£500 build for a newb

CheeseyCrumpet

CheeseyCrumpet

CheeseyCrumpet

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Hi guys, I wondered if you could help.

My 11 year old son has rather impressively managed to save up £550 for a gaming PC. I will be buying his monitor, keyboard and mouse for Christmas but I need some help with his spec as I'm an utter novice as is he.
He keeps talking about the new graphics cards that have just come out of which I've done a bit of research and it seems they are out of our price range at the minute.
Could anyone suggest a build for us? I'm happy to build it myself and have started to do some research.
He wants to game and stream from the PC.
I've budgeted around £200 for his monitor, keyboard and mouse. Happy to use Black Friday if there are some good deals.
Many thanks

CheeseyCrumpet
 
Are there any specific games he wants to play?

You can stream from the new PS and Xbox I believe, and you'll get much more hardware for your money. A gaming PC for £550 is going to be much more limited in terms of performance, but does have the advantage of being a better platform for RTS style games and a few others.

I'd wait until Black Friday and revisit, suitable Intel parts aren't in stock at OCUK right now and AMD parts are a bit on the expensive side for some reason with the 3600 being £220.
 
Thanks Gray, he wants to play all the latest games, COD and a like.
I've tried to talk him into a PS5 but he's having non of it. (Probably because he can use mine!)
To be honest he will need a PC as he starts secondary school so it does make sense
 
If the system helps with his schoolwork that's definitely a plus point.

As I said revisit this in a couple of weeks and fingers crossed you'll get more for your money during the sales.
 
You've certainly got a task on your hands if the £550 has to cover the costs of the monitor too.

Are you going to be building it with him, or will you be gifting it on Xmas day prebuilt?

Reason I ask, is a few carefully chosen 2nd hand parts, such as the GPU, may give you a bit more leeway.
 
BogEyes said:
You've certainly got a task on your hands if the £550 has to cover the costs of the monitor too.

Are you going to be building it with him, or will you be gifting it on Xmas day prebuilt?

Reason I ask, is a few carefully chosen 2nd hand parts, such as the GPU, may give you a bit more leeway.
Click to expand...

The £550 is just the PC. I'll be buying the monitor, keyboard and mouse for him with a further budget of £200.

We will be building it together ☺️
 
A pre built Ryzen 4750G system might be worth considering. It’s an APU but it’s 8 cores and a pretty decent gaming system.

The integrated graphics tests are at the end.

 
CheeseyCrumpet said:
The £550 is just the PC. I'll be buying the monitor, keyboard and mouse for him with a further budget of £200.

We will be building it together ☺️
Click to expand...

Okay, definitely more achievable then!

I'm in a similar position with a friend who has a budget of £500.

I will post back a bit later with some ideas.
 
 
 
CheeseyCrumpet said:
Brilliant, cheers Micky
Click to expand...
Your welcome, gives you a baseline for your budget you can make adjustment to suit . You probably could get a decent 1080p monitor , keyboard and mouse for £150 so that extra £50 could be used to enhance the build. No wifi not sure if you need it.

Any questions ?
 
You can get a half decent 1080P 144hz IPS/VA monitor with Freesync for around £150-180.

Leaves enough for a decent mouse and keyboard, especially if you check sales and clearance lines. Last year around Black Friday/Christmas I managed to get a 'clearance' Logitech G402 for £16, thing was brand new in a sealed (albeit slightly battered) box. Definitely some deals to be found if you're willing to wait and look around.
 
mickyflinn said:
Your welcome, gives you a baseline for your budget you can make adjustment to suit . You probably could get a decent 1080p monitor , keyboard and mouse for £150 so that extra £50 could be used to enhance the build. No wifi not sure if you need it.

Any questions ?
Click to expand...

Yes will need WiFi. Like you say great to have a base point where I can no start to look for deals
 
CheeseyCrumpet said:
Yes will need WiFi. Like you say great to have a base point where I can no start to look for deals
Click to expand...
This should be your minimum baseline
3100
1650 super make sure it's the super.
16gb 3200mhz ram no point in going higher .
B450 motherboard.

Windows keys can be had for £10

Good luck with your build
 
As an aside, if you have no interest in upgrading the build in the future an Intel setup might be better.

The 3100 is a great chip, but it's a 4c8t part that's a similar price as the Intel 10400F which is a 6c12t part.

Most of this is moot however as we've no idea what the stock or price situation will be come Black Friday, and at the moment almost everything seems to be out of stock.

One thing I did fail to consider, does your son already have an HDTV in his bedroom? If so that could be used as an interim monitor and allow you to spend more on his PC. While not ideal it would still be functional, maybe buy him a dedicated gaming monitor next year as a birthday gift?
 
Gray2233 said:
As an aside, if you have no interest in upgrading the build in the future an Intel setup might be better.

The 3100 is a great chip, but it's a 4c8t part that's the same price as the Intel 10400F which is a 6c12t part for a similar price.

Most of this is moot however as we've no idea what the stock or price situation will be come Black Friday, and at the moment almost everything seems to be out of stock.

One thing I did fail to consider, does your son already have an HDTV in his bedroom? If so that could be used as an interim monitor and allow you to spend more on his PC. While not ideal it would still be functional, maybe buy him a dedicated gaming monitor next year as a birthday gift?
Click to expand...

He says he wants to upgrade as the months and years go by but he is 11. He's just as likely to play on it twice and then want to sell it for a motorbike....
 
CheeseyCrumpet said:
He says he wants to upgrade as the months and years go by but he is 11. He's just as likely to play on it twice and then want to sell it for a motorbike....
Click to expand...

Haha!

I'm impressed he managed to save as much money as he did without spending it on other stuff, I'm not sure I'd have pulled that off at his age.

If he wants to upgrade over time AMD is definitely the way to go, especially if he doesn't mind hitting the second hand market for a CPU upgrade.
 
CheeseyCrumpet said:
Hi guys, I wondered if you could help.

My 11 year old son has rather impressively managed to save up £550 for a gaming PC. I will be buying his monitor, keyboard and mouse for Christmas but I need some help with his spec as I'm an utter novice as is he.
He keeps talking about the new graphics cards that have just come out of which I've done a bit of research and it seems they are out of our price range at the minute.
Could anyone suggest a build for us? I'm happy to build it myself and have started to do some research.
He wants to game and stream from the PC.
I've budgeted around £200 for his monitor, keyboard and mouse. Happy to use Black Friday if there are some good deals.
Many thanks

CheeseyCrumpet
Click to expand...

Hi,

I'd configure this:

My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £578.22 (includes shipping: £12.30)​
​
 
Just to chime back in, I agree with mickyflinn who has posted above. Essentially a 3100 based Ryzen system on a b450 motherboard is should provide plenty of upgradability in the future if ever needed.

I like the build he posted, just be mindful a 500GB harddrive can fill up very quickly with games these days.

Also consider AMD equivalent GPU's, such as the RX 580/590.

Aiming to purchase everything brand new, just in case there are any issues with something failing is of course ideal. If however you bought a 2nd hand Rx580/590 (2nd hand Nvidia cards fetch a higher premium typically), for around £100, it would likely mean you'd lose less money in 6-12months if a GPU upgrade was needed.

I think the main point I wanted to make was, with black Friday coming up, there is the potential to pick up some good deals namely on 16GB (2x8GB) 3200mhz Memory, potentially as low as £40. SSD's could potentially be as low as £60 for a 1TB option. If some key purchases were timed well, the ability to save a fair few pennies could definitely happen.

Which on these budget builds makes all the difference!!
 
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