[SOLVED] Advice on gaming PC for my son

Nov 19, 2019
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Firstly thank you in advance.

I would like to buy my son a pc for XMAS however i'm quite confused with all the options.

He likes wants to play fornite, GTA, Ghost Recon mainly FPS games with a good smooth frame rate and good graphics.

I went to curry's pcworld and saw these 2 pc's on sale. 1 is cheap which will allow him to upgrade and the other is about £1150 and is better however I'm not sure which one to go for. Is the higher end one any good or is it a rip off?

PC 1:
NVIDIA Geforce GTX 1050 2GB
AMD RYZEN 3 3rd GEN
8GB DDR4 RAM
1TB HDD & 120 GB SSD
190_ FPS at normal 1080p on fornite
WIFI 802.11

PRICE: £599

PC 2:
OMEN 875-0051na
NVIDIA Geforce RTX 2060 6GB
Intel 9th Gen Core i7 - 9700F processor
16GB DDR4 RAM
2 TB HDD 256 SSD

PRICE: £1150

If it's better for me to build a PC can someone on a good specification build. I would like to spend no more than £1100 for pc.

My main concern is the PC not being powerful enough in a years time or if a game comes out requires higher specifications.

Many thanks.
 
Solution
Second thoughts could you revise your quote to be same in terms of GPU & CPU?
The CPU is close in performance so I'd stick with that but I dumped the CPU cooler (the stock works fine but can be a little audible, changed the SSD & then swapped the GPU to the 5700 which performs close to the 2060 and kept close to budget.

PCPartPicker Part List
CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 3600 3.6 GHz 6-Core Processor (£174.78 @ Aria PC)
Motherboard: ASRock B450M Pro4-F Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard (£64.13 @ CCL Computers)
Memory: Patriot Viper 4 Blackout 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3000 Memory (£54.98 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: ADATA XPG SX6000 Pro 256 GB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive (£33.99 @ Amazon...

Eximo

Titan
Ambassador
PC 1 is basically only providing the type of CPU, not which one it has. GTX1050 is a little old at this point.

Second build is reasonably powerful, particularly on the CPU, probably overkill. RTX2060 is decent enough for 1440p at 60hz in most titles. So if you are running a 1080p monitor, it will be good for quite a while yet.

I'll slap something together. Any known preferences? Will you be wanting peripherals and things?
 
Nov 19, 2019
33
2
35
PC 1 is basically only providing the type of CPU, not which one it has. GTX1050 is a little old at this point.

Second build is reasonably powerful, particularly on the CPU, probably overkill. RTX2060 is decent enough for 1440p at 60hz in most titles. So if you are running a 1080p monitor, it will be good for quite a while yet.

I'll slap something together. Any known preferences? Will you be wanting peripherals and things?

Thanks for the quick response.

I'll need to get a decent mouse and keyboard, also a nice1080p gaming monitor.
Is it relatively simple to build your own pc? looking to get this all sorted before XMAS.

Also PC 2: is the price good / reasonable or over priced?

Cheers Eximo!
 

Eximo

Titan
Ambassador
Well 1080p certainly simplifies things. I'll leave some room for upgrades so you have future birthday presents sorted out :)

As for building a computer, it is pretty straight forward these days. Plenty of Youtube videos to watch, and you can always post back here if there are problems.

Try Paul's Hardware:
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHY6ygHj80c


PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 2700X 3.7 GHz 8-Core Processor (£158.98 @ Laptops Direct)
Motherboard: MSI B450 TOMAHAWK ATX AM4 Motherboard (£99.95 @ Overclockers.co.uk)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 Memory (£65.58 @ Aria PC)
Storage: Intel 660p Series 1.02 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive (£89.97 @ CCL Computers)
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon RX 5700 8 GB PULSE Video Card (£340.65 @ CCL Computers)
Case: Fractal Design Focus G ATX Mid Tower Case (£52.47 @ Scan.co.uk)
Power Supply: SeaSonic M12II EVO 520 W 80+ Bronze Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply (£55.47 @ Scan.co.uk)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Home OEM 64-bit (£85.98 @ Aria PC)
Monitor: LG 24MK400H-B 24.0" 1920x1080 75 Hz Monitor (£92.99 @ CCL Computers)
Keyboard: Cooler Master Devastator 3 Wired Gaming Keyboard With Optical Mouse (£43.30 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £1085.34
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-11-19 18:21 GMT+0000


(Better CPU cooler, additional storage, always upgrade the graphics card/monitor when the time comes)

You didn't mention speakers/headphones? Already sorted?
 
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Without a display, mouse and keyboard, and with room to improve too heres my list:

The idea is to keep the programs and games on the SSD storage (Crucial), and store the personal data (movies, documents, music, etc) on the HDD (Western Digital).

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 3700X 3.6 GHz 8-Core Processor (£293.58 @ Aria PC)
Motherboard: Asus TUF GAMING X570-PLUS (WI-FI) ATX AM4 Motherboard (£188.47 @ Ebuyer)
Memory: G.Skill Flare X 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 Memory (£78.40 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Crucial P1 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive (£97.44 @ CCL Computers)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£33.18 @ Aria PC)
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce RTX 2060 6 GB WINDFORCE OC Video Card (£305.92 @ More Computers)
Case: Fractal Design Focus G ATX Mid Tower Case (£52.47 @ Scan.co.uk)
Power Supply: SeaSonic FOCUS Plus Gold 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply (£97.99 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £1147.45
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-11-19 18:44 GMT+0000


Other than that, Eximo's PC list looks pretty impresive, I will try to build up something with a display and come back later.

Edited, sorry made a mess in the first sentence :) .

Cheers
 
Last edited:
Nov 19, 2019
33
2
35
T
Well 1080p certainly simplifies things. I'll leave some room for upgrades so you have future birthday presents sorted out :)

As for building a computer, it is pretty straight forward these days. Plenty of Youtube videos to watch, and you can always post back here if there are problems.

Try Paul's Hardware:
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHY6ygHj80c


PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 2700X 3.7 GHz 8-Core Processor (£158.98 @ Laptops Direct)
Motherboard: MSI B450 TOMAHAWK ATX AM4 Motherboard (£99.95 @ Overclockers.co.uk)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 Memory (£65.58 @ Aria PC)
Storage: Intel 660p Series 1.02 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive (£89.97 @ CCL Computers)
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon RX 5700 8 GB PULSE Video Card (£340.65 @ CCL Computers)
Case: Fractal Design Focus G ATX Mid Tower Case (£52.47 @ Scan.co.uk)
Power Supply: SeaSonic M12II EVO 520 W 80+ Bronze Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply (£55.47 @ Scan.co.uk)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Home OEM 64-bit (£85.98 @ Aria PC)
Monitor: LG 24MK400H-B 24.0" 1920x1080 75 Hz Monitor (£92.99 @ CCL Computers)
Keyboard: Cooler Master Devastator 3 Wired Gaming Keyboard With Optical Mouse (£43.30 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £1085.34
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-11-19 18:21 GMT+0000


(Better CPU cooler, additional storage, always upgrade the graphics card/monitor when the time comes)

You didn't mention speakers/headphones? Already sorted?
Thank you for your parts suggestion....
 
Nov 19, 2019
33
2
35
Without a display, mouse and keyboard, and with room to improve too heres my list:

The idea is to keep the programs and games on the SSD storage (Crucial), and store the personal data (movies, documents, music, etc) on the HDD (Western Digital).

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 3700X 3.6 GHz 8-Core Processor (£293.58 @ Aria PC)
Motherboard: Asus TUF GAMING X570-PLUS (WI-FI) ATX AM4 Motherboard (£188.47 @ Ebuyer)
Memory: G.Skill Flare X 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 Memory (£78.40 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Crucial P1 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive (£97.44 @ CCL Computers)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£33.18 @ Aria PC)
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce RTX 2060 6 GB WINDFORCE OC Video Card (£305.92 @ More Computers)
Case: Fractal Design Focus G ATX Mid Tower Case (£52.47 @ Scan.co.uk)
Power Supply: SeaSonic FOCUS Plus Gold 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply (£97.99 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £1147.45
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-11-19 18:44 GMT+0000


Other than that, Eximo's PC list looks pretty impresive, I will try to build up something with a display and come back later.

Edited, sorry made a mess in the first sentence :) .

Cheers

Thank you for your time and suggestions.
 
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Nov 19, 2019
33
2
35
I spoke with a specialist pc shop today and they gave me a quote on a pc which says is very good value money. Please could someone have a look at the specifications and tell me if this is a good spec pc and whether it is better or very similar to the PC I asked about in my original post.

INTEL i7 9700
16GB DDR4
480GB SSD
Nivdia RTX 20606GB

price: £1000

VS

PC 2:
OMEN 875-0051na
NVIDIA Geforce RTX 2060 6GB
Intel 9th Gen Core i7 - 9700F processor
16GB DDR4 RAM
2 TB HDD 256 SSD

PRICE: £1150
which is better or are they the same?
 

WildCard999

Titan
Moderator
PCPartPicker Part List
CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 3600 3.6 GHz 6-Core Processor (£174.78 @ Aria PC)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 Black Edition 42 CFM CPU Cooler (£29.86 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: ASRock B450M Pro4-F Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard (£64.13 @ CCL Computers)
Memory: Patriot Viper 4 Blackout 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3000 Memory (£54.98 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: ADATA XPG SX8200 Pro 512 GB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive (£59.99 @ CCL Computers)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£33.18 @ Aria PC)
Video Card: Zotac GeForce GTX 1660 Super 6 GB Twin Fan Video Card (£217.99 @ Box Limited)
Case: Fractal Design Define Mini C TG MicroATX Mid Tower Case (£44.47 @ Ebuyer)
Power Supply: SeaSonic FOCUS Plus Gold 550 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply (£88.99 @ Amazon UK)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Home OEM 64-bit (£85.98 @ Aria PC)
Monitor: AOC 24V2Q 23.8" 1920x1080 75 Hz Monitor (£113.71 @ Box Limited)
Keyboard: Corsair K55 + HARPOON RGB Wired Gaming Keyboard With Optical Mouse (£64.99 @ Overclockers.co.uk)
Headphones: Corsair HS50 PRO STEREO Headset (£51.85 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £1084.90
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-11-20 17:41 GMT+0000



Here's how to setup the Freesync monitor with the Nvidia GPU.
https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/how-to-run-gsync-on-freesync-monitor,6072.html
 
Nov 19, 2019
33
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PCPartPicker Part List
CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 3600 3.6 GHz 6-Core Processor (£174.78 @ Aria PC)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 Black Edition 42 CFM CPU Cooler (£29.86 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: ASRock B450M Pro4-F Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard (£64.13 @ CCL Computers)
Memory: Patriot Viper 4 Blackout 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3000 Memory (£54.98 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: ADATA XPG SX8200 Pro 512 GB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive (£59.99 @ CCL Computers)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£33.18 @ Aria PC)
Video Card: Zotac GeForce GTX 1660 Super 6 GB Twin Fan Video Card (£217.99 @ Box Limited)
Case: Fractal Design Define Mini C TG MicroATX Mid Tower Case (£44.47 @ Ebuyer)
Power Supply: SeaSonic FOCUS Plus Gold 550 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply (£88.99 @ Amazon UK)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Home OEM 64-bit (£85.98 @ Aria PC)
Monitor: AOC 24V2Q 23.8" 1920x1080 75 Hz Monitor (£113.71 @ Box Limited)
Keyboard: Corsair K55 + HARPOON RGB Wired Gaming Keyboard With Optical Mouse (£64.99 @ Overclockers.co.uk)
Headphones: Corsair HS50 PRO STEREO Headset (£51.85 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £1084.90
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-11-20 17:41 GMT+0000
 
Nov 19, 2019
33
2
35
Thank you wildcard...

besides the moniotor and keyboard is this about the same or better than your pc build suggestion? if yes why? sorry im trying to educate myself as its quite confusing for me.

INTEL i7 9700
16GB DDR4
480GB SSD
Nivdia RTX 20606GB

price: £1000
 

WildCard999

Titan
Moderator
Thank you wildcard...

besides the moniotor and keyboard is this about the same or better than your pc build suggestion? if yes why? sorry im trying to educate myself as its quite confusing for me.

INTEL i7 9700
16GB DDR4
480GB SSD
Nivdia RTX 20606GB

price: £1000
The CPU is slightly better on your build and so it the GPU however that price is just the tower. I got the entire build, which would game well at 1080P on High settings, for under your budget. Also with those prebuilts they cut corners on parts such as the PSU which leaves little to no room on upgrades and speaking of which AMD has another lineup of CPU's (4th gen) which should be released in 2020 before AMD goes do a different socket.
 
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OllympianGamer

Honorable
Dec 22, 2016
317
50
10,890
Thank you wildcard...

besides the moniotor and keyboard is this about the same or better than your pc build suggestion? if yes why? sorry im trying to educate myself as its quite confusing for me.

INTEL i7 9700
16GB DDR4
480GB SSD
Nivdia RTX 20606GB

price: £1000
Just be careful with say an smaller independant company building you a pc, they could cheap out on the ram, motherboard psu etc to make a decent profit off you, I see it a lot in the uk.
 
  • INTEL i7 9700 its ok
    [*]And the Motherboard brand / model???? Its very important to know what motherboard this pc shop will use cause that may or not eat a lot of the money, and also there are very trash motherboard that may work but they are not worth it compared to others that are way better and may only cost 15% more.
  • 16GB DDR4 Hows the memory setup? 2x8GB is what you should be looking for. Whats the DDR4 speed? 2133, 2400, 3000, 3200,3600, today speed RAM is pretty cheapper but pc shops tend to put crappy RAM inside the systems they build
  • 480GB SSD What brand ?, What size/type: 2.5" Sata3, M2 Sata3, M2 NVME?
  • Nivdia RTX 20606GB What brand and model?
    [*]What about the the Power Supply/PSU brand/model? (Known brands: Seasonic, Corsair, EVGA, etc) How many Watts (for this setup i would start with atleast a 650watts PSU, to have some room to grown up in the future)?. Is this a semi-modular unit, or a full moludar one?, Is it 80+ bronze, gold, or higher rated ?
    [*]And what PC Case brand/model is this shop including in the price? The case should have a dust filter for the PSU and good air flow, atleast 2 120mm fans in the front as intake and 1 x 120mm fan in the back as an exhaust?

price: £1000

Sorry to ask you all this, but it wont be the first time someone goes to a shop or online shop and ask for a gamming PC and half of the components/parts he/she gets for the money are a piece of garbage.
 
Nov 19, 2019
33
2
35
The CPU is slightly better on your build and so it the GPU however that price is just the tower. I got the entire build, which would game well at 1080P on High settings, for under your budget. Also with those prebuilts they cut corners on parts such as the PSU which leaves little to no room on upgrades and speaking of which AMD has another lineup of CPU's (4th gen) which should be released in 2020 before AMD goes do a different socket.

Second thoughts could you revise your quote to be same in terms of GPU & CPU?
 

WildCard999

Titan
Moderator
Second thoughts could you revise your quote to be same in terms of GPU & CPU?
The CPU is close in performance so I'd stick with that but I dumped the CPU cooler (the stock works fine but can be a little audible, changed the SSD & then swapped the GPU to the 5700 which performs close to the 2060 and kept close to budget.

PCPartPicker Part List
CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 3600 3.6 GHz 6-Core Processor (£174.78 @ Aria PC)
Motherboard: ASRock B450M Pro4-F Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard (£64.13 @ CCL Computers)
Memory: Patriot Viper 4 Blackout 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3000 Memory (£54.98 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: ADATA XPG SX6000 Pro 256 GB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive (£33.99 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£33.18 @ Aria PC)
Video Card: XFX Radeon RX 5700 8 GB DD Ultra Video Card (£298.00 @ Amazon UK)
Case: Fractal Design Define Mini C TG MicroATX Mid Tower Case (£44.47 @ Ebuyer)
Power Supply: SeaSonic FOCUS Plus Gold 550 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply (£88.99 @ Amazon UK)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Home OEM 64-bit (£85.98 @ Aria PC)
Monitor: AOC 24V2Q 23.8" 1920x1080 75 Hz Monitor (£113.71 @ Box Limited)
Keyboard: Corsair K55 + HARPOON RGB Wired Gaming Keyboard With Optical Mouse (£64.99 @ Overclockers.co.uk)
Headphones: Corsair HS50 PRO STEREO Headset (£51.85 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £1109.05
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-11-20 18:10 GMT+0000
 
Solution
If you are getting a 1080p monitor for a build with a somewhat higher-end card like an RTX 2060 or RX 5700, it might be worth looking at high refresh rate 144+Hz monitors. Those should enable the graphics card to be used to its full potential by making the motion smoother compared to what one would get on a 60Hz or 75Hz screen. And they shouldn't cost all that much more either.
 

WildCard999

Titan
Moderator
If you are getting a 1080p monitor for a build with a somewhat higher-end card like an RTX 2060 or RX 5700, it might be worth looking at high refresh rate 144+Hz monitors. Those should enable the graphics card to be used to its full potential by making the motion smoother compared to what one would get on a 60Hz or 75Hz screen. And they shouldn't cost all that much more either.
Cheapest one I saw was this, there could be cheaper TN panels but IPS/VA is so much better imho.

PCPartPicker Part List
Monitor: AOC 24G2U/BK 24.0" 1920x1080 144 Hz Monitor (£164.98 @ Laptops Direct)
Total: £164.98
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-11-20 18:19 GMT+0000
 
Nov 19, 2019
33
2
35
  • INTEL i7 9700 its ok
    [*]And the Motherboard brand / model???? Its very important to know what motherboard this pc shop will use cause that may or not eat a lot of the money, and also there are very trash motherboard that may work but they are not worth it compared to others that are way better and may only cost 15% more.
  • 16GB DDR4 Hows the memory setup? 2x8GB is what you should be looking for. Whats the DDR4 speed? 2133, 2400, 3000, 3200,3600, today speed RAM is pretty cheapper but pc shops tend to put crappy RAM inside the systems they build
  • 480GB SSD What brand ?, What size/type: 2.5" Sata3, M2 Sata3, M2 NVME?
  • Nivdia RTX 20606GB What brand and model?
    [*]What about the the Power Supply/PSU brand/model? (Known brands: Seasonic, Corsair, EVGA, etc) How many Watts (for this setup i would start with atleast a 650watts PSU, to have some room to grown up in the future)?. Is this a semi-modular unit, or a full moludar one?, Is it 80+ bronze, gold, or higher rated ?
    [*]And what PC Case brand/model is this shop including in the price? The case should have a dust filter for the PSU and good air flow, atleast 2 120mm fans in the front as intake and 1 x 120mm fan in the back as an exhaust?
price: £1000

Sorry to ask you all this, but it wont be the first time someone goes to a shop or online shop and ask for a gamming PC and half of the components/parts he/she gets for the money are a piece of garbage.

So this is the link to the PC Im interested in on ebay. Is it good? What questions can I ask to make sure it wont have substandard parts?

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Desktop-...256768?hash=item19efe9c2c0:g:uSwAAOSwoSNce73t
 
Nov 21, 2019
13
1
15
My issue when buying these store built computers is that most of them come with windows preinstalled and they stick on nearly an additional £100 to cover the cost (in my experience of what i've seen). Compared to the £10 key you can purchase quite easily online if you were to build yourself one saving you a decent chunk on unneccesary software alone.
 

WildCard999

Titan
Moderator
My issue when buying these store built computers is that most of them come with windows preinstalled and they stick on nearly an additional £100 to cover the cost (in my experience of what i've seen). Compared to the £10 key you can purchase quite easily online if you were to build yourself one saving you a decent chunk on unneccesary software alone.
I don't trust grey market sites because at some point, be it the following day or year Microsoft could invalidate it as those keys are usually already used or stolen which is why there sold for so cheap.

Honestly, unless your streaming there's really no need to even buy a key currently as you'll receive all of the important updates and security. The only things you lose is some customizing options and a watermark.