[SOLVED] Build or buy £300 - £400 Gaming pc?

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danielm175

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Hi,

My friend has asked me to look for a new gaming PC for him. Budget around £300 to £400 just for the PC.

My issue is that I'm not sure if I should just buy one of Amazon or but all of the components then build it for him?

As I looked at some more build ones and I valued there components for the price. Which seemed to be a bit expensive around £400 for bad comments pre build ones with no GPU inside.

When building own pc I worry about compatibility and installing Windows. As I see that I could purchase a Windows 10 key on Ebay around 10 pound.

What should I do?
 
Solution
PCPartPicker Part List: https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/WtqJBZ

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 2600 3.4 GHz 6-Core Processor (£107.58 @ Aria PC)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-A320M-S2H Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard (£42.98 @ Amazon UK) requires bios update to support Ryzen 3000 series;
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3000 Memory (£69.98 @ Aria PC)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda Compute 2 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£51.25 @ Amazon UK)
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon RX 580 8 GB PULSE Video Card (£154.99 @ CCL Computers)
Power Supply: EVGA BR 500 W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply (£43.54 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £470.32
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-03-04 13:36...
Hi,

My friend has asked me to look for a new gaming PC for him. Budget around £300 to £400 just for the PC.

My issue is that I'm not sure if I should just buy one of Amazon or but all of the components then build it for him?

As I looked at some more build ones and I valued there components for the price. Which seemed to be a bit expensive around £400 for bad comments pre build ones with no GPU inside.

When building own pc I worry about compatibility and installing Windows. As I see that I could purchase a Windows 10 key on Ebay around 10 pound.

What should I do?

What does he want to run and at what res/settings?
 

Lutfij

Titan
Moderator
Here on Tom'sHardware, I've learned that building your own system helps in understanding what you put into a build as opposed to a prebuilt system that tends to have corners cut or leaving the end-user not know what the specs of the system(entirely) are.

I would suggest you build it, considering your friend will come back to you for an upgrade, when the time comes.

How about you give us a list of the games your friend wants to play and an absolute budget...? We can then specs some parts for you on PCPartPicker.

Also, please don't purchase a licence key from Ebay, you can just as easily work with an unactivated version of Windows 10 until your friend has saved up enough money for a proper licence key.
 

danielm175

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Here on Tom'sHardware, I've learned that building your own system helps in understanding what you put into a build as opposed to a prebuilt system that tends to have corners cut or leaving the end-user not know what the specs of the system(entirely) are.

I would suggest you build it, considering your friend will come back to you for an upgrade, when the time comes.

How about you give us a list of the games your friend wants to play and an absolute budget...? We can then specs some parts for you on PCPartPicker.

Also, please don't purchase a licence key from Ebay, you can just as easily work with an unactivated version of Windows 10 until your friend has saved up enough money for a proper licence key.


Hi thank you so much for your time.

He really likes to play steam games at 1080p 60hz. Games like Roblox, minecraft, stranded deep and theef simulator is his favourite one.

Also what would the difference be between un activated and activated Windows 10? Is it just more features? As I just thought you had to purchase a key to use the internet and basic stuff. Did not know you could still use the functions of Windows without product key.

Price budget is around 300 to 400 but could maybe push it to 450 if needed.

Thank you for your time. And yes if you could get a system build for my friend on pcpartpicker this would be useful. Doesn't matter if AMD or Intel cheaper better.
 

danielm175

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Which need for speed? In any case it'll be a hard budget to stay within if you want 1080p 60 as you'll likely be stuck with a 2400g or 3400g. So it's likely you'd need to drop to 720p and drop the settings to hit 60 in most lower end titles

Minecraft and Roblox aren't on steam and it's thief simulator not theef.

He currently has an old pc, which might be worth upgrading. So I could invest in better CPU and GPU instead of investing in a whole system.l
 
PCPartPicker Part List: https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/WtqJBZ

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 2600 3.4 GHz 6-Core Processor (£107.58 @ Aria PC)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-A320M-S2H Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard (£42.98 @ Amazon UK) requires bios update to support Ryzen 3000 series;
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3000 Memory (£69.98 @ Aria PC)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda Compute 2 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£51.25 @ Amazon UK)
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon RX 580 8 GB PULSE Video Card (£154.99 @ CCL Computers)
Power Supply: EVGA BR 500 W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply (£43.54 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £470.32
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-03-04 13:36 GMT+0000

Hope it helps...!!!
 
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Solution

danielm175

Distinguished
Dec 30, 2016
328
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18,785
nkanha
PCPartPicker Part List: https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/WtqJBZ

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 2600 3.4 GHz 6-Core Processor (£107.58 @ Aria PC)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-A320M-S2H Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard (£42.98 @ Amazon UK) requires bios update to support Ryzen 3000 series;
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3000 Memory (£69.98 @ Aria PC)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda Compute 2 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£51.25 @ Amazon UK)
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon RX 580 8 GB PULSE Video Card (£154.99 @ CCL Computers)
Power Supply: EVGA BR 500 W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply (£43.54 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £470.32
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-03-04 13:36 GMT+0000

Hope it helps...!!!


Thank you but there is an error message at the bottom of your build? Does this mean ot won't work when turning the PC on?

It says "Warning!Some AMD A320 chipset motherboards may need a BIOS update prior to using Pinnacle Ridge CPUs. Upgrading the BIOS may require a different CPU that is supported by older BIOS revisions"
 

danielm175

Distinguished
Dec 30, 2016
328
11
18,785
PCPartPicker Part List: https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/WtqJBZ

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 2600 3.4 GHz 6-Core Processor (£107.58 @ Aria PC)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-A320M-S2H Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard (£42.98 @ Amazon UK) requires bios update to support Ryzen 3000 series;
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3000 Memory (£69.98 @ Aria PC)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda Compute 2 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£51.25 @ Amazon UK)
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon RX 580 8 GB PULSE Video Card (£154.99 @ CCL Computers)
Power Supply: EVGA BR 500 W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply (£43.54 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £470.32
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-03-04 13:36 GMT+0000

Hope it helps...!!!
That's the only issue i have about that build is that error message.
 

danielm175

Distinguished
Dec 30, 2016
328
11
18,785
PCPartPicker Part List: https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/WtqJBZ

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 2600 3.4 GHz 6-Core Processor (£107.58 @ Aria PC)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-A320M-S2H Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard (£42.98 @ Amazon UK) requires bios update to support Ryzen 3000 series;
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3000 Memory (£69.98 @ Aria PC)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda Compute 2 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£51.25 @ Amazon UK)
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon RX 580 8 GB PULSE Video Card (£154.99 @ CCL Computers)
Power Supply: EVGA BR 500 W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply (£43.54 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £470.32
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-03-04 13:36 GMT+0000

Hope it helps...!!!
Also that motherboard does not have WIFI build in.
 

danielm175

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Dec 30, 2016
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Could you add a wirless card to the build? Would there be enough PCI slots?
Why would you want a wireless card... Best thing to do instead of WiFi get a powerline adapter. You plug it into a wall socket near your PC then into the ethernet port on your PC and next to your router you plug the other adapter into the wall and plug the ethernet cable into your router, not as good as an ethernet cable straight from router to PC but more stable than WiFi.

https://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/compu...YAJ765T_zvcv2LGKxlIaAoUOEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds
 
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