Gaming PC for around 7-800 for my son

Hellsmk2 · 15 Apr 2018 at 00:59

My son's gaming laptop died a death today, and he's pretty gutted... a day of tears! I haven't built a desktop in a decade now, so completely out of touch. Could anyone suggest a decent build?

- No OS is necessary.
- I have an old 40" Samsung TV - is it feasible to use that as his monitor?
- No KB / Mouse needed.
- Have some old 2.5" OCZ SSD knocking around - I'm assuming desktops will take these?

Few requirements:

- Nvidia GFX - 1060/1070 would be preferred. Too many bad experiences with ATI, though could be persuaded if there was a compelling reason to go that route.
- Case must be red / redish (he's only 6, so this is very important in his mind

).
- Speakers needed.

Any suggestions appreciated.

ExoMale · 15 Apr 2018 at 01:23

not a lot of choice for Red themed cases under a certain amount to keep within budget, this is a nice atx case, the only micro-atx case with any sort of mild red for under £50 was a kolink case with red led fans.

My basket at Overclockers UK:

1 x AMD Ryzen 5 Six Core 1600 3.60GHz (Socket AM4) Processor - Retail= £139.99
1 x MSI B350M Gaming Pro AMD B350 (Socket AM4) DDR4 Micro ATX Motherboard= £71.99
1 x Team Group Dark Pro 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 PC4-24000C15 3000MHz Dual Channel Kit - Black/Red (TDPRD416G30= £169.99
1 x Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1060 Windforce OC 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (GV-N1060WF2OC-3GD)= £224.99
1 x TeamGroup 240GB L5 Lite SSD 2.5" SATA 6Gbps 3D NAND Solid State Drive= £59.99
1 x Seagate 1TB BarraCuda 7200rpm Internal Hard Drive (ST1000DM010 Previously ST1000DM003)= £38.99
1 x EVGA 450BT 450W 80 Plus Bronze Power Supply= £37.99
1 x BitFenix Neos ATX Tower Black/Red= £34.99

Total: £791.22 (includes shipping: £12.30)

while a gaming pc is better than a gaming laptop in essence, you should tell us what he had so we know what he would be expecting performance wise.

Hellsmk2 · 15 Apr 2018 at 01:42

That was quick - The spec looks nearly there too, so thanks

His old laptop was my old one - a custom build with a 1st, possibly 2nd, gen i7, HD 7970M, and 16gb). He's also been using my current one to play Subnautica, which is an i7 kabylake & 1070). He's addicted to the Borderlands games at the moment. We were due to start Borderlands 0 today before the untimely death.

I think from the build above I can remove the HDD/ SSD, as I have a a couple of 180gb SSD's spare. He won't need any other storage at the moment. Is the following GPU worth replacing the 1060 for?

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/inno...ddr5-pci-express-graphics-card-gx-068-in.html

That would bring it in at £857, which is only slightly over. Do you think there is enough between the 1060 & 1070 to make it worthwhile?

JediFragger · 15 Apr 2018 at 01:49

Hellsmk2 said:
Do you think there is enough between the 1060 & 1070 to make it worthwhile?

It's definitely worth the push if you can stretch (even at the expense of a drive, which you have). If only because it'll last him that much longer.

ExoMale · 15 Apr 2018 at 02:38

Hellsmk2 said:
That was quick - The spec looks nearly there too, so thanks

His old laptop was my old one - a custom build with a 1st, possibly 2nd, gen i7, HD 7970M, and 16gb). He's also been using my current one to play Subnautica, which is an i7 kabylake & 1070). He's addicted to the Borderlands games at the moment. We were due to start Borderlands 0 today before the untimely death.

I think from the build above I can remove the HDD/ SSD, as I have a a couple of 180gb SSD's spare. He won't need any other storage at the moment. Is the following GPU worth replacing the 1060 for?

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/inno...ddr5-pci-express-graphics-card-gx-068-in.html

That would bring it in at £857, which is only slightly over. Do you think there is enough between the 1060 & 1070 to make it worthwhile?

ha im about on the site already and i like to make suggestions.

that 7970m is or was a beefy graphics chip from a quick read up and compares to the gt 670m/680m that were reviewed as rather good for their time, but a 1060 betters them, im sure a 1050 would too, but what i spec for a desktop, only that gpu would be considered the weak link as regardless of 3gb or 6gb version a 1070 owns it and im sure a mobile 1070 will own it too, but then it depends what games he is playing at his age? while its nice to have a high end system, the chances are by the time hes 10/11/12 whatever you buy now might not be up to scratch if its to last for years, new tech every year with improvements of some sort along the way, so it would be wise to buy a computer suitable for what he is playing than a power house.

in fact, if he gets on with a laptop and you can stretch to £850 why dont you get him this?, overall it be an improvement over the old 7970m based laptop.

My basket at Overclockers UK:

1 x MSI GL62MVR 7RFX 1269UK, Nvidia GTX 1060 3GB GDDR5, 15.6” FHD, Intel i5 7300HQ Gaming Laptop= £849.95

Total: £860.45 (includes shipping: £10.50)

Hellsmk2 · 15 Apr 2018 at 07:45

I was already looking at that laptop as a straight replacement, but thought it may be more prudent to try and get something with a gfx card at least at the level of my own gaming laptop.

We like playing LAN co-op games together, so I'd like the replacement to have a shelf life as equal to mine lappy as possible (hence trying to squeeze in a 1070). The original plan was to replace his in a year or so and give him my current lappy, but this death has brought that forward unfortunately.

Did have my eyes on the following for 850 second hand:

Chassis & Display Defiance Series: 15.6" Matte 3K IPS LED Widescreen (2880x1620)
Processor (CPU) Intel® CoreTM i7 Quad Core Processor 6700HQ (2.6GHz, 3.5GHz Turbo)
Memory (RAM) 16GB HyperX IMPACT 2133MHz SODIMM DDR4 (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 1060 - 6.0GB GDDR5 Video RAM - DirectX® 12.1, G-SYNC
Memory - Hard Disk NOT REQUIRED
M.2 SSD Drive 512GB SAMSUNG PM951 M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 1050MB/R, 560MB/W)
Sound Card Intel 2 Channel High Def. Audio + MIC/Headphone + SoundBlaster X-Fi MB3
Bluetooth & Wireless GIGABIT LAN & KILLERTM WIRELESS-AC 1535 M.2 GAMING 802.11AC +

It's an older CPU, but 6GB 1060 & 512 M2 - do you think this would be worth it over the MSI?

ExoMale · 15 Apr 2018 at 10:15

Hellsmk2 said:
I was already looking at that laptop as a straight replacement, but thought it may be more prudent to try and get something with a gfx card at least at the level of my own gaming laptop.

We like playing LAN co-op games together, so I'd like the replacement to have a shelf life as equal to mine lappy as possible (hence trying to squeeze in a 1070). The original plan was to replace his in a year or so and give him my current lappy, but this death has brought that forward unfortunately.

Did have my eyes on the following for 850 second hand:

Chassis & Display Defiance Series: 15.6" Matte 3K IPS LED Widescreen (2880x1620)
Processor (CPU) Intel® CoreTM i7 Quad Core Processor 6700HQ (2.6GHz, 3.5GHz Turbo)
Memory (RAM) 16GB HyperX IMPACT 2133MHz SODIMM DDR4 (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 1060 - 6.0GB GDDR5 Video RAM - DirectX® 12.1, G-SYNC
Memory - Hard Disk NOT REQUIRED
M.2 SSD Drive 512GB SAMSUNG PM951 M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 1050MB/R, 560MB/W)
Sound Card Intel 2 Channel High Def. Audio + MIC/Headphone + SoundBlaster X-Fi MB3
Bluetooth & Wireless GIGABIT LAN & KILLERTM WIRELESS-AC 1535 M.2 GAMING 802.11AC +

It's an older CPU, but 6GB 1060 & 512 M2 - do you think this would be worth it over the MSI?

this one would be much better, much better and faster processor, double the ram and the better 6gb version of the 1060 which from reviews is rated between 970m & 980m, so it classed as an high enough product. the 3gb 1060 is a nerfed version, still a capable card, but for the money its a no brainer .

Hellsmk2 · 15 Apr 2018 at 10:39

Thanks for all the advice guys, especially ExoMale, I've gone ahead with the 2nd hand laptop for him, which will hopefully see through a couple of years now.

ExoMale · 15 Apr 2018 at 19:55

Hellsmk2 said:
Thanks for all the advice guys, especially ExoMale, I've gone ahead with the 2nd hand laptop for him, which will hopefully see through a couple of years now.

i know times have changes since we were kids, but id have loved a gaming system like that despite being a console gamer lol, so im sure he would be happy with anything so long it plays whatever he wants ha.