Advice please! Gaming PC for son

[stemas9]

Looking for some other - possibly better informed than my own - opinions if you have a spare minute!

My 13yr old son has been using my PC for gaming since I bought it. It is a PC Specialist 2018 Desktop - Ryzen5 1600, 16gb Ram, GTX1050Ti 4Gb. Price was about £1200 when I bought it. L It’s been a fantastic machine for work and play plus the odd bit of video editing I do - honestly superb.

He is now wanting his own machine in his room and has saved up about £700. My plan was always to “co-fund” him to a certain amount…. Preferably not matching pound for pound though!

I’d like to buy PCS again really for the quality and service I have received. I’m a bit torn on a spec for him though. He plays lots of cheaper games that tend to be a few years old, also a lot of Roblox, Minecraft, Phasmophobia and Fortnite. His monitor is 32” and I think he would be more than happy with FHD type res.

Pricing and stock is all over the place I know, but I can’t see him wanting or needing anything capable of AAA rated titles…. He just doesn’t play them…. Although there’s an unspoken “yet” there of course as he could start wanting to play that stuff in a year or two, at which point i do t want to be kicking myself for not building in a bit of upgradeability….

It’s a rabbit hole right? Anyone got any thoughts or input please?

 

[SpyderTracks]

Looking for some other - possibly better informed than my own - opinions if you have a spare minute!

My 13yr old son has been using my PC for gaming since I bought it. It is a PC Specialist 2018 Desktop - Ryzen5 1600, 16gb Ram, GTX1050Ti 4Gb. Price was about £1200 when I bought it. L It’s been a fantastic machine for work and play plus the odd bit of video editing I do - honestly superb.

He is now wanting his own machine in his room and has saved up about £700. My plan was always to “co-fund” him to a certain amount…. Preferably not matching pound for pound though!

I’d like to buy PCS again really for the quality and service I have received. I’m a bit torn on a spec for him though. He plays lots of cheaper games that tend to be a few years old, also a lot of Roblox, Minecraft, Phasmophobia and Fortnite. His monitor is 32” and I think he would be more than happy with FHD type res.

Pricing and stock is all over the place I know, but I can’t see him wanting or needing anything capable of AAA rated titles…. He just doesn’t play them…. Although there’s an unspoken “yet” there of course as he could start wanting to play that stuff in a year or two, at which point i do t want to be kicking myself for not building in a bit of upgradeability….

It’s a rabbit hole right? Anyone got any thoughts or input please?

Well, as an example of a full system that I wouldn't go below but would absolutely suit those games at 1080p 144hz, it's got some room to grow for upgrades down the line of GPU, plus you may be able to canabalise some parts from your current PC to transfer over unless you're keeping it, prices are still high in the market although they are thank god now dropping day by day:

Case
FRACTAL FOCUS G BLACK GAMING CASE (Window)
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™ i5 Six Core Processor i5-12600 (3.3GHz) 18MB Cache
Motherboard
ASUS® PRIME B660-PLUS D4 (DDR4, USB 3.2, 6Gb/s) - ARGB Ready!
Memory (RAM)
16GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3200MHz (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
6GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 1660 SUPER - HDMI, DP - GeForce GTX VR Ready!
1st M.2 SSD Drive
1TB INTEL® 670p M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (up to 3500MB/sR | 2500MB/sW)
Power Supply
CORSAIR 750W TXm SERIES™ SEMI-MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Power Cable
1 x 1.5 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
AKASA AK-CC6606BP01 CPU COOLER
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Card
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT
Wireless Network Card
WIRELESS INTEL® Wi-Fi 6 AX200 2,400Mbps/5GHz, 300Mbps/2.4GHz PCI-E CARD + BT 5.0
USB/Thunderbolt Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Operating System
NO OPERATING SYSTEM REQUIRED
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
NO RECOVERY MEDIA REQUIRED
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft 365® (Operating System Required)
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Browser
Microsoft® Edge
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 6 to 8 working days
Price: £1,148.00 including VAT and Delivery

Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/intel-z690-pc/V4HyP6WFw5/

 

[stemas9]

Thanks for taking the time out for this. I’d been having a look at a few pre builds on eBuyer etc and couldn’t immediately see where the price difference was but I get it now…. They’re using the older Ryzen 5600 with AM4 whereas this build is the newer socket Intel. That gives a better upgradeability along with the PCIe 4.0 support. Nice.

Some good food for thought here.

 

[JUNI0R]

As another option, you could go for something like this: It swaps out the slightly more powerful 12600 for the fantastic value 12400F and the acceptable 1660 Super for a far more powerful AMD RX 6600 (a card that has performance like a 3060) which I'd argue is value champion GPU right now. Yes you lose some of the NVIDIA features, but in terms of raw FPS, you're gaining about 35-40% with the swap- seems like a no brainer to me. I've also spent slightly more on a better case, it's a personal taste thing but I reckon the spend here is well worth it, especially if it's going to a 13 year old with all the flashy! All that and you've got £9 in the back pocket. If you wanted to swap for the less expensive case it'd come out to an £18 saving.

12 Game Benchmark between the 1660S and 6600:

Case
LIAN LI LANCOOL 215 GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™ i5 Six Core Processor i5-12400F (2.5GHz) 18MB Cache
Motherboard
ASUS® PRIME B660-PLUS D4 (DDR4, USB 3.2, 6Gb/s) - ARGB Ready!
Memory (RAM)
16GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3200MHz (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
8GB AMD RADEON™ RX 6600 - HDMI, DP - DX® 12
1st M.2 SSD Drive
1TB INTEL® 670p M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (up to 3500MB/sR | 2500MB/sW)
Power Supply
CORSAIR 750W TXm SERIES™ SEMI-MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Power Cable
1 x 1.5 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
AKASA AK-CC6606BP01 CPU COOLER
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Card
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT
Wireless Network Card
WIRELESS INTEL® Wi-Fi 6 AX200 2,400Mbps/5GHz, 300Mbps/2.4GHz PCI-E CARD + BT 5.0
USB/Thunderbolt Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Operating System
NO OPERATING SYSTEM REQUIRED
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
NO RECOVERY MEDIA REQUIRED
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft 365® (Operating System Required)
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Browser
Microsoft® Edge
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 6 to 8 working days
Price: £1,139.00 including VAT and Delivery

Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/intel-z690-pc/5nN!p8eS5f/

 

[sck451]

As another option, you could go for something like this: It swaps out the slightly more powerful 12600 for the fantastic value 12400F and the acceptable 1660 Super for a far more powerful AMD RX 6600 (a card that has performance like a 3060) which I'd argue is value champion GPU right now. Yes you lose some of the NVIDIA features, but in terms of raw FPS, you're gaining about 35-40% with the swap- seems like a no brainer to me. I've also spent slightly more on a better case, it's a personal taste thing but I reckon the spend here is well worth it, especially if it's going to a 13 year old with all the flashy! All that and you've got £9 in the back pocket. If you wanted to swap for the less expensive case it'd come out to an £18 saving.

12 Game Benchmark between the 1660S and 6600:
View attachment 32814

Case
LIAN LI LANCOOL 215 GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™ i5 Six Core Processor i5-12400F (2.5GHz) 18MB Cache
Motherboard
ASUS® PRIME B660-PLUS D4 (DDR4, USB 3.2, 6Gb/s) - ARGB Ready!
Memory (RAM)
16GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3200MHz (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
8GB AMD RADEON™ RX 6600 - HDMI, DP - DX® 12
1st M.2 SSD Drive
1TB INTEL® 670p M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (up to 3500MB/sR | 2500MB/sW)
Power Supply
CORSAIR 750W TXm SERIES™ SEMI-MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Power Cable
1 x 1.5 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
AKASA AK-CC6606BP01 CPU COOLER
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Card
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT
Wireless Network Card
WIRELESS INTEL® Wi-Fi 6 AX200 2,400Mbps/5GHz, 300Mbps/2.4GHz PCI-E CARD + BT 5.0
USB/Thunderbolt Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Operating System
NO OPERATING SYSTEM REQUIRED
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
NO RECOVERY MEDIA REQUIRED
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft 365® (Operating System Required)
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Browser
Microsoft® Edge
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 6 to 8 working days
Price: £1,139.00 including VAT and Delivery

Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/intel-z690-pc/5nN!p8eS5f/

This is a great build and absolutely what I'd suggest. But I don't see anything in the OP's post about have a Windows licence to transfer...

 

[stemas9]

This is a great build and absolutely what I'd suggest. But I don't see anything in the OP's post about have a Windows licence to transfer...

Ah. V. Good point, this would be his first instance of Windows ownership so we’d need a license…

 

[Scott]

I've switched it up a tiny bit and added in a Windows license. I've lowered the storage to the bare minimum as it's a straight forward upgrade when funds allow to put in another M2 drive for games.

512GB is skating pretty thin for the games mentioned but purely for gaming it should allow. My reasoning is to save the money for other areas right now with the view to plug in a 1TB drive when funds allow. If you can stretch to get the spec in now, then a second 1TB 670 drive would be my choice.

Case
LIAN LI LANCOOL 215 GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™ i5 Six Core Processor i5-12400F (2.5GHz) 18MB Cache
Motherboard
ASUS® TUF GAMING B660-PLUS WIFI D4: ATX, LGA1700, USB 3.2, SATA 6GBs - ARGB Ready
Memory (RAM)
16GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3200MHz (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
8GB AMD RADEON™ RX 6600 - HDMI, DP - DX® 12
1st M.2 SSD Drive
512GB INTEL® 670p M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (up to 3000MB/sR | 1600MB/sW)
Power Supply
CORSAIR 750W RMx SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Power Cable
1 x 1.5 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
AKASA AK-CC6606BP01 CPU COOLER
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Card
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT
USB/Thunderbolt Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Operating System
Windows 11 Home 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence [KK3-00027]
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
NO RECOVERY MEDIA REQUIRED
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft 365® (Operating System Required)
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Browser
Microsoft® Edge
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 6 to 8 working days
Price: £1,238.00 including VAT and Delivery

Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/intel-z690-pc/MCTEkxWFx0/

 

[stemas9]

Howdy everyone - i'm back to necro this March 22 thread!
My Son has continued saving up through his birthday and another few months of doing jobs - he now has a solid £1100 and i'm happy to top him up by another couple of hundred to allow him to purchase his first gaming PC!

I followed the link above to Scott's variant of the spec and obviously a few items have gone EOL so i've made a couple of changes.
I was just wondering if someone (anyone!) in the know could take a look at this and just lend me benefit of their knowledge/experience? Just to check that the Mobo/chip/gfx card are still the optimum combo of price, spec and availability or if there's any deals hiding in the PCS dropdowns that i'm unaware of!!

Many thanks in advance!

Case
LIAN LI LANCOOL 215 GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™ i5 Six Core Processor i5-12400F (2.5GHz) 18MB Cache
Motherboard
ASUS® TUF GAMING B660-PLUS WIFI D4: ATX, LGA1700, USB 3.2, SATA 6GBs - ARGB Ready
Memory (RAM)
16GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3200MHz (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
8GB AMD RADEON™ RX 6600 - HDMI, DP - DX® 12
1st M.2 SSD Drive
1TB SAMSUNG 970 EVO PLUS M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 3500MB/R, 3300MB/W)
Power Supply
CORSAIR 750W RMx SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Power Cable
1 x 1.5 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
PCS FrostFlow 80 V2 Series High Performance CPU Cooler
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Card
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT
USB/Thunderbolt Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Operating System
Windows 11 Home 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence [KK3-00027]
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
NO RECOVERY MEDIA REQUIRED
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft 365® (Operating System Required)
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Browser
Google Chrome™
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 3 to 6 working days
Price: £1,272.00 including VAT and Delivery

Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/intel-z690-pc/7GkSQJn83U/

 

[Scott]

If you can float the extra.... do this...

Case
LIAN LI LANCOOL 215 GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™ i5 Six Core Processor i5-12400F (2.5GHz) 18MB Cache
Motherboard
ASUS® TUF GAMING B660-PLUS WIFI D4: ATX, LGA1700, USB 3.2, SATA 6GBs - ARGB Ready
Memory (RAM)
16GB Corsair VENGEANCE RGB PRO DDR4 3600MHz (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
8GB AMD RADEON™ RX 6600 - HDMI, DP - DX® 12
1st M.2 SSD Drive
500GB SAMSUNG 980 PRO M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 6900MB/R, 5000MB/W)
1st M.2 SSD Drive
1TB INTEL® 670p M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (up to 3500MB/sR | 2500MB/sW)
Power Supply
CORSAIR 750W RMx SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Power Cable
1 x 1.5 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
PCS FrostFlow 150 Series High Performance CPU Cooler
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Card
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT
USB/Thunderbolt Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Operating System
Windows 11 Home 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence [KUK-00003]
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
NO RECOVERY MEDIA REQUIRED
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft 365® (Operating System Required)
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Browser
Google Chrome™
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 3 to 6 working days
Price: £1,404.00 including VAT and Delivery

Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/intel-z690-pc/nW4jCrv5eG/

 

[Scott]

If not, drop the second m2 for a conventional drive with a view to upgrade down the line 😁

 

[stemas9]

I've done just that actually!
Kept that rapid 500gb M2 but dropped the second drive for now.... Keeps me around that magic £1300 number.
I have all our films and family photos etc stored on a big 6TB drive on my PC, am thinking if i can share my media folder with him he can just watch films etc over the network and wont need masses of storage beyond his games

I did try to up the Gfx to the XT version of the RX6600 for a little extra umph but it's about an extra £150 right now

Many thanks for all your help and input - i think we have a winner!

Case
COOLERMASTER MASTERBOX K500 ARGB GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™ i5 Six Core Processor i5-12400F (2.5GHz) 18MB Cache
Motherboard
ASUS® TUF GAMING B660-PLUS WIFI D4: ATX, LGA1700, USB 3.2, SATA 6GBs - ARGB Ready
Memory (RAM)
16GB Corsair VENGEANCE RGB PRO DDR4 3600MHz (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
8GB AMD RADEON™ RX 6600 - HDMI, DP - DX® 12
1st M.2 SSD Drive
500GB SAMSUNG 980 PRO M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 6900MB/R, 5000MB/W)
Power Supply
CORSAIR 750W RMx SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Power Cable
1 x 1.5 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
PCS FrostFlow 150 Series High Performance CPU Cooler
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Card
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT
USB/Thunderbolt Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Operating System
Windows 11 Home 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence [KK3-00027]
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
NO RECOVERY MEDIA REQUIRED
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft 365® (Operating System Required)
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Browser
Google Chrome™
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 3 to 6 working days
Price: £1,292.00 including VAT and Delivery

Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/intel-z690-pc/6rsYdndzhY/

 

[Scott]

Keep in mind that to keep it running sweet you won't want to go past 250gb of usage on the primary drive. This is the reason we often recommend a second drive, purely for games. If you're not opting for the M2 drive I would still get a conventional one for the games.