£400 Gaming PC, Is It Doable?

BeadyRoller · 24 Dec 2019 at 11:56

Hi! So my brother is really wanting to get in to PC gaming but isn't prepared to spend more than £400, £450 at a stretch, as he hasn't got the money to really go any higher.

Is this a realistic goal? I would build it for him but don't really know where to start in terms of parts for that price point.

He would want to play games like PubG, Siege and DayZ to name a few. He is not expecting to play games on high, he would be ok with low settings, I told him not to expect much for his price range!

Would appreciate any help,

Thanks.

Vince · 24 Dec 2019 at 11:58

BeadyRoller said:
Hi! So my brother is really wanting to get in to PC gaming but isn't prepared to spend more than £400, £450 at a stretch, as he hasn't got the money to really go any higher.

Is this a realistic goal? I would build it for him but don't really know where to start in terms of parts for that price point.

He would want to play games like PubG, Siege and DayZ to name a few. He is not expecting to play games on high, he would be ok with low settings, I told him not to expect much for his price range!

Would appreciate any help!

Thanks!

Second hand all the way.

Ryzen 1600 or 2600 - £60 or £100
16gb Cheap DDR4 - £80
RX570 or rx580 - £100 ish

The rest you could buy new. @ 1080p your looking at medium/high settings

Basically a capable machine for £400 is easily doable. I built one for somebody recently and what I ended up with is below:

ryzen 1600 - £60
msi a320m - £35
16gb ddr4 - £80
rx570 - £75
power supply £25 - Kolink ml but it works.
SSD - 500gb teamgroup - £50 new
Case £50

So the whole machine came in at £350.

ANDARIAL · 24 Dec 2019 at 12:04

Does he have a monitor,kb and mouse?
That would add a bit to the total as well

Minibiker · 24 Dec 2019 at 12:35

It can be done for sure, like mentioned above second hand will be the best way to go, so abit of shopping around... Even if you went brand new on some parts you could do it..

Plec · 24 Dec 2019 at 13:09

BeadyRoller said:
He would want to play games like PubG, Siege and DayZ to name a few. He is not expecting to play games on high, he would be ok with low settings, I told him not to expect much for his price range!

Hey Beady - hope all is well.

@Vince sums it up well and original release Ryzen go cheap with the yearly Zen releases.

Do you have any parts kicking around from your old machine - e.g. re-appropriate an old case, PSU until he can get a better one.

As you can see you can easily get a capable machine via the 'For Sale Forum'. May take some time to acquire all the parts but there is a Wanted section where you can ask if people have specific parts that they're thinking of selling. If funds allow you may be able to get a quality B350 (giving options to upgrade) ~£45 and a better quality PSU.

Vince · 24 Dec 2019 at 13:13

Plec said:
Hey Beady - hope all is well.

@Vince sums it up well and original release Ryzen go cheap with the yearly Zen releases.

Do you have any parts kicking around from your old machine - e.g. re-appropriate an old case, PSU until he can get a better one.

As you can see you can easily get a capable machine via the 'For Sale Forum'. May take some time to acquire all the parts but there is a Wanted section where you can ask if people have specific parts that they're thinking of selling. If funds allow you may be able to get a quality B350 (giving options to upgrade) ~£45 and a better quality PSU.

I sold a quality never used b450 that was Ryzen 3000 ready a week or so ago for £45. Deals are out there for sure.

Gray2233 · 24 Dec 2019 at 13:27

If he needs a mouse + keyboard it might be rough.

I wouldn't go for a Kolink PSU under any scenario, especially not a lower end one. It's the most important component in your PC, skimp anywhere else but that. I'd do something along the lines of the following:

My basket at Overclockers UK:

1 x PowerColor Radeon RX 590 Red Dragon 8192MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card *BLACK FRIDAY DEAL*= £149.99
1 x Team Group Vulcan T-Force 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 PC4-24000C16 3000MHz Dual Channel Kit - Grey (TLGD416G30= £49.99
1 x **B Grade** Kolink Citadel Micro-ATX Case - Black= £22.99
1 x MSI B450M Mortar MAX (Socket AM4) DDR4 mATX Motherboard= £84.95
1 x Gigabyte 240GB SSD 2.5" SATA 6Gbps Solid State Drive= £29.99
1 x Bitfenix Formula Series 450W 80 Plus Gold Power Supply= £59.99

Total: £397.90 (includes shipping: £0.00)

1. High quality PSU.
2. RX590 is a steal at that price.
3. Case is good value but it is B grade.
3. Smaller SSD, it's enough for Windows and a couple of games to get him started. Popping in more storage in a few months is both cheap and easy.

CPU wise the above advice is solid, I'd recommend looking for one of the following in this order:

1. 3500X
2. 2600
3. 1600

If he could stretch his budget just a little bit more, you can get a 2600 second hand for around £80 -- there's also people on this forum buying 3500X's for a similar price, but a 1600 should be available for £50-60. You'll need to spend time checking through the bay, facebook members market, the forums member market if you've access etc either way.

Factoring in the CPU (bought second hand) should bring this build to around £460-490 total, yes over budget by a little but I'd say it really is worth it. Maybe buy him one of the parts for Christmas or something?

He could always use his TV as a monitor until he's in a position to buy something else.

BeadyRoller · 25 Dec 2019 at 01:01

Thanks ever so much for the help everyone, a lot of great advice. He has a monitor, mouse and keyboard sorted so no worries there. Going round to his house tomorrow so I will see if there is anything I can salvage from my old PC - I have a feeling there is an old case knocking around and a Corsair power supply in the garage, don't know how that will fair after being in the cold this winter though haha. Really great to see that you are still around Plec, still always giving out great advice I see after all these years! Hope all is well your end.

Looks like a used Ryzen chip is the best way to go then, will start looking in the members market and see what I can find! Will keep you updated on my next steps.

Have a great Christmas all!

ExoMale · 26 Dec 2019 at 03:04

My basket at Overclockers UK:

1 x AMD Ryzen 5 Six Core 2600 3.90GHz (Socket AM4) Processor - Retail= £128.99
1 x Asrock B450M-HDV R4.0 (Socket AM4) DDR4 MATX Motherboard= £58.99
1 x Team Group Vulcan T-Force 8GB (2x4GB) DDR4 PC4-19200C14 2400MHz Dual Channel Kit - Grey (TLGD48G2400= £28.99
1 x be quiet! System Power 9 400W 80 Plus Bronze Power Supply= £44.99
1 x Palit GeForce GTX 1050Ti StormX 4096MB PCI-Express GDDR5 Graphics Card= £119.99
1 x WD Green 3D NAND 240GB 2.5" SATA 6Gbps Solid State Drive (WDS240G2G0A)= £30.95
1 x Kolink Pitch Midi Tower Case - Black= £24.95

Total: £450.15 (includes shipping: £12.30)

Can find windows elsewhere unless it’s already owned

BeadyRoller · 27 Dec 2019 at 16:26

I have an old Corsair CX500 PSU lying about in the garage and an old case which will bring the price down. I also potentially could be getting a Ryzen 1600 with a cooler second hand for £70-75. Still unsure on the rest of the parts but that's a nice start, will keep the cost down a bit.

BeadyRoller · 29 Dec 2019 at 13:23

So I have managed to source a second hand PC from someone who lives in my area, I think its a pretty decent deal but I want to get the opinions of a few of you first as you know better than me...

This is the spec:

i5 8600k
8GB DDR4 2400mhz RAM
MSI Z370-A Pro
Cooler Master Hyper 212 Cooler
240gb SSD
1TB HDD
650w PSU

He is wanting £350.

I would have to obviously buy a Graphics Card but think I could get a decent one for under £100 second hand.

Do we all think that is a decent build for the money?

Freddie1980 · 30 Dec 2019 at 16:14

I wouldn't give £350 for that, the CPU lacks SMT and the RAM is very slow which is going to throttle performance somewhat and the PSU brand name isn't given. I think £300 is a better deal IMO.

BeadyRoller · 30 Dec 2019 at 17:36

Freddie1980 said:
I wouldn't give £350 for that, the CPU lacks SMT and the RAM is very slow which is going to throttle performance somewhat and the PSU brand name isn't given. I think £300 is a better deal IMO.

Lacks SMT? The PSU is a Corsair VS650.

I thought the 8600k was a really good CPU?

sideways14a · 30 Dec 2019 at 17:46

BeadyRoller said:
So I have managed to source a second hand PC from someone who lives in my area, I think its a pretty decent deal but I want to get the opinions of a few of you first as you know better than me...

This is the spec:

i5 8600k
8GB DDR4 2400mhz RAM
MSI Z370-A Pro
Cooler Master Hyper 212 Cooler
240gb SSD
1TB HDD
650w PSU

He is wanting £350.

I would have to obviously buy a Graphics Card but think I could get a decent one for under £100 second hand.

Do we all think that is a decent build for the money?

The 8600, half decent maybe 3 years ago. now i wouldnt even give it the time of day.
No SMT/HT so 6 thread only going into 2020 ... nope.

only 8gb of ram, ok its a budget build but even so... its also slow.

What is it with overpriced second hand intel guff?

You can do an awful lot better, do not listen to sales folk or someone trying to peddle on there 6yr old desktop for silly money.

Journey · 30 Dec 2019 at 17:56

I posted this in another thread.

Example below

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 2600 3.4 GHz 6-Core Processor
Motherboard: ASRock B450M Pro4-F Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3000 Memory
Storage: Kingston A400 480 GB 2.5" Solid State Drive
Video Card: PowerColor Radeon RX 590 8 GB RED DRAGON Video Card
Case: Antec VSK 3000 Elite MicroATX Mini Tower Case
Power Supply: be quiet! System Power 9 500 W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply

Total: ~£502

Brand new system full warranty, all reasonable parts.

BeadyRoller · 30 Dec 2019 at 21:51

sideways14a said:
The 8600, half decent maybe 3 years ago. now i wouldnt even give it the time of day.
No SMT/HT so 6 thread only going into 2020 ... nope.

only 8gb of ram, ok its a budget build but even so... its also slow.

What is it with overpriced second hand intel guff?

You can do an awful lot better, do not listen to sales folk or someone trying to peddle on there 6yr old desktop for silly money.

Thanks for the heads up, I think I'll leave it, a Ryzen build is definitely the way to go. Any chance you could suggest me a build for £450-500? Just so I have a few options to look through.

Cheers.

BeadyRoller · 30 Dec 2019 at 21:52

Journey said:
I posted this in another thread.

Example below

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 2600 3.4 GHz 6-Core Processor
Motherboard: ASRock B450M Pro4-F Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3000 Memory
Storage: Kingston A400 480 GB 2.5" Solid State Drive
Video Card: PowerColor Radeon RX 590 8 GB RED DRAGON Video Card
Case: Antec VSK 3000 Elite MicroATX Mini Tower Case
Power Supply: be quiet! System Power 9 500 W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply

Total: ~£502

Brand new system full warranty, all reasonable parts.

Thanks for that. Looks good. I can get a Ryzen 1600 for £70 second hand, is the 2600 worth the extra money?

Journey · 30 Dec 2019 at 22:56

BeadyRoller said:
Thanks for that. Looks good. I can get a Ryzen 1600 for £70 second hand, is the 2600 worth the extra money?

For the extra hassle an older R5 1600 would be vs. the 2600 then it might be. It's about £40, so in true performance terms then the answer would be no.

Confusing.

BeadyRoller · 30 Dec 2019 at 23:03

Journey said:
For the extra hassle an older R5 1600 would be vs. the 2600 then it might be. It's about £40, so in true performance terms then the answer would be no.

Confusing.

What would the extra hassle be exactly?

Journey · 30 Dec 2019 at 23:07

BeadyRoller said:
What would the extra hassle be exactly?

The original R5 1600's have a real potential to have terrible IMC's and issues running RAM at speeds above 2933MHz and Zen really likes far RAM and low latencies, something that is harder to achieve with the old CPU's