Xmas gift for 12 yr old, DIY build with expansion

cygnusX

cygnusX

cygnusX

Associate
Joined
23 Nov 2017
Posts
9
Looking to buy components as a Xmas gift for a 12 year to build his first PC.

We already have a 1TB SATA Hard Drive, Keyboard, Mouse and Screen. My budget is £400, this is what I have at the moment any helpful feedback would be very useful to me.

My thoughts are to use the Intel onboard graphics until he wants to add a powerful graphics card.

My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £376.21 (includes shipping: £12.30)​
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cygnusX said:
Looking to buy components as a Xmas gift for a 12 year to build his first PC.

We already have a 1TB SATA Hard Drive, Keyboard, Mouse and Screen. My budget is £400, this is what I have at the moment any helpful feedback would be very useful to me.

My thoughts are to use the Intel onboard graphics until he wants to add a powerful graphics card.
Click to expand...

Hi, you don't need the 650W power supply. It's a massive overkill for your selected components. Thre isn't need for so massive overhead.

This:

My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £419.24 (includes shipping: £12.30)

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Thanks for the information on the overspec'd power supply.

Why would the AMD Ryzen 3 be a better choice than the Intel i3-8100
Any reason behind the RAM change?
 
cygnusX said:
Thanks for the information on the overspec'd power supply.

Why would the AMD Ryzen 3 be a better choice than the Intel i3-8100
Any reason behind the RAM change?
Click to expand...

Ryzen works in synchronous way with the memory frequency. The higher the memory frequency, the higher the internal frequency of Ryzen.
Ryzenl likes faster memory frequencies.

Ryzen 3 1200 can be overclocked to let's say 3.8-3.9-4.0GHz.
The AM4 motherboard for AMD Ryzen can be upgraded with yet not released future processors, next year, and the year after.

Overall, with Ryzen 3 1200 and Radeon RX 550, you will have a significantly faster system, especially in graphics loads:

https://www.futuremark.com/hardware/gpu/AMD+Radeon+RX+550/review


https://www.futuremark.com/hardware/gpu/Intel+UHD+Graphics+630/review
 
AK8KW10, would the rest of the setup be suitable if I dropped another £40 into the budget to upgrade to a RYZEN 5 QUAD CORE 1500X 3.70GHZ (SOCKET AM4)
 
You can. The AsRock motherboard will support next-year processors, too. Ryzen 2000 series ;)

Well, you can take the Ryzen 5 1500X but you can save £10, take the Ryzen 5 1400 and overclock it to the same speeds and above, 3.70GHz and higher.
 
Ditch the ASRock to gigabyte , specially when it's on sale.
Just got to the Mobo section or GPU and look at anything regarding gigabyte and you'll see a very strong rep presence from gigabyte . No other brands have it as strong or even have a rep .
Ocuk RMA is solid but it's a handy back up if things are taking long or you don't agree. Seems reps spend most of the posts sorting out other resellers on here...
Also Mobo and GPU repair center is UK, north of London, rest are EU based for mobos


My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £516.24 (includes shipping: £12.30)​

​

Push the extra for Rx 560, anything below and might as well grab an Xbox X tomorrow

DDR4 3600hz won't run at that speed but it's on sale, will run at 3200hz just fine . 3333hz if they fancy learning about becoming part of the pc master race :)
 
Last edited:
orbitalwalsh said:
Ditch the ASRock to gigabyte , specially when it's on sale.
Just got to the Mobo section or GPU and look at anything regarding gigabyte and you'll see a very strong rep presence from gigabyte . No other brands have it as strong or even have a rep .
Ocuk RMA is solid but it's a handy back up if things are taking long or you don't agree. Seems reps spend most of the posts sorting out other resellers on here...
Also Mobo and GPU repair center is UK, north of London, rest are EU based for mobos

My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £382.66 (includes shipping: £11.70)

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Push the extra for Rx 560
Click to expand...

You are right, let's go for this:

My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £501.24 (includes shipping: £12.30)

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But it is 100£ over the budget :(
 
4K8KW10 said:
You are right, let's go for this:

My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £501.24 (includes shipping: £12.30)

​

But it is 100£ over the budget :(
Click to expand...

Yeah, I went 516 , haha. £400-50 is Xbox X pricing , with black Friday, hard not to grab one :/
Shame Ryzen APU isn't out as saves on GPU, and allows for GPU in future
 
 
cygnusX said:
I need a smaller case to drop all this into, will this do the job?

My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £494.64 (includes shipping: £11.70)

​
Click to expand...

Yes. Very nice Christmas present ;)

Edit, since we went up with the processors, go for the 6-core/12-thread Ryzen 5 1600, and return to the original choice of case:

My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £498.24 (includes shipping: £12.30)

​
 
Last edited:
After reading everyone's great feedback, I think I'm there, as long as it fits into the case I have selected (better shape for the location).

My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £533.64 (includes shipping: £11.70)​
​
 
cygnusX said:
After reading everyone's great feedback, I think I'm there, as long as it fits into the case I have selected (better shape for the location).

My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £533.64 (includes shipping: £11.70)
​
Click to expand...

Or would this be a better case https://www.overclockers.co.uk/bitfenix-phenom-matx-cube-case-nvidia-edition-black-ca-173-bx.html

I have a Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" and a 120GB SSD I can add to the mix.

Anything else I have missed? i.e. SATA cables, etc.

Thank you again for all the advice, I'm new to the PC self-build world as you can probably tell.
 
I've gone full circle here, but I've got carried away and needed to bring it back closer to budget. The whole point is he can upgrade in the future and hopefully this setup allows that.

My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £458.64 (includes shipping: £11.70)​
​
 
cygnusX said:
I've gone full circle here, but I've got carried away and needed to bring it back closer to budget. The whole point is he can upgrade in the future and hopefully this setup allows that.

My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £458.64 (includes shipping: £11.70)
​
Click to expand...

No, the motherboard won't fit in the case.

This is an excellent gift, just take it haha:

My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £434.24 (includes shipping: £12.30)

​
 
cygnusX said:
I've gone full circle here, but I've got carried away and needed to bring it back closer to budget. The whole point is he can upgrade in the future and hopefully this setup allows that.

My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £458.64 (includes shipping: £11.70)
​
Click to expand...

My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £39.49 (includes shipping: £10.50)​
​



Done
 
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