[SOLVED] Build or Buy a PC? (£1200 budget)

[Sturggy95]

Hello all,

I have recently decided to upgrade from playing console, and either build or buy a PC to game on.

Since I've never built a PC before, and with a budget of £1200 would you recommend having a go at building my computer or to just buy one ready made? Is the price comparison from buying v building significant or is it fairly negligible nowadays?

If anyone has any thoughts and opinions and could point me in the right direction I'd be very grateful, thank you.

 

[What is this Nonsense?]

You should consider nzxt bld, as they provide the option that you choose the parts and they assemble it. And they give you a 2 year warranty on all parts. Assembling and warranty cost an extra 100$ ontop of the price of the parts itself

 

[R_1]

if you can turn a screwdriver you can build a pc. Toms is here with advice when needed and assembly videos on youtube can get you familiar with the process.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel - Core i5-8500 3 GHz 6-Core Processor (£207.98 @ Aria PC)
Motherboard: MSI - B360-A PRO ATX LGA1151 Motherboard (£81.23 @ Box Limited)
Memory: Corsair - Vengeance LPX 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-2666 Memory (£90.50 @ Aria PC)
Storage: Crucial - MX500 500 GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive (£59.84 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Seagate - Barracuda 2 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£55.86 @ CCL Computers)
Video Card: MSI - GeForce GTX 1070 8 GB Video Card (£326.46 @ Amazon UK)
Case: Deepcool - TESSERACT BF ATX Mid Tower Case (£35.82 @ Amazon UK)
Power Supply: Corsair - TXM Gold 550 W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply (£59.98 @ Amazon UK)
Operating System: Microsoft - Windows 10 Home OEM 64-bit (£83.99 @ Amazon UK)
Monitor: ViewSonic - XG2401 23.6" 1920x1080 144 Hz Monitor (£194.46 @ Ebuyer)
Total: £1196.12
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-02-28 08:34 GMT+0000

keyboard and mouse are on you to choose. IDK how big your fingers are.
the rest of the system will play about anything available, fast SSD, large hard drive, even a monitor-(feel free to ignore IDK about your eyes either)

 

[Sturggy95]

if you can turn a screwdriver you can build a pc. Toms is here with advice when needed and assembly videos on youtube can get you familiar with the process.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel - Core i5-8500 3 GHz 6-Core Processor (£207.98 @ Aria PC)
Motherboard: MSI - B360-A PRO ATX LGA1151 Motherboard (£81.23 @ Box Limited)
Memory: Corsair - Vengeance LPX 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-2666 Memory (£90.50 @ Aria PC)
Storage: Crucial - MX500 500 GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive (£59.84 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Seagate - Barracuda 2 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£55.86 @ CCL Computers)
Video Card: MSI - GeForce GTX 1070 8 GB Video Card (£326.46 @ Amazon UK)
Case: Deepcool - TESSERACT BF ATX Mid Tower Case (£35.82 @ Amazon UK)
Power Supply: Corsair - TXM Gold 550 W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply (£59.98 @ Amazon UK)
Operating System: Microsoft - Windows 10 Home OEM 64-bit (£83.99 @ Amazon UK)
Monitor: ViewSonic - XG2401 23.6" 1920x1080 144 Hz Monitor (£194.46 @ Ebuyer)
Total: £1196.12
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-02-28 08:34 GMT+0000

keyboard and mouse are on you to choose. IDK how big your fingers are.
the rest of the system will play about anything available, fast SSD, large hard drive, even a monitor-(feel free to ignore IDK about your eyes either)

Thanks both for the advice! Do you recommend that build you have linked? Is there anything that you would recommend upgrading if I paid slightly more?

 

[What is this Nonsense?]

Thanks both for the advice! Do you recommend that build you have linked? Is there anything that you would recommend upgrading if I paid slightly more?

The GPU

propably SLI li in the future

 

[King Dranzer]

Here is the list:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 5 2600 3.4 GHz 6-Core Processor (£144.95 @ AWD-IT)
Motherboard: Gigabyte - B450M DS3H Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard (£64.94 @ AWD-IT)
Memory: Corsair - Vengeance LPX 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3000 Memory (£89.99 @ CCL Computers)
Storage: Crucial - MX500 500 GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive (£59.84 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Seagate - Barracuda 2 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£55.86 @ CCL Computers)
Video Card: MSI - GeForce RTX 2070 8 GB VENTUS Video Card (£459.97 @ Box Limited)
Case: Corsair - 270R ATX Mid Tower Case (£57.99 @ Amazon UK)
Power Supply: Corsair - RMx (2018) 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply (£84.98 @ CCL Computers)
Monitor: AOC - G2590FX 24.5" 1920x1080 144 Hz Monitor (£200.58 @ Amazon UK)
Other: Cooler Master Devastator III PC / Mac, Keyboard (£32.99 @ Box Limited)
Total: £1252.09
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-02-28 09:11 GMT+0000

 

[King Dranzer]

We recommend building yourself. It is not extremely hard and will be a fun weekend project. Through the process of build if you have any doubts we will answer and help you through. You can even Start Conversation with me if you want.

 

[R_1]

Thanks both for the advice! Do you recommend that build you have linked? Is there anything that you would recommend upgrading if I paid slightly more?

the system posted is more a starting point. if you do not like the looks of the case or the monitor or what ever feel free to change/swap, but the system as is will play anything as I said. posted only as a starting point. gaming being main priority I went with an intel build.
2k and 4k resolutions would require a new monitor and a more powerful GPU. do not look to SLI, the support is dropping and a single newer faster card is faster and more efficient than adding a twin card later anyway.

 

[What is this Nonsense?]

I would tho be terrified building and having a pc without a solid and trusted warranty ( and its 2 whole years)

 

[King Dranzer]

I would tho be terrified building and having a pc without a solid and trusted warranty ( and its 2 whole years)

All the components listed will have minimum of 3Yr warranty. Trust me the warranty is as solid as it can get.

 

[What is this Nonsense?]

Then thats the way to go

 

[Sturggy95]

We recommend building yourself. It is not extremely hard and will be a fun weekend project. Through the process of build if you have any doubts we will answer and help you through. You can even Start Conversation with me if you want.

Thanks again everyone, really useful advice. I'm quite technological savvy but in terms of building a PC it is unchartered territory haha. What upgrades to the GPU would you advise?

 

[jsmithepa]

PC it is unchartered territory haha.

In the 90's I remember already existed BUILD PC classes available at my local community colleges, mostly for old foggies.

PC's are glorified legos. All parts are pretty much standardized, if you can plug them in, it will work.

As long as you are not the helpless type, need things to be spelled to you in plain English, instructions given to you step by step or you freeze.... u should be OK with with help available here to unstuck you.

 

[R_1]

Thanks again everyone, really useful advice. I'm quite technological savvy but in terms of building a PC it is unchartered territory haha. What upgrades to the GPU would you advise?

depends on the resolution you need to see at.
the best 1080p cards at 60hz refresh are the GTX 1060 6GB or the RX 580 8GB.
the 1070 is a good card for 1080p at higher refresh like the 144hz displays suggested while keeping quality.
you will want a GTX 1080 or an RTX 2080 for a display that is 2k or 4k.

 

[King Dranzer]

Thanks again everyone, really useful advice. I'm quite technological savvy but in terms of building a PC it is unchartered territory haha. What upgrades to the GPU would you advise?

The setup I provided will last you minimum of 2-3Yrs without the requirement of any upgrade.

 

[Sturggy95]

The setup I provided will last you minimum of 2-3Yrs without the requirement of any upgrade.

Perfect, say I wanted to purchase a better graphics card for example. Would the other components of the build suffice or will it bottleneck?

 

[King Dranzer]

Perfect, say I wanted to purchase a better graphics card for example. Would the other components of the build suffice or will it bottleneck?

Most probably no it will not bottleneck but it depends on how big the performance jump is gonna be. For example if we compare GTX980Ti and RTX2080Ti the CPU that initially worked perfectly with GTX980Ti will bottleneck RTX2080Ti which is only 2 generations apart(Time period is way off as it is 5Yrs apart).

Most probably it will do fine even with GPU that will launching after 3Yrs.

 

[R_1]

a pc is not a console. you can add one part as needed. more RAM easy, bigger drives, also simple, GPU swap, relatively painless. all the parts can be swapped quickly if needed.
my PC which was new in 2008, yes 10 years, is still serving me. I have upgraded the GPU thrice in that 10 years. with my gaming needs and current uses I will look to upgrade in 2020 (assuming its still running then).
AMD 955 black, AMD hd 7950, patriot DDR3 1600.
long story short, no issues about longevity

 

[Sturggy95]

Hello again guys, again really appreciate your advice it's been invaluable. I have had a look at the items and upgraded a couple for the extra bit of money does this improve the build much?

https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/MdfJ9J

 

[King Dranzer]

Hello again guys, again really appreciate your advice it's been invaluable. I have had a look at the items and upgraded a couple for the extra bit of money does this improve the build much?

https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/MdfJ9J

It is compatible and decent build but will under-perform when compared to R7 2700 and RTX2080 build and costs lot more. Not much sensible but if you are only comfortable with Intel CPU over AMD CPU then it is fine.

 

[Sturggy95]

Appreciate your point about the AMD build, I've gone slightly above budget haha.
https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/h4LvxG
Do I need to invest in more thermal paste, extra cooling etc?

 

[Stormswa1]

building computers is addicting, I built my 1st one with nothing but youtube and did fine its lasted me until now, also built my sons. Going to build my 3rd one in couple weeks and it most likely will be last one and ill just upgrade it. Building is always better I was looking to get a high end computer like 5k or so, when I priced it out the parts noticed the actual components were only about 2k.

 

[King Dranzer]

Appreciate your point about the AMD build, I've gone slightly above budget haha.
https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/h4LvxG
Do I need to invest in more thermal paste, extra cooling etc?

No need as the Cooler included in the box already comes with thermal paste which is very decent. If you are watching online Youtube videos just don't follow Verge's PC building guide(which advises you to use thermal paste even if the CPU Cooler already comes with decent one applied).

 

[Sturggy95]

https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/Ffz8Bb

I'm thinking to pull the trigger on this build, final thoughts?

Sorry for all the questions, you are being so helpful I really appreciate it.

 

[King Dranzer]

Here is the list:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 7 2700X 3.7 GHz 8-Core Processor (£298.99 @ Aria PC)
Motherboard: Asus - PRIME B450M-A Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard (£72.95 @ Box Limited)
Memory: Corsair - Vengeance LPX 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3000 Memory (£89.99 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Crucial - MX500 1 TB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive (£113.81 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Seagate - Barracuda 2 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£57.60 @ CCL Computers)
Video Card: MSI - GeForce RTX 2080 8 GB VENTUS Video Card (£639.99 @ Ebuyer)
Case: Phanteks - Eclipse P350X (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case (£58.97 @ CCL Computers)
Power Supply: Corsair - RMx 750 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply (£104.99 @ AWD-IT)
Other: Acer XF240H 24 inch Wide, Full HD Gaming LED Monitor with FreeSync, 1 ms, HDMI (MHL), Display Port and Height adjustable (£229.00 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £1666.29
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-03-01 11:39 GMT+0000

No reason to spend that much and only go with R5 2600X.
MSI board I personally don't recommend but I am fine if you already have used one and have good experience with.
That Acer monitor supports G-Sync.
Activating windows is not compulsory. You can run Windows10 even without activating initially and activate it later if you run out of budget.