mind, they will recommend you a configuration that's optimised for it: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/game-based-computer...
If you have a particular game in mind, they will recommend you a configuration that's optimised for it: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/game-based-computer...
OP, I was in the same boat a few years ago and decided to self build as a Dad and Lad experience. There is plenty of wise owls on here to advise on specification and building. It was really easy to build and done in 6hrs, although we didn't have any of the flashing light RGB stuff kids these days seem to like.
I suppose the big questions are;
Budget and does that include monitor, keyboard, mouse etc?
What does your son want to play and at what screen resolution, 1080p (normal TVHD), 1440p or 4k (UHD)? Cost scales with resolution and 60 frames per second (FPS) should be the minimum display refresh rate you should be aiming for.
I suppose the big questions are;
Budget and does that include monitor, keyboard, mouse etc?
What does your son want to play and at what screen resolution, 1080p (normal TVHD), 1440p or 4k (UHD)? Cost scales with resolution and 60 frames per second (FPS) should be the minimum display refresh rate you should be aiming for.
Thanks for all your replies guys.
Im a limited company so will be buying this via that meaning my budget is about 1500 - 1750.
Someone mentions 4K above. I want to build something that will stay modern for a couple of years, my son can then build it / update etc, so should I buy 4k now ? Is a curved screen a good screen for gaming ?
I do like the idea of dad / son building a pc but if honest if I can buy one already built, tested, working then great.
Are keyboards important ? My son has shown me a LED backlight `dunky` keyboard for £150 !! He keeps telling ,me its necessary to have one and a £70 mouse ? lol.
I would imagine all systems come with SDS drives now ? 1 or 2 Tb ?.
Im a limited company so will be buying this via that meaning my budget is about 1500 - 1750.
Someone mentions 4K above. I want to build something that will stay modern for a couple of years, my son can then build it / update etc, so should I buy 4k now ? Is a curved screen a good screen for gaming ?
I do like the idea of dad / son building a pc but if honest if I can buy one already built, tested, working then great.
Are keyboards important ? My son has shown me a LED backlight `dunky` keyboard for £150 !! He keeps telling ,me its necessary to have one and a £70 mouse ? lol.
I would imagine all systems come with SDS drives now ? 1 or 2 Tb ?.
I have bought from here twice in last 15 years. They seem decent enough to me (I used them as there was an online review in a pc magazine the first time, then the second they were competitive versus tech radar mentioned price/specs at the time) but DYOR
https://www.meshcomputers.com/
Budget-wise, would you not be better spending £2000.00 and then claiming the VAT back?
https://www.meshcomputers.com/
Budget-wise, would you not be better spending £2000.00 and then claiming the VAT back?
Go for a quad HD monitor rather than 4K. He won't notice the lower resolution of quad HD, but he will notice the slow-downs due to the overhead of running games in 4K with the graphics options turned up.
I would suggest a 27" widescreen. Ultrawide screens tend to stretch images in FPS games at the edges of the screen, which I really hate. Also get one that has Freesync with GSync compatibility. Full Gysnc monitors are very expensive so a compatible monitor is a good option for flexibility.
Pcpartpicker as mentioned by others is a very useful website for checking compatibility and prices.
When comparing parts and pre-built PCs, use this list to see how well your graphics card benchmarks:
https://www.videocardbenchmark.net/high_end_gpus.h...
And this list to see how well the CPU benchmarks.
https://www.cpubenchmark.net/high_end_cpus.html
Get at least a terrabyte sized SSD. Games take up a lot of space these days. The Crucial SSDs are good and often come up at good prices.
I'd go for 32GB of RAM with an option to upgrade to 64GB later to future proof it.
I don't see the benefit of an expensive keyboard or mouse, but I'm not a competitive gamer or a speed typist! I would much rather spend the budget on high spec parts initially. Save the nice keyboard for next Christmas, but I guess he will want a headset by then!
I would suggest a 27" widescreen. Ultrawide screens tend to stretch images in FPS games at the edges of the screen, which I really hate. Also get one that has Freesync with GSync compatibility. Full Gysnc monitors are very expensive so a compatible monitor is a good option for flexibility.
Pcpartpicker as mentioned by others is a very useful website for checking compatibility and prices.
When comparing parts and pre-built PCs, use this list to see how well your graphics card benchmarks:
https://www.videocardbenchmark.net/high_end_gpus.h...
And this list to see how well the CPU benchmarks.
https://www.cpubenchmark.net/high_end_cpus.html
Get at least a terrabyte sized SSD. Games take up a lot of space these days. The Crucial SSDs are good and often come up at good prices.
I'd go for 32GB of RAM with an option to upgrade to 64GB later to future proof it.
I don't see the benefit of an expensive keyboard or mouse, but I'm not a competitive gamer or a speed typist! I would much rather spend the budget on high spec parts initially. Save the nice keyboard for next Christmas, but I guess he will want a headset by then!
^^ This is pretty much spot on what I was going to say, but I would argue maybe 16GB Ram would be sufficient for pretty much any gaming requirements currently. It's an easy upgrade later to add more in, with the added bonus of starting the journey down the upgrade / build it yourself route. Plus it will save £80 or so depending on which Ram sticks the builder uses (personally I'd aim for around 3200mhz if using a Ryzen processor - watch for this as some builds might have much lower speed memory by default to save money and it could hurt performance big time even if you have top end GPU / CPU).
Just be aware some of the higher end components (particularly GPU) are in short supply right now, so make sure you don't wait until the last minute to order it. There is no guarantee that the system integrator has stocks on hand and they may well have a long back order catalogue. My experience of system integrators is not great, have bought a few systems in the past that had all manner of issues which were either return to base to fix, or fixed myself (invalidating warranty along the way). In some cases they are built to a price, and some of the cost cutting can be brutal in terms of blocking upgrading later. PC Specialist seem to have a good rep though.
I would reiterate the advice given, it is really straight forward to build a PC these days (providing you can get the parts..). I built my first PC with my son helping, we both learned a lot and had a good time doing it - and sure it was full of mistakes that a pre built system might not have had, but again we learnt from that. Son works in IT now, still talks about how we messed up and what came from it (although the little sod won't let me forget not connecting the power button on the case to the motherboard and wondering why it wasn't booting
).
There is a wealth of information out there now about how to do it, literally step by step, from Youtube videos to written instructions - and of course a lot of knowledge on here too. Just don't follow a how to video by 'The Verge'. It is daunting coming to it completely fresh, but honestly it's not much harder than Lego, with the added benefit of being less painful to step on. Only issue is it can be a bit time consuming first time out.
Just be aware some of the higher end components (particularly GPU) are in short supply right now, so make sure you don't wait until the last minute to order it. There is no guarantee that the system integrator has stocks on hand and they may well have a long back order catalogue. My experience of system integrators is not great, have bought a few systems in the past that had all manner of issues which were either return to base to fix, or fixed myself (invalidating warranty along the way). In some cases they are built to a price, and some of the cost cutting can be brutal in terms of blocking upgrading later. PC Specialist seem to have a good rep though.
I would reiterate the advice given, it is really straight forward to build a PC these days (providing you can get the parts..). I built my first PC with my son helping, we both learned a lot and had a good time doing it - and sure it was full of mistakes that a pre built system might not have had, but again we learnt from that. Son works in IT now, still talks about how we messed up and what came from it (although the little sod won't let me forget not connecting the power button on the case to the motherboard and wondering why it wasn't booting
).There is a wealth of information out there now about how to do it, literally step by step, from Youtube videos to written instructions - and of course a lot of knowledge on here too. Just don't follow a how to video by 'The Verge'. It is daunting coming to it completely fresh, but honestly it's not much harder than Lego, with the added benefit of being less painful to step on. Only issue is it can be a bit time consuming first time out.
Edited by bstb3 on Monday 28th December 00:43
I bought my son a ready made gaming pc from AWD-IT website as they were running some good deals at the time.
They give the option of upgrading each component from a drop down list so you know it’s compatible. I didn’t have a clue what to choose so posted the options on here to get advice. Ended up with a PC that my son can play all the latest games on for about £1k, plus keyboard and monitor purchased from Amazon.
They give the option of upgrading each component from a drop down list so you know it’s compatible. I didn’t have a clue what to choose so posted the options on here to get advice. Ended up with a PC that my son can play all the latest games on for about £1k, plus keyboard and monitor purchased from Amazon.
sbk1972 said:
Agree, binned. Gone for a SSD.
What is the M.2 SSD ? Im assuming a 2rd drive in but in a quicker access form ? This is where the Os will be loaded.
Simon
M.2 refers to the form factor (size and shape) and is frequently mounted directly on the motherboard - but yes if it is a NVMe PCIE drive it will have better read/write times (you do get M.2 Sata drives but they are less common these days).What is the M.2 SSD ? Im assuming a 2rd drive in but in a quicker access form ? This is where the Os will be loaded.
Simon
Generally speaking most games aren't optimised for running on multiple cores, so for gaming an i7 doesn't offer as much a performance boost over an i5 as you might think, so it might be an area to shave a few quid to spend somewhere else if needed.
There's so many different graphics card numbering systems these days it's hard to tell what's what, but it could be worth having a hunt through some benchmarking sites to compare processor and graphics cards combinations to see where the bottleneck might be, ie if the processor is a lot more capable than the graphics card you could get better performance overall from a cheaper processor and more expensive GPU, and vice-verse of course.
There's so many different graphics card numbering systems these days it's hard to tell what's what, but it could be worth having a hunt through some benchmarking sites to compare processor and graphics cards combinations to see where the bottleneck might be, ie if the processor is a lot more capable than the graphics card you could get better performance overall from a cheaper processor and more expensive GPU, and vice-verse of course.
sbk1972 said:
Hi all,
What do you guys think of this spec ? Have to admit I choose some of the option in the same way I choose numbers on my lottery ticket !! :-)
Thoughts ?
Looking at your spec. I'd remove the 9th generation intel as generation 11 is due out this year and go for a Ryzen 5 3600x or Ryzen 5 5600x. The 3600x retails for about 190 and the 5600x for 280 (if you can find one). You can use the stock cooler for the Ryzen. If you go with the latest Ryzen then you'll need to make sure your motherboard has had the BIOS flashed for the new generation.What do you guys think of this spec ? Have to admit I choose some of the option in the same way I choose numbers on my lottery ticket !! :-)
Thoughts ?
16 GB 3200 Mhz (2X8 GB) will be enough for gaming and most motherboards will have 4 DIMM slots so you can upgrade the memory at a later date.
Yes, the new Ryzen processors give better bang for your buck. I'm currently building a Ryzen based gaming system
This is close to my build
https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/bWpdvf
This is close to my build
https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/bWpdvf
Edited by tobster on Tuesday 12th January 13:04
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