Xmas Gaming PC

[Graham Millichap]

Hi there

Cousin just messaged me asking for a recommendation on a gaming pc for around £600. Been out of building for a while, any recommendations?

G

[Graham Millichap]

To play :

Terraria, minecraft, rocket league and maybe some shooter games, so I’m told!

[keith with the teef]

Hmm low spec games. But £600 to spend.

Now then? lets have a little chew!

[Wheels-Of-Fire]

If you still wan’t to spec a desktop  PC for yourself, but don’t want the bother of building it, then I would suggest you visit the website of someone like Palicomp or Scan PC.  Select the parts you like from their PC configuration sections and it will give you a running total on the price. You will also get a years guarantee and support on the delivered computer.

For what you are asking I would go for something like an Intel Core i5 or a midrange AMD Razen with at least 8GB of RAM and a 500GB SSD, some would suggest more memory but I have never found a need for it.

The graphics card is entirely down to the depth of your pocket but I would not rely on built in graphics for even casual gaming.

[Wheels-Of-Fire]

Oh and you should get an NVMe connected SSD if your budget will stretch to it 😃

[Ed P]

Shooter games are not necessarily low-spec., for example Doom Eternal’s recommended hardware for low spec graphics is shown below. Ramping up the graphics needs a better GPU, or accept lower frame rates.

Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
OS: 64-bit Windows 7/64-Bit Windows 10
Processor: Intel Core i5 @ 3.3 GHz or better, or AMD Ryzen 3 @ 3.1 GHz or better
Memory: 8 GB RAM
Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 (4GB), GTX 1060 (6GB), GTX 1650 (4GB) or AMD Radeon R9 290 (4GB)/RX 470 (4GB)
Storage: 50 GB available space
Additional Notes: 1080p / 60 FPS / Low Quality Settings.

The recommended specs are:

Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
OS: 64-bit Windows 10
Processor: Intel Core i7-6700K or better, or AMD Ryzen 7 1800X or better
Memory: 16 GB RAM
Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 (8GB), RTX 2060 (8GB) or AMD Radeon RX Vega56 (8GB)
Storage: 50 GB available space
Additional Notes: 1440p / 60 FPS / High Quality Settings

 

[Dave Rice]

E-Buyer have a Medion Erazer X30 for £629

Intel Core i5-9400F 2.9GHz
8GB RAM, 1TB HDD, 128GB SSD
NVIDIA GTX 1650 4GB
Windows 10 Home
3 Year Warranty

That’s going to be hard to beat. An extra £90 for the GTX 1660 6GB version.

[Wheels-Of-Fire]

Hmm. Just been on the Palicomp website.

Started with their £699 Intel gaming PC and then speced it up to what I would LIKE for a high’ish end gaming PC.

Result = £1713 !

[Graham Millichap]

Thanks Dave.

What’s the point of a 128gb SSD you would end up installing most games on the 1tb as its just not big enough?

[Dave Rice]

Because it makes the whole PC  snappier. If you have run Windows from an SSD there is no way you’ll go back to a HDD. Indeed it’s getting like that with NVMe SSD drives vs SATA SSD.

There is no problem with having your Steam library on the second drive, you can have as many Steam libraries as you like. Likewise the traditional big disk space gobblers of video, music and photos can be stored on the HDD. It’s easy to move a library folder to a different location so the whole thing is transparent.

128GB s more than enough for Windows + Apps, indeed for most people it’s big enough for everything but their Steam library. The new (20H2) version of Windows includes Storage Sense which can automatically keep your storage optimized.

[JayCeeDee]

Graham Millichap wrote:

What’s the point of a 128gb SSD you would end up installing most games on the 1tb as its just not big enough?

The speed and usability difference Dave refers to is like between dial-up modems and ADSL ( or a speed upgrade from 1.5Meg to 20Meg ) where you opened a web-page or programme up, went and made a cuppa and came back to a new screen.

It’s like adding jet fuel or nitrous oxide to your car. It’s still the same car and the same engine it just makes everything you do with your right foot ( mouse hand ) that much quicker. The difference is you’ll travel so much faster – and you won’t end up blowing your engine up if you use it too much – which you will. :yahoo:

I added an SSD to my main PC (i5 4th gen ) a good while back and it was the best thing I did. I’ve done the same thing to laptops where they were getting slow and a £30 expenditure, or £50 because I upped the ram too, has meant I didn’t have to spend a couple of hundred to buy a new laptop for the wife.

[keith with the teef]

I would think coming upto xmas there should be a great oppertunity to get beefy second hand kit.

My thinking. The new AMD 5600x will be jumped on and so maybes loads of 3600+ X going on ebay. + B450 micro ATX mobo’s and ram look for 16Gb 3200. GFX cards have been an iffy purchase since NV released the 20 series and so a GTX1070 and come with 8GB of GDDR and will be it for 1080p gaming. Alot of cards out there came with 5 years warrenty. SSD only needs to be about 128GB and this is because games R currently optimed for HDD and so somethink like a seagate 4TB. These drives have a slower rpm but, in no way R they slow or seagate iron wolf. 450watt psu like masterwatt by coolermaster. Case AV Viper mini tower micro ATX.

[Dave Rice]

There’s a real shortage of CPUs at the moment. Cheapest AMD on E-Buyer is a Ryzen 5 2600 @ £130 the 3400G @ £135.

Intel not much better, but they do have an i3 9100F @ £75 for cheaper builds and an i5 9400F @ £133. Both need a graphics card though so not that cheap. 10th Gen starts at £142 for the i3-10300, the i5-10400 is £180.

There are some bundle deals about, CCL is the place to go for that as you can customize them. Amazon is always worth a look, but now is not the best time for self builds.

[Ed P]

Apparently all the Ryzen 5000 series chips are now on backorder following reviews/benchmarks showing AMD now eats Intel’s lunch pretty much across the board. Their power/performance is particularly impressive.

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