Help!!!!!

Hi all,
My son wants a gaming PC for his birthday, i have really not got much of an idea what is needed or best to go for.
So i need your advice....I am looking for something that is going to do the job, but can be modified have bits upgraded later on, as i am also a single mum and don't have thousands spare. However, i don't want to go too cheap and it be rubbish.
He does also need something that he can do homework on etc.

thanks

It's hard to give an exact suggestion without a budget, but maybe something along these lines:


Case
PCS CYCLONE GAMING CASE (Blue LED Fans)
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™ i5 Six Core Processor i5-8400 (2.8GHz) 9MB Cache
Motherboard
ASUS® PRIME Z370-P: ATX, LGA1151, USB 3.1, SATA 6GBs
Memory (RAM)
8GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3000MHz (2 x 4GB)
Graphics Card
3GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 1060 - DVI, HDMI, 3 x DP
1[SUP]st[/SUP] Hard Disk
1TB SEAGATE BARRACUDA SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 7200RPM, 32MB CACHE
DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
NOT REQUIRED
Power Supply
CORSAIR 550W VS SERIES™ VS-550 POWER SUPPLY
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
Super Quiet Titan DragonFly Heatpipe Intel CPU Cooler
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Wireless/Wired Networking
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT (Wi-Fi NOT INCLUDED)
USB Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Operating System
Genuine Windows 10 Home 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
Windows 10 Multi-Language Recovery Image - Unlimited Downloads from Online Account
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft® Office® 365
Anti-Virus
BullGuard™ Internet Security - Free 90 Day License inc. Gamer Mode
Browser
Microsoft® Edge (Windows 10 Only)
Warranty
3 Year Standard Warranty (1 Month Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 8 to 10 working days
Quantity
1

Price £838.00 including VAT and delivery

Unique URL to re-configure : https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/intel-z370-pc/DAewN6QHuD/

The case and PSU should support a range of future GPU upgrades, which is the part you'll want to replace every (X) years in order to cope with new games. The CPU is a very strong gaming CPU and should also support a range of future GPUs without being a bottleneck. The motherboard and case will also support various additional storage options, and more RAM if required later.

The GTX 1060 3gb is capable of running most modern games at somewhere from high-ultra and should cope with future games for a while.

If the above is viable in terms of cost, I wouldn't suggest going any lower than this as it will involve making fairly substantial compromises that would, in my opinion, be likely to undermine the value and futureproofing (e.g. getting an i3 8100 CPU will still be fine for gaming today, but could go obsolete a good deal sooner).

Is this the sort of thing you had in mind?

It depends a bit of course what your son is playing, and your budget. It could be that a £460 system with a Raven Ridge APU is all he needs to run very low-end games on and that the ~£840 system above is already twice what you had budgeted for.