Gaming PC for a friend - no fixed budget

Associate
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Hello everyone;

I've not been keeping up with hardware much over the last few years, so I'm not sure what the current sweet spot is for the price / performance ratio. My friend wants to venture into PC gaming after spending his whole like as a console gamer. He's massively into FIFA, and Skyrim, and I would image would game at 1080p. Ideally, he'd like something that will last for a few years, but not break the bank if he decides that PC gaming isn't for him.

He's not really given me a budget, but I suggested we could probably do something for as cheap as £400-500 or potentially up to £600-750 if the performance bump is worth the money. Is anyone able to maybe show a few different options and these price points?

Thanks in advance :)
 
Man of Honour
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My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £290.58 (includes shipping: £11.70)
\

below are all from the same etailer (with free shipping):
MOBO: msi b450 tomahawk - £90
PSU: corsair CX650M - £60 (would've specced the 550M - but the 650M is the same price lol)
CPU: ryzen 2600 - £120

total build cost £550 ex shipping (as you get free shipping from ocuk)
 
Associate
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Thanks buddy - I've spoke to my mate a bit more now and it looks like he doesn't need a keyboard/mouse/monitor and we're looking at a hard budget of £650. His girlfriend wants one too, so I'll be building them two identical PCs.

Any other suggestions at this budget?
 
Associate
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They're quite keen to get something soonish, but I could possibly get him to wait if the value for money at the £650 price point is a lot better. I'm just having a bit of a play on the OCUK site right now to find something around the £650 mark, but I'm so out of touch these days that I'm not sure what's what these days :p:p
 
Man of Honour
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There isn't much to upgrade from the value £550 build I posted above. It is literally where the bang/buck curve becomes exponentially worse off. If you do want to spend the extra £100, then probs do it on the processor (2600 to 2600x - £30) and the GPU (Rx 570 4gb to Rx 580 8gb - £55).
Faster ram isn't worth the extra outlay (£20) but can be considered if you desperately want to spend the money.
Another thing would be to get a 1tb SSD. But tbh 500gb for an entry/mid-low end system is good enough. Better to spend extra funds on the CPU/GPU. Additional HDD storage can be easily added on down the line.
 
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Hey! So we've ordered the above parts and after windows is installed, the computer crashes after about 10 minutes or so of use. I can't even get through windows update before they crash. I'm headed back over to his tonight to take a look. I don't think it's a hardware issue though, as before installing Windows the computer seems fine.

Any auggeatsugg on how to avoid the BSOD? We are using windows update to update the drivers but I'm going to try to manually update the drivers tonight, before windows does it for us.
 
Man of Honour
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Any auggeatsugg on how to avoid the BSOD? We are using windows update to update the drivers but I'm going to try to manually update the drivers tonight, before windows does it for us.
Install windows without an internet connection and then run memtest, then prime 95, then furmark (ie test memory, CPU, then GPU) to make sure it's all okay first.
Random bsods usually = faulty ram.
 
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