Help a Dad Spec a Gaming PC for his son...

Habit

Habit

Habit

Associate
Joined
13 Dec 2006
Posts
43
Hi All,

Its been a long time since I built a PC, though I have done so before. While I know what I am doing with builds, my knowledge on current hardware options is about 8 years out of date...

Anyway my son, 13 would like the bits so he can build a gaming PC for his Christmas present. I don't want to get something pre built, as he is studying GCSE IT and I think building a box will be more educational than just getting something pre built.

I can source a monitor, a SATA HD (maybe as Data drive) and Windows license out, but apart from that I will need the rest.

Budget is really £500. Note I don't need it until Xmas, so maybe I should be looking at any black Friday type deals...

What does he want to play? All the most recent games with setting turned up as much as he can. I am aware £500 is not the most though so its really the best he can get in that budget.

Any help appreciated.
 
@Habit

Using some of black Friday savings, should run games at 1080p medium to high .
Ram is over powered for this and most Ryzen boards but if cheapest, he'll just enable XMP and run it at 3200 speed - or have fun see how far he can overclock of lower the timings

My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £568.46 (includes shipping: £12.60)​
​
 
Also I notice the RAM and GPU are in the sales. Do you think its worth ordering those now, and then watching next week to see if any of the other items get reduced?
Its a lot of cash so any saving is worth it.
 
Habit said:
Also I notice the RAM and GPU are in the sales. Do you think its worth ordering those now, and then watching next week to see if any of the other items get reduced?
Its a lot of cash so any saving is worth it.
Click to expand...

XMP for boards another then Asus, allow ram to run at its updated manufactures speed with a simple click in bios , rather then DDR4 default speed of 2133hz which cripples Ryzen performance ! Sweet spot is 3000/3200 Hz and the boards can only really handle that speed. Technically .
Dropping in this


My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £107.69 (includes shipping: £8.70)​
​

And enabling XMP and your good to go, instead of the faster kit I mentioned , which you'll have to enable XMP then change speed from 3600hz to 3200hz. But the ram chips are made from Samsung in that model and are the best to be honest.

Yes , buy ram now ! Quick Google and you see ram prices have gone up easily 40% in 18 months and wWILL increase. All those new iPhones and Samsung phones are all using DDr4 and really eat into supply which can't produce enough . The costs of ram will get more expensive.
3 months ago, 16GB of 3000hz ram kit we all recommended here was £104, it's now £170, and only sale this week for £149.…
 
Thanks Orbitalwalsh.

Ill go ahead and order the RAM and GPU today then, and wait a few days to see if anything else from the list gets put on sale.

You help is much appreciated :)
 
You could save an additional £20 if you swopped the case to the Aerocool GT Advance. I would add the £5 Alpenphon 2 fan bundle as well but you could probably get by without for the time being but that is a great deal.

This drops it to £548. I wouldn't go any lower on the PSU. Hope that helps a little but bear in mind you would need to pay for postage twice ordering in dribs and drabs.
 
Thanks for the idea. I presume that case will be suitable for all the bits? More than happy to shave £20 off

And yep, I think I may have wasted a bit on postage. Oh well.
 
Throwing this out there as a more expensive but more powerful and future proof spec (Coffee lake 6 core cpu). Get him to use his Christmas money to buy his own gpu a used gtx 970 or if wanting brand new something like the gtx 1060 6gb.

CPU: https://www.overclockers.co.uk/inte...e-socket-lga1151-processor-oem-cp-649-in.html
Motherboard: https://www.overclockers.co.uk/asro...cket-1151-ddr4-atx-motherboard-mb-15n-ak.html
Hard drive: https://www.overclockers.co.uk/sams...olid-state-drive-mz-75e250b-eu-hd-191-sa.html
Memory: https://www.overclockers.co.uk/team...3600mhz-dual-channel-kit-black-my-08e-tg.html
PSU: https://www.overclockers.co.uk/evga-450bt-450w-80-plus-bronze-power-supply-ca-03l-ea.html
Case: chose own to suit budget and style

Total around £580 to £600 excluding the gpu. If you shop around, as the cpu for example here is £220 but my local store it's only £200. This rig could last 5 years with a new gpu every 2 years and upgrade options like an m2 drive and an extra 8gb of ram.
 
Habit said:
Just been looking at the black Friday deals, and must admit Im not clever enough to know if any of the deals would mean it makes sense not to get the below, but switch to something in the sales.
If anyone had a thought on it Id be interested to hear.
Click to expand...

You can save best part of £10 on the Mobo using a well known distribution online shop with reference To a rainforest
 
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