Very budget set up

[jernau_gergeh]

Daughter who is into cutesy Japanese art and gaming culture wants a very modest set up to play things like Sims and Star Dew Valley and other older/pretty easy to run games.

But, must be cute and stylish! Wants white case and white keyboard/ monitor etc.

First question - what kind of spec should I be aiming for, bearing in mind she ain't going to be wanting to play Cyberpunk in Ultra mode etc!

Second - New or second hand?

Thanks in advance for any help and advice.

 

[ED209]

Do you have a budget in mind?

2nd hand maybe a bit tricky with the request of white which normally has its own "white" tax like rgb does.

 

[jernau_gergeh]

£350?

 

[mickyflinn]

New you will may have to add a few pounds to get a PSU


White Case £40
CPU 5600g £110
16gb 3200mhz memory 35
500gb mw £37 or 1tb for £54
ASUS PRIME B550M-A WIFI II, £100 or Asus A520 tuf gaming WiFi £80
PSU whatever you need to add

 

[henson0115]

i think your going to be pushing it at £350 to do what you want, especially if you look at a 5600g from ocuk for example is £140 not £110. £350 for a pc alone can be done just about, but not including white keyboard and mouse and monitor.
might be better of buying second hand pc parts (excluding the case) a new white case/keyboard/mouse and monitor - unless you can find some second hand

 

[mickyflinn]

i think your going to be pushing it at £350 to do what you want, especially if you look at a 5600g from ocuk for example is £140 not £110.

Makes no sense why you would pay £30 more but yes needing a monitor within budget (£350) is impossible new.

 

[henson0115]

Makes no sense why you would pay £30 more but yes needing a monitor within budget (£350) is impossible new.

Sorry just to clarify im not suggesting buying it, im just taking into account the fact that the user is on these forums he's also probably looking at this shop.

 

[Tetras]

First question - what kind of spec should I be aiming for, bearing in mind she ain't going to be wanting to play Cyberpunk in Ultra mode etc!

Second - New or second hand?

Has to be second hand or at least mixed parts, since as said above: £350 budget with monitor/peripherals can't be done.

That said, if you shop around for 4300G/4600G/4650G/5600G/5650G prebuilds, there are a lot of cheap ones.

Daughter who is into cutesy Japanese art and gaming culture wants a very modest set up to play things like Sims and Star Dew Valley and other older/pretty easy to run games.

But, must be cute and stylish! Wants white case and white keyboard/ monitor etc.

The Hyte cases can be perfect for that kind of style, but would eat half your budget so that'd be a no-go.

This is the best I can do and it includes a b-grade GPU

My basket at OcUK:

• 1 x Intel Core i3-12100F 3.30GHz (Alder Lake) Socket LGA1700 Processor - Retail (SKU: CP-6AS-IN) = £73.99
• 1 x Asus Prime B660M-A WIFI D4 - Intel B660 DDR4 Micro ATX Motherboard (SKU: MB-6HK-AS) = £129.00
• 1 x Kingston Fury Beast 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 PC4-25600C16 3200MHz Dual Channel Kit (SKU: MY-294-KS) = £31.99
• 1 x B Grade Gainward GeForce GTX 1650 Pegasus 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (SKU: BG-09E-GW) = £98.40
• 1 x KIOXIA EXCERIA G2 1TB SSD NVME M.2 2280 Solid State Drive (SKU: STO-TSH-00981) = £59.00
• 1 x Cooler Master MasterBox TD300 Mesh Mini Tower Case - White (SKU: CA-38L-CM) = £54.94
• 1 x CORSAIR CX Series CX550 80 PLUS Bronze ATX Power Supply (SKU: POW-CRS-01134) = £46.99

• 1 x MSI 24" Modern MD2412PW 1920x1080 IPS 100Hz Business Productivity Monitor (SKU: MON-MSI-01778) = £108.95

Total: £603.26 (includes delivery: £0.00)​

 

[bimbleuk]

To get anywhere near that budget you either get lucky with a 2nd hand system or buy a HP/Dell desktop and stick a low profile GTX 1650 in it or similar. Not white though!

I recently built a basic box for my Zwift cycling software which was an upgrade from a HP desktop + GTX 1650 and that was still around £300 for a AMD R5 3600 + mobo RAM storage etc. and all 2nd hand parts from the Members Market.

Best I can do from the OCUK website which isn't the best for ultra low cost parts.

My basket at OcUK:

• 1 x Kolink Citadel Mesh RGB Micro-ATX Case - White (SKU: CA-05Y-KK) = £52.99
• 1 x Gigabyte B550 Gaming X V2 (AMD AM4) B550 ATX Motherboard (SKU: MB-594-GI) = £94.99
• 1 x AMD Ryzen 5 4500 Six Core 4.1GHz (Socket AM4) Processor - Retail (SKU: CP-3D4-AM) = £59.99
• 1 x Corsair Vengeance LPX Black 16GB (2x8GB) 3600 MHz AMD Ryzen Tuned DDR4 Memory Dual Kit (CMK16GX4M2Z3600C18) (SKU: MY-4BW-CS) = £35.99
• 1 x B Grade Gainward GeForce GTX 1650 Pegasus 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (SKU: BG-09E-GW) = £98.40
• 1 x Aerocool Integrator 600W 80 Plus Bronze Power Supply (SKU: CA-23P-AE) = £41.99
• 1 x Team Group MP33 PRO 512GB SSD M.2 2280 NVME PCI-E Gen3 Solid State Drive (SKU: STO-TMG-02680) = £29.99

Total: £414.34 (includes delivery: £0.00)​

 

[Craig_d1]

look 2nd hand...quick scan

NZXT H5 case white
12400F
3060ti
16gb ram
£290 collected London

a lot of people bought during lockdown and have gone back to work and getting rid now

seen 5600x/b450 mobo with GTX1070 also in a white corsair case for £330...sure you can bargain etc

 

[ED209]

Only issue with 2nd hand is warranty.

I would prefer to buy new than 2nd hand and something die and end up paying twice

 

[pastymuncher]

For that kind of budget you are not going to get anything worthwhile brand new so a console would be a better bet.

 

[Gray2233]

Does your daughter have an HDTV she could use as a monitor to start with?

That'll ease up your budget substantially, and even then your best bet is to look at second hand solutions.

I actually second the console suggestion, a series S for maybe X if you can stretch is going to be better than anything you can get in that price range. The other alternative would be to get a Steam Deck with a dock and keyboard/mouse and connect to her TV (if she has one). Just make sure the games she wants to play will actually run on it, I know that at least one of the more popular kids games doesn't.