So...The boy wants a gaming PC

[Retsef]

Hi Gals and Guys,

Chatting about xmas with my 13 year old and he wants a gaming PC. A long long time ago, in a galaxy similar to this one (pre children, brexit and covid), I built my own PC with a lot of help from this community.

So I would like to have your assistance again!
?
He currently has an i7 laptop that runs most things he likes to play, I am unsure of what games he would play on a gaming PC but presume that with a GPU any game is likey to be better / faster etc. We do not need any peripherals, as he already has them, just a decent rig....

Here's the rub, I'm not really willing to pay more than £650 and have the follwing questions:

Will a gaming PC really be better than his current i7 laptop?
Is the above spend reasonable to get a much better expeirance for him?
I would like the build to be upgradable, would that be a problem?

Could you lasses and lads spec me up and give some brief reasons for your choices. I would very much appreciate it and I am sure the boy would be pleased as punch if he gets a home made PC with good components.

Lastly, we do not have an OS to bolt on and wonder at that cost in addition to the build. He's a student so maybe we could get it cheap....


Thank you for any response.

Ant.

 

[Quartz]

Here's the rub, I'm not really willing to pay more than £650

Get him a console. Graphics cards are going for grossly inflated prices right now.

Exactly which laptop does he have? Some of them have quite decent GPUs inside.

 

[Cadder]

What is the full spec of the laptop? I7 is quite vague.

I think the answer is going to be console though, as Quartz mentioned. £650 budget covers a low end GPU, leaving little for the rest of the components

 

[Retsef]

Thanks Quartz,

He has an Xbox but is intersted in computers generally. He's doing a lot of designing on certain software for 3D printers at the moment, which I hope will be good for his future and why I think an upgrade, with him helping to build, might be good. His laptop is a Levono ideapad 520s.

You might me well be right, I am not wedded to this, and I have seen that the issues surrounding semi-conductors / chips are inflating prices at the moment, I'd still like a prospective build as long as it is not too pricey. Your feed back on the laptop would have course also be of interest.

Thanks for your response

 

[throwaway4372]

It's nice to want things.
Tell him he isn't getting it.

 

[Retsef]

Thanks Cadder.

His laptop is good in general terms. Perhaps I should reframe my original questions to say, how much would it cost for a reaponable gaming laptop at today's prices. I can perhaps afford it, just trying to find out if it is worth it. Thanks for your response - you guys are awesome.

 

[tamzzy]

Here's the rub, I'm not really willing to pay more than £650 and have the follwing questions:

if you go pre-owned, can get a very decent build for that kind of money

Lastly, we do not have an OS to bolt on and wonder at that cost in addition to the build. He's a student so maybe we could get it cheap....

one can get legit oem keys for less than a tenner

 

[Retsef]

thanks Throwaway. I kind of agree with the "your not getting it" - I am originally form Yorkshire...You know what that means? A Yorkshireman is very like a Scostman, just with all the generosity squeezed out of him.

I'd still like a spec from you guys even if we don't take it up....

 

[GreatAuk]

So looks like the laptop cpu may be a i7 7500U, which is a low power dual core. Depending on whether optioned or not it may have an nvidia gtx 940mx gpu.

I would also caution that inflated gpu prices make it hard to get a decent gaming pc on a budget atm, so we'll worth considering whether a console + keeping the existing laptop might be an option.

For under £650 I've come up with the below. Should be much faster than the laptop (the i3 processor may sound low end but should still be much more than twice as fast as the laptop cpu, similarly the 1050Ti gpu should be multiple times faster than the laptop gpu, it has double the RAM, and double the storage). Should also be easy to upgrade - can swap cpu for say an i5 or i7 at some point in the future (ideally would want to be on the amd ryzen train for upgradeability, but low cost entry points are hard to come by, unless you go second hand), and psu and case will support a much more powerful gpu.

My basket at Overclockers UK:

• 1 x Palit GeForce GTX 1050Ti StormX 4096MB PCI-Express GDDR5 Graphics Card= £218.99
• 1 x Gigabyte B560M DS3H (Socket LGA 1200) Micro ATX Motherboard= £84.95
• 1 x Team Group Vulcan Z T-Force 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 PC4-25600C16 3200MHz Dual Channel Kit - Grey= £59.99
• 1 x WD Blue SN550 500GB SSD NVME M.2 2280 PCIe Gen3 Solid State Drive (WDS500G2B0C)= £43.99
• 1 x Super Flower Golden Green HX 650W "80 Plus Gold" Power Supply - Black= £64.99
• 1 x Kolink Citadel Mesh Micro-ATX Case - Black= £44.99
• 1 x Intel Core i3-10105F 3.70GHz (Comet Lake) Socket LGA1200 Processor - Retail= £68.99

Total: £598.59 (includes shipping: £11.70)


​

Going for used parts or even a used system would have course get more for your money.

Re an operating system just download the Windows ISO to a USB stick and install it for free. If you get bored of seeing the 'activate Windows' watermark on the screen then you can buy very cheap keys online.

I know people aren't keen on the sn550 nvme drives any more due to component swapping, but it's cheap and still at least as fast as any sata ssd AFAIK.

If the noise of the terrible Intel stock cooler starts getting to you then can add this decent cooler for £35 : https://www.overclockers.co.uk/arct...ack-white-cpu-cooler-2-x-120mm-hs-074-ar.html

Alternative motherboard option with WiFi and better vrms for £15 more: https://www.overclockers.co.uk/msi-...200-ddr4-micro-atx-motherboard-mb-35z-ms.html

 

[Retsef]

Tamzzy - without flouting the rules of the forum, where is best to browse second hand gaming systems?? If you can'r say on this platform, I understand.

 

[Retsef]

GreatAwk - thanks so much. I agree we have to think carefully whether to go for it but appreciate the input and the reasons for it. I do suppose it comes down to whether he will be happy with that kind of spec for a few years - or as others have suggested, that he should be denied an upgrade and stick to a console + his i7 laptop. It is an interesting question and my only problem is I have not, in my mind, come to a conclusion of what may be best.

Fully appeciating all your answers which are helping to coalese my final decision.

On the other hand, what do I gert him for xmas if not this. ha ha.

 

[throwaway4372]

socks

 

[IceBear]

socks

Whilst an admirable suggestion, socks for Christmas at 13 years of age will deny him the years, in later life of that particular disappointment

 

[Retsef]

socks

He'll have grown out of them between now and xmas.

Thanks guys for all your responses.

 

[Haz123]

My basket at Overclockers UK:

• 1 x AMD Ryzen 5 5600G Six Core 3.9GHz (Socket AM4) APU with RX Vega Graphics - Retail= £239.99
• 1 x Crucial Ballistix 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 PC4-28800C16 3600MHz Dual Channel Kit= £79.99
• 1 x MSI MAG B550 Tomahawk (AMD AM4) B550 ATX Motherboard= £129.95
• 1 x Corsair RM Series RM650 650W '80 Plus Gold' Modular Power Supply (CP-9020194-UK)= £69.95
• 1 x WD Blue SN550 500GB SSD NVME M.2 2280 PCIe Gen3 Solid State Drive (WDS500G2B0C)= £43.99
• 1 x Bitfenix Nova Midi Tower Case - White Window= £33.95

Total: £610.12 (includes shipping: £12.30)
​

This is within your budget and is fully upgradeable. It is an APU so you can just add in a GPU if you can get one at a sensible price. The case is garbage and would need a couple of extra fans but can upgrade that whenever you like. You have money in your budget if you want to get a slightly stronger PSU that would allow for any gpu but 650w is good for upto a RTX 3070.

Win 10 keys can be got for around £10 , google is your friend and you can get instructions on the MS website on how to creat a bootable USB stick. All you need is an 8gb usb stick.

P.s. The 5600G is out of stock , you would have to shop around to find one.

P.s.s. Intel is launching Alderlake cpus in around 5 weeks time so if they are good there may be price drops on Ryzen chips so may be best to wait a few weeks.

 

[Retsef]

Thanks so much Haz - If the case is garbage, I am sure that could be upgraded for not too much more cash. 13 yo boys like the bling I imagine, so making it look good on the outside is just an important as the compnents on the inside, at that age at least.

Seems to me that I will be the one getting socks.

 

[Haz123]

Yes you can easily choose any case within your budget that you like the look of.

I was just checking out the igpu performance of the AMD 5600G and its not great. It is around half the fps of a 1060 6gb and thats over 4 year old gpu. If you can pick up a second hand 1050ti/1060 or better gpu for a sensible price you can easily build a pc for your needs but getting that gpu is the problem. Only readibly available new gpu is 6600xt and thats over £400 so it eats all your budget and not an option.

 

[IceBear]

Has your son got any money of his own he could put towards it ?

 

[tamzzy]

Tamzzy - without flouting the rules of the forum, where is best to browse second hand gaming systems?? If you can'r say on this platform, I understand.

The usual suspects...bay, gum tree, FB. Ofc you'll need to be on the watch for scams etc.
Shame you don't have members market access. Could definitely do a very reasonable gtx 1070 or even a gtx 1080 build on that kind of budget.
The best would be to nab a new 3060ti FE and build around it. Doable for £650. Ofc you'll have to be quick when stocks drop (goes within minutes).

 

[Retsef]

Has your son got any money of his own he could put towards it ?

Yes he has a load of cash in an ISA, I'm just not willing to spend it on this. Hoping he will eventually be able ot pay for a house deposit when he is in his 20's. I will pay for the PC and the buget is flexible. However, his older sister will be hacked off if he gets substantially more than her at xmas, in monetary terms. I however really like PC's so I am keen to indulge him.

I'll have to make sure she is similarly rewarded, hence the budget.