Best Gaming PC for 600-700 (prebuilt)

mdkilinc

mdkilinc

mdkilinc

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23 Nov 2018
Posts
65
Hi again,

One of my friends is looking to buy a gaming PC. They found a pre built one but I told them that they could do better for this budget. The PC they found is this :

PERFORMANCE
Processor - AMD Ryzen 3 3200G Processor
- Quad-core
- 3.6 GHz / 4.0 GHz
- 6 MB cache
RAM - 8 GB DDR4 (2400 MHz)
- 32 GB maximum installable RAM
Graphics card - NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650
- 4 GB GDDR5
Storage - 1 TB HDD (7200 rpm)
- 256 GB SSD
3.5 mm jackCONNECTIVITY
WiFi - 1x1
- Up to 300 Mbps
Ethernet Gigabit Ethernet port
USB - USB 3.0 x 4
- USB 2.0 x 2
Video connections - HDMI x 1
- DVI x 1
Audio connections
Operating system Windows 10 (64-bit)

for the price of £649.

Can you find me a better setup that is prebuilt and ready to go?

MUCH APPRECIATED,
 
Err well pre-built if you have to, I'd go for something like this I've configured... Has a Ryzen 3660, 16GB RAM, 1660 Super and 1TB SSD. Also changed the case to the plain Kolink Citadel mATX, the default one is awful lol.

So this would do much better than the above, also noticed that pre-built you mention doesn't even have an SSD! I removed Windows 10 though as that saves nearly £100, you can grab a Windows 10 license from the popular auction website for about £5.

But you can get much better quality components if he/you don't mind building the PC? Also much more fun - added a 2nd basket to demonstrate, if you really needed it at the £700 point, could drop the GPU down to an AMD RX 580, but the 1660 Super is a great 1080p card if he can stretch the budget a little. :)

The motherboard is pre-order, stock supposed to be with OcUK end of this month / early August they have told me. Only reason I picked it is it's a great board for the price and on the newer B550 chipset. But if he wants something in stock right now, then could swap the MB to either Asus B550M-A (budget B550 board) or the MSI B450M Mortar Max which is just a slightly older chipset but would run great still.


My basket at Overclockers UK:
  • 1 x OcUK Gaming Kinetic RA - AMD A320 Configurable Ryzen DDR4 Gaming PC = £711.97
    • Processor:AMD Ryzen 5 3600 Six Core 4.2GHz (Socket AM4) Processor - MPK
    • Memory:Team Group Vulcan Z T-Force 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 PC4-24000C16 3000MHz Dual Channel Kit - Grey
    • Primary Drive:TeamGroup 1TB Vulcan SSD 2.5" SATA 6Gbps 3D NAND Solid State Drive
    • Secondary Drive:Unwanted
    • WIFI USB:Unwanted
    • Operating System:Unwanted
    • Security Software:Unwanted
    • Graphics Card: Palit GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER StormX OC 6144MB GDDR6 PCI-Express Graphics Card
    • Case:Kolink Citadel Micro-ATX Case - Black
Total: £711.97 (includes shipping: £0.00)
​


My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £741.81 (includes shipping: £0.00)
​
 
mdkilinc said:
Hi again,

One of my friends is looking to buy a gaming PC. They found a pre built one but I told them that they could do better for this budget. The PC they found is this :

[...]
Click to expand...
That one is really not a great choice, for sure.

It has the outdated Zen+ architecture and only 4 threads.
Just 8GB is poor with the price of 16GB memory now.
The 1650 doesn't make any sense when the 1650 Super is so much faster and something like £10.

Sparx's build is so much better.

What resolution are they planning on?
 
Hiya,

Thanks for the response. He would like to build it on his own but he has no one to help him. Is the overclocker's one Sparx mentioned ready to use? By that I mean are all the drivers installed because my friend doesn't understand installing the drivers at all.
 
mdkilinc said:
He would like to build it on his own but he has no one to help him.
Click to expand...

Always happy to help if he happens to live local to me. :)

EDIT:

Here's a suggestion I put together for someone else, similar budget.

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 3600 3.6 GHz 6-Core Processor
Motherboard: MSI B450M MORTAR MAX Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard
Memory: Patriot Viper 4 Blackout 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory
Storage: Crucial P2 500 GB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive
Video Card: GIGABYTE GeForce GTX 1660 Super 6 GB OC Graphics Card
Case: KOLINK STRONGHOLD ATX Mid Tower Case
Power Supply: be quiet! System Power 9 500 W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply
Total: ~£679

Really solid gaming build for 1080p 100Hz+ and 1440P 60-75Hz.
 
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mdkilinc said:
Hiya,

Thanks for the response. He would like to build it on his own but he has no one to help him. Is the overclocker's one Sparx mentioned ready to use? By that I mean are all the drivers installed because my friend doesn't understand installing the drivers at all.
Click to expand...

In the sense you're expecting for your friend - no it's not 'ready to switch on and play games straight away' I'm afraid :p

I've cut about £100 from the cost by dropping OcUK's W10 license cost - and put that towards better components. As you can get a cheap W10 key from the popular auction site for about £5. But it does mean he'd need to download W10 from Microsoft's site, copy it to a USB stick and booting from it. Could your friend handle that? :D

I take it you don't live local to your friend, or have you not build a PC before either? If you have, why don't you video call him and help him set it up?
 
mdkilinc said:
The PC they found is this
Click to expand...

That's dreadful value.

Okay it's not pre-built, doesn't have wifi, and you'll have to add a cheap Windows license, but building is easy and wifi and Windows are cheap. It does have a decent motherboard, a 6 core 12 thread CPU, and 16 GB of RAM.

My basket at overclockers uk:
Total: £651.59 (includes shipping: £11.70)


​

@Sparx has a better build for £100 more - though I'd stick with the Citadel Mesh case.
 
Sparx said:
In the sense you're expecting for your friend - no it's not 'ready to switch on and play games straight away' I'm afraid :p

I've cut about £100 from the cost by dropping OcUK's W10 license cost - and put that towards better components. As you can get a cheap W10 key from the popular auction site for about £5. But it does mean he'd need to download W10 from Microsoft's site, copy it to a USB stick and booting from it. Could your friend handle that? :D

I take it you don't live local to your friend, or have you not build a PC before either? If you have, why don't you video call him and help him set it up?
Click to expand...

I don't live next to him and I only built my PC with help. I can help him with windows 10 but nothing more than that over video call. Does the overclockers pre-built setup you gave just need windows 10 installed to be ready to use? He wouldn't be able to do the drivers for the components like the GPU.
 
Yeah the one I configured is all built by OcUK, just the SSD will have no OS/Windows installed.

So he'll need to get a cheap W10 key (about £5) - download W10 and copy it on a USB stick, then boot from it to install Windows.

Drivers are easy, literally he just goes on Nvidia's website, selects his graphics card and hits Download and install. Windows will probably install some stock ones anyway when the PC first boots up after installation, but better off getting the latest ones from Nvidia's website.

If he really doesn't wanna build himself, and you send him something like the pre-built I suggested - make sure you copy/paste the exact link from my post so it carries over the Configurator correctly when he adds to basket & orders. Otherwise he'll get the PC as stock and it's horrid :p
 
Sparx said:
Yeah the one I configured is all built by OcUK, just the SSD will have no OS/Windows installed.

So he'll need to get a cheap W10 key (about £5) - download W10 and copy it on a USB stick, then boot from it to install Windows.

Drivers are easy, literally he just goes on Nvidia's website, selects his graphics card and hits Download and install. Windows will probably install some stock ones anyway when the PC first boots up after installation, but better off getting the latest ones from Nvidia's website.

If he really doesn't wanna build himself, and you send him something like the pre-built I suggested - make sure you copy/paste the exact link from my post so it carries over the Configurator correctly when he adds to basket & orders. Otherwise he'll get the PC as stock and it's horrid :p
Click to expand...

Noted! Thanks for all the advice. I will pass this through to him.



Journey said:
AS I said above, happy to help if he lives close to me, helped plenty of others on here.
Click to expand...

It's a shame he lives in London. He would be willing to build his own if he could find someone to build it for him. Any ideas of how to find local PC builders who can build/install drivers. I couldn't find any near him.

Much appreciated for the help guys,
 
Nah screw that, no point paying a 'pro' locally to build your PC and install drivers geez :p Rather put that money on nicer components!

If he's really that unsettled, get the pre-built. It'll still perform very well for him... OcUK pre-built prices aren't bad considering you can remove the W10 license fee to save money. Just the certain components (i.e. PSU you'd pick better than Kolink) and RAM you'd go 3200/3600 speed etc.

Just help him sort buying the W10 key and get it on a USB stick. All he has to do is boot from the USB stick when he gets the PC and run the W10 installer, partition the drive, pops his W10 key in and done. Then just gets himself on Nvidia website, download latest drivers and install.
 
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Sparx said:
Nah screw that, no point paying a 'pro' locally to build your PC and install drivers geez :p Rather put that money on nicer components!

If he's really that unsettled, get the pre-built. It'll still perform very well for him... OcUK pre-built prices aren't bad considering you can remove the W10 license fee to save money. Just the certain components (i.e. PSU you'd pick better than Kolink) and RAM you'd go 3200/3600 speed etc.

Just help him sort buying the W10 key and get it on a USB stick. All he has to do is boot from the USB stick when he gets the PC and run the W10 installer, partition the drive, pops his W10 key in and done. Then just gets himself on Nvidia website, download latest drivers and install.
Click to expand...

Yeah I was just asking out of curiousty for future purposes. I think my friend is likely to get that pre-built one you shared. He just doesn't want to deal with installing any GPU/motherboard drivers and what not.
 
Drivers aren't any different to installing anything else on a PC. It's just like him going on Steam, Ubisoft, EA or Epic's website and downloading their game client and installing it? Not difficult at all :)

Just a thought, you can always spec a bespoke PC (like me and Quartz did earlier) - post privately in the Customer Service subforum and ask OcUK to quote he builds it for him? You just copy/paste the basket or link someone's post here as to what he wants. Think they charge about £80-100 last I heard, might've changed though. Could be worth asking them?

You'll still need to do the W10 key and install help though. Unless he wants to burn £90-100 just for the W10 license and that OcUK install it beforehand. Really not worth it :o Rather spend that on better parts!

Edit: Tbh if your friend isn't that bothered about optimising components and what not, may as well just keep things simple. Get the pre-built, help sort the W10 install and let him get on with it lol.
 
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