Need help building a gaming pc for my son

[Kangarooandy]

Hello, my son is looking a gaming pc for Christmas. He won't be playing games which require a top spec PC. Unfortunately I don't know where to start here. Any help will be appreciated. Budget in and around £600 to £800.
Many thanks

 

[Martinr36]

Sorry to say you wont get a gaming PC with that budget, I would think you're looking around £1100 - £1200 bottom end

 

[Steveyg]

Yeah Playstation or Xbox really are excellent value for what you get in that price range, a gaming PC in that budget wouldn't be worth the money you're paying and they wouldn't get close to the performance of a console

 

[Scott]

Cutting every corner going I can't config anything inside £950. I had a look there to see what could be done and I really struggled to make selections I would recommend for any less.

Making a functioning PC on a budget is easy, it's making a worthwhile one that we would actually recommend that's difficult. Underspending on a PC just now means a full replacement in a very short time to keep things up to scratch. Spending wisely in the first outing saves money over the years as you simply upgrade the parts letting the system down, rather than the whole system.

 

[sck451]

I've just made this exact spec for another thread, which is the lowest I'd be willing to countenance. I don't think you can realistically go cheaper; spending £150 more would save in the long term, as it would make for a machine with a longer life and more upgradability.

Case
PCS SPECTRUM G ARGB MID TOWER CASE (PWM) A cheap case; not great, but not bad
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 5 5600 Six Core CPU (3.5GHz-4.4GHz/35MB CACHE/AM4) Good budget gaming CPU; a bit long in the tooth now, but good
Motherboard
ASUS® PRIME B550-PLUS (DDR4, USB 3.2, 6Gb/s) - ARGB Ready! A cheap motherboard: I'd like more, but enough for this task
Memory (RAM)
16GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3200MHz (2 x 8GB) You can get about £7 cheaper by going for the PCS own-brand, but that doesn't seem worth it to me
Graphics Card
8GB AMD RADEON™ RX 6600 - HDMI, DP - DX® 12 Good 1080p gaming card
1st M.2 SSD Drive
1TB SOLIDIGM P41+ GEN 4 M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (up to 4125MB/sR, 2950MB/sW) A two-SSD setup is much better, but this isn't wrong per se
Power Supply
CORSAIR 750W RMe SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET A very good PSU for this system
Power Cable
1 x 1.5 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
PCS FrostFlow 100 V3 Series High Performance CPU Cooler Not great, but enough for the 5600 in gaming
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 6E AX210 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
Windows 11 Home 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence [KK3-00027]
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
Windows 10/11 Multi-Language Recovery Image - Unlimited Downloads from Online Account
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft 365® (Operating System Required)
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Browser
Firefox™
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 9 to 12 working days
Price: £894.00 including VAT and Delivery
Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/amd-am4-gen3-pc/2SSjZhHujc/

 

[Scott]

Yeah that was where I was at with a few minor differences.

Shame that it's only the 750w offering of the RMe available just now. Too much of a drop in class to go for the CVs. Good savings normally had with the TXm class.

Case (3000D), cooler (Coolermaster), and RAM (3600) were the only changes I had I think. I was around the £930 mark IIRC. I would have liked the £1k though for the 6650 and the TUF MB.

 

[SpyderTracks]

You can design a pc to any budget, but below a certain threshold it actually costs you far more because you lose out on upgrade potential and you’d have to fully replace the pc rather than being able to upgrade components. Having a single drive for instance opens up a can of worms for throubkeshooting putting your data at risk anytime you have OS issues (windows will need to be reinstalled at various points, there’s no escaping that without losing performance).