Gaming PC for my son for xmas

[Dean037]

Hi everyone , not been around for a while hope you are all well.
my 11 year old son wants a gaming PC for christmas and doesnt want much else apart from football kits . i am thinking if i get his PC and i get everyone else to buy screen and keyboard and mouse etc also got daughter so budget isnt huge i am not 100% on budget depends on difference on preformance and price i was thinking £350-500.

he wants it for games like spiderman and skyline cities and total war and all sorts.

He wants a viewing window aswel in the case and wants it to be black, also loves the ones with loads a lights etc.

i have built a few PCs in the past but be hard as kids in house and daughter still belives in santa but i a open if i can get a much better system for the money.

any help would be appreciated on ready built systems and a simple one i could build. i know i am asking a lot but help will be great.

Thanks Dean

 

[dfour]

Unfortunatly your going to have to go second hand to get the best value for your money. In all honesty you would be better of with a console.

This is the best I could do new.

My basket at OcUK:

• 1 x Kolink Inspire Series K12 Midi Tower ARGB Gaming Case - Black Window (SKU: CA-06C-KK) = £37.99
• 1 x Gigabyte B550M DS3H (AMD AM4) B550 Micro-ATX Motherboard (SKU: MB-5BR-GI) = £89.99
• 1 x AMD Ryzen 5 4500 Six Core 4.1GHz (Socket AM4) Processor - Retail (SKU: CP-3D4-AM) = £59.99
• 1 x Kingston Fury Beast 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 PC4-28800C17 3600MHz Dual Channel Kit (SKU: MY-29A-KS) = £29.99
• 1 x Team Group MP44L 1TB SSD M.2 2280 NVME PCI-E Gen4 Solid State Drive (SKU: STO-TMG-03128) = £52.99
• 1 x Kolink Modular Power 700W 80 Plus Bronze Modular Power Supply (SKU: CA-04K-KK) = £54.95
• 1 x PowerColor Radeon RX 6600 Fighter 8GB GDDR6 PCI-Express Graphics Card (SKU: GX-1AD-PC) = £179.98

Total: £505.88 (includes delivery: £0.00)​

​

This assumes using the stock cooler for the cpu and installing windows 10/11 yourself and buying a genuine key for about a tenner.​

 

[ED209]

• 1 x Kolink Modular Power 700W 80 Plus Bronze Modular Power Supply (SKU: CA-04K-KK) = £54.95

I wouldn't use this brand of PSU, I have heard that these are terrible.

 

[Dean037]

I was worried that wouldn't be enough money , is there no ready builds for 500 mark ? I could look online for 2nd hand builds but don't know what going to get thats the issue. Don't want to risk it.

 

[ED209]

Only pre built OCUK sell is the top end of your budget and comes with no GPU (uses the IGPU). You can add a GPU but its either a 1030 for an extra £89.99 or a 1650 for £149

OcUK Gaming Kinetic H6M - Micro ATX AMD A520 Home + Office PC | OcUK

Order now online and benefit from fast delivery.

www.overclockers.co.uk

After that they go to £750.

£350 to £500 is not a lot (For new parts) for just the PC as you need to factor is a GPU for gaming and that takes a good chunk of the budget.

I assume he will be gaming at 1080P as well and not 1440P as this will also need to be factored in to the cost of the PC

As its for Christmas you may get lucky with black Friday deals nearer the time

 

[sx_turbo]

Money doesn't get you much these days, the build above is pretty much best your gonna get. You can shop around and get the cheapest components from various sources and then use the money saved to get better components.

Pcs are super easy to build aswell these days, should be up and running within an hour or 2

 

[mickyflinn]

I was worried that wouldn't be enough money , is there no ready builds for 500 mark ? I could look online for 2nd hand builds but don't know what going to get thats the issue. Don't want to risk it.

You should be able to get a pc with a Ryzen 4500,16gb memory and a 3050 GPU for £500 minus windows.

 

[MissChief]

Go used. You would likely get a 5600x, 16GB of DDR4, something like a 2070 Super or 3060 and a B450 board. Might even get a decently sized NVME too.

 

[freddie64]

Go used. You would likely get a 5600x, 16GB of DDR4, something like a 2070 Super or 3060 and a B450 board. Might even get a decently sized NVME too.

Given the budget and what his son wants out of the PC, i don't think there is any other option but to go used.

he wants it for games like spiderman and skyline cities and total war and all sorts.

He wants a viewing window aswel in the case and wants it to be black, also loves the ones with loads a lights etc.

 

[dfour]

I wouldn't use this brand of PSU, I have heard that these are terrible.

Not my first choice but its trying to get something under/close to his budget. Modular psu is also a great help while building in a cheap case.
The pc I specced isnt going to be making huge demands of the psu (about 250-300 wats max by my calculations) anyway so it should be fine for the OP's kids uses.

 

[Gray2233]

This is about the cheapest I'd go for if building a totally new rig, but there is some cost cutting here and there.

You can almost certainly find the 5600 for £80-100 so there's savings to be had there, you can probably find a cheaper case too but for "bling" value you're not going to save much. I'd prefer to spend another £20-30 on 32gb of RAM instead of 16 and I'd spend another £30 on a better NvME normally too. That said, it'd be a perfectly capable 1080P rig and does have some room for future upgrades should performance be lacking, such as a cheap second hand 5700X3D and better GPU in a few years. AM4 is EoL at this point however, ideally an entry level AM5 setup would be best but that's going to up the expense a fair bit.

My basket at OcUK:

• 1 x be quiet! SYSTEM POWER 10 550W 80 Plus Bronze Power Supply (SKU: CA-14U-BQ) = £56.99
• 1 x Team Group Vulcan Z T-Force 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 PC4-25600C16 3200MHz Dual Channel Kit - Grey (SKU: MY-0AK-TG) = £29.99
• 1 x Gigabyte B550M DS3H (AMD AM4) B550 Micro-ATX Motherboard (SKU: MB-5BR-GI) = £89.98
• 1 x AMD Ryzen 5 5600 Six Core 4.4GHz (Socket AM4) Processor - Retail (SKU: CP-3D2-AM) = £119.99
• 1 x PowerColor Radeon RX 6600 Fighter 8GB GDDR6 PCI-Express Graphics Card (SKU: GX-1AD-PC) = £179.99
• 1 x KIOXIA EXCERIA G2 1TB SSD NVME M.2 2280 Solid State Drive (SKU: STO-TSH-00981) = £52.99
• 1 x Antec CX500M RGB M-ATX Mini Tower - Black (SKU: CAS-ATC-02734) = £54.95

Total: £584.88 (includes delivery: £0.00)​

 

[dfour]

The 5500 is still a zen 3 chip and would save £30 over a 5600 without much drop in performance.

My basket at OcUK:

• 1 x AMD Ryzen 5 5500 Six Core 4.2GHz (Socket AM4) Processor - Retail (SKU: CP-3D3-AM) = £89.99

Total: £89.99 (includes delivery: £0.00)​

 

[Gray2233]

The 5500 is still a zen 3 chip and would save £30 over a 5600 without much drop in performance.

My basket at OcUK:

• 1 x AMD Ryzen 5 5500 Six Core 4.2GHz (Socket AM4) Processor - Retail (SKU: CP-3D3-AM) = £89.99

Total: £89.99 (includes delivery: £0.00)​

It also has crippled L3, which is why I'd rather suggest the 5600 which can frequently be had for the same price.

 

[dfour]

It also has crippled L3, which is why I'd rather suggest the 5600 which can frequently be had for the same price.

I see what you mean. OC have the 5500 listed with 32 meg lv3 cache which is incorrect.

 

[Gray2233]

I see what you mean. OC have the 5500 listed with 32 meg lv3 cache which is incorrect.

A lot of their info is wrong lately, ssd's with incorrect endurance values, VA monitors that are listed as IPS. It's concerning tbh, I'm double checking everything I recommend lately as I can't trust the store page.

 

[ED209]

A lot of their info is wrong lately, ssd's with incorrect endurance values, VA monitors that are listed as IPS. It's concerning tbh, I'm double checking everything I recommend lately as I can't trust the store page.

I have noticed this recently when looking at ram, wrong speeds listed etc

then their filtering does not work properly either as the info is wrong to narrow down results

 

[Dean037]

Thanks for all the great recommendations , wonder if worth waiting till December and see if any great offers come up. Maybe even see of son wants to build it with me, he can open all bits individually then we can put together.

Will see if can up budget a bit to closer to 600 , and if it's OK with you all I will ask question again come december and see of any offers etc around.

Thanks so much
Dean

 

[sx_turbo]

Thanks for all the great recommendations , wonder if worth waiting till December and see if any great offers come up. Maybe even see of son wants to build it with me, he can open all bits individually then we can put together.

Will see if can up budget a bit to closer to 600 , and if it's OK with you all I will ask question again come december and see of any offers etc around.

Thanks so much
Dean

That's not a bad choice.

Think there's a few new releases due out by then so maybe have a knock on effect to pricing on the older stuff

 

[ED209]

Thanks for all the great recommendations , wonder if worth waiting till December and see if any great offers come up. Maybe even see of son wants to build it with me, he can open all bits individually then we can put together.

Will see if can up budget a bit to closer to 600 , and if it's OK with you all I will ask question again come december and see of any offers etc around.

Thanks so much
Dean

What you could do is wait until the end of this month when the new AMD motherboards come out as this may lower old the board you are looking at getting or waiting until Black Friday and seeing if any deals come up then.

I do not know if your son is aware what you are getting him or not but if he knows or has an idea then maybe worth building it with him.

I got my son a PC in 2018 form his birthday, he knew he was getting 1 but I got him to build it while I assisted\done the tricky things. Got to spend some good time with him while doing it and hopefully gives him a little understanding on PCs.. He was the same age

 

[Gray2233]

Thanks for all the great recommendations , wonder if worth waiting till December and see if any great offers come up. Maybe even see of son wants to build it with me, he can open all bits individually then we can put together.

Will see if can up budget a bit to closer to 600 , and if it's OK with you all I will ask question again come december and see of any offers etc around.

Thanks so much
Dean

If you can up your budget to £600 it would make a world of difference, you'd still be looking at slightly older parts but you'd get a much more competent machine.

I'd also highly recommend doing the build with your son, it's a great bonding experience and might even spark a long term interest in the hobby/tech in general.