A gaming system for £350? Is this even possible?

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Feek

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My son has autism and as a result, it's very difficult for him to hold down a proper job. He's managed to keep his paper round going for a few years though (oldest paperboy in town at 20) and has saved around £350.

He currently has an old Dell computer that I got from work for him as it was being trashed but now he wants to buy/build a 'gaming PC'.

Realistically, is he going to get anything worthwhile for £350? I have a Windows licence here so that doesn't need to be included in the cost.

Bear in mind that I know absolutely nothing about current PC hardware.

Thanks.
 
what games is he wanting to play?

my son loves minecraft and has Autism too so I got him a cheap PC for that and school work.

for that price I think you maybe after a processor with a built in GPU which will save on buying a separate gpu but this will depend on what games he wants to play
 
Yes it is very possible, more so if you buy second hand parts that are two generations or more from before now. In-fact if you did that on all the parts except the graphics card you could probably get a nice £200 graphics card. The GTX 970 seems a bit out of range but you could see how much the 960 will cost.
 
mufc802 said:
Yes it is very possible, more so if you buy second hand parts that are two generations or more from before now. In-fact if you did that on all the parts except the graphics card you could probably get a nice £200 graphics card. The GTX 970 seems a bit out of range but you could see how much the 960 will cost.
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+1

Used parts would bag you quite a nice system, if you can use the MM you can get

- i5 2500(k) for £80
- Mobo for about £40 e.g. Gigabyte Z77M board for £40 http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18647411
- GTX 670 or similar £100 e.g. 280X for £110 http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18648176 or 7950 (R9 280) £90 http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18648267
- 8GB RAM for £40
- 1TB HDD for about £30
- Possibly a PSU for about £35 e.g. Antec earthwatts - http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18646767

Totalling £290

Then new;

- CPU cooler £15
- Case £30
- PSU £50 if you can't find used


Totalling around about £365? It'll make mincemeat of anything new at least
 
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How about this:

YOUR BASKET
1 x Gigabyte GeForce GTX 750Ti WindForce OC 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (GV-N75TOC-2GI) £109.99
1 x Seagate SSHD 7200RPM 3.5" 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DX001) SSHD Hybrid Drive £64.99
1 x Avexir Venom Series 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Memory Kit (AVD3U16000904G-2CIG) - Green Light £59.99
1 x AMD Athlon 5350 2.05GHz Quad Core Processor - Retail (Socket AM1) £43.99
1 x Antec VP350P 350W '80 Plus' Continuous Power Supply £28.99
1 x Gigabyte GA-AM1M-S2H AMD AM1 (Socket FS1b) DDR3 Mirco ATX Motherboard £23.99
1 x Zalman T1 Plus Mini-Tower USB 3.0 - Black £19.99
Total : £365.44 (includes shipping : £11.25).



OR

YOUR BASKET
1 x Asus H81M-K Intel Core i5 DIY Micro ATX Motherboard, CPU & RAM Bundle £228.97
1 x Gigabyte GeForce GTX 750Ti WindForce OC 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (GV-N75TOC-2GI) £109.99
1 x Antec VP350P 350W '80 Plus' Continuous Power Supply £28.99
1 x Zalman T1 Plus Mini-Tower USB 3.0 - Black £19.99
Total : £401.45 (includes shipping : £11.25).



However as stated, you will be able to build from the MM. (lol missed out hdd on second build.....fail)
 
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You may well be able to build and okay machine if you buy new parts and use some of his current ones, but you will be able to build a far greater one if you use second hand parts.

If you do end up opting for the latter, try and source them from a gamer that is selling because they have upgraded their system, as this will more than likely result in you receiving parts that have been well looked after.
 
 
Some nice suggestions there, thank you.

I asked him what games he wants to play and this was the list he sent me:

Elder scrolls oblivion
Elder scrolls skyrim
Elder scrolls online
Fallout 3
Fallout new Vegas
Darksiders 2
Borderlands
Batman arkham city
Assassins creed 2
Assassins creed brotherhood
Assassins creed revelations
Assassin creed 3
Portal 1
Portal 2
Half life
Minecraft
Vampire the masquerade bloodlines
 
I'm not keen on buying second hand really - My PC hardware knowledge is so far out of date that it'd be a right royal PITA for me to work out what's compatible with what etc.
 
Like others have said go down the used route, I'd hang out on MM for a few weeks and bag the following

i5 CPU + Compatible Motherboard - £150
HD 7950 / 7970 - £70
8 GB memory - £40
Hard Drive - £40
Cheap Case + PSU - £50

You can always ask here for any help with compatibilities etc. On such a small budget it really would be worth putting in the effort to build a very reasonable machine via MM :)

You could put a advert in the Wanted section for a full rig, you'll get something decent for that money.
 
Building second hand isn't too bad, especially from the MM on Overclockers, i've always found that people take good care of their hardware on here and are generally good at replying etc. I've done a few trades on there and it isn't bad at all. Don't be scared of it :)

I have some stuff that I might be selling soon (Z77 mobo, 8GB RAM, dual core pentium) so if you want that you'll have to make a wanted in MM (or let me know and I'll make a sale thread). Might be a little underpowered with a dual core but it would be a good upgrade path for him, with 2600K being a great chip in the future.
 
 
I'd definitely consider second hand for anything under £500

My current PC is 80% used, including my CPU/Motherboard, SSDs, case and previously my graphics card... as are my amp+speakers and half of my HDDs. You can get a lot more for your money while staying fairly recent. My total failures of second hand hardware (out of around 30 components) is one dead 8800GT... which blew when a family member turned my PC off from the power socket.

The PC is now 5+ years old and still going strong with a GPU upgrade after that 8800 blew, and a (used) SSD to speed things up.
 
Audigex said:
My current PC is 80% used, including my CPU/Motherboard, SSDs, case and previously my graphics card... as are my amp+speakers and half of my HDDs. You can get a lot more for your money while staying fairly recent. My total failures of second hand hardware (out of around 30 components) is one dead 8800GT... which blew when a family member turned my PC off from the power socket.
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Ouch :o

Hope you hit them :p

My 780 was off the MM - about 60% cheaper than new. Same goes for a lot of components. Definitely consider second hand. :cool:
 
ThaReaperGuy said:
YOUR BASKET
1 x MSI AMD ATI Radeon 7850 1024MB PCI-Express Graphics Card **REFURB 90 DAY WARRANTY** (R7850-1GD5) £65.99
1 x TeamGroup Vulcan RED 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-19200C11 2400MHz Dual Channel Kit (TLRED38G2400HC11CDC01) £65.99
1 x Intel Pentium K Anniversary G3258 Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £57.59
1 x Seagate Barracuda 1TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) HDD £44.99
1 x EVGA 500W 80 Plus Bronze Power Supply (100-B1-0500-KR) £43.99
1 x Gigabyte H81M-S2PV Intel H81 (Socket 1150) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard £39.95
1 x Raijintek Arcadia Mid Tower USB 3.0 Case - Black £24.95
Total : £353.04 (includes shipping : £8.00).



Second hand is a very good idea, my entire PC was from MM. :D
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A lot of bang for your buck in there, this is the computer I would build if I were going for all new parts.
I built my Dad a very similar computer, with an older Ivy Bridge Pentium, and it should run every game in the list competently.
 
Again, thanks all for the advice. On the second hand scene, a friend at work has recently upgraded and has offered him the following for £250:

2 x AMD Radeon HD7950
Intel i7 3770
Asus P8Z77-V LX2

I assume this is a good deal?

If so, what do I need to add to build a workable system? Is it just memory, case, PSU and HDD? Can I get those for £100?
 
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