tamiyafanboy Posted October 7, 2020 Share Posted October 7, 2020 Hi All OK before I begin I am an IT Sys admin so I can build a network setup a rack of servers blah blah blah. I used to build Gaming PC's back in the day of Voodoo Ex3!!!! and Pentium 4 but now I am a bit rusty I Have a budget of around £500 to £600 for my sons birthday (lucky bugger!) So what I want is something entry level that he can upgrade if he wants to, I initially started out specing out the components ready to build it myself but it always gets a bit pricey and sourcing used bits seems too much hard work. So I was looking at these Refurbished/ new builds on Amazon, they look good for the money but I can see they use an old i7 processor and chinese board. I am not too fussed about this as could always upgrade! All he is going to want to run is Minecraft, bmgdrive and a few other things, as long as its on par with his XBOX one hes gonna be well happy So this is an example of the type of one I am looking at https://amzn.to/2HYSmpe What do people think? Or do you have better ideas for spec? at around that price cheers? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alex97 Posted October 7, 2020 Share Posted October 7, 2020 Looking at the next gen consoles the Xbox X at £450 is going to be on par with decent gaming PC maybe look at that? 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
James.S Posted October 7, 2020 Share Posted October 7, 2020 Hi mate, I would recommend checking out Ironside's Gaming PC's. There's a good few to choose from in your price range 👍 https://ironsidecomputers.com/series/?v=00dc5da36527 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stretch Posted October 7, 2020 Share Posted October 7, 2020 In one part you say all he's going to want to run is Minecraft but then say it must be on par with an Xbox. When my lad wanted to play some of games I got him to write a list of games he wants to play and specced it from that (with some extra headroom). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tamiyafanboy Posted October 7, 2020 Author Share Posted October 7, 2020 Its more as a starting base so if its as good / better than xbox then great it means he can upgrade. It will mean he can use it for school as well Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nitroholic Posted October 7, 2020 Share Posted October 7, 2020 Does the budget need to cover screen, keyboard and mouse? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tamiyafanboy Posted October 7, 2020 Author Share Posted October 7, 2020 2 minutes ago, Nitroholic said: Does the budget need to cover screen, keyboard and mouse? No not at this stage, can source that Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
locky Posted October 7, 2020 Share Posted October 7, 2020 Upgradeable isnt always straight forward as better graphics cards, chips generally need better mobo. I would build one by spending wisely, ie, chip and mobo as graphics card can be added /upgraded later. Cases are cheap, psus need to cope with potential upgrade demands. A second hand graphics card will save alot of the budget, as well as monitor and keyboard. I am sure you can get the OS at a reasonable price if you know where to look. Ryzen seems to be the choice over Intel these days. One of my household uses a Ryzen 2600x with GTX970 and doesnt complain with the games he's playing. You only need the latest if you play at the highest resolution and frame rates with the latest monitor. 1080p is still adequate. Have a look at https://www.overclockers.co.uk/forums/categories/hardware.1/ for recent builds and ask for advice. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nitroholic Posted October 7, 2020 Share Posted October 7, 2020 (edited) Ryzen probably is the best bang for buck right now. Spend on a reasonable motherbaord is wise.... https://pcpartpicker.com/ good place to play with rigs, and see what you need I would build around a Ryzen 3600, decent 450 motherboard ( could stretch to a 470) 8Gb of 3200 DDR4, slap in a cheap 1Tb HDD ( you can always add an SSd later ) and then spend what you can on a mid range graphics card. The 3600 is a good solid performer, and will last a while. Upgrade with a second stick of RAM if needed in the future. Should work with a 400W PSU and a basic ATX mid tower case. The Ryzen ships with a good stock cooler so no worries there. Should be possible to get all that within your budget. Edited October 7, 2020 by Nitroholic 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stretch Posted October 8, 2020 Share Posted October 8, 2020 On 07/10/2020 at 18:59, tamiyafanboy said: Its more as a starting base so if its as good / better than xbox then great it means he can upgrade. It will mean he can use it for school as well Ahh gotcha i'm thinking about selling my gaming rig, it was built from 90% new parts but other than setting up i haven't used it. PM me if your interested. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tamiyafanboy Posted October 9, 2020 Author Share Posted October 9, 2020 13 hours ago, stretch said: Ahh gotcha i'm thinking about selling my gaming rig, it was built from 90% new parts but other than setting up i haven't used it. PM me if your interested. PM'd Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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