Advice for budget build pc please

[adiec]

hi i am looking to buy a tower for my teenage step daughter. I have browsed through ebay uk and seen 1 or 2 half decent towers containing AMD APU's but i read mainly bad things about these processors when i research them on this forum! any advice would be welcome. i doubt she would be bothered about ultra graphic settings in 1080p.



Approximate Purchase Date: Within the next two months.

Budget Range: £200-£270

System Usage Surfing the web, Gaming, watching movies.

Are you buying a monitor: No

Do you need to buy OS: No

Location: Cardiff Wales United Kingdom

Parts Preferences: AMD CPU (MORE REALISTIC FOR THE BUDGET)

Overclocking:Maybe ( NOT ESSENTIAL)

SLI or Crossfire: (NOT ESSENTIAL)

 

[Barty1884]

"buy" a tower? Or build one?

What kind of games would she be likely to play? Web browsing & movies etc will be fine on an APU, but gaming may be limited - depending on the kind of titles she's looking to play.

Fast(er) RAM is a must for gaming on an APU (1866MHz+).

 

[why_wolf]

For super low end, which is what you are after, the AMD APU is the way to go. Just above it, if paired with a discreet GPU, is the Intel i3-6100. Anyways this is close.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD A10-7860k 3.6GHz Quad-Core Processor (£93.36 @ CCL Computers)
Motherboard: ASRock FM2A68M-HD+ Micro ATX FM2+ Motherboard (£39.94 @ More Computers)
Memory: G.Skill Ares Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-2133 Memory (£44.84 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£42.99 @ Amazon UK)
Case: Deepcool TESSERACT BF ATX Mid Tower Case (£25.98 @ Ebuyer)
Power Supply: Corsair Builder 500W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply (£47.97 @ BT Shop)
Total: £295.08
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-10-03 21:49 BST+0100

 

[Aeacus]

Intel build, slightly over the budget:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i3-6100 3.7GHz Dual-Core Processor (£92.91 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: MSI H110M PRO-D Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard (£45.76 @ More Computers)
Memory: Crucial 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR4-2133 Memory (£25.99 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£42.99 @ Amazon UK)
Case: Deepcool TESSERACT BF ATX Mid Tower Case (£25.98 @ Ebuyer)
Power Supply: SeaSonic 360W 80+ Gold Certified ATX Power Supply (£61.06 @ Amazon UK)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-14 DVD/CD Writer (£12.30 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £306.99
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-10-03 21:29 BST+0100

And AMD build within the budget:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD A6-7400K 3.5GHz Dual-Core Processor (£44.18 @ BT Shop)
Motherboard: ASRock FM2A68M-HD+ Micro ATX FM2+ Motherboard (£39.94 @ More Computers)
Memory: Kingston Beast 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-2133 Memory (£39.11 @ More Computers)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£42.99 @ Amazon UK)
Case: Deepcool TESSERACT BF ATX Mid Tower Case (£25.98 @ Ebuyer)
Power Supply: SeaSonic 360W 80+ Gold Certified ATX Power Supply (£61.06 @ Amazon UK)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-14 DVD/CD Writer (£12.30 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £265.56
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-10-03 21:54 BST+0100

 

[Barty1884]

Building is just about doable:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD A10-7870K 3.9GHz Quad-Core Processor (£107.85 @ CCL Computers)
Motherboard: Asus A68HM-K Micro ATX FM2+ Motherboard (£36.95 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: Kingston Predator 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory (£37.48 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 320GB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£17.98 @ Amazon UK)
Case: Deepcool TESSERACT BF ATX Mid Tower Case (£25.98 @ Ebuyer)
Power Supply: XFX TS 430W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply (£36.88 @ CCL Computers)
Total: £263.12
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-10-03 21:44 BST+0100

If you could bump your budget up to ~350GBP, this would be a better option for the long-term

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i3-6100 3.7GHz Dual-Core Processor (£92.91 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: MSI H110M PRO-D Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard (£45.76 @ More Computers)
Memory: Crucial 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR4-2133 Memory (£25.99 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 320GB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£17.98 @ Amazon UK)
Video Card: PowerColor Radeon RX 460 2GB Red Dragon Video Card (£98.99 @ Ebuyer)
Case: Deepcool TESSERACT BF ATX Mid Tower Case (£25.98 @ Ebuyer)
Power Supply: XFX TS 430W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply (£36.88 @ CCL Computers)
Total: £344.49
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-10-03 21:59 BST+0100

 

[adiec]

Thank you for the replies so far much appreciated.

buying a pre-built tower or building one from scratch either is ok with me. As for the games she would play.. i am not totally sure, i know she plays things like the sims 3 on her ahem xbox 360. so i assume she would like to play the sims 4. she also likes to play black ops II .. so again i guess she would play that type of game.. it's hard to decide for a teenager as what they like changes so frequently! possibly minecraft and something i believe is called roblox ?