Gaming PC for girlfriends brother

[Talasour]

Hi forum,

My girlfriends brother wants to get into PC gaming and usually plays on a PS4 but can you suggest a pre built gaming PC that would be used for games like Fortnite and a little bit of streaming in the future for the budget of £500

I understand it's not much but what can you suggest something that would be OK to get him starter off and yes I understand you would get more for building it for scratch but neither him or myself have the knowledge

He already has a cheap keyboard, mouse and monitor but I can answer any questions that may come up.

Cheers.

 

[X x X]

Ryzen 2400g
What screen is he using...
Tell him ** No disguised swearing please - EVH ** fortnite..
Do that on ps4...
Pc is for real games...

 

[StarShock]

Hello, this should do the job pretty well, its slightly over budget but packs a solid GPU and a 6 core CPU.

My basket at Overclockers UK:

• 1 x Asrock AB350M-HDV AMD B350 (Socket AM4) DDR4 Micro ATX Motherboard= £56.99
• 1 x Team Group Vulcan T-Force 8GB (2x4GB) DDR4 PC4-24000C16 3000MHz Dual Channel Kit - Grey (TLGD48G3000= £59.99
• 1 x MSI Radeon RX 570 ARMOR OC 8192MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card= £158.99
• 1 x Cougar VTX 450W 80 Plus Bronze Power Supply - Black= £41.99
• 1 x TeamGroup 240GB L5 Lite SSD 2.5" SATA 6Gbps 3D NAND Solid State Drive= £34.99
• 1 x Aerocool CS-102 Micro-ATX Case - Black= £22.99
• 1 x AMD Ryzen 5 Six Core 1600X 4.00GHz (Socket AM4) Processor - Retail= £134.99

Total: £522.63 (includes shipping: £11.70)​

​

That being said I would want to throw in another 8gb of ram for streaming, and a HDD down the line for more storage

 

[Lokken86]

Hello, this should do the job pretty well, its slightly over budget but packs a solid GPU and a 6 core CPU.

My basket at Overclockers UK:

• 1 x Asrock AB350M-HDV AMD B350 (Socket AM4) DDR4 Micro ATX Motherboard= £56.99
• 1 x Team Group Vulcan T-Force 8GB (2x4GB) DDR4 PC4-24000C16 3000MHz Dual Channel Kit - Grey (TLGD48G3000= £59.99
• 1 x MSI Radeon RX 570 ARMOR OC 8192MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card= £158.99
• 1 x Cougar VTX 450W 80 Plus Bronze Power Supply - Black= £41.99
• 1 x TeamGroup 240GB L5 Lite SSD 2.5" SATA 6Gbps 3D NAND Solid State Drive= £34.99
• 1 x Aerocool CS-102 Micro-ATX Case - Black= £22.99
• 1 x AMD Ryzen 5 Six Core 1600X 4.00GHz (Socket AM4) Processor - Retail= £134.99

Total: £522.63 (includes shipping: £11.70)
​

That being said I would want to throw in another 8gb of ram for streaming, and a HDD down the line for more storage

This is excellent. Maybe try to squeeze out another 15 quid and get the 2600 Ryzen.

 

[WantoN]

It has to be a prebuilt doesn’t it?

Listen man, a basic pc build is easier than Lego. It’s ridiculous simple. You can do it.

If it must be pre-built, you could get this : https://www.overclockers.co.uk/ocuk...yzen-raven-ridge-ryzen-3-2200g-fs-1ca-og.html

I’d recommend 16gb of RAM, and adding a GPU down the line.

 

[h4rm0ny]

I try to accept people's premise in a question as it's always annoying when people disregard it and answer what they'd have liked you to have asked instead of what you did.

But that said, I'm going to say you're more than capable of building your own PC and it's actually quite fun. Everybody here will be happy to help and there's no time limit on it - if you have to post a photo of something to ask which way round it should go and wait for a reply, that's not actually a big deal. It'll just take up table space for a little bit longer.

If you want to build your own, then post the list of parts here before you click buy and we'll let you know if there's anything incompatible in there.

But otherwise, what WantoN or Lokken86 said. Leave a little money for games, though!

 

[StarShock]

You can also take any spec to customer service and they will build it for a small fee. Though that actual plugging bits in is pretty easy so long as you have all the right pieces

 

[Talasour]

Ryzen 2400g
What screen is he using...
Tell him ** No disguised swearing please - EVH ** fortnite..
Do that on ps4...
Pc is for real games...

Yeah, thanks but that's totally useless and not what I asked for.

 

[Talasour]

Thanks everyone who helped, I'll see what he wants to do and then move on from there.

 

[WantoN]

Thanks everyone who helped, I'll see what he wants to do and then move on from there.

No probably mate. People like @X x X are quite rare on here, generally we’re all enthusiasts and don’t care what you do with the system or how you do it. Building your own is an awesome experience but I get why it’s not for everyone, it’s daunting if you haven’t done it before.

Let us know what’s decided and we’ll answer any questions and comment on the spec prior to ordering. @StarShock made an excellent suggestion, perhaps you can spec the build and have OCUK build it. But their pre-builts are fairly priced and their configurator is pretty decent.

 

[Simon D]

I have just been asked the same question about building a basic gaming machine for someone.

I looked at self builds vs pre-builds and I found that I could not build one cheaper than OCUK

Best I could do a self build was for £640 with windows 10 OS.

The major problem in self building a system for someone is that would have to provide some support when things go wrong.

My advise suggest to go with a pre-build, easier for you in the long end and cheaper.

I also suggested the same pre-built as "WantoN suggested it is a good deal at £450 inc shipping with OS and support for 3 years with OCuk.

Lots of options to play with.

You can change CPU to AMD Ryzen 5 2400G, increase the memory or change the hard drive to SSD or add a dedicated video card.

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/ocuk...yzen-raven-ridge-ryzen-3-2200g-fs-1ca-og.html

better pre-built system for £610

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/tita...-amd-ryzen-1400-system-3.60ghz-fs-094-og.html


But If you are happy in providing some support and you enjoy building systems, it can be good fun than go with a self build but do include the price of the OS and factor in your time.

 

[h4rm0ny]

The major problem in self building a system for someone is that would have to provide some support when things go wrong.

That's a good point. I'm so used to fixing things myself I hadn't really considered vendor support.

 

[edGfaCTor]

I have just been asked the same question about building a basic gaming machine for someone.

I looked at self builds vs pre-builds and I found that I could not build one cheaper than OCUK

Best I could do a self build was for £640 with windows 10 OS.

The major problem in self building a system for someone is that would have to provide some support when things go wrong.

My advise suggest to go with a pre-build, easier for you in the long end and cheaper.

I also suggested the same pre-built as "WantoN suggested it is a good deal at £450 inc shipping with OS and support for 3 years with OCuk.

Lots of options to play with.

You can change CPU to AMD Ryzen 5 2400G, increase the memory or change the hard drive to SSD or add a dedicated video card.

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/ocuk...yzen-raven-ridge-ryzen-3-2200g-fs-1ca-og.html

better pre-built system for £610

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/tita...-amd-ryzen-1400-system-3.60ghz-fs-094-og.html


But If you are happy in providing some support and you enjoy building systems, it can be good fun than go with a self build but do include the price of the OS and factor in your time.

If you are going by ocuk prices then yes i agree you may not be able to build one cheaper but using other places as well i would say i can easily beat their pre built prices including win 10.

Why would you have to offer support that is a service if they want support they pay you for it so it's optional.

 

[Simon D]

If you are going by ocuk prices then yes i agree you may not be able to build one cheaper but using other places as well i would say i can easily beat their pre built prices including win 10.

Why would you have to offer support that is a service if they want support they pay you for it so it's optional.

From my quick look OcUk seem to offer a good deal with pre-builds, 3 year collect and return warranty, labour Free Upgrade Service available upon request as well with good branded parts. Some companies pre-builds will be cheaper but cut prices by offering only one year warranty or need to pay to return machine and use much cheaper parts.

I have found in the past when asked by family to build a system, then problems come up later that and then you are asked to have a quick look at the system. It is very hard to turn them down or ask for payment from family, this is what a mean by offering support (Free).

If you building systems as a business that a different matter and then you can charge.

 

[WantoN]

It’s nice to see reasoned thoughts in this thread. Sometimes people seem to forget that we’re enthusiasts, and that for many people building and maintaining a PC isn’t fun, or a hobby, it’s just another chore and something to go wrong.

I bought a proper windows 10 liscene and USB because I build and upgrade enough that it works out for me in the long run, but you can get OEM keys for £15, so the cost argument goes out the Window. You don’t need to spend over £100 to have Windows 10.

Building a PC is expensive these days too, so ultimately it comes down to whether or not you want to do this as a hobby. If you don’t, then a supported pre-built is probably worth it.

Most of us are so used to fixing problems that the idea of support is almost foreign; if we can’t fix it ourselves we head to the forums and benefit from group thinking, and learn something in the process. We’re probably very much in the minority.

Building a PC (unless you’re doing the fun stuff; wc, sleeving and modding) is arguably the easiest part. People who have no clue have a lot of learning ahead. I’m sure most people on here, like me, have been doing this as long as they can remember. A lot of us grew up with DOS, remember when the internet wasn’t a thing, and have had years of problems and fixes that make day to day problems a non-issue.

I imagine it would be quite scary to not only build your PC, but try to fix problems if you’re an adult with no skill set or experience. It’s an awesome and useful hobby, but if you’re not interested in learning, I can totally see why pre-built is appealing.

 

[Talasour]

Update: He has managed to twist his dads arm and increase the budget to £600 and has now chosen a PC which he will receive at Christmas.

Lewis (the brother) is really looking forward to playing some games on PC as he's always just had a console so I appreciate all the help.

 

[orbitalwalsh]

Update: He has managed to twist his dads arm and increase the budget to £600 and has now chosen a PC which he will receive at Christmas.

Lewis (the brother) is really looking forward to playing some games on PC as he's always just had a console so I appreciate all the help.

nice, what components did you manage to snag ? rx 570 and ryzen 2600 would be a pretty sweet rig

 

[WantoN]

Update: He has managed to twist his dads arm and increase the budget to £600 and has now chosen a PC which he will receive at Christmas.

Lewis (the brother) is really looking forward to playing some games on PC as he's always just had a console so I appreciate all the help.

Glad to hear it; another indoctrinated into the light. What spec is he getting?