[SOLVED] My cheap aunt is asking me to find her kid a gaming PC for £500

Swiv2D

Honorable
Aug 13, 2015
11
0
10,510
So I understand what I want ina gaming computer and I would never buy one at this price but I don't want to build it for them cause I don't have the time and don't want the responsibility if it breaks.
The games her kid plays are:
Valorant Minecraft overwatch genshin impact vr chat csgo
and she sent me a bunch of veno scorp links. I dunno what woul dyou pick if you had to? Please help!

UPDATE!
I did manage to find one bundle for 600 check it out
  • CiT Seven mATX Gaming PC Case
  • AMD Ryzen 3 3200G Quad-Core 3.6GHz (4.0GHz Turbo) Processor
  • 8GB Corsair Vengeance LPX 3000MHz DDR4 Memory (1 x 8GB)
  • 480GB WD Green 2.5" SSD
  • 1TB Seagate BarraCuda Hard Drive
  • MSI A320M-A PRO Motherboard
  • Cooler Master CM MWE White 500W PSU
  • Tenda W322E Wireless N300 PCIe Adaptor
  • Microsoft Windows 10 Home 64 Bit
  • ASUS TUF GAMING K1 Keyboard & M3 Mouse Bundle
what you think? It's from Fierce PC
 
Last edited:
Solution
I did manage to find one bundle for 600 check it out
  • CiT Seven mATX Gaming PC Case
  • AMD Ryzen 3 3200G Quad-Core 3.6GHz (4.0GHz Turbo) Processor
  • 8GB Corsair Vengeance LPX 3000MHz DDR4 Memory (1 x 8GB)
  • 480GB WD Green 2.5" SSD
  • 1TB Seagate BarraCuda Hard Drive
  • MSI A320M-A PRO Motherboard
  • Cooler Master CM MWE White 500W PSU
  • Tenda W322E Wireless N300 PCIe Adaptor
  • Microsoft Windows 10 Home 64 Bit
  • ASUS TUF GAMING K1 Keyboard & M3 Mouse Bundle
what you think? It's from Fierce PC
Keyboard/mouse bundle is like €80. Get something less expensive.
Seagate Barracuda - avoid those. Slow inconsistent performance SMR drives. Choose better - Barracuda Pro, WD red e.t.c.
WD Green SSD - pass also. Low end...

Bazzy 505

Respectable
Jul 17, 2021
344
124
1,940
You should remind your aunt about the fact that she wouldn't be able to buy a "gaming pc" for 600 quid even 20years back, when she was a the young lass boys were chasing after. Best she would be able to do is get a playstation + second controller and a few games. It is no different now, tell her to buy an xbone and gold membership and be done with the whole affair.
 

Jacob 51

Notable
Dec 31, 2020
555
20
915
So I understand what I want ina gaming computer and I would never buy one at this price but I don't want to build it for them cause I don't have the time and don't want the responsibility if it breaks.
The games her kid plays are:
Valorant Minecraft overwatch genshin impact vr chat csgo
and she sent me a bunch of veno scorp links. I dunno what woul dyou pick if you had to? Please help!

UPDATE!
I did manage to find one bundle for 600 check it out
  • CiT Seven mATX Gaming PC Case
  • AMD Ryzen 3 3200G Quad-Core 3.6GHz (4.0GHz Turbo) Processor
  • 8GB Corsair Vengeance LPX 3000MHz DDR4 Memory (1 x 8GB)
  • 480GB WD Green 2.5" SSD
  • 1TB Seagate BarraCuda Hard Drive
  • MSI A320M-A PRO Motherboard
  • Cooler Master CM MWE White 500W PSU
  • Tenda W322E Wireless N300 PCIe Adaptor
  • Microsoft Windows 10 Home 64 Bit
  • ASUS TUF GAMING K1 Keyboard & M3 Mouse Bundle
what you think? It's from Fierce PC
That's a quite enough value for a low end 'Gaming PC'. I don't know the pricing standards, but in dollars,
500 Pound sterling equals 690.87 United States Dollars.
You could get her a Ryzen 3200G based system.
That system would be enough for Valorant, Minecraft, Overwatch, genshin Impact And CS go. Dunno what is 'VR Chat' know.

In the end, its quite a high price tbh
 

JWNoctis

Respectable
Jun 9, 2021
443
108
2,090
8GB in single channel is performance-destroying for modern processors. Especially for an APU.

A 4GBx2 kit would do much better. A 8GBx2 kit would be even better, if you could get that for a suitable price.
 
I did manage to find one bundle for 600 check it out
  • CiT Seven mATX Gaming PC Case
  • AMD Ryzen 3 3200G Quad-Core 3.6GHz (4.0GHz Turbo) Processor
  • 8GB Corsair Vengeance LPX 3000MHz DDR4 Memory (1 x 8GB)
  • 480GB WD Green 2.5" SSD
  • 1TB Seagate BarraCuda Hard Drive
  • MSI A320M-A PRO Motherboard
  • Cooler Master CM MWE White 500W PSU
  • Tenda W322E Wireless N300 PCIe Adaptor
  • Microsoft Windows 10 Home 64 Bit
  • ASUS TUF GAMING K1 Keyboard & M3 Mouse Bundle
what you think? It's from Fierce PC
Keyboard/mouse bundle is like €80. Get something less expensive.
Seagate Barracuda - avoid those. Slow inconsistent performance SMR drives. Choose better - Barracuda Pro, WD red e.t.c.
WD Green SSD - pass also. Low end, weak performance ssd. Get Crucial Mx500 instead.
Ram has to be 2 stick for dual channel operating mode. Get 2x8GB DDR4 3200mhz instead.

You can skip windows 10 license and run it unactivated. Will have an annoying watermark, but everything else will function just fine.
 
Solution

logainofhades

Titan
Moderator
I know you don't really wanna build it, but from what I am seeing, there isn't any prebuilds that are better than a DIY, at that price point. The 1030 isn't great, but it will give more consistent performance, than an APU would.

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 3 3100 3.6 GHz Quad-Core Processor (£119.99 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: MSI B550M PRO-VDH WIFI Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard (£74.98 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3600 CL16 Memory (£71.98 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: ADATA SU630 240 GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£25.98 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£31.99 @ Amazon UK)
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GT 1030 2 GB Video Card (£85.40 @ Amazon UK)
Case: Cooler Master MasterBox E500L ATX Mid Tower Case (£21.04 @ Amazon UK)
Power Supply: SeaSonic CORE GM 500 W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-modular ATX Power Supply (£49.99 @ Scan.co.uk)
Keyboard: GameMax Pulse Wired Gaming Keyboard With Optical Mouse (£22.95 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £504.30
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2021-07-27 14:55 BST+0100
 

Eximo

Titan
Ambassador
You should remind your aunt about the fact that she wouldn't be able to buy a "gaming pc" for 600 quid even 20years back, when she was a the young lass boys were chasing after. Best she would be able to do is get a playstation + second controller and a few games. It is no different now, tell her to buy an xbone and gold membership and be done with the whole affair.

Thirty years ago maybe, when a decent sized hard drive would cost that much. Twenty years ago, 2001, let me see, I was probably still rocking my Celeron 466Mhz with a Voodoo 3 3000, certainly capable of contemporary games like Quake and Unreal.
 

Bazzy 505

Respectable
Jul 17, 2021
344
124
1,940
Thirty years ago maybe, when a decent sized hard drive would cost that much. Twenty years ago, 2001, let me see, I was probably still rocking my Celeron 466Mhz with a Voodoo 3 3000, certainly capable of contemporary games like Quake and Unreal.

not quite, out of my own curiosity to check if my memory is failing me, i took the time to go through historical price lists and put together the config you speak of in 2001 prices

150 USD RK80530RY017256 Intel® Celeron® Processor 1.40 GHz, 256K Cache, 100 MHz FSB
185 USD Voodoo 3000 (STB 3dfx)
140 USD GA-6VX7-4X (Gigabyte)
80 USD 512 MB SDR (Crucial)
220 40gb Western Digital 7200 rpm EIDE
50 350W FSP PSU

total 825 USD, not including keyboard, mouse, case, cooler, and monitor or optical drive (which was a must back than)
for CD rom, keyboard, mouse and case ( bottom of the barrel like chicony, lite-on etc brand) that would round it up tp appx 900 USD
I mostly picked parts and brands in low to mid-range segment.
 

Eximo

Titan
Ambassador
not quite, out of my own curiosity to check if my memory is failing me, i took the time to go through historical price lists and put together the config you speak of in 2001 prices

150 USD RK80530RY017256 Intel® Celeron® Processor 1.40 GHz, 256K Cache, 100 MHz FSB
185 USD Voodoo 3000 (STB 3dfx)
140 USD GA-6VX7-4X (Gigabyte)
80 USD 512 MB SDR (Crucial)
220 40gb Western Digital 7200 rpm EIDE
50 350W FSP PSU

total 825 USD, not including keyboard, mouse, case, cooler, and monitor or optical drive (which was a must back than)
for CD rom, keyboard, mouse and case ( bottom of the barrel like chicony, lite-on etc brand) that would round it up tp appx 900 USD
I mostly picked parts and brands in low to mid-range segment.

That seems high for a Voodoo 3, the launch price was close to that, but it dropped rapidly in the face of competition from Nvidia. I vaguely recall paying $99.

I had a Celeron 466Mhz, not 1.4Ghz, I think you went a generation too new. I wasn't buying top of the line, so that would have been a bargain processor and motherboard.

If I recall I had a 6.4GB hard drive. I did pick up a 40GB sometime later when I switched to AMD.

Which for people on a budget, buying a generation or two back makes a lot of sense. A lot of 10th gen intel builds being recommended right now.
 

Bazzy 505

Respectable
Jul 17, 2021
344
124
1,940
That seems high for a Voodoo 3, the launch price was close to that, but it dropped rapidly in the face of competition from Nvidia. I vaguely recall paying $99.

I had a Celeron 466Mhz, not 1.4Ghz, I think you went a generation too new. I wasn't buying top of the line, so that would have been a bargain processor and motherboard.

If I recall I had a 6.4GB hard drive. I did pick up a 40GB sometime later when I switched to AMD.

Which for people on a budget, buying a generation or two back makes a lot of sense. A lot of 10th gen intel builds being recommended right now.
That seems high for a Voodoo 3, the launch price was close to that, but it dropped rapidly in the face of competition from Nvidia. I vaguely recall paying $99.

I had a Celeron 466Mhz, not 1.4Ghz, I think you went a generation too new. I wasn't buying top of the line, so that would have been a bargain processor and motherboard.

If I recall I had a 6.4GB hard drive. I did pick up a 40GB sometime later when I switched to AMD.

Which for people on a budget, buying a generation or two back makes a lot of sense. A lot of 10th gen intel builds being recommended right now.

true true gen10 platform is actually really great value for the money right now. gen11 intel platform while nice is kind of in the same spot as Broadwell platform was back in the day

hehe i get your point, but the true budget in 2001 would have been something like AMD Duron 950 (125 bucks at launch) with VIA KT266 chipset based motherboard. 466 mhz Celerons were Pentium II based and pretty much obsolete by that time. Coppermine based Celerons that came out that spring were 500mhz+.

In regard to Voodoo 3, they sold at that price for about 6 months, but when Geforce 2 based cards started shipping in volume, particularly the cheaper MX400 , 3dfx has become irrelevant in a span of few weeks. Glide was pretty much dead by that time, voodoo directx support was what it was. Voodoo 3 held up quite okay against RIVA TNT2, which was cheaper. The true budget gaming build would have probably included something like TNT2 Vanta/ TNT2 M64 ;) released in 1999
 
Last edited:
If you don't want the responsability, then a Console will be the most powerfull gaming machine for the money. The bad part is that current consoles can't run Valorant nor CSGO for now.

Other than that, what logainofhades posted is the best thing you can get for the money right now on PC, and you could update the GPU later on and get a very good gaming PC (you could upgrade CPU too).
 

Eximo

Titan
Ambassador
I had to do all my PC shopping in person at shows, so I didn't always get the best selection. Midwest inventory may also have lagged behind the coasts. Power supplies were the worst back then.

Oh that Voodoo 3 did not last long in my system, Maybe 2002 when it simply had to go in favor of a Geforce card. Only got it to retire my 1MB Paradise Pipeline and hand me down Voodoo 2s. So mostly brand recognition, though replacing three cards with one was nice. A good half my computer was used parts as well. I think we did buy the Celeron new though, was a slocket adapted P2 board of some off brand, might have been spacewalker or something. I still have the slocket adapter somewhere, a neat piece of silly CPU history. I grabbed a PIII later and dropped it in, maxed out the ram. My brother took that thing to college.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Bazzy 505