Son's Gaming Build

alphacenturion · 16 Feb 2025 at 19:14

Hi people,

My son is building his first PC for gaming.

He plays the following games:

- Fornite
- Rainbow Six Siege
- Call of Duty
- Minecraft
- GTA (6 when it comes out)
- Variety of Steam games

He has approximately £2300 on the build (without monitor).

Hes been told to get an Asus card.

We would also be interested in any monitor suggestions that would go well with this setup.

Really appreciate some help!

tamzzy · 16 Feb 2025 at 19:23

how old is your son and how serious is his pc gaming hobby?

£2300-2500 is a lot of money to drop for a "phase"
a respectable computer would set you back £1300-1500 and be good enough to run all the above (bar gta6 as the requiements aren't known yet)

Journey · 16 Feb 2025 at 19:24

alphacenturion said:
Hes been told to get an Asus card.

Yeah, no.

hornetstinger · 16 Feb 2025 at 19:27

alphacenturion said:
Hi people,

My son is building his first PC for gaming.

He plays the following games:

- Fornite
- Rainbow Six Siege
- Call of Duty
- Minecraft
- GTA (6 when it comes out)
- Variety of Steam games

He has approximately £2300 on the build (without monitor).

Hes been told to get an Asus card.

We would also be interested in any monitor suggestions that would go well with this setup.

Really appreciate some help!

He doesn't need to spend that sort of money. As for Asus? Ummm no, wouldn't touch them anymore

Gray2233 · 16 Feb 2025 at 19:36

As the above posts.

It sounds like your son is getting some dodgy advice from people that fanboy over companies too, which is a seriously bad mindset to get into with a hobby like PC hardware. You need to take each part on a case by case basis, Asus isn't magically good by nature of being Asus, they've released some absolutely terrible hardware over the years in every segment they're attached to, and they often over charge due to brand recognition to boot. You want to focus on the following when buying anything in this hobby:

Price vs required features/Quality of the product > customer support/warranty.

Nothing else should matter imo, you should very much instil the idea of being brand agnostic into him.

Subliminal Aura · 16 Feb 2025 at 19:38

Yup we've all been assedup over the years, their top of range line may be passable but not worth the price

Tetras · 16 Feb 2025 at 22:17

alphacenturion said:
He has approximately £2300 on the build (without monitor).

...

We would also be interested in any monitor suggestions that would go well with this setup.

Here is an example 1440p build for you, but would not recommend buying any graphics card with new ones due out over the next few weeks.

Monitors are not my thing.

My basket at OcUK:

1 x AMD Ryzen 7 9700X Eight Core 5.50GHz (Socket AM5) Processor - Retail (SKU: PRO-AMD-02676) = £314.99
1 x MSI B850 GAMING PLUS WIFI (AMD AM5) B850 ATX Motherboard (SKU: MOT-MSI-03994) = £179.99
1 x Corsair Vengeance EXPO 64GB (2X32GB) DDR5 PC5-48000C30 6000MHz Dual Channel (SKU: MEM-CRS-02841) = £179.98
1 x PowerColor Radeon RX 7800 XT 16GB GDDR6 PCI-Express Graphics Card (SKU: GRA-PWC-04339) = £440.00
1 x Kingston FURY Renegade 2TB PCI-e 4.0 NVMe M.2 Solid State Drive (SFYRS/2000G) (SKU: STO-KNG-01330) = £124.99
1 x Montech AIR 903 Max Midi-Tower Tempered Glass - Black (SKU: CAS-MON-01229) = £59.99
1 x Asus TUF Gaming 850W 80 Plus Gold Power Supply (SKU: CA-060-AS) = £89.98

1 x Arctic Freezer 36 120m Black CPU Cooler - 2x 120mm (SKU: COO-ARC-02420) = £23.00

1 x ASUS 32" TUF Gaming VG32AQL1A 2560x1440 IPS 170Hz 1ms FreeSync Widescreen Gaming Monitor (SKU: MO-0CF-AS) = £258.94

Total: £1,671.86 (includes delivery: £0.00)

Ollie83 · 18 Feb 2025 at 07:21

Tetras said:
Here is an example 1440p build for you, but would not recommend buying any graphics card with new ones due out over the next few weeks.

Monitors are not my thing.

My basket at OcUK:

1 x AMD Ryzen 7 9700X Eight Core 5.50GHz (Socket AM5) Processor - Retail (SKU: PRO-AMD-02676) = £314.99

1 x MSI B850 GAMING PLUS WIFI (AMD AM5) B850 ATX Motherboard (SKU: MOT-MSI-03994) = £179.99

1 x Corsair Vengeance EXPO 64GB (2X32GB) DDR5 PC5-48000C30 6000MHz Dual Channel (SKU: MEM-CRS-02841) = £179.98

1 x PowerColor Radeon RX 7800 XT 16GB GDDR6 PCI-Express Graphics Card (SKU: GRA-PWC-04339) = £440.00

1 x Kingston FURY Renegade 2TB PCI-e 4.0 NVMe M.2 Solid State Drive (SFYRS/2000G) (SKU: STO-KNG-01330) = £124.99

1 x Montech AIR 903 Max Midi-Tower Tempered Glass - Black (SKU: CAS-MON-01229) = £59.99

1 x Asus TUF Gaming 850W 80 Plus Gold Power Supply (SKU: CA-060-AS) = £89.98

1 x Arctic Freezer 36 120m Black CPU Cooler - 2x 120mm (SKU: COO-ARC-02420) = £23.00

1 x ASUS 32" TUF Gaming VG32AQL1A 2560x1440 IPS 170Hz 1ms FreeSync Widescreen Gaming Monitor (SKU: MO-0CF-AS) = £258.94

Total: £1,671.86 (includes delivery: £0.00)

That's a really solid build for the money.

Craig_d1 · 18 Feb 2025 at 15:38

alphacenturion said:
Hi people,

My son is building his first PC for gaming.

He plays the following games:

- Fornite
- Rainbow Six Siege
- Call of Duty
- Minecraft
- GTA (6 when it comes out)
- Variety of Steam games

He has approximately £2300 on the build (without monitor).

Hes been told to get an Asus card.

We would also be interested in any monitor suggestions that would go well with this setup.

Really appreciate some help!

Think first you need to decide what resolution your son is going to play at, as the gpu will be the most expensive component probably so will have an impact on overall price(and also what psu you get) I'd recomment 1440 as a minimum, but your budget allows for a far more powerful gpu so 4k gaming is doable.
Also to consider the higher the resolution the less workload is put on the cpu, so you can get away with a cheaper one (ie at 1080p, the cpu will have to process a lot of frames which the gpu renders, but at lower resolution, not so difficult..so you're limited generally by the cpu(a cpu bottleneck)...at 4k, the gpu works a lot harder to render the image the cpu generates which takes longer..now the gpu is working harder and the cpu is waiting for the gpu to finish a frame before it send the next one..(so you get a gpu bottleneck)...so for a competetive game they play at low resolution with settings on low(as makes it easier to see the enemy)..so for them they'll use a 9800x3d to make the fps at low res and can get away with a less powerful gpu...for a single person gamer who wants games to look best with ray tracing etc, they want to put as much budget into the gpu, and can get a cheaper cpu(7600x for eg is more than capable) as they'll prbably be gpu bottlenecked, and cpu upgrade is a lot cheaper than a gpu upgrade

so once you know resolution you want to aim at then can look at monitors. Again, you have va, ips and oled as main types...VA can be cheap, have high contrast, can be curved but suffer from poor off angle viewing and suffer from smearing in fast movement. ips (have come down in price so fairly cheap now, genrally flat) are far more colour accurate but have poor contrast..so in a dark environment a black screen in a dark room will be visible as you generally get light bleed coming thru. Best is oled of course (you have normal woled or qdoled)..individual controlled pixels so infinite contrast, and pixel response is so fast, so real smearing...most expensive option though..then you have to decide on size...
as a guide i use a 48" lgc4 oled at mo, 4k..pixel density is 92ppi...it's ok, not greatest..moving down to a 42" soon(48" only one could get at time)
other
pixel density
27" 1440p 108ppi
32" 1440p 92ppi
32" 4k 138ppi
34" ultrawide 110ppi
42" 4k 106ppi
48" 4k 92ppi

alphacenturion · 20 Feb 2025 at 13:50

Guys, thanks so much for these responses, definitely some food for thought.

Based on all the feedback it sounds like he is massively overspending to get the fanboy stuff.

I spoke with him and with his fps games he's wants to win rather than it need to look unbelievable but then there is a balance to be had with some of his other games where he wants it to look as good as possible. Would you still suggest 1480p is enough for this?

The above recommendation by Tetras looks great and will save a lot of cash but if he waits for the new cards does he get a new card with the same build or just buy the rtx7800 at a cheaper price?

Thanks so much for all your input all!

Tetras · 20 Feb 2025 at 16:30

alphacenturion said:
The above recommendation by Tetras looks great and will save a lot of cash but if he waits for the new cards does he get a new card with the same build or just buy the rtx7800 at a cheaper price?

It is wait and see really, from what has happened so far there's very little value to be had, but we can live in hope! I was more thinking that the budget is a lot bigger than my spec, so not a good time to put a lot into the GPU.

hornetstinger · 20 Feb 2025 at 16:34

alphacenturion said:
Guys, thanks so much for these responses, definitely some food for thought.

Based on all the feedback it sounds like he is massively overspending to get the fanboy stuff.

I spoke with him and with his fps games he's wants to win rather than it need to look unbelievable but then there is a balance to be had with some of his other games where he wants it to look as good as possible. Would you still suggest 1480p is enough for this?

The above recommendation by Tetras looks great and will save a lot of cash but if he waits for the new cards does he get a new card with the same build or just buy the rtx7800 at a cheaper price?

Thanks so much for all your input all!

1440p is the sweet spot , 27" is good.

No point getting top end PC just to use 1080p.

RedMogg · 20 Feb 2025 at 18:17

My son plays competitive Fortnite and Rocket League quite successfully, using a 1080p 280hz screen (despite already having a much nicer 1440p 165hz screen - which is used just for Youtube & Discord!). He had the Sapphire Nitro 7800XT new, but it didn't play well with Fortnite for about 6 months, when they finally sorted the drivers.
We ended up swapping rigs over the summer, so he could play tournaments on my water cooled rig without drop-outs/crashes, but we didn't swap back, even after the drivers were sorted.

He appreciates a quieter, cooler system and I don't mind not spending ££££ heating the house unnecessarily...

His current spec:
5700X3D
Crucial 64Gb DDR4 3600Mhz
MSI B550 Tomahawk
EVGA 2080Ti
Lexar NM790 2Tb NVME
MSI MPG A1000G PSU
Lian Li Lancool 3

With full custom watercooling.

Monitors: Dell S3222DGM (1440p 165hz) & AOC C27G4ZXE (1080p 280hz)

Keyboard: Drunkdeer A75 (Magnetic switches)

Mouse: ACGAM x VXE Dragonfly R1 Pro Max (with the 4k dongle)

I bought a Thermalright Peerless Assassin to use with my 5900X in his Lancool 2 case, along with a half dozen of their 120mm RGB fans and it's honestly as cool and quiet as the watercooled rig that cost hundreds more.

TL

R - Your son doesn't need to spend over £2k to keep up with "esports" pros. But spending where it counts, certainly helps.

Craig_d1 · 20 Feb 2025 at 23:54

still wouldn't bother with 64gb ram...£180 for 64gb when 32gb is £90 for same 6000c30

none of games op listed use anywhere close to 32gb ram

rainbow 6 and minecraft my boys play on my pc with 32gb so know that's absolutely fine..not even close

below from HU vid...go to 4min59

fortnite 17.6gb ram useage (and that's Steve's game of choice at HU).
call of duty 15.8gb useage

@alphacenturion at the end of the day a lot also depends whether £2300 is a lot of money for your son....extreme example...My old neighbour went for a meal with a extremely wealthy individual..and I mean ectreme..so lunch...order wine..guy was ordering £8k bottles..neighbour asked him are you sure...his reply....do you worry about openning a can of coke/pepsi etc when you go out...to me, this is the equivalent...one mans fortune is another man's pocket chenge

point being people come on here putting a pc together for £800, and others come with a £6k budget and just buy whatever..if £2300 is a lot of money, 100% you can get a decent rig for a lot less..if it's a good amount of money and you can live with it..go for it...I mean at the mo, people are falling over themselves to buy 5090 gpu and they're £2500 just by themselves

If your son is really wanting to do some competitive gaming, then what I said previously is replicated in @RedMogg build....his some plays with a very high refresh rate(280hz) 1080P screen, and he's using a x3d cpu which is the least likely to bottleneck at lower resolution gaming...because he's gaming at 1080p, the gpu doesn't have to work so hard, hence he can get away with an older 2080ti

with a £2300 budget, you can replicate that with a 9800x3d cpu...then you can just forget about upgrading that as it's leagues ahead of the competition at the mo, and can get a decent gpu...you can evern splurge on a decent case if you want
for example the below can be used for high refresh rate gaming and and also good enough for 4k gaming, the 5070ti coming in just below a 4080 in performance

and I've splurged on a fancy case just to show what budget can do, some reverse fans and matching fan aio for top

My basket at OcUK:

1 x AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D Eight Core 5.20GHz (Socket AM5) Processor - Retail (SKU: PRO-AMD-03517) = £499.99
1 x MSI MAG B850 TOMAHAWK MAX WIFI (AMD AM5) B850 ATX Motherboard (SKU: MOT-MSI-03993) = £235.00
1 x Corsair Vengeance RGB EXPO 32GB (2X16GB) DDR5 PC5-48000C30 6000MHz Dual Channel Kit - Black (CMH32GX5M2B6000Z30K) (SKU: MY-4DU-CS) = £99.95
1 x Asus TUF Gaming 1000W 80 Plus Gold Power Supply (SKU: CA-05Z-AS) = £119.98
1 x Kingston FURY Renegade 2TB PCI-e 4.0 NVMe M.2 Solid State Drive (SFYRS/2000G) (SKU: STO-KNG-01330) = £125.00
1 x Zotac GeForce RTX 5070 Ti Solid Core 16GB GDDR7 PCI-Express Graphics Card (SKU: GRA-ZTC-04471) = £799.99
1 x Phanteks Evolv Series X2 Case Tempered Glass Windows DRGB Black/Gold (SKU: CAS-PHK-03325) = £139.99
3 x Phanteks M25 Gen2 120mm Reversed Airflow DRGB PWM Fan - Black (SKU: COO-PHK-02759) = £9.95
2 x B Grade Phanteks RGB Controller Hub for Digital RGB LED (SKU: BG-08E-PT) = £13.05
1 x Phanteks Glacier One 360 M25 Black RGB All In One CPU Water Cooler - 360mm (SKU: COO-PHK-03102) = £89.99

Total: £2,165.84 (includes delivery: £0.00)

same performance, cheaper mobo/case/air cooler (rgb version of one @Tetras added above)

My basket at OcUK:

1 x AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D Eight Core 5.20GHz (Socket AM5) Processor - Retail (SKU: PRO-AMD-03517) = £499.99
1 x Corsair Vengeance RGB EXPO 32GB (2X16GB) DDR5 PC5-48000C30 6000MHz Dual Channel Kit - Black (CMH32GX5M2B6000Z30K) (SKU: MY-4DU-CS) = £99.95
1 x Asus TUF Gaming 1000W 80 Plus Gold Power Supply (SKU: CA-05Z-AS) = £119.99
1 x Kingston FURY Renegade 2TB PCI-e 4.0 NVMe M.2 Solid State Drive (SFYRS/2000G) (SKU: STO-KNG-01330) = £124.99
1 x Zotac GeForce RTX 5070 Ti Solid Core 16GB GDDR7 PCI-Express Graphics Card (SKU: GRA-ZTC-04471) = £799.99
1 x Antec C3 ARGB Midi Tower - Black (SKU: CAS-ATC-02727) = £79.99
1 x Asus TUF Gaming B650-Plus WIFI (Socket AM5) DDR5 ATX Motherboard (SKU: MB-6K0-AS) = £179.99
1 x Arctic Freezer 36 A-RGB 120m Black CPU Cooler - 2x 120mm (SKU: COO-ARC-02418) = £29.99

Total: £1,934.88 (includes delivery: £0.00)

Craig_d1 · 21 Feb 2025 at 00:12

sensible option is as @Tetras put.
my version along same lines though, with fishbowl style case and 32gb ram/7600x. It's pretty much what I'm building for my youngest son at mo, except I've got a NV5 phanteks case (more expensive but got 2nd hand with d30 fans), but gives same look..but rest similar..rx7800xt being the gpu..a better mobo could be the b850 tomahawk (actually swapped out and put it in so you can see but the b850 gaming above for £180 is decent value)...there's also the asus b650e-f for £209 as another option, but I prefer tomahawk over that. If you plan on getting more nvme, it has heatsinks for all of the slots and 4 slots in total..£15 promotion bring it down to £220 also

My basket at OcUK:

1 x Corsair Vengeance RGB EXPO 32GB (2X16GB) DDR5 PC5-48000C30 6000MHz Dual Channel Kit - Black (CMH32GX5M2B6000Z30K) (SKU: MY-4DU-CS) = £99.95
1 x Kingston FURY Renegade 2TB PCI-e 4.0 NVMe M.2 Solid State Drive (SFYRS/2000G) (SKU: STO-KNG-01330) = £124.99
1 x Antec C3 ARGB Midi Tower - Black (SKU: CAS-ATC-02727) = £79.99
1 x Arctic Freezer 36 A-RGB 120m Black CPU Cooler - 2x 120mm (SKU: COO-ARC-02418) = £29.99
1 x Asus TUF Gaming 850W 80 Plus Gold Power Supply (SKU: CA-060-AS) = £89.99
1 x AMD Ryzen 5 7600X Six Core 5.30GHz (Socket AM5) Processor - Retail (SKU: CP-3DG-AM) = £209.99
1 x PowerColor Radeon RX 7800 XT 16GB GDDR6 PCI-Express Graphics Card (SKU: GRA-PWC-04339) = £449.98
1 x MSI MAG B850 TOMAHAWK MAX WIFI (AMD AM5) B850 ATX Motherboard (SKU: MOT-MSI-03993) = £235.00

Total: £1,319.88 (includes delivery: £0.00)

amd announcement for the new 9070 and 9070xt comes out in 1 week and launch is next month sometime, so def worth waiting on that...also the nvidia 5070 should launch next month also.