Xmas Gift for Son £600

[bestbrother]

Hello all

I know I’m not coming in with a massive budget but we have £600 to either build my son a tower or get him a laptop.

I’d love some advise and parts list for the best budget gaming PC parts that will build him a complete tower.

We don’t need a monitor or any peripherals.

I know that skimping on any part could be detrimental, but the best setup to allow him to play games at 1080p as high as possible would be appreciated.

This is likely to be a quick purchase so feel free to include Black Friday prices.

Edit: we do not need Windows 11 key.

Thank you

 

[Brackish]

What about a hand held like the Steam Deck or Legion GO S with a dock?

I know it's not a tower but it gives him flexibility, just have to turn some quality settings down and use FSR.

 

[bestbrother]

What about a hand held like the Steam Deck or Legion GO S with a dock?

I know it's not a tower but it gives him flexibility, just have to turn some quality settings down and use FSR.

Don’t they have small screens? He really wants to get into Football Manager and some other PC genres like RTS and maybe mod the odd game. I’ll look into them to see if it works for him. Cheers

Edit: just noticed the word dock, so these handhelds can be linked to a monitor and run games pretty well?

 

[Tetras]

This is the best I could do, I don't know how to cut it down anymore, unless you have some DDR4 lying around to spec an alternative AM4/1700 build.

(I believe there's a cooler in the CPU box, but couldn't find confirmation on AMD's website)

My basket at OcUK:

• 1 x AMD Ryzen 5 8400F Six Core 4.70GHz (Socket AM5) Processor - Retail (SKU: PRO-AMD-02288) = £129.99
• 1 x MSI Pro B840M-B (AMD AM5) B840 Micro-ATX Motherboard (SKU: MOT-MSI-05550) = £89.99
• 1 x Crucial Pro OC 32GB (2x16GB) DDR5 PC5-48000C36 6000MHz Dual Channel Kit (SKU: MEM-CRU-02219) = £128.99
• 1 x Sparkle Intel ARC B570 GUARDIAN OC 10GB GDDR6 Graphics Card (SKU: GRA-SPK-03924) = £154.99
• 1 x Intel Holiday Bundle - Choose One Of Four Premium Games (SKU: DIG-INT-06664) = £0.00
• 1 x Gigabyte Aorus 7300E 1TB SSD M.2 2280 NVME PCI-E Gen4 Solid State Drive (SKU: STO-GIG-06500) = £59.99
• 1 x Kolink Inspire Series K2 ARGB Micro-ATX Case - Black Window (SKU: CA-046-KK) = £29.99
• 1 x MSI MAG A650BN UK PSU 650W 80 Plus Bronze Power Supply (SKU: POW-MSI-03345) = £49.99

Total: £655.92 (includes delivery: £11.98)​

 

[Brackish]

Don’t they have small screens? He really wants to get into Football Manager and some other PC genres like RTS and maybe mod the odd game. I’ll look into them to see if it works for him. Cheers

Edit: just noticed the word dock, so these handhelds can be linked to a monitor and run games pretty well?

Yes, dock it and plug in a monitor, mouse, keyboard and headset.

 

[Brackish]

This is the best I could do, I don't know how to cut it down anymore, unless you have some DDR4 lying around to spec an alternative AM4/1700 build.

(I believe there's a cooler in the CPU box, but couldn't find confirmation on AMD's website)

My basket at OcUK:

• 1 x AMD Ryzen 5 8400F Six Core 4.70GHz (Socket AM5) Processor - Retail (SKU: PRO-AMD-02288) = £129.99
• 1 x MSI Pro B840M-B (AMD AM5) B840 Micro-ATX Motherboard (SKU: MOT-MSI-05550) = £89.99
• 1 x Crucial Pro OC 32GB (2x16GB) DDR5 PC5-48000C36 6000MHz Dual Channel Kit (SKU: MEM-CRU-02219) = £128.99
• 1 x Sparkle Intel ARC B570 GUARDIAN OC 10GB GDDR6 Graphics Card (SKU: GRA-SPK-03924) = £154.99
• 1 x Intel Holiday Bundle - Choose One Of Four Premium Games (SKU: DIG-INT-06664) = £0.00
• 1 x Gigabyte Aorus 7300E 1TB SSD M.2 2280 NVME PCI-E Gen4 Solid State Drive (SKU: STO-GIG-06500) = £59.99
• 1 x Kolink Inspire Series K2 ARGB Micro-ATX Case - Black Window (SKU: CA-046-KK) = £29.99
• 1 x MSI MAG A650BN UK PSU 650W 80 Plus Bronze Power Supply (SKU: POW-MSI-03345) = £49.99

Total: £655.92 (includes delivery: £11.98)​

Would going down to 16gb ram and moving the savings to a B580 be better?

 

[Tetras]

Would going down to 16gb ram and moving the savings to a B580 be better?

I wouldn't recommend it. You'd be stuck with obsolete 8GB sticks in the future, because the board only has 2 slots and unless they're very minimalist while using the PC (e.g. closing stuff when gaming) it'll start to chug and push things onto the page file (& increasing SSD wear), despite being a brand new build.

 

[bestbrother]

thanks for the input. I’m going to suggest a Steam Deck as a viable option for him and see if anything pops up around Black Friday

 

[Brackish]

thanks for the input. I’m going to suggest a Steam Deck as a viable option for him and see if anything pops up around Black Friday

Just note that any hand held that is Linux or Steam based OS can't play certain games like COD due to anti cheat. There are hand held that have windows 11 on them.

 

[InkZ]

or scour the MM

 

[jigger]

This could come in sub £600 is shop around, but Minisforum is probably the place to look right now.

My basket at OcUK:

• 1 x AMD Ryzen 7 5700X Eight Core 4.6GHz (Socket AM4) Processor - Retail (SKU: CP-3D1-AM) = £139.99
• 1 x Gigabyte B550M DS3H AC R2 (AMD AM4) B550 Micro-ATX Motherboard (SKU: MOT-GIG-06023) = £88.98
• 1 x Team Group 8Pack Edition 32GB (2x16GB) DDR4 PC4-28800C18 3600MHz Dual Channel Ki (SKU: MEM-8PK-02586) = £119.99
• 1 x Team Group MP33 PRO 1TB SSD M.2 2280 NVME PCI-E Gen3 Solid State Drive (SKU: STO-TMG-02681) = £59.99
• 1 x Intel ARC A750 Gaming 8GB GDDR6 PCI-Express Graphics Card (SKU: GX-08U-IN) = £149.99
• 1 x Intel Holiday Bundle - Choose One Of Four Premium Games (SKU: DIG-INT-06664) = £0.00
• 1 x Aerocool Bolt Mini TG Micro-ATX case - black (SKU: CA-234-AE) = £24.94
• 1 x Aerocool Integrator 500W 80 Plus Bronze Power Supply (SKU: CA-23M-AE) = £38.00

Total: £633.86 (includes delivery: £11.98)​

 

[TrojanWhore]

thanks for the input. I’m going to suggest a Steam Deck as a viable option for him and see if anything pops up around Black Friday

Unless the portability would be a decent value-add, I'd probably stick with a desktop - The builds outlined above will outperform it (I'm 99% sure, can't find benchmarks comparing to desktop parts and don't have time to cross reference), but will also provide a VERY viable platform for a later graphics upgrade if more performance is needed.

Also, anecdotally, I have a more powerful Windows based handheld (Antec Core HS, which is a rebranded Ayeneo slide and pretty much the same as the Z1 extreme in the Lenovo Legion Go better model).
It is fine generally, for what it is (I bought it mainly for handheld/portable use), but can be a bit finnickety when docked (like when I stayed at my parents', it wouldn't play ball with their TV so I ended up going home to grab my desktop.... it does work fine with my old 1080p monitor, but realistically for RTS games etc, I'd probably want 1440p anyway)

 

[Gray2233]

I'd not touch that Aerocool PSU with a barge pole fired by a wet fart, if you need to budget to that extent you can't afford to replace the things it might kill.

It's a good breakdown of parts don't get me wrong, but I'd push for the MSI 650BN.

Regardless, buying into AM4 right now is not a good long term choice, I'd rather have a Steam Deck as at least that will have some resale value in a year or two.

The AM5 suggestion by Tetras is the minimum I'd consider but even then there's a lot of iffy cut backs, I'd personally save for awhile and spend a bit more for a better system and longevity/upgrade potential.

 

[sastusbulbas]

I would be recommending something along the lines of what Tetras recommended.

Buy the 32gb of memory before another price increase, but also scour B-Grade and Black Friday deals for potential saving on other parts.

AM5 it, it gives upgrade potential.

And get a decent brand PSU, even if it means it isn't modular. Remember if you get a budget case with a PSU shroud the cables will never be seen. You don't need a modular PSU in modern pc cases.