Refurbished pc for a 10 year old
- Thread starter Pharo1
- Start date
There are so many options, and many bad ones too, especially with refurbs many of which are often already limited in upgrade potential which ends up costing you more over time. For example, you fork out £500 for a Dell refurb (you can of course find some for less) and your son wants an upgrade next year for better performance, and chances are it won't be possible. Now what? Instead of being able to add a £150-200 graphics card you need practically a whole new PC because the PSU won't power it, and the CPU can't run a faster card well (and that can mean bye bye to the motherboard and memory as well). That said, yes there are some good choices among the bad. However, there are other options.
I just priced up all new components with decent warranty for £480. But you'd have to build it with your son. If you were game, that route would be the best option (once you decide on a spec). I'll list the example spec below just so you can start picking up a few ideas.
CPU: Ryzen 2600X
Motherboard: ASRock B450M Pro4-F
Memory: Patriot Viper 4 3200MHz 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4
Storage: Western Digital Blue 500GB M.2 SSD
Graphics: Sapphire Radeon RX 570 Pulse 4GB
Power Supply: Corsair CV450
Case: CiT Beam Chassis RGB Front
You'd have to buy from several places to hit the quoted figure. There's a slightly cheaper CPU called the Ryzen 1600 AF but some sellers are being a bit tricky advertising as AF and then their actual webpage either doesn't confirm which model it is, or it's the older non-AF model in the fine print. So I just specced a 2600X for you. It's close enough in price, slightly faster and has a slightly better cooler.
Another option is to have OcUK build you a system. For example the following:
My basket at Overclockers UK:
Now we're getting a little less performance* and a little less upgradability with Intel but you'd have to leave some room for the build cost, and at least it'll run Fortnite and most other games on medium settings comfortably. You'd have to inquire in the Customer Service Pre-Sales Queries forum to see what quote they can offer you to tempt you to purchase from them instead of elsewhere. The quotes aren't set in stone so never know. If they build it for you, you'd have a nice three-year warranty on the system.
* 8GB RAM instead of 16GB, still fine for Fortnite and that can be upgraded to 16GB in time. Six CPU threads instead of twelve, still fine for Fortnite (as long as there's more than four cores/threads, it's fine).
Gumtree, Ebay, CEX sometimes have decent stuff for sale. If you want to explore that, and post the specs here for our feedback, go for it. We're not allowed to link to non-OcUK stuff so it's better if you find things yourself, and then ask if the specs are good for the money.
Finally monitor and Windows - if he has a TV to use for now? Otherwise spend a bit more on a budget but good monitor that he'll be pleased with for a good few years, such as the AOC 24G2U. Windows you absolutely need to install yourself or it adds on £100, unless you go with a refurb that already includes it.
@ExRayTed
@lee32uk
@tamzzy
@Gray2233
@Plec
@Joxeon
Any other ideas that don't involve Xeons or quad-core/quad-thread and too much headache for someone a bit in the dark?
I just priced up all new components with decent warranty for £480. But you'd have to build it with your son. If you were game, that route would be the best option (once you decide on a spec). I'll list the example spec below just so you can start picking up a few ideas.
CPU: Ryzen 2600X
Motherboard: ASRock B450M Pro4-F
Memory: Patriot Viper 4 3200MHz 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4
Storage: Western Digital Blue 500GB M.2 SSD
Graphics: Sapphire Radeon RX 570 Pulse 4GB
Power Supply: Corsair CV450
Case: CiT Beam Chassis RGB Front
You'd have to buy from several places to hit the quoted figure. There's a slightly cheaper CPU called the Ryzen 1600 AF but some sellers are being a bit tricky advertising as AF and then their actual webpage either doesn't confirm which model it is, or it's the older non-AF model in the fine print. So I just specced a 2600X for you. It's close enough in price, slightly faster and has a slightly better cooler.
Another option is to have OcUK build you a system. For example the following:
My basket at Overclockers UK:
- 1 x **B Grade** Gigabyte B360 HD3 Intel B360 (Socket 1151) DDR4 ATX Motherboard= £40.00
- 1 x **B Grade** Intel Core i5-9400F 2.90GHz (Coffee Lake) Socket LGA1151 Processor - Retail= £109.99
- 1 x **B Grade** Kolink Inspire Series K5 RGB Midi Tower Case - Black Window= £19.99
- 1 x WD Blue 3D NAND 500GB 2.5" SATA 6Gbps Solid State Drive (WDS500G2B0A)= £61.99
- 1 x PowerColor Radeon RX 570 Red Dragon 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card= £128.99
- 1 x Team Group Vulcan T-Force 8GB (2x4GB) DDR4 PC4-25600C16 3200MHz Dual Channel Kit - Black/Grey (TLGD4= £44.99
- 1 x Corsair CV Series CV550 550W 80 Plus Bronze Power Supply (CP-9020210-UK)= £42.95
Total: £460.60 (includes shipping: £11.70)
Now we're getting a little less performance* and a little less upgradability with Intel but you'd have to leave some room for the build cost, and at least it'll run Fortnite and most other games on medium settings comfortably. You'd have to inquire in the Customer Service Pre-Sales Queries forum to see what quote they can offer you to tempt you to purchase from them instead of elsewhere. The quotes aren't set in stone so never know. If they build it for you, you'd have a nice three-year warranty on the system.
* 8GB RAM instead of 16GB, still fine for Fortnite and that can be upgraded to 16GB in time. Six CPU threads instead of twelve, still fine for Fortnite (as long as there's more than four cores/threads, it's fine).
Gumtree, Ebay, CEX sometimes have decent stuff for sale. If you want to explore that, and post the specs here for our feedback, go for it. We're not allowed to link to non-OcUK stuff so it's better if you find things yourself, and then ask if the specs are good for the money.
Finally monitor and Windows - if he has a TV to use for now? Otherwise spend a bit more on a budget but good monitor that he'll be pleased with for a good few years, such as the AOC 24G2U. Windows you absolutely need to install yourself or it adds on £100, unless you go with a refurb that already includes it.
@ExRayTed
@lee32uk
@tamzzy
@Gray2233
@Plec
@Joxeon
Any other ideas that don't involve Xeons or quad-core/quad-thread and too much headache for someone a bit in the dark?
If willing to self build this would be an idea:
My basket at Overclockers UK:
The 1600 is a placeholder for the 1600AF (make sure you do get the AF and not the vanilla 1600, it can be had for around £85), which you'd need to shop around for as OCUK don't stock it unfortunately. Alternatively, you can find the 2600 for around £100 if you look. I'd also consider shopping around for an RX590 instead of the RX570 I've listed, you can find them for £150 or so, you'd be a little over budget but I'd say it'd be worthwhile. As suggested by @Danny75 consider using a TV as a monitor until you're in a position to get something decent, I'm assuming your son already has one anyway.
My basket at Overclockers UK:
- 1 x AMD Ryzen 5 Six Core 1600 3.60GHz (Socket AM4) Processor - Retail= £98.99
- 1 x Asrock B450M Pro4 (Socket AM4) DDR4 MATX Motherboard= £70.99
- 1 x Team Group Vulcan T-Force 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 PC4-25600C16 3200MHz Dual Channel Kit - Black/Grey (TLGD= £74.99
- 1 x Corsair CV Series CV550 550W 80 Plus Bronze Power Supply (CP-9020210-UK)= £42.95
- 1 x **B Grade** Kolink Inspire Series K2 ARGB Micro-ATX Case - Black Window= £19.99
- 1 x WD Blue 3D NAND 500GB M.2 2280 Solid State Drive (WDS500G2B0B)= £59.99
- 1 x PowerColor Radeon RX 570 Red Dragon 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card= £128.99
Total: £496.89 (includes shipping: £0.00)
The 1600 is a placeholder for the 1600AF (make sure you do get the AF and not the vanilla 1600, it can be had for around £85), which you'd need to shop around for as OCUK don't stock it unfortunately. Alternatively, you can find the 2600 for around £100 if you look. I'd also consider shopping around for an RX590 instead of the RX570 I've listed, you can find them for £150 or so, you'd be a little over budget but I'd say it'd be worthwhile. As suggested by @Danny75 consider using a TV as a monitor until you're in a position to get something decent, I'm assuming your son already has one anyway.
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Soldato
- Joined
- 6 Feb 2010
- Posts
- 14,594
For convenient sake, you can just purchase a half decent USB AC1200 WiFi adaptor/dongle for about £20~£30, plug it in and install the device driver. It's not complicated.
Alternatively, you can get something like the motherboard below which have built-in WiFi, so you'd have WiFi as well as a better board:
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/msi-...ocket-am4-ddr4-atx-motherboard-mb-33s-ms.html
Powerline Adaptor is also an option (especially if the router has poor range and weak penetration through walls etc), which would allow internet access with Ethernet via the Powerline Adaptor devices that's plug into the power-sockets, and with one connecting to the PC and the other connecting to the router with the use of Ethernet cables.
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Marine-RX179 has listed all your options nicely. e.g.:
TP-Link TL-PA8010KIT Gigabit Powerline Starter Kit, Data Transfer Speed Up to 1200 Mbps (+£40). Plus a couple of ethernet cables.
or
B450 Pro Carbon AC motherboard (+£50 or £60).
or
TP-Link Archer T4E AC1200 Dual Band Wireless PCI Express Adapter with Two Antennas (+£25).
Given the budget, you could just go with the latter, cheaper option for now along with an ASRock B450M Pro4-F for £62. If he always has stable connection when gaming, great. If not, upgrade him to powerlines some other time.
Watch out for compatibility. For example, I listed two specs, one was micro-ATX (buy and build) the other ATX (OcUK builds), so careful mixing and matching motherboards and cases. Post your spec here before purchasing if unsure. Just don't link or mention competitors.
Hey, @Danny75, I think you covered every eventuality within your very comprehensive and informative reply.
Now, @Pharo1's husband is looking to build himself the included 'bang for buck budget build' within your original post has him covered, along with the additional alternatives (plus, @Gray2233 alternate tweaks for comparison give him plenty of good options to mull over if budget is flexible to cherry pick components from both.):
Only thing I can add is, Kudos for taking the time for such a detailed post.
Soldato
- Joined
- 9 Jun 2011
- Posts
- 3,598
get the amd build as above
If willing to self build this would be an idea:
My basket at Overclockers UK:
- 1 x AMD Ryzen 5 Six Core 1600 3.60GHz (Socket AM4) Processor - Retail= £98.99
- 1 x Asrock B450M Pro4 (Socket AM4) DDR4 MATX Motherboard= £70.99
- 1 x Team Group Vulcan T-Force 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 PC4-25600C16 3200MHz Dual Channel Kit - Black/Grey (TLGD= £74.99
- 1 x Corsair CV Series CV550 550W 80 Plus Bronze Power Supply (CP-9020210-UK)= £42.95
- 1 x **B Grade** Kolink Inspire Series K2 ARGB Micro-ATX Case - Black Window= £19.99
- 1 x WD Blue 3D NAND 500GB M.2 2280 Solid State Drive (WDS500G2B0B)= £59.99
- 1 x PowerColor Radeon RX 570 Red Dragon 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card= £128.99
Total: £496.89 (includes shipping: £0.00)
The 1600 is a placeholder for the 1600AF (make sure you do get the AF and not the vanilla 1600, it can be had for around £85), which you'd need to shop around for as OCUK don't stock it unfortunately. Alternatively, you can find the 2600 for around £100 if you look. I'd also consider shopping around for an RX590 instead of the RX570 I've listed, you can find them for £150 or so, you'd be a little over budget but I'd say it'd be worthwhile. As suggested by @Danny75 consider using a TV as a monitor until you're in a position to get something decent, I'm assuming your son already has one anyway.