Complete budget build for teenager - but allowing for some future expansion

HeadlessChicken · 31 Oct 2022 at 08:33

Nephew wants a "gaming" PC for Xmas, I've managed to steer the parents away from a £360 gaming laptop, or even worse £290 desktop with monitor / etc brand new (not even sure how they can put them out at that price?). Suspect the usual games will be wanted to be played (minecraft / roblox / etc) but also know the lad is interested in more complex games, and I suspect will also be interested in the building / upgrading of the PC itself.

I have a spare monitor / KB etc, so convincing them to get a basic, but half decent desktop which I'll build. Upper limit really is ~£400inc. So I'm thinking integrated GPU for now, but allow an upgrade to a standalone GPU at a later date. Same with HDD, start small, more can be added etc.

Thoughts on the below please? I know the B450 is oldish tech, but think the below would allow reasonable 720 gaming, and is at least upgradable with a semi-decent GPU in the future? Leaves a few ££ for a W10 licence and wifi dongle etc.

Thanks as always folks - appreciate any thoughts

My basket at OcUK:

1 x Kolink Core S Series 500W 80 Plus Certified Power Supply (SKU: CA-05S-KK) = £37.99
1 x Team Group Vulcan Z T-Force 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 PC4-25600C16 3200MHz Dual Channel Kit - Grey (SKU: MY-0AK-TG) = £55.99
1 x WD Blue SA510 500GB SSD 2.5" SATA Solid State Drive (WDS500G3B0A) (SKU: HD-58J-WD) = £39.95
1 x AMD Ryzen 5 5600G Six Core 3.9GHz (Socket AM4) APU with RX Vega Graphics - Retail (SKU: CP-3CW-AM) = £128.99
1 x Kolink Inspire Series K5 ARGB Midi Tower Case - Black Window (SKU: CA-03V-KK) = £39.95
1 x **B Grade** Gigabyte B450M-DS3H AMD B450 (Socket AM4) DDR4 Micro-ATX (MB-571-GI) (SKU: BG-58Y-GI) = £50.00

Total: £364.57 (includes delivery: £11.70)

mickyflinn · 31 Oct 2022 at 11:17

Psu is really poor quality wouldn't trust it with a half decent gpu and b450 motherboard may need a bios update to take the 5600g.

Gray2233 · 31 Oct 2022 at 11:21

I'd check the members market, maybe put in a bundle request in the wanted section. There's plenty of dirt cheap hardware knocking around at the moment and it should make your money go further.

HeadlessChicken · 31 Oct 2022 at 13:34

mickyflinn said:
Psu is really poor quality wouldn't trust it with a half decent gpu and b450 motherboard may need a bios update to take the 5600g.

Cheers for the reply - do you mean the wattage, or quality of the actual PSU? Or both? I'm not very au fait at all anymore with PSUs. Something like this? https://www.overclockers.co.uk/supe...0-plus-gold-power-supply-black-ca-004-sf.html

Yeah I had tagged the BIOS update that will prpbably be needed, but cheers for the prompt.

mickyflinn · 31 Oct 2022 at 15:03

HeadlessChicken said:
Cheers for the reply - do you mean the wattage, or quality of the actual PSU? Or both? I'm not very au fait at all anymore with PSUs. Something like this? https://www.overclockers.co.uk/supe...0-plus-gold-power-supply-black-ca-004-sf.html

Yeah I had tagged the BIOS update that will prpbably be needed, but cheers for the prompt.

Both and yes the superflower is a much better psu.

dfour · 31 Oct 2022 at 16:13

This is a good psu for the money. 10 year warranty

My basket at OcUK:

1 x Phanteks AMP 550W 80 Plus Gold Modular Power Supply (SKU: CA-09P-PT) = £64.99

Total: £64.99 (includes delivery: £0.00)

Craig_d1 · 31 Oct 2022 at 19:11

def check out MM.. i saw someone trying to sell a 3yrs old RM750 the other day(has a 10yrs warranty)..just checked, unfortunately they sold it, but well worth looking as @Gray2233 put