Gaming PC for £600?

mark66

mark66

mark66

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Hi,

My nephew would like a new gaming PC for Christmas and the budget is ~£600. I'm completely out of touch with what is what these days, but him and his Dad think I'm an expert - so I need some help :)

He already has monitor, keyboard, mouse, headphones and OS . So I think he needs: Motherboard, CPU, GPU, memory, SSD and HDD, PSU and case?

Thoughts or build suggestions very gratefully received.

Cheers

Mark
 
mark66 said:
Hi,

My nephew would like a new gaming PC for Christmas and the budget is ~£600. I'm completely out of touch with what is what these days, but him and his Dad think I'm an expert - so I need some help :)

He already has monitor, keyboard, mouse, headphones and OS . So I think he needs: Motherboard, CPU, GPU, memory, SSD and HDD, PSU and case?

Thoughts or build suggestions very gratefully received.

Cheers

Mark
Click to expand...

Hi,

If you can increase the budget to £650, then this:

My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £653.59 (includes shipping: £11.70)

​
 
4K8KW10 said:
Hi,

If you can increase the budget to £650, then this:

My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £653.59 (includes shipping: £11.70)

​
Click to expand...


Go £150 more then u in to some serious performance :)

but saying that, the build is pretty sweet besides that case, thats a terrible, cheap and nasty case


Also is there an old pc in the house u can salvage a HDD from? if you have then u can add a cheap 120 ssd and make the thing fly :)
 
Great, thanks for the help so far :)

Good shout with the old HDD, would definitely prefer to squeeze a SSD in. Whats the best bang for buck SSD out there?

Also agree on the case and I think this is where my brother will be prepared to stretch the budget for something nicer. Having a browse here, the Zalman Z9 for £57 seems to be popular and gets lots of good reviews? Anything preferable for that price point?

Finally, my nephew was originally asking for an i7 7700k, but as this is £300, it was clearly out of the question, so he said he would be happy for an i5. The setup above is using a AMD Ryzen, I take it this is a good CPU and he shouldn't be disappointed its not Intel? Probably opening a can of worms here lol.

Cheers
 
mark66 said:
Great, thanks for the help so far :)

Good shout with the old HDD, would definitely prefer to squeeze a SSD in. Whats the best bang for buck SSD out there?

Also agree on the case and I think this is where my brother will be prepared to stretch the budget for something nicer. Having a browse here, the Zalman Z9 for £57 seems to be popular and gets lots of good reviews? Anything preferable for that price point?

Finally, my nephew was originally asking for an i7 7700k, but as this is £300, it was clearly out of the question, so he said he would be happy for an i5. The setup above is using a AMD Ryzen, I take it this is a good CPU and he shouldn't be disappointed its not Intel? Probably opening a can of worms here lol.

Cheers
Click to expand...

The ryzen 5 will out perform the i5, plus its cheaper aswel.
The Z9 is not a good case, try looking at cases like the Phanteks P400, the NZXT S340 Elite (dont go for the normal s340, the filters are really crap), be quiet! pure base 600 (amazing looking case) and also u can youtube something like Best mid tower cases and look at some reviews.
I always tent to advise people to look where the computer will be situated so it can look better with decor and also keep her indoors quiet as she wont be looking at some horrible black case all the time in her nice white room.. and also, dont go for the generic black case, some of the white cases out there are sexy as hell

 
mark66 said:
Great, thanks for the help so far :)

Good shout with the old HDD, would definitely prefer to squeeze a SSD in. Whats the best bang for buck SSD out there?

Also agree on the case and I think this is where my brother will be prepared to stretch the budget for something nicer. Having a browse here, the Zalman Z9 for £57 seems to be popular and gets lots of good reviews? Anything preferable for that price point?

Finally, my nephew was originally asking for an i7 7700k, but as this is £300, it was clearly out of the question, so he said he would be happy for an i5. The setup above is using a AMD Ryzen, I take it this is a good CPU and he shouldn't be disappointed its not Intel? Probably opening a can of worms here lol.

Cheers
Click to expand...
Spankme said:
The ryzen 5 will out perform the i5, plus its cheaper aswel.
The Z9 is not a good case, try looking at cases like the Phanteks P400, the NZXT S340 Elite (dont go for the normal s340, the filters are really crap), be quiet! pure base 600 (amazing looking case) and also u can youtube something like Best mid tower cases and look at some reviews.
I always tent to advise people to look where the computer will be situated so it can look better with decor and also keep her indoors quiet as she wont be looking at some horrible black case all the time in her nice white room.. and also, dont go for the generic black case, some of the white cases out there are sexy as hell
Click to expand...

When I build a configuration in such a tight budget, I always look to prioritise the components in the best possible way, so you have the maximum possible performance, hence the best possible user experience. Since the case and the HDD (SDD) have little to no influence on your gaming experience in the form of more fluent gameplay (higher framerates), they tend to be naturally of the lowest possible priority.
Of course, you can always spend large portion of your budget for things that don't matter so much...... but I will build a system for the same money that will utterly obliterate yours ;)

Here it is what you really want. Better CPU and graphics card is swapped for "better" case and SSD.

My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £602.13 (includes shipping: £13.20)

​
 
Last edited:
Hi again,

So my nephew believes that 'Nvidia are better', not so sure this is at all true but... Is there an equivalent Nvidia card to the Radeon 560/570 which work with a AMD Ryzen and board?

Many thanks
 
mark66 said:
Hi again,

So my nephew believes that 'Nvidia are better', not so sure this is at all true but... Is there an equivalent Nvidia card to the Radeon 560/570 which work with a AMD Ryzen and board?

Many thanks
Click to expand...
Nvidia have the best high end graphics cards. AMD are very competitive at the low and midrange price points. One advantage that Nvidia have is their lower power draw meaning they run cooler and quieter. They are not necessarily "better" at a particular price point though. I own an Nvidia card but I would certainly take an AMD card if there was a model that was better than what I currently have.

You don't have to have AMD graphics cards just because you have an AMD processor. I am using an AMD Ryzen R7 1700.

The R5 1600 is a cracking processor, especially if it means you can use a B350 class motherboard and save some money to spend on the graphics card.

£600 is a tough budget to build to. As posted above, just £50 more really does open some doors to higher class parts.
 
mark66 said:
Hi, thanks all for the input again:)

If the budget could be raised to £700, what would you suggest?
Click to expand...
£600 is tough because it usually means funding something to cut back on. People might choose a bargain basement case or try to skimp on the power supply (big no no).

Personally I'd be trying to shoehorn the fastest graphics card I can into a gaming PC so long as the rest of it is respectable. If £100 means going from a GTX 1050Ti to a 6GB GTX 1060 or 8GB RX 580 graphics card then I'd absolutely do it.
 
Many components now ordered to make the most of the deals. Looks like the build is going to be more like £700 when considering the case. Hopefully the below looks ok and is all compatible?

A lucky lad will hopefully be pleased come Christmas day!

My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £614.04 (includes shipping: £11.10)​
​
 
Looks solid !
The SSD will go quickly if he starts loading games, BF1 takes up 50GB, WW2 games 25GB, forza takes 70GB - few others hit that to .
Wil be work him saving up for a HDD !

Get some pics up of the build when done !

My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £142.13 (includes shipping: £13.20)​
​
 
Last edited:
mark66 said:
Looks like the build is going to be more like £700 when considering the case.
Click to expand...

If possible, squeeze a little of the case budget into a better PSU for more GPU upgrade options. He'll want to upgrade at some point. Don't have to go nuts thinking of future SLI/CrossFire but a 550W will come in handy sooner rather than later for gamers. You can find a Corsair CX-M 550 semi-modular (grey label) for £50 right now. Gives you two more years warranty at the same time.

Or if you find a bit more spending room once you've sourced the case, this one:

My basket at Overclockers UK:
​
 
Last edited:
mark66 said:
Hi again,

So my nephew believes that 'Nvidia are better', not so sure this is at all true but... Is there an equivalent Nvidia card to the Radeon 560/570 which work with a AMD Ryzen and board?

Many thanks
Click to expand...

Don't trust your nephew. He doesn't understand the graphics. The AMD cards are the better, currently Nvidia gives higher absolute performance with GF 1080 Ti but you aren't purchasing it, so it doesn't matter for you. All other segments AMD cards are the better.
Only slight power consumption advantage on Nvidia cards but it isn't so important.
 
Danny75 said:
Why can't you be happy at the fact he's going to get a faster card than the 560, with a 3 year warranty instead of the very poor 1 year warranty on the card you specced him?
Click to expand...

I didn't even see that it is with 1 year warranty. Why do they sell it, in the first place, it is against the EU regulations?

GTX 1050 Ti can be faster than RX 560 but that doesn't mean it is better.
 
1050 Ti is better then 560 , it's a shame the 570 is what it is, should have been better cut down, not to close to 580 and would have gone off miners radar and been a good budget card

Uses less power to .

Personally 580 is better then 1060 due to good freesync 1080p 144hz screen for half the price of Nvidia. Always swings and roundabouts
 
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