New PC/Laptop advice

je11693

je11693

je11693

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Joined
21 Sep 2018
Posts
153
Hi guys,

I was considering getting a PS4, but I'm thinking of buying a PC or laptop for gaming instead. I have little to no knowledge, so apologies if these are basic question or adivce I'm asking for. I have the following requirements:

1. I will probably mostly be playing strategy games like Factorio (requirements here: https://www.factorio.com/buy) and Civ 6 (requirements here: https://www.google.co.uk/search?sou...ab..17.4.4768.0..35i39k1j0i67k1.0.O7NRb7OwoPs) and other similar real-time or turn-based strategy games, as well as games that are available on both console and PC e.g. Assassin's Creed, Hitman, etc. (do these games require greater requirements that strategy or PC games?)

2. I'm not really in need of having the absolute best e.g. willing to sacrifice some quality, e.g. in resolution, if it has a decent impact in terms of lowering cost.

3. The ability to use a PS4 controller would be desirable.

4. Ideally I would like something that will last multiple years and not require regular tinkering to update it.

5. Portability is not really important as I will only play it at home, regardless of whether I get a laptop or PC.

6. I am trying to keep the budget as low as possible, but given my lack of experience and knowledge I'm not really sure what trade-offs to make in terms of price vs technical requirements needed for the points above.

7. I already have a computer monitor (Asus). I also have a very old laptop which I use day-to-day and which is suitable for all my needs (internet browsing, streaming, maybe some Word/Excel now and again etc.). Ideally whatever I buy now would function as a back-up in case my current laptop dies so perhaps ideally whatever I buy would have Windows already installed, although I really stress that my day-to-day needs in terms of computing are basic/not a lot - as long as I can get on the internet and do basic Word and Excel, it will be ok from that point of view.

Given these, would you recommend a laptop or a PC? And for whichever you would recommend, would you recommend a custom built or "off-the-shelf" machine, and how cheaply could I get hold of your recommendation?

Appreciate the help and advice.

J
 
Hi and welcome to the forum :)

So before we can help, what sort of budget do you have in mind?
Also what resolution is the Asus monitor you already have and does it have Freesync or G-Sync? if you don't know these then tell us the model number.

You can save money by building the PC yourself, would you be comfortable doing this? There are some very good tutorial videos on how to do this on YouTube, just avoid the one published by "The Verge"
 
NovaKill4 said:
Hi and welcome to the forum :)

So before we can help, what sort of budget do you have in mind?
Also what resolution is the Asus monitor you already have and does it have Freesync or G-Sync? if you don't know these then tell us the model number.

You can save money by building the PC yourself, would you be comfortable doing this? There are some very good tutorial videos on how to do this on YouTube, just avoid the one published by "The Verge"
Click to expand...

I was originally budgeting for £250 for the PS4. I could probably go to £3/400, which I realise is quite a bit less than the £700+ which seems to be the minimum starting cost in other threads I've read so far. Basically the lower the cost while meeting the above requirements/suitability is my aim. I get the impression it will be difficult on that budget, but would like to know exactly what I'm getting into before making any purchases.

The Asus monitor is the LED monitor 24" ASUS VP247H Gaming model. I'm unsure if it has Freesync or G-Sync (or what these features are! Are they important?)

So currently I have no knowledge about building, but if there was a step by step guide which I could follow and it explained everything then I would be happy to build it myself (it really would need to be something that would walk me through the exact process).

PS: thanks for the reply :)
 
Ok that budget will be tough but should get you a starting build, unfortunately though, PC gaming is far more expensive than just buying a console.
Here is a build that should play Factorio and Civ 6. With regards to Assassins Creed and Hitman, it should play them but only at their lowest settings.
My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £445.15 (includes shipping: £12.30)​
​

Breakdown of parts:
Power Supply: This is the cheapest PSU that i would use in a computer, the PSU distributes the electricity to the rest of the components, its important not to try and save money here as a bad PSU could destroy your whole computer if it blows!
Case: Cheap and cheerful and includes 1 x 120mm fan
Fan: Cheap fan for added airflow, has PMW which will allow the motherboard to increase and decrease its RPM based on temps.
Storage: 240GB SSD its not a huge amount of space but is extremely fast, will hold windows and desktop applications plus a few games.
Motherboard: Cheapest B450 motherboard.
CPU: 2400G, decent 4 core 8 thread CPU with integrated graphics processor, this means you dont need to buy a graphics card straight away.
Memory: 8GB RAM, ideally new builds these days would have 16GB but 8GB is still fine for now and probably 2-3 more years yet.

The only thing really missing on this build is a dedicated graphics card, the 2400G CPU is decent for starting out but ideally you would want to save up to get a graphics card. You can pick up a second hand GTX 970 for about £150 which would be great for this build.

Unfortunately, as you only have a small budget to start with, you would need to upgrade this if you want to keep up and play new titles as they get released.
An ideal upgrade list would be something like this:
1. Add Graphics card.
2. Add another 8GB RAM.
3. Add Another SSD
4. New CPU

You could do this upgrade list over 2-3 years so its not like you would need to do it all as soon as possible, just as and when you feel you need the extra power really.
 
NovaKill4 said:
Ok that budget will be tough but should get you a starting build, unfortunately though, PC gaming is far more expensive than just buying a console.
Here is a build that should play Factorio and Civ 6. With regards to Assassins Creed and Hitman, it should play them but only at their lowest settings.
My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £445.15 (includes shipping: £12.30)
​

Breakdown of parts:
Power Supply: This is the cheapest PSU that i would use in a computer, the PSU distributes the electricity to the rest of the components, its important not to try and save money here as a bad PSU could destroy your whole computer if it blows!
Case: Cheap and cheerful and includes 1 x 120mm fan
Fan: Cheap fan for added airflow, has PMW which will allow the motherboard to increase and decrease its RPM based on temps.
Storage: 240GB SSD its not a huge amount of space but is extremely fast, will hold windows and desktop applications plus a few games.
Motherboard: Cheapest B450 motherboard.
CPU: 2400G, decent 4 core 8 thread CPU with integrated graphics processor, this means you dont need to buy a graphics card straight away.
Memory: 8GB RAM, ideally new builds these days would have 16GB but 8GB is still fine for now and probably 2-3 more years yet.

The only thing really missing on this build is a dedicated graphics card, the 2400G CPU is decent for starting out but ideally you would want to save up to get a graphics card. You can pick up a second hand GTX 970 for about £150 which would be great for this build.

Unfortunately, as you only have a small budget to start with, you would need to upgrade this if you want to keep up and play new titles as they get released.
An ideal upgrade list would be something like this:
1. Add Graphics card.
2. Add another 8GB RAM.
3. Add Another SSD
4. New CPU

You could do this upgrade list over 2-3 years so its not like you would need to do it all as soon as possible, just as and when you feel you need the extra power really.
Click to expand...

Thank you for the suggestion. I would like whatever I get to last multiple years if possible, ideally without having to continually update/upgrade it. What would be your recommended build for a system that wouldn't need updating i.e. including a graphics card, 8 GB RAM, proper SSD and CPU? How much extra would 16GB RAM instead of 8GB add to the build cost? When you say the above system "..should play them but only at their lowest settings" what exactly do you mean?

If it helps, the games I'm interested in playing are strategy games (Factorio and Civilisation VI currently the most appealing), Assassin's Creed, Hitman, Command and Conquer, some sports games like NBA2K19, etc.
 
je11693 said:
I would like whatever I get to last multiple years if possible, ideally without having to continually update/upgrade it.
Click to expand...
Unfortunately, at this price point (£400) i dont think this is going to be possible, PC gaming is just more expensive than consoles.

This should play everything at 1080p on medium setting if you decided to up the budget.
My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £693.22 (includes shipping: £12.30)​
​

je11693 said:
When you say the above system "..should play them but only at their lowest settings" what exactly do you mean?
Click to expand...
This means you would need to set the graphics settings to low to have smooth gameplay.
 
NovaKill4 said:
Unfortunately, at this price point (£400) i dont think this is going to be possible, PC gaming is just more expensive than consoles.

This should play everything at 1080p on medium setting if you decided to up the budget.
My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £693.22 (includes shipping: £12.30)
​


This means you would need to set the graphics settings to low to have smooth gameplay.
Click to expand...

That's really helpful, thanks. Is the processor in that bundle as good as/better than an AMD FX 8350 4GHz? (some of the games above have this as recommended minimum). I presume the graphics card is better than a GTX 760/AMD R9 280X (3GB VRAM), AMD 7970 or nVidia 770..

Let's say I can increase the budget, how does the above bundle compare to this:
  • PROCESSOR: Intel Core i3-8100 Coffee Lake CPU, 4 Cores, 3.6GHz
  • Power Supply: Fractal Design 80 PLUS 500W PSU
  • GRAPHICS CARD: NVIDIA GeForce GT 1030 2GB Graphics Card
  • CASE: Kolink KLM-001 Micro ATX Case - Black
  • MOTHERBOARD: Asus PRIME H310M-K Motherboard
  • COOLER: Intel Stock CPU Cooler
  • Thermal Paste: Standard Thermal Paste
  • Memory: 8GB DDR4 2400MHz Memory (2 x 4GB Sticks)
  • Case Cooling: Not selected
  • M.2 PCIe SSD: Not selected
  • Solid State Drives: Not selected
  • Hard Drives: Seagate 1TB BarraCuda 7200RPM Hard Disk
  • Optical Drive: 24x DVD-RW Drive
  • Sound Card: Onboard High Definition Audio
  • Operating System: Windows 10 Home 64-bit
  • Keyboard & Mouse: Logitech MK120 Corded Keyboard and Mouse
Although, the processor in the above one is an i-3 whereas some of the games (AC and Civ VI) have i7-3770 3.5GHx and 4th gen i5 3.5GHz as recommended, so unsure if it would be suitable?
 
You would be better off buying from the used market as you will get more performance per £ than new.

Of course if the PS4 has the games on it you want it play, just go that route.
 
PiKe said:
You would be better off buying from the used market as you will get more performance per £ than new.

Of course if the PS4 has the games on it you want it play, just go that route.
Click to expand...

Unfortnuately a couple of the games I really want to play are not available on the PS4 which is why I feel I need to explore the PC route.
 
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