Help with PC Build for around £300 new or second hand parts?

Emjeadea

Emjeadea

Emjeadea

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Hi all,

Been out of the game for a few years now so feeling a little rusty. I myself am due a new rig and my oldest son has become a PC gamer himself in that time. Its his 12th birthday soon and he has made it pretty clear he would like to have a better PC and wants to spend his birthday money on it.

We have a Keyboard/Mouse and Monitor but that doesn't mean they cannot be added in if applicable.
We basically need the tower!

He currently has my old,old rig which is the old Q6600 CPU with 4Gb Ram and a 8800Gtx GPU so it wont take much beating to be honest.

Where is the best place to start and what am i looking at for that kind of money.

Cheers
 
what resolution will he be gaming at? What games will he be playing?

Due to currency fluctuations, the £300 is very low in the budget stakes. A new case, with second hand internals is the best option for you. At least it'll look new with a new case
 
subbytna said:
what resolution will he be gaming at? What games will he be playing?

Due to currency fluctuations, the £300 is very low in the budget stakes. A new case, with second hand internals is the best option for you. At least it'll look new with a new case
Click to expand...

He will be looking for 1920 x 1080. Mainly things like Minecraft, Terraria, PlayerUnknowns Battleground and Hopefully Fortnite.....Yeah i understand thats a small budget i just wanted to se what we could squeeze together for him as we arent rolling in money at the moment :/ and he will be getting birthday money from Family
 
Upgrade the CPU to a Q9550, Q9650, or Xeon X5450, add a good cooler and overclock, add a GTX 1050 Ti and SSD, maybe add 4 GB RAM.

Actually, the Q6600 can be a wonderful overclocker, reaching over 4 GHz. Read more here.
 
Quartz said:
Upgrade the CPU to a Q9550, Q9650, or Xeon X5450, add a good cooler and overclock, add a GTX 1050 Ti and SSD, maybe add 4 GB RAM.

Actually, the Q6600 can be a wonderful overclocker, reaching over 4 GHz. Read more here.
Click to expand...

I was aware back in its day the Q6600 was a beast especially for overclocking....however i've never actually tried overclocking is it tough? (Also current pc isnt posting soo trying to figure out why)
 
you can buy the older FX 6 core based systems with decent/good graphics card for that money on the used market, you could also get your hands on a 1155 i5 setup or maybe an haswell i5 depending how keen they are to sell, either way your best is used.

while my power supply is brand new, i paid half the cost and the total of my system in sig came to £91, its a custom build rather than branded, its as old as your system , but what i was after for my budget, i could tomorrow for example go spend £40 on an acer veriton m290 original tower and swap my parts bar mobo combo which the acer has a 1155 socket, a further £25-30 for an i5 2500(non K) or around £50 for a K, £20 for 8gb ram and id have a much better system for not much more money, so for you, a graphics card like a r9 280, gtx 970, gtx 960 and others similar for £80-150, it would run circles round your 775 system while keeping under budget, that is if you was to build yourself.


but least you got a good quad for the 775 ha, i didnt realize the 9300 was a poor overclocker, but it was local and cost £15 lol
 
ExoMale said:
you can buy the older FX 6 core based systems with decent/good graphics card for that money on the used market, you could also get your hands on a 1155 i5 setup or maybe an haswell i5 depending how keen they are to sell, either way your best is used.

while my power supply is brand new, i paid half the cost and the total of my system in sig came to £91, its a custom build rather than branded, its as old as your system , but what i was after for my budget, i could tomorrow for example go spend £40 on an acer veriton m290 original tower and swap my parts bar mobo combo which the acer has a 1155 socket, a further £25-30 for an i5 2500(non K) or around £50 for a K, £20 for 8gb ram and id have a much better system for not much more money, so for you, a graphics card like a r9 280, gtx 970, gtx 960 and others similar for £80-150, it would run circles round your 775 system while keeping under budget, that is if you was to build yourself.


but least you got a good quad for the 775 ha, i didnt realize the 9300 was a poor overclocker, but it was local and cost £15 lol
Click to expand...

Nice ill defo look into the FX 6 core.... didnt even think about that (silly me).... im gonna have a look for those graphics cards but i was thing Gtx 660 ti i thought that had dropped considerably in price for what at the time was a pretty beefy card
 
Personally I would add an SSD, at least 4GB memory and then the best graphics card you can afford with the money left over.

I think you could get an SSD and Memory for less than £50 secondhand.

What PSU is in the machine, and do you know the motherboard model?
 
BongoHunter said:
Personally I would add an SSD, at least 4GB memory and then the best graphics card you can afford with the money left over.

I think you could get an SSD and Memory for less than £50 secondhand.

What PSU is in the machine, and do you know the motherboard model?
Click to expand...

PSU is a generic 350w and i can look at the motherboard its been a while since i checked but i know the previous owner was big into his overclocking so it should be pretty versatile
 
you are certainly going to need to replace the power supply unless you get a gtx 750 and a low powered processor.


My basket at Overclockers UK:

Total: £287.98
(includes shipping: £11.10)



​

this would be ideal and see what graphic cards you can get for bargain price or lower the ram speed to save a few quid, you can buy a 5850/5870 for example from £15 if you look around, or double or near double that for a gtx 560/650, they old cards, but much better than what you have and i had a superclocked 560 pairs with an i3, 16gb ram and ran FO4 very well over 35/40fps, same with star wars and couple others @ 1920x1080 on high preset.

or skip the ram and find it cheaper elsewhere.
 
I'll give you the same advice I have given other people on very small budgets. Ignore buying the main PC new, pop on to an auction site and look for a Dell or HP Mini tower (something like a Dell Optiplex 3010), they are about £150-170 for a good spec, Intel i5 3470, 8GB RAM, 500GB-2TB HDD, DVD-RW etc. most will come with a 3-12 month warranty if you get it from a refurb store. The best bit is most of the time these days, all of the kit inside it standard, and worst case scenario you'll need to add a £25 400w PSU.

The just add a graphics card within your budget, so a GTX 1050 TI, or if you want to push the boat out a GTX 1060 3GB, and you'll have a very capable gaming PC that will last a good few years still.

I've used many of these for cheap builds for the exact audience this is for, parents of kids who are getting into PC's and gaming, and never had a bad experience. The best bit is, it will trounce anything you can buy new, and some of the cases don't actually look half bad. :)
 
You need to check that they come with their proper Windows license - usually on a sticker on the system unit. Some of these boxes come loaded with a corporate license and will stop working once Microsoft's licensing systems catch up.
 
Quartz said:
You need to check that they come with their proper Windows license - usually on a sticker on the system unit. Some of these boxes come loaded with a corporate license and will stop working once Microsoft's licensing systems catch up.
Click to expand...

They are volume licences attached to the BIOS, and usually have been upgraded to Windows 10, fully activated and 100% legit. :)
 
ExoMale said:
you are certainly going to need to replace the power supply unless you get a gtx 750 and a low powered processor.


My basket at Overclockers UK:

Total: £287.98
(includes shipping: £11.10)



​

this would be ideal and see what graphic cards you can get for bargain price or lower the ram speed to save a few quid, you can buy a 5850/5870 for example from £15 if you look around, or double or near double that for a gtx 560/650, they old cards, but much better than what you have and i had a superclocked 560 pairs with an i3, 16gb ram and ran FO4 very well over 35/40fps, same with star wars and couple others @ 1920x1080 on high preset.

or skip the ram and find it cheaper elsewhere.
Click to expand...

Nice this is a good starter thanks for our help there :D
 
Journey said:
I'll give you the same advice I have given other people on very small budgets. Ignore buying the main PC new, pop on to an auction site and look for a Dell or HP Mini tower (something like a Dell Optiplex 3010), they are about £150-170 for a good spec, Intel i5 3470, 8GB RAM, 500GB-2TB HDD, DVD-RW etc. most will come with a 3-12 month warranty if you get it from a refurb store. The best bit is most of the time these days, all of the kit inside it standard, and worst case scenario you'll need to add a £25 400w PSU.

The just add a graphics card within your budget, so a GTX 1050 TI, or if you want to push the boat out a GTX 1060 3GB, and you'll have a very capable gaming PC that will last a good few years still.

I've used many of these for cheap builds for the exact audience this is for, parents of kids who are getting into PC's and gaming, and never had a bad experience. The best bit is, it will trounce anything you can buy new, and some of the cases don't actually look half bad. :)
Click to expand...

i did think maybe something like this so ill have a look cheers
 
PUBG is pretty demanding and at 1080p you'd want at least a 1060 to run it smooth at low/med settings however that then takes most of your budget but then the gfx card is singularly more important than any other component for gaming.
 
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