[SOLVED] Help to choose?

[woodyrlw]

Hi everyone.
I am going to purchase a new PC for my grandson. I am looking at two in Argos. My problem is, my PC knowledge is very limited. (just an OAP who is totally baffled by it all LOL )I can't ask my grandson as it is a surprise. All I know is he will be using Photoshop and Lightroom on it along with usual social media, You tube etc.... The two I am looking at are : HP Omen Intel i5 8GB 1TB GTX1060 VR Ready Gaming Desktop and ASUS ROG STRIX GL10CS i5 8GB 1TB 256GB GTX1660Ti Gaming PC. ... Which one should I go for? or neither!!! Both are more or less similar price, the HP £899 and the Asus £849.
Thanks for reading and many thanks in advance
Regards
Richard

 

[PC Tailor]

Welcome to the forums Richard!

What is you overall budget?
Will your grandson be doing any gaming at all or is it more strictly editing?

You might not go wrong with either, the only warning I would give is off the shelf prebuilt PCs often come short on the quality of the PSU, and that's not a good thing, especially if you want the rig to last plenty of time.

 

[vMax]

Hi, first of all the ASUS ROG STRIX GL10CS system is better as it has a 256GB SSD which is critical as it will just make the whole experience better and it will be a much snappier and responsive system and coupled to the GTX 1660Ti it has more graphical power especially on the gaming side which will make him happier. It also has the updated CPU in the 9400 instead of the 8400 so all in all it's cheaper, faster and better all around. Bottom line it will be a good system especially at the price and will handle what your grandson requires.

I would add one thing to that PC and that is an additional stick of RAM which would bring you to 16GB (helps with Photoshop and Lightroom) but this would need to be bought separately and installed by you or our grandson (it's not difficult) and you would have to make sure it is the same speed as the RAM currently installed in the system...which is DDR4 at 2666MHz. Something like this will do:
https://www.scan.co.uk/products/8gb...0-2666-non-ecc-unbuffered-cas-18-18-18-43-12v at only £39.98 and you can also shop around to find a cheaper one.

In fact I am quiet surprised at the price they are charging which is very good for what you are getting: *Just realised it is on sale and reduced by a £150!!!! That's why...great price.

CPU and Memory:

Intel Core i59400 processor.
Hex core processor.
Processor speed 2.9GHz.
8GB RAM DDR4.
Hard drive:

1TB HDD storage.
256GB SSD storage.
Hard drive speed 7200RPM.
Graphics:

Dedicated graphics.
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660Ti with 6GB memory.
Interfaces and connectivity:

2 x USB 2.0 ports.
4 x USB 3.1 ports.
Ethernet port.
1 HDMI port.
Bluetooth.
Wireless/Wi-Fi enabled.
Wired keyboard and mouse.
Operating system and software:

In fact I have tried to price up one from the likes of PCSpecialist, Overclockers etc and I am still coming out higher.

https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/view/Pulsar-Elite/

I cannot seem to find out what power supply it comes with but it looks like a 500w PSU from the specs page at ASUS but it will do the job and in the future your grandson can always upgrade from this foundational base.

 

[woodyrlw]

Many thanks PC Tailor and vMax for the advice, much appreciated. I would have gone for the Asus but..We found the Omen on offer at Laptops Direct UK at £579, a massive £320 difference from Argos price and its an identical machine. So for that price we decided to go with it. It arrived next day delivery and its working great. I also purchased a Samsung 43 curved monitor from Ebuyer which was on sale so all in all a very happy Grandson, although all he has done is play games on it rather than learn .... Many thanks again, enjoy your day both!