New build advice please (I've been out of the loop for some time)

[SteroidalComa]

Hi,
My son is turning 16 this year and wants to build his first gaming rig. I'm an old skool gamer/rig builder, so I'll be helping him out, but I've been out of the PC gaming loop for about 6 years now (life etc kinda got in the way, lol). So I'm not quite sure hardware to use now. He's going to have roughly £500 to spend (not including the monitor etc).

Any help would be highly appreciated

 

[RCoon]

https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/ is definitely going to be your friend!

On that budget I'd look at an AMD system (AMD aren't terrible for once with their new ZEN offering).

 

[SteroidalComa]

https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/ is definitely going to be your friend!

On that budget I'd look at an AMD system (AMD aren't terrible for once with their new ZEN offering).

Thanks. I'll have look now.

 

[RCoon]

Quick build I threw together, not much saving to be made unless you go for a cheaper PSU which I don't like to do - https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/pKpKcY

Could go for HDD instead of SSD but I'd prefer the system responsiveness to sheer storage... PSU you could go for a cheaper make but ask first since some of the really cheap ones will literally explode. Anything less than a 1050ti is pretty much pointless IMO, you may as well go for an APU system at which stage you're gaming on Medium settings at 720p, no chance at 1080p.

 

[SteroidalComa]

Quick build I threw together, not much saving to be made unless you go for a cheaper PSU which I don't like to do - https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/pKpKcY

Could go for HDD instead of SSD but I'd prefer the system responsiveness to sheer storage... PSU you could go for a cheaper make but ask first since some of the really cheap ones will literally explode. Anything less than a 1050ti is pretty much pointless IMO, you may as well go for an APU system at which stage you're gaming on Medium settings at 720p, no chance at 1080p.

Looks great for that price.

 

[RCoon]

Looks great for that price.

You can shave off a few pounds by going for a really crap case, slower CAS memory an and ass-tier motherboard
Others might have Intel options for you. If I weren't in the middle of training at work I'd delve a bit deeper for you.

EDIT: I've not included a DVD drive - Assuming you're installing windows from a USB stick or an external drive. Also not included is an actual Windows license. That's gonna eat a fair chunk of money.

 

[SteroidalComa]

You can shave off a few pounds by going for a really crap case, slower CAS memory an and ass-tier motherboard
Others might have Intel options for you. If I weren't in the middle of training at work I'd delve a bit deeper for you.

lol, I appreciate all you've done already m8 TBH, I'd probably say £550 is fine lol. I want it to be budget, but decent.

 

[GorbazTheDragon]

Anything in particular he wants to play/do with it?

You *can* go for an i3 8100 and it will end up around the same price but might be slightly faster than a ryzen 3 in some uses. If you are going with a ~60 quid board you will not have great upgrade options on either platform.

You might be able to find second hand GPUs that perform better around the same price, 680/770/960/970s are all good options imo

 

[John Naylor]

At that price, it's not going to be in the < mid level range . Rcoon's build is a good start tho I'd make the following recommendations:

a) Never, ever buy RAM in separate packaging; always buy in a matched pair. Same price and guaranteed to work together, when purchased separately they are not
https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/product...-8gb-2-x-4gb-ddr4-2400-memory-bls2c4g4d240fsb

b) 250 GB is too small ... £6 more money will let you quadruple that and in real world usage no one will notice... we tested identical boxes with users for 6 weeks ... no one noticed which was which ... repeated same test w/ laptops and same result. Bit for just £28 more, you can increase storage by a factor of 8. Let's do the math ...

250 GB will let you store 232.83 GB of files ... leaving 15% free as recommended for SSD's, leaves 197.91 GB ... allowing 80 GB for Windows after 6 months .. 95 GB for installing the game GTAV, leaves ya 22.91 GB

Boot Time SSD = 15.6 seconds
Boot Time w/ SSHD = 16.5 seconds

1 TB (£59.99) - https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/product...200rpm-hybrid-internal-hard-drive-st1000dx002
2 TB (£81.69) - https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/product...200rpm-hybrid-internal-hard-drive-st2000dx002

I know ya budget is tight but I'd try like heck to get into a 1060 3GB, which if ya look here, just does fine at 1080p resolution w/ 15 out of 18 games > 60 fps and the other 3 over 40.

https://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/MSI/GTX_1060_Gaming_X_3_GB/6.html

You will undoubtedly see arguments to the contrary that "ya need 6 GB" but it is not brought out by testing. The 6 GB card has 11% more shaders so yes, the 6 GB is faster than the 3 GB. But the VRAM does squat at 1080p which is evident here.

The 6 GB card due to its extra shaders is 6% faster than the 3 GB card ... so if VRAM amount had anything at all to do with that, we should see that 6% grow substantially when we looked at 1440p. As it remains the same 6%, iut's clear that VRA< has no impact at these resolutions. BTW, that card can be easily overclocked on the S12 PSU to +14.5% performance.

https://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/MSI/GTX_1060_Gaming_X_3_GB/29.html

It's gonna cost ya at least (£36) but that is a 45% increase in Gaming performance for a 6.7 % increase in price.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 3 1300X 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor (£98.99 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: Gigabyte - GA-AX370M-DS3H Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard (£59.98 @ Ebuyer)
Memory: Team - Vulcan 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2400 Memory (£68.99 @ Overclockers.co.uk)
Storage: Seagate - FireCuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Hybrid Internal Hard Drive (£59.99 @ Amazon UK)
Video Card: Gigabyte - GeForce GTX 1060 3GB 3GB Windforce OC Video Card (£189.99 @ Ebuyer)
Case: BitFenix - Comrade ATX Mid Tower Case (£30.95 @ Novatech)
Power Supply: SeaSonic - 520W 80+ Bronze Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply (£57.98 @ Scan.co.uk)
Total: £566.87
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-07-17 22:27 BST+0100

If ya prefer Intel... you can pick up another 13% speed ..... for anoither 5.6% increase in price... Total: £598.67... changes below

https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/mvMF4q]PCPartPicker part list[/url] / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: [url=https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/product/r3m323/intel-core-i3-8300-37ghz-quad-core-processor-bx80684i38300]Intel - Core i3-8300 3.7GHz Quad-Core Processor (£112.79 @ Aria PC)
CPU Cooler: Scythe - SCBYK-1000 46.5 CFM CPU Cooler (£22.99 @ Overclockers.co.uk)
Motherboard: Gigabyte - B360M D2V Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard (£54.99 @ Aria PC)[/url]

 

[SteroidalComa]

Anything in particular he wants to play/do with it?

You *can* go for an i3 8100 and it will end up around the same price but might be slightly faster than a ryzen 3 in some uses. If you are going with a ~60 quid board you will not have great upgrade options on either platform.

You might be able to find second hand GPUs that perform better around the same price, 680/770/960/970s are all good options imo

Fortnite and COD mostly.

 

[ne6togadno]

some minor changes to rcoon's build. price total 552
https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/fDL44q

 

[kurosagi01]

Do you require windows for the budget aswell?
This is what i would go, £110-120 slightly over budget.
https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/wzQGxG