PC for my Nephew

Cooners

Cooners

Cooners

Associate
Joined
15 Dec 2003
Posts
400
Hi

My Nephew has just had his 13th birthday and wants to buy his first gaming PC. He has about £500 to buy it, I've sourced a copy of Windows 10 for him but I think he needs everything else. Would like your advice as he's saved hard to get most of that money so don't want to let him down.
 
 
Sorry i cant really help you mate new to it myself... And sorry to but in on your post... Quick question for you guys, whats the i3-6300 like compared to the i5?

Thank you.. I hope you get a nice build sorted cooners!!
 
If you're going Skylake, don't get a DDR3 motherboard and RAM. Skylake is designed for DDR4, which runs at a lower voltage. Whilst there are DDR3 Skylake boards, they should really be run with DDR3 low voltage RAM, which even then is kind of at the voltage limit.

For £500 you should be able to get a decent m-ATX board and an i3 I would think.

Case: £22.99
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/xigmatek-ares-1702-midi-tower-black-ca-105-xg.html

Motherboard: £46.99
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/asus...151-ddr4-micro-atx-motherboard-mb-684-as.html

RAM: £29.99
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/team...-kit-black-tpkd48gm2400hc16dc0-my-065-tg.html

This is actually ~£35 cheaper than what ExoMale's suggested. So if I add the £35 saved to the £46.99 motherboard budget, it gives us £81.99. Add another £10 and you've got £91.99, which brings you to your £500 limit.

That gets you into the territory of these two entry-level Z170 boards:

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/asus...cket-1151-ddr4-atx-motherboard-mb-645-as.html

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/giga...cket-1151-ddr4-atx-motherboard-mb-541-gi.html

While they take you just over-budget, I would consider either of these better than an H110 board and worth the extra money.

Unfortunately, that's just the tower unit. If he needs a keyboard, mouse and monitor, then that's going to take it way over budget.
 
My basket at Overclockers UK:

Total: £510.43
(includes shipping: £12.60)
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Display-wise, best option for now would be to find a friend or family member who has an old TV or monitor they aren't using/are getting rid of. Or stretch the budget.

The keyboard and mouse are cheap but absolutely fine and look and feel nice (we have a pair of those in the house).

You have Windows already and I have not included a DVD drive, to cut down on the total cost. If you have the USB version no problem. If you have the DVD, then borrow an external (or internal if necessary) DVD drive. Or download Windows from the Microsoft site onto a USB pen drive and then use the key on your product. Really simple to do.

As Borealis pointed out, sure you can get a cheaper motherboard but like him I would take a Z170 over having a slightly faster CPU or GPU at this stage. Better upgrade options in the long run.

With an SSD instead of HDD it's only £20 more and worth considering:


My basket at Overclockers UK:

Total: £530.83
(includes shipping: £0.00)
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I've gone for something a bit different, not to say the there's anything wrong with the previous builds, this is just another way.

My basket at Overclockers UK:

Total: £392.15
(includes shipping: £12.30)
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I've stuck with in stock items, so the Microsoft Keyboard is out, but I would have selected it if it had been available.

I've gone for the cheap mobo/i5 build rather than the mid range mobo/i3 builds. With the i5 I don't think you need to upgrade for some time and when you do, just go the whole hog and replace the mobo as well. Most people never get around to upgrade their CPUs, and starting from an i5 you'll less like to need to. NB: OC forum members are not most people. :D

Does he need a better mobo? Probably not. If you not overclocking, adding lot of extras/Peripherals (13 year old will have limited spending I guess) I don't see the point.

You'll notice a few omissions, No SSD, Graphics card, Wi Fi? how is it being connected to the internet?.

There is £107 remaining in the budget.

I would say consider looking at the 2nd hand market for the GPU, you should be able to get a GTX670 in the £60-£90 range. (Just sold one of mine for £85)
The AMD equivalent cards cost a bit more on the 2nd hand market as coin mining is still boosting the prices.

And the rest for a Wi-Fi Card/dongle if required, or headset, or small SSD for OS, or DVD-RW. If you need more cash for these extras you could down grade the CPU to the i5 6400 for £20 less.

So if your prepared to go with a 2nd hand GPU you get a significantly faster machine from the start.
 
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