Gaming PC virgin

Stevo_1990

Stevo_1990

Stevo_1990

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Joined
12 Sep 2012
Posts
206
Hey, I know nothing about pc's but was looking into getting a gaming rig, Building it is not an option due to me being completely oblivious to how pc's work and such. I was hoping to play games such as guild wars 2 and battlefield 3. My buget is £600-650.

If you guys coul point me in a good direction or give me some advice I would greatly appreciate it.

P.s. Be nice :P
 
You don't have to be a genius to build your own PC and in fairness it'll very probably cost you less to do so. Plus you'll have an enormous sense of satisfaction afterwards! I built what's in my signature only a few weeks ago. The first time I'd ever even attempted such a thing and it works like a dream.

There's an excellent guide on here somewhere on how to make your own. Have a browse! All the best.
 
Stevo, i had never built a PC in my life, i took the plunge and got some great advice on here and built my own.

You can't really go wrong as virtually all the connectors will only go in one way, just take your time, read the motherboard manual for the front panel connectors and take time applyimng the thermal paste.

Have a look at my thread which is titled "How easy is it to build a pc for a complete novice ?"

That has got some good video tutorials and component advice.

good luck
 
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Thanks for the replies, Lets say building it is off the table, Any other help or advice you guys could give me, I work a lot and dont have much time to be building a pc.
 
You won't have much time to play Guild Wars 2 then!! ;)

If you took a couple of hours out to build your own then just start a thread entitled 'Spec me a gaming PC for £650'.

Say what stuff you do and don't have and let the forums members work their magic.
Usually something viable will crop up if you're building your own.

There may be some prebuilt packages available but the forums are better suited at recommending components, not entire units.
 
Building yourself gives you better options to be fair. We are always willing to help "noobs" with their first build and help explain the tech.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Gigabyte ATI Radeon HD 7850 OC Windforce 2X 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card w/ Nexuiz, Sleeping Dogs & Dirt Showdown PC Games £167.99
1 x Iiyama ProLite E2278HD 22" Widescreen LED Monitor - Black £109.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £84.98
1 x OCZ ZT 550W '80 Plus Bronze' Modular Power Supply £63.98
1 x Intel Pentium G840 2.80GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £56.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM (ST500DM002) £49.99
1 x BitFenix Outlaw Gaming Case - Black £39.95
1 x Corsair Vengeance Blue Low Profile 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CML8GX3M2A1600C9B) £35.99
1 x Steelseries Kinzu V2 3200 DPI Rubberised Black Gaming Mouse (62022) £19.99
1 x Samsung SH-S222BB/BEBE 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £13.99
1 x OcUK Black Gaming Keyboard (5105GU) £10.99
Total : £669.84 (includes shipping : £12.50).



Little over budget, but has everything you would need. No OS as you can use the developers copy of windows 8 for free now and look to buy an OS later. Windows 8 is released next month.

You have a solid 3 year warranty across most of the parts, 5 years on the PSU. I'll wait to hear your thoughts before I waffle on too much lol
 
Do you have a PC at the moment and if so can you post the spec. If you have some components that can be reused, (sata hdd, dvd, k+m, Psu, OS and monitor,) you will get much more for your budget.
 
If your set on going pre built you won't have much choice in your price range and we won't link to competitors so just have a look see what you can get and consider building your own
 
I really do appreciate you guys help, It is nice to see. Thanks to you honosuseri for taking the time to pick that stuff out. I have no idea what i need or what anything does to work a pc, I dont have a pc just now and have never had a gaming pc. I woudnt like to risk building one for fear I would screw it up.
 
Stevo_1990 said:
I really do appreciate you guys help, It is nice to see. Thanks to you honosuseri for taking the time to pick that stuff out. I have no idea what i need or what anything does to work a pc, I dont have a pc just now and have never had a gaming pc. I woudnt like to risk building one for fear I would screw it up.
Click to expand...

My pleasure bud :)

Video walkthrough of pc build

Building a PC isn't hard it's glorified meccano or lego really. Bacon made a real hash out of his build (I did come close to slapping him lol) but in the end it all worked out ok.

Don't rush into it, watch that video and ask questions if you are unsure. As you do the build there will be people online to help walk you through anything you are unsure of.

If you buy a machine off the shelf retail at a local store you get a one year warranty as I said my build has 3 years or better across the parts. You also get a better selection of parts by D.I.Y'ing the build
 
YOUR BASKET
1 x HIS HD 7850 IceQ X 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (H785QN2G2M) w/ Nexuiz, Sleeping Dogs & Dirt Showdown PC Games £149.99
1 x Samsung S24B300HL 23.6" Widescreen LED Monitor - Black **BTS £20 CASHBACK** £119.99
1 x Intel Core i3-3220 3.30GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £95.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £84.98
1 x Cooler Master Silent Pro Modular 600W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £65.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM (ST500DM002) £49.99
1 x Xigmatek Pantheon Mid Tower Case - Black £35.99
1 x TeamGroup Elite 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (TED38192M1600HC11DC) £29.99
1 x OcUK Ultra-Slim Wirelesss Desktop Set (6311ARF) £19.99
1 x Samsung SH-S222BB/BEBE 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £13.99
Total : £683.39 (includes shipping : £13.75).



£20 cash back on the monitor and bigger screen. Better Cpu. Mouse and keyboard you can always get something better at a later date. And as my freiend hono said, use Win 8 preview until you can afford an OS.
 
Hono the RAM was faulty which was causing all my errors :p
Im not a total wipeout ;) I've also made a video review on the case and done the cable management all nicely. :)

But as everyone here has said its definetley worth building the PC. You have this forum to help you if you get stuck as well.

However this is the only bad part. If something is wrong, ie a faulty piece of RAM which is unlikely but possible. You have to find whats wrong, this does require some hard work on your end.
 
Excellent Build by Hono there.

I mentioned this in a thread other day but i built my first pc 6 years ago when i was 16, just using common sense and some reserach online.

I think building a pc, 90% is common sense. look at the part, look at size of the part and its fitting. it will only fit in one place...

only things you would really need to look out for is where the pwr sw / resw / USB and Audio connectors go to (read motherboard manual)

And daft little things that that mboard has dual channel RAM slots so you make sure you put each ram stick in the same coloured corresponding slot.

But if you get stuck. post pictures and questions on here. great skill to acquire. no one in my faimly or my GF family buy stock PC's anymore (or couple people at work... lol) they just give me a buzz , a price and i spec one, buy parts and build it.

As Hono mentioned above, you get better warranty, and a hell of a lot more bang for your buck building your own.
 
Bacon? said:
Hono the RAM was faulty which was causing all my errors :p
Im not a total wipeout ;) I've also made a video review on the case and done the cable management all nicely. :)

But as everyone here has said its definetley worth building the PC. You have this forum to help you if you get stuck as well.

However this is the only bad part. If something is wrong, ie a faulty piece of RAM which is unlikely but possible. You have to find whats wrong, this does require some hard work on your end.
Click to expand...

Behave lol You didn't read the instructions properly and ignored a lot of my advice as you were convinced you knew best and tried to run before you could walk. I help a lot of people on here but I remember your build very clearly because you were so awkward. It was an example of how NOT to do a build but even still it was all good in the end :)

Yes parts can be faulty that's life. The spec I have done is much simpler than your build Bacon. The heatsink supplied with the CPU has paste already applied and clips on very easily. No real dramas to be had at all to be honest

P.S Did I get an honourable mention in the review as you were asking me questions about the case? ;)
 
Don't bring out the whip please! :p
Yes it was a panic on my end when it wasn't working but I did try all your suggestions ;)

I will probably re-do the review to be honest as it ran out of memory half way through. I didn't mention names in the review but I heavily hinted towards this site and forums.
 
Bacon? said:
Hono the RAM was faulty which was causing all my errors :p
Im not a total wipeout ;) I've also made a video review on the case and done the cable management all nicely. :)

But as everyone here has said its definetley worth building the PC. You have this forum to help you if you get stuck as well.

However this is the only bad part. If something is wrong, ie a faulty piece of RAM which is unlikely but possible. You have to find whats wrong, this does require some hard work on your end.
Click to expand...

Indeed it does, My motherboard went on my new build! i spent ages un hooking and re-hooking every cable in the case, then swapping PSU between my old and new to test everything possible to make sure i could prove it was 100% the mboard.

and you have to realise buying from OCUK you've got some amazing customer service support. my mboard went. i rang up just about to tell them about all my testing id spent a couple hours doing... "Sounds like your mboards shorted. send it back we will replace." 3-4 days later had replacement.

those 3 -4 days involve me sending the product, them receiving it, testing it and sending one back.. couldnt believe how quickly the process was.
 
If the OP doesn't want to build a computer, he doesn't have to build a computer. There is no point trying to pressure him into doing something he is not happy about doing, and though it is a slim chance if he follows a tutorial properly, lets say he does get something wrong and damages a component. Who is he going to blame?

The pre-build systems on this site don't cost too much extra compared with what they would cost as individual components, OC aren't like that notoriously overpriced high street computer superstore that will go un-named. And then there is always the possibility that somebody else could build it for him. Perhaps if he has a friend who is interested in computers, or maybe even a forum member who lives close by.
 
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