EDIT: Everything bought, how did I do? £600 gaming PC with Windows 10 to play COD

Bexx

Bexx

Bexx

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21 Mar 2015
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Hello!

My friends son wants a gaming PC for Christmas, he's 11 and plays all the usual games but has expressed an interest in recording gameplay and being a 'YouTuber' :D

He's been showing his Mum these cool 'super fast gaming computer' on auction sites and they all have the flashy RGB cases etc so we'd like to make it RGB where possible (sorry!) :p

I've built a few PCs for myself before but always ask for you guys' help as I'm usually missing something. The budget is £600 and she's just told me he'll need a monitor too :eek: so this is what I have so far:

My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £429.57 (includes shipping: £11.70)​
​

I would ideally like the case to be easy to build in and good for cable management, but that's just my preference lol
I thought the Ryzen 3 3100 was good value but is there better for the same/less out there?
I like that the motherboard has built in wifi and some RGB
Figured he'd be alright with just an SSD for now, large enough to store games on
PSU I always like to go fully modular and gold but if silver/bronze is just as good then fair enough
I'm sure I can find some RAM somewhere, I'm thinking DDR4 2 x 8GB at least 3200mhz, maybe in RGB
Would he even need a cooler? I put one in my builds out of habit but what do you think?

Or scrap this and go Intel?

And I still need a monitor and Windows 10, I'm struggling with this one!
 
Yep. That's going to be a tough ask.
The Ryzen 3 3100 does come with the default AMD Wraith cooler though so that sorts that one out.

Can't see a GPU in that build though so you may want a re-think. Going for a G series AMD chip with onboard Vega 8 or 11 GPU will get you past that problem, but at an extra cost. You're also going to be looking at 1080p gaming at med/high settings so a (cheap) ish 24" TN panel monitor could be had for less than £100. Add an extra £60 onto the CPU price and you could have a Ryzen 5 3400G. Just need to fit in keyboard mouse and a very legit *cough* version of Windows in for £15!
 
atomixers said:
Yep. That's going to be a tough ask.
The Ryzen 3 3100 does come with the default AMD Wraith cooler though so that sorts that one out.

Can't see a GPU in that build though so you may want a re-think. Going for a G series AMD chip with onboard Vega 8 or 11 GPU will get you past that problem, but at an extra cost. You're also going to be looking at 1080p gaming at med/high settings so a (cheap) ish 24" TN panel monitor could be had for less than £100. Add an extra £60 onto the CPU price and you could have a Ryzen 5 3400G. Just need to fit in keyboard mouse and a very legit *cough* version of Windows in for £15!
Click to expand...

Ah yeah forgot the GPU! I always struggle with those so left it until last but forgot to mention it. How much extra would it be for the onboard graphics, do you think they're worth it?

He's got a keyboard and mouse so I don't have to think about that at least.
 
If you want to go cheap with a separate GPU, the choice is Intel.

My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £565.58 (includes shipping: £11.70)​
​

Gaming-wise one of the new consoles could be a far better bet as you can stream from both to Youtube and Twitch.
 
Quartz said:
If you want to go cheap with a separate GPU, the choice is Intel.

My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £565.58 (includes shipping: £11.70)
​

Gaming-wise one of the new consoles could be a far better bet as you can stream from both to Youtube and Twitch.
Click to expand...
See, I knew there would be other options out there.
 
650W is way OTT.

£600 is doable.

How about this?

My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £548.07 (includes shipping: £17.22)



Dropping to the 3100 and adding a (much faster) 1650 Super, only takes you to £638.​
 
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Quartz said:
If you want to go cheap with a separate GPU, the choice is Intel.

My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £565.58 (includes shipping: £11.70)
​

Gaming-wise one of the new consoles could be a far better bet as you can stream from both to Youtube and Twitch.
Click to expand...
Only leaves £35 for the monitor?
 
Quartz said:
If you want to go cheap with a separate GPU, the choice is Intel.

My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £565.58 (includes shipping: £11.70)
​

Gaming-wise one of the new consoles could be a far better bet as you can stream from both to Youtube and Twitch.
Click to expand...

I would buy this in a heartbeat but he does want some RGB so I could maybe look at something along similar lines, and he's said he doesn't want a PS5 apparently, not sure why lol

atomixers said:
If peripherals are allready taken care of then I'd start hitting the reviews for the G series processors such as https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/should-i-buy-amd-ryzen-5-3400g/
It might be worth looking at a lower spec Ryzen 3 CPU and trying to get a 2nd hand GPU, as there is going to be a lot of churn in the market as lots of people move to Nvidia 300 or AMD 6000 GPU's
Click to expand...

The article isn't selling it to me, it keeps mentioning lowering your resolution and in-game settings. Is he going to struggle playing games on high settings with a G series?
 
I'd expect so. No experience myself with the G's but pretty sure its for "casual" gaming, not high FPS, or high quality settings

Have you seen the RRP of PS5 games!
 
Could you go second hand?

If so i would go for a nice 144hz monitor new, with a new case and psu.

Then get a 2nd hand 3rd gen intel combo and perhaps a 1070 or 1650 super as already suggested. It should be a good performer for games and the monitor which he interfaces most with will be a bit higher spec.
 
clv101 said:
650W is way OTT.

£600 is doable.

How about this?

My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £548.07 (includes shipping: £17.22)



Dropping to the 3100 and adding a (much faster) 1650 Super, only takes you to £638.​
Click to expand...

I do like this, would have to look what we can RGB but I would prefer swapping to the 3100 since it doesn't sound like the G series can handle much.

atomixers said:
I'd expect so. No experience myself with the G's but pretty sure its for "casual" gaming, not high FPS, or high quality settings

Have you seen the RRP of PS5 games!
Click to expand...

I haven't, I imagine not cheap though!

p1RATE said:
Could you go second hand?

If so i would go for a nice 144hz monitor new, with a new case and psu.

Then get a 2nd hand 3rd gen intel combo and perhaps a 1070 or 1650 super as already suggested. It should be a good performer for games and the monitor which he interfaces most with will be a bit higher spec.
Click to expand...

Second hand is definitely an option, I guess I'm just a bit more hesitant in case anything goes wrong/is faulty. I don't think they've owned a computer before so I was looking to make it as smooth sailing as possible.

I had heard 1650 supers were good so hopefully I can include one somehow
 
I like the look of that 3100/1650 Super build. A lot more bang for your buck and potential for the future.

As a general rule i think pre-loved, as we’re supposed to call 2nd hand now ;) is ok for quite a lot of stuff but normally not PSU’s.
GPU’s that have had a hard life mining are also to be avoided but i don’t know how you’d guarantee their past useage.
 
For storage I would go for a 1TB SSD or nvme drive.

512gb thats been recommended by most will be gone with a couple of games these days. (Warzone is over 100gb on its own, with Call of Duty it can be well over 200gb!)

Alternatively if he only plays a couple of games make do with the 512gb and add an extra SSD in the future.
 
billysielu said:
Impossible to build a good enough pc for that budget. If you try you're basically throwing money away because it will need replacing.
Click to expand...
Impossible? Good enough? A 3100, 1650 Super, 16GB, 1080p etc is a perfectly good entry level gaming system. Whatever you buy, will need replacing eventually.
 
clv101 said:
650W is way OTT.

£600 is doable.

How about this?

My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £548.07 (includes shipping: £17.22)



Dropping to the 3100 and adding a (much faster) 1650 Super, only takes you to £638.​
Click to expand...
This with a 3100 and a b grade rx 580 wh8ch you should be able to get cheaper ask them to do it without a vat on the gpu.

Up the psu to 550w.

.
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/b-gr...ddr5-pci-express-graphics-card-bg-9bt-as.html
 
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Thanks guys! I've had a chat with my friend and she said someone else will buy him the monitor for Christmas so the full £600 can go on the tower & Windows 10

So far I've got
Ryzen 3 3100
Asrock b450m-hdv r4.0 micro atx
crucial ballistix RGB 16GB DDR4-3000
Team GX2 1TB SSD
Asus GeForce GTX 1650 Super 4GB phoenix oc
CiT flash micro atx mid tower case
Corsair TXM gold 550w 80+ gold semi modular psu

This comes out around £553

The case isn't set in stone, I'll need to check with my friend that he'll like it
Wondering if there's any b450 mobos with wifi otherwise they'll need to get a dongle/adapter
Set aside some money for Win10, where would benefit from the little bit left?

He likes playing COD apparently and those recommended specs are nuts
 
does he have a tv in his room? might be able to scrap the monitor requirement in that case......... not ideal but lets you get a decent dedicated GPU in there

do you have MM access? could pick up some right bargains over the next few weeks
 
He has a tv which I suggested he use but apparently he wants something smaller. Fair enough, but they're going to sort that out now.

What's MM sorry?
 
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