Is this a good gaming PC?

[thebluebumblebee]

So is this one that you recommend as good as the other one?

I'm going to assume that you mean the MSI Desktop Computer Infinite X 8RG-039US Intel Core i7 8th Gen 8700 (3.20 GHz) 16 GB DDR4 2 TB HDD 256 GB M.2 SSD NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 Ti Windows 10 Home 64-Bit that @jmcslob recommended above. No, what I recommenced would be good enough for what he plays now, but might be limited (GPU wise) if he gets into some games that need more power, although you could upgrade the GPU in a year or two (and maybe bump the RAM to 16GB). What @jmcslob recommended would work for any gaming your son would get into for the foreseeable future.
You could also build a system with your son. Spec it out yourselves, order the parts and assemble it. Then you'll really get flooded with suggestions and opinions. There are videos on YouTube showing you how to build a system and the precautions to take. Can be a fun project, or can be maddening as hell when you put it all together and press the power button and nothing happens.

 

[John Naylor]

This would blow it outta the water for a bit more money and be a helluva lot faster (GFX card is 50% faster than 1060, CPU is 8% faste then AMD 1600) and with a 144 Hz gaming monitor which is equipped to handle Motion Blur reduction to eliminate ghosting. As a dad, I would stronmgly recommend building it as a project with your son. I got to do that w/ my 3 boys and tho they now are 21, 26 and 28, this is still something we do together.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel - Core i5-8600K 3.6GHz 6-Core Processor ($348.00 @ Shopping Express)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master - Hyper 612 Ver.2 44.2 CFM Rifle Bearing CPU Cooler ($49.00 @ IJK)
Motherboard: MSI - Z370 SLI PLUS ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($238.00 @ Centre Com)
Memory: G.Skill - Ripjaws 4 Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3000 Memory ($245.00 @ Umart)
Storage: Samsung - 860 Evo 250GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive ($115.00 @ Umart)
Storage: Seagate - FireCuda 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Hybrid Internal Hard Drive ($136.00 @ Shopping Express)
Video Card: MSI - GeForce GTX 1070 Ti 8GB ARMOR Video Card ($769.00 @ Shopping Express)
Case: Phanteks - Enthoo Pro ATX Full Tower Case ($149.00 @ PCCaseGear)
Power Supply: SeaSonic - EVO Edition 620W 80+ Bronze Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($128.98 @ Mwave Australia)
Monitor: Asus - VG248QE 24.0" 1920x1080 144Hz Monitor ($348.00 @ Shopping Express)
Total: $2525.98
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-04-25 01:54 AEST+1000

Getting a 1070 instead of the 1070 Ti would drop the total price to $2,455

 

[thebluebumblebee]

A full tower case?

 

[Caring1]

A full tower case?

At least he will have plenty of room inside to work with.

 

[phanbuey]

i would get a smaller case (pro M maybe?) but otherwise looks good.

 

[John Naylor]

A full tower case?

The pro is full tower but yesterday it was the less expensive buy on the Austrailia PCPP page ... today better results ... less expensive and smaller ...

P300 w/ Tempered Glass is $79
P400 Midtower is $109 in black or white
P400S w/ Tempered Glass Midtower in 5 colors is $129

https://au.pcpartpicker.com/products/case/#m=229&sort=price&page=1

 

[Deleted member 67555]

Honestly... I would buy a prebuilt PC then if interest remains only then would I get into building...

 

[cameronh779]

If he is only playing CSGO and fortnite, this is a helluva budget and some serious hardware. I could make something for 500-600$ that would run them both max @ 1080p. So please also consider that this is almost like.. ''Ill buy a racecar so I can drive back and forth to work''.. Now this racecar would be fine if you wanted to race or someday consider it. Because it opens the option to do so while also getting you what you need.

In this case, if you are wanting to get something he can play future or more hardware intensive games while money not being the prime concern then go for the prebuilt scenario. If saving money and getting bang for your buck is the most important thing, then go for building your own. A computer has about 8 essential parts and its pretty easy to stick things together. As others have mentioned, consider the idea of doing this with your son as a bonding experience. I'd ask him if he though it was something he would maybe enjoy. Learning enough basics to put together hardware is valuable knowledge that you can use to repair and diagnose PC problems as well as continue to save money and build computers for loved ones etc. Its valuable knowledge.

In short, you should make a decision on whats more important before even considering which computer or route to go.

A) Price
B) Future Endeavors
C) Getting what is needed for the best price you can

Once you figure that out, you will have an easier time sorting these other responses and you will be able to give the forum a more clear idea on what you are wanting. Before the great minds here can give you your best option, you have to know what options you will and will not consider.

 

[bubbles26]

If he is only playing CSGO and fortnite, this is a helluva budget and some serious hardware. I could make something for 500-600$ that would run them both max @ 1080p. So please also consider that this is almost like.. ''Ill buy a racecar so I can drive back and forth to work''.. Now this racecar would be fine if you wanted to race or someday consider it. Because it opens the option to do so while also getting you what you need.

In this case, if you are wanting to get something he can play future or more hardware intensive games while money not being the prime concern then go for the prebuilt scenario. If saving money and getting bang for your buck is the most important thing, then go for building your own. A computer has about 8 essential parts and its pretty easy to stick things together. As others have mentioned, consider the idea of doing this with your son as a bonding experience. I'd ask him if he though it was something he would maybe enjoy. Learning enough basics to put together hardware is valuable knowledge that you can use to repair and diagnose PC problems as well as continue to save money and build computers for loved ones etc. Its valuable knowledge.

In short, you should make a decision on whats more important before even considering which computer or route to go.

A) Price
B) Future Endeavors
C) Getting what is needed for the best price you can

Once you figure that out, you will have an easier time sorting these other responses and you will be able to give the forum a more clear idea on what you are wanting. Before the great minds here can give you your best option, you have to know what options you will and will not consider.

All this advice from everyone has been wonderful. I can't believe how kind everyone has been in wanting to help me out. It is much appreciated

To answer your questions....
A) I am willing to spend upto 2.5K (he has saved half the money himself)

B) I definitely want to take in consideration the future as I know he will be an avid gamer. He lives and breathes gaming. And he wants to be a Youtube gamer when he's a bit older lol!

C) So Ideally I'd like to get him something that will last for several years to come.

Again thank you to this wonderful community for all your help.
And I think we are going to try and assemble ourselves... eek!!

 

[Outback Bronze]

Hi mate,

Here is a nice PC for a little less and its in Aussie dollars

http://www.msy.com.au/viconline/msp...pec-infinity-gaming-system-intel-edition.html

All you need to do is find a Keyboard, Mouse and Monitor. Not sure if you already have sound sorted.

Hopefully there is an available store near you or otherwise I will give you a link to another Aussie company that will build machines for you.

https://www.ple.com.au/Categories/Desktop-Computers/Gaming-PCs

If its for gaming and you would like it to move forward into the future a little, I would be looking at a 6 core cpu (Intel or AMD should be fine), 16Gb memory and a 1070/1080 GTX depending on budget of course.

Have fun!

 

[bubbles26]

My son now wants him and I to build our own...

how does this look?

https://au.pcpartpicker.com/list/dzTMvn

 

[Outback Bronze]

My son now wants him and I to build our own...

how does this look?

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/N3GJfH

You cant really go wrong there. Nice system. That's in U.S. $$ tho yeah??

 

[bubbles26]

thanks i just realised and have changed the link to AU

 

[thebluebumblebee]

Of the Phanteks cases that have been recommended so far, i would only suggest the Pro M. They are notorious for their poor air flow. The P400's are particularly stuffed up. "The Phanteks P400 drops a staggering 9.04C without its face"

Other than that, that's a nice build.

 

[bubbles26]

Of the Phanteks cases that have been recommended so far, i would only suggest the Pro M. They are notorious for their poor air flow. The P400's are particularly stuffed up. "The Phanteks P400 drops a staggering 9.04C without its face"

Other than that, that's a nice build.

what about this then?

NZXT - S340 Elite (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case

 

[Erlslutt]

if you want a pc with xbox ish performance i would recomend going with what i just got
CPU: Ryzen 5 2400g
RAM: HyperX Fury 8gb 2400mhz (if budget allows i would rather go with Corsair Vengeance LPX 16gb 3200mhz )
MoBo: Msi b350M mortar
SSD: kingston A400 120gb (if budget allows go with an 860EVO 240gb)
HDD: none (if budget allows throw in an 2tb drive )
Case: InWin mana 136 (i don't think this is available in most of the world so i would recomend a masterbox 5 or a 400c)
PSU: corsair tx550m
Cooler: stock (if budget allows get a 212 evo)
Price: 990aud ish
link: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/tXxgtg

 

[Deleted member 67555]

what about this then?

NZXT - S340 Elite (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case

That's a good choice especially for a first build.
That's a nice case but it's a little bit thin... That's not bad but not great either..
It looks fantastic.
It has good air flow and plenty of room.
I almost used that case on my last build.
I didn't use it because I wanted a slightly smaller case.

 

[bubbles26]

That's a good choice especially for a first build.
That's a nice case but it's a little bit thin... That's not bad but not great either..
It looks fantastic.
It has good air flow and plenty of room.
I almost used that case on my last build.
I didn't use it because I wanted a slightly smaller case.

Thank you for reply.
Do you think I should go smaller case? Like a mini? What’s the benifit?

 

[Deleted member 67555]

Thank you for reply.
Do you think I should go smaller case? Like a mini? What’s the benifit?

Honestly, I think that case is a perfect size if you're going to build with a ATX sized motherboard.
It is on the smaller side for mid tower cases and it is a very well thought out design.
It's advantages are good airflow with 140mm fans and easy cable management and it really looks nice...
The Power supply Unit (PSU) is bottom mounted.
The window is actually glass which doesn't scratch easily like acrylic does.
Many cases on the market are s340 clones.
NZXT also has videos and guides on their site for building with their stuff.

The only issue I can think of is something that may never be an issue and that is I don't think this case will survive many rebuilds...

 

[Nuckles56]

This will save you a few dollars for a quieter build with no loss of performance

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel - Core i5-8600K 3.6GHz 6-Core Processor ($348.00 @ Shopping Express)
CPU Cooler: be quiet! - PURE ROCK 51.7 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($45.00 @ PCCaseGear)
Motherboard: ASRock - Z370 Extreme4 ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($219.00 @ Scorptec)
Memory: G.Skill - Ripjaws 4 Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3000 Memory ($255.00 @ Umart)
Storage: Samsung - 860 Evo 250GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive ($115.00 @ Umart)
Storage: Seagate - Barracuda 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($73.00 @ Shopping Express)
Video Card: MSI - GeForce GTX 1070 Ti 8GB ARMOR Video Card ($739.00 @ Shopping Express)
Case: NZXT - S340 Elite (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case ($139.00 @ Umart)
Power Supply: SeaSonic - FOCUS Plus Gold 550W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($139.00 @ Mwave Australia)
Monitor: Asus - VG248QE 24.0" 1920x1080 144Hz Monitor ($348.00 @ Shopping Express)
Total: $2420.00
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-04-26 22:23 AEST+1000

 

[Melvis]

Id save ya self some money and just go with a AMD Ryzen 2600X, 16GB RAM DDR4 3000, B350 Mobo, GTX 1060 6GB thats about $1000 Australian and spend another $150-200 of Case, PSU and HDD and your good to go! PCCG or MSY is good choices for Computer parts in AUS. $1300ish dollars and your done!

 

[cameronh779]

I'm happy I took the time to make my post above. It has seemed to clear up alot and now you will be able to get more precise answers and help from the members here. I'm not up to date with the most current hardware so ill leave the part picking to them. But see how deciding the route and the things you want have allowed members to give you more specified help? With computers you have to be specific with what you want, how you want to get it, and how much you can spend. I'm glad that my post was of help to you.

Building a computer is tremendous knowledge that will help for a lifetime. I promise that it isnt as complicated as it may sound. The basics of computer building make cars look like NASA spaceships. There are roughly 8 essential parts. Once you start with a base, typically a motherboard/cpu combo, the rest almost does itself. You look to see the motherboards compatibility with processors and ram. Then you decide on a GPU, which TPU will help greatly with. Once thats down you can get an estimate on what wattage you will need to power this system. With a PSU you want to look at efficiency and wattage mostly while also making sure you have the right amount of connecters for your GPU and hard drives etc. After that, you pick a size of hard drive. Then lastly, you pick a case while looking at form factors and sizing to make sure to will fit everything.

That is the basic way to go about it. The rest is just decisions and tweaks such as.. SSD or HDD.. or say ''Do I want to overclock or go for aftermarket cooling?''.. But the bare minimum is what I laid out for you. The most important thing when picking parts is COMPATIBILITY. Make sure that X part will go with X part. Or that X part has the right connector to plug it in. There are some basic guides one of which from Lifehacker that I found fairly basic and informational that I will link below. Once picking hardware is done, the easiest part is assembling it. I'd make sure that you and your son are aware of potential problems though because parts can arive DOA or someting of that nature. Its a rarity but something all builders have to be prepared for.

https://lifehacker.com/5826509/how-to-build-a-computer-from-scratch-lesson-1-hardware-basics

I hope that my posts have helped you in some way. I wanted to share a bit with someone who may become a computer builder and future TPU contributor for a while to come.

 

[Vayra86]

Thank you for reply.
Do you think I should go smaller case? Like a mini? What’s the benifit?

Small form factors are a limitation and if the smaller case does not benefit you or is your preference in a tangible way, don't do it. A quality case will last several builds but only when it offers enough options for future plans. Larger cases also contain more air so they are slower to 'heat up' under prolonged loads. Another big issue is cooling options and overall airflow. Cases with tiny vents in the front are not great in that sense and require higher fan speed (=noise) to compensate.

That principle also applies to the choice of PSU - a high quality PSU is peace of mind but also simply outlasts a build and can go into a second one. 7-10 years is very doable on a quality PSU. On a cheaper one, its easily just 4-5 before it starts acting up. Some PSUs even carry 10 year warranty (like my EVGA G2). Note: most recommendations done here for you do contain a high quality PSU (Seasonic for example). AS for future planning: it may be wise to oversize the PSU by 100w so you 're not running into a limitation there either. The price premium is usually quite minimal (10-15 $) and the bonus is a lower load, which means lower temps and less fan noise from PSU + lower degradation of caps.

The S340 is a good midranger, but not the best, its mostly an aesthetics choice over a functional one. Another thing to realize is that both NZXT and Phanteks primarily build cases with AIO/custom watercooling in mind, and much less with air cooling as the primary concern. Regardless they are quite good at it, mostly in a design/aesthetics sense. Functionality often has some notable cons, so carefully read a review or two before you pick up these brands. A good case makes your life easy: in use but also in building a rig or swapping parts later down the line.

I'm a big fan of the Fractal Design Define- cases; very clean, awesome build quality and lots of options without breaking the bank. You can fit proper water cooling in there, or stick to air, and it'll feel 'as if designed' for either solution. Need lots of storage? Grab a Define R6. Going light on storage and mostly with SSD/M2 and perhaps one or two HDDs? Take a look at the Define C, its one of the smarter 'small' ATX cases out there, I have one right now. Want to mind the budget a little? Grab the Meshify.

 

[Vario]

A good case is the Coolermaster MasterCase Mesh H500P, it has 200mm fans in the front and provides really nice airflow. However... I don't own this case I just saw a few posts and reviews for it and it looks like a good design. Surely two 200mm fans will probably provide more airflow than just about anything.

 

[phanbuey]

the s340 elite is one of the easiest cases to build in... thermals are really good except for GPU thermals. It's compact but not too tiny (Phanteks p300)

But AIOs make terrible intakes... so your gpu will cook in that case.

Im actually about to post a small 92mm fan mod to mine that made quite a bit of difference (the bottom segment just has a bunch of cold air sitting in it if you're not using HDDs).

If I had to buy it again I would probably get a fractal c tg (it doesnt look as cool though, and wont accommodate the "magnetic TG sidepanel" mod like the elite).