Prebuilt or build myself?

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Jord119

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Oct 22, 2013
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I've lately been considering using a PC for gaming rather than playing on a console. Is it cheaper than consoles and is it better for games like BF4 and Skyrim? Also would it be better to build a PC or should I buy a prebuilt? What would be the best PC/parts to use for a total of up to £600?
 
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It is definitely not cheaper than console. However, you will get better experience on pc. It's also much better to build it yourself rather than purchasing a prebuilt. Prebuilt pcs has similar cost range to building your own pc but the factory prebuilt ones have bad / weak parts in them in order for the manufacturers to save money. You could use the same amount of money and put in good parts and build it yourself. If your budget is around 600 I would recommend AMD parts although I'm more of a Intel / geforce fanboy.
 
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Its not going to be cheaper than a console. Console makers usually take a loss when selling consoles(especially new ones) they make this loss back with taking a chunk of the game sales. PC's usually offer better graphics and upgradablity. For gaming systems I would suggest building it yourself to get the best quality and bang for your buck. As for suggesting parts i need a bit more information like do you need an OS, mouse, keyboard, monitor, and speakers or is the 600 just for the tower?
 
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Prebuilt computers often either cut corners where people often do not pay attention such as the PSU or do not even qualify as gaming PCs by most people's standards here with some vendors running their "gaming" system on IGP.

For £600, you should be able to build something fairly decent. As for exactly which parts to use, a large chunk of it is personal preference and exactly what your expectations are... for some people, "playing BF4" means it must run at 120Hz at 4k resolution with everything on Ultra while for others, 40+FPS at 1080p with everything on Medium is good enough.
 
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Yeah, console gaming is cheaper even if you pay the ridiculous launch day prices. PCs can get better graphics when you invest more money into it, consoles are usually the medium quality settings for a game. At 600, you can build a pc that will play at medium settings at 1080p and upgrade later to get even better performance.

Gaming is much better on a pc, for example, the mouse and keyboard for an FPS game is way more precise than a controller. However you have to decide whether the cost is worth it to you. A gaming pc built for 600.00 will only be about on par with current consoles and later on, the consoles will surpass that pc's graphics performance as their games get better optimized (look at the last of us on PS3 for some impressive graphics).

If you plan on upgrading your graphics card later on then yes the graphics will be better than a console.

As far as buying a prebuilt one.... don't. They are a royal pain to upgrade due to the cheap parts, the cases are usually cheap and have sub par air flow (so putting high end parts in would create a really hot computer). The power supply and mother boards are cheap (these are the last two things you want to cheap out on) and overall you can get more out of 600.00 buy building yourself. (Like a low end gaming graphics card instead of a prebuilt's "Gaming" GT630)
 
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I hope your $600~ budget doesn't include a monitor, and OS (operation system). If it does that's going to be bit harder to budget a decent build. If your budget is that low, I recommend buying AMD parts. Intel/GTX parts are bit more realiable and well known but too pricy for your budget.
 
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PCPartPicker part list: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/1SoH6
Price breakdown by merchant: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/1SoH6/by_merchant/
Benchmarks: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/1SoH6/benchmarks/

CPU: AMD FX-6300 3.5GHz 6-Core Processor (£84.65 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: Asus M5A97 LE R2.0 ATX AM3+ Motherboard (£54.84 @ CCL Computers)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£59.99 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Hitachi Ultrastar 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£35.99 @ Aria PC)
Video Card: PowerColor Radeon R9 270X 2GB Video Card (£144.99 @ Ebuyer)
Case: BitFenix Merc Alpha (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case (£32.90 @ Amazon UK)
Power Supply: XFX 550W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply (£49.93 @ CCL Computers)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (OEM) (64-bit) (£65.99 @ Aria PC)
Monitor: BenQ GW2255 60Hz 21.5" Monitor (£90.59 @ Dabs)
Total: £619.87
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-10-23 23:24 BST+0100)
 
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Build it, it isn't rocket science, and it will teach you a few things about hardware.
 
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My dad showed me this build earlier, is it any good and how much would it cost from where?
Intel i5-3570K Quad Core (Socket 1155)
Gigabyte H77N-Wifi Motherboard
Prodogy Mini-ITX Barebones
16GB Kingston Hyper-x RAM
120GB SAMSUNG EVO SSD
500GB SATA-III 16MB Cache
Dual Layer DVD-RW
1GB GeForce 650ti DDR5 Graphics Card
On-Board 6.1 Audio/USB 3.0
Wifi and Bluetooth
Integrated 10/100/1000 LAN
Genuine Windows Windows 8
 
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I personally would go with the 4th generation i5-4670k instead of the i5-3570k. No point of building on a dying part when new generations are out. You also don't need 16 GB of ram if you're only gaming. Case, any reason why you're going for a mini? The GPU seems a bit weak imo. How about your PSU?
 
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Since you are not going to be OCing on an h77-based board, you can shave $20-30 by using an i5-3570 instead. As Scott said, 16GB RAM might be a little much if all you do is run games so you might want to step that down to 8GB and use the extra $50 to bump your GPU from 650Ti to 660 or better instead.
 
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If you want to overclock, get a Z77 board, if you don't want to overclock, save some money and get a 3470 or 3570 instead.

1 TB drives are $5-10 difference from 500 GB drives, and the added storage is well worth it.

That's a bit much RAM just for gaming, 8 GB should be fine, just make sure you get something like DDR3-1600 MHz, as the bandwidth is more crucial than how much you have now (as long as you have enough, and 8 GB is good).

If you are going to use that motherboard, verify it is a mini ITX motherboard. If it is not a mini ITX motherboard, that case will not work. I recommend an ATX mid tower and board anyway, as there are typically more features, and more room for your components. Not to mention better air flow.

The 650Ti 1 GB he recommended is really an entry level video card. You could do better with something like the HD 7870XT that just went on sale @ newegg for $169. I have that card currently, and it's a ridiculous bargain for that money. I paid $100 more for the same card and it's *FAR* more powerful than that 650Ti.
 
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