Does anyone know their way around gaming PCs? My 12yo son is really into the idea of building one, but is bobbinsing on with a load of youtube bollox about what the specs need to be. A few questions: He’s talking about building one that would cost £620 for the PC – is that realistic for something worthwhile?

What are the key components to prioritise? The one he’s looking at would have a Gigabyte Radeon R9 280 3 GB WINDFORCE Video Card, with a AMD FX-6300 3.5 GHz 6-Core Processor amongst other stuff.

Is it a bit of a project to build, get the soldering iron out etc or is it very simple, just click everything together in an hour or two?

How important is the display – I assume you need something reasonably advanced if you’re building all this graphics power into the PC?

Thks for any advice – it could be a good thing for him to focus on as he is mad keen on the idea right now.

It’s pretty simple, just a case of plugging it all together, the only things to be sure of are getting all of the motherboard mounting pegs in the right place in the case (get it wrong and you can short circuit the mother board, which is bad) and getting the processor heat sink mounted properly (if you get it wrong it’s less catastophic than it used to be as the processor will throttle itself down to prevent terminal overheating)

The question is, what kind of games does he want to play and at what resolution? These will drive the requirements of the speed/oomph of the various components. For example, 1080P is pretty much the minimum resolution for gaming these days, and from my brief google that card will be mostly ok, but something that you’d be looking to upgrade pretty quickly, higher resolutions will need a more powerfulr graphices card.

The question is, what kind of games does he want to play and at what resolution? These will drive the requirements of the speed/oomph of the various components.

I think Garry really wants it for Zwift!

That sounds like a horrendous build and about 5 years out of date!

Assembly is relatively straight forward, as long as care is taken to ensure nothing is damaged as it is all clicked into place. Neat routing of the power supply wiring is probably the hardest part. No soldering required.

This is a good starting point:
https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/guide/FNwrxr/entry-level-amd-gaming-build

Use the PCPartPicker website to create builds. It has pretty good compatibility warnings and price searching. Not everything is on there though so do search around for parts. Prices are variable at the moment, new GPUs are due for release soon, but on your budget it probably won’t have much of an effect.

Display is important, but you need to match your GPU to the display in a way. No point having a 4K monitor or high refresh monitor if you don’t have a GPU capable of powering it. At lower budgets it’s better to stick to a small 24″ 1080P monitor, but do aim for something with Freesync.

Is it a bit of a project to build, get the soldering iron out etc or is it very simple, just click everything together in an hour or two?

It’s very simple, as long as you get compatible components. I haven’t built a PC for a few years now, but there are enthusiast websites that regularly do recommended builds for different purposes at different price points. If you look at those, you should be able to find whatever the good value for money specs are at the moment.

For example, first one that came up in my Google search:
https://www.newegg.com/tools/custom-pc-builder#

For reference my ‘budget’ gaming PC build that my misses plays the current CoD, Tomb Raider etc on is:

AMD 2600 CPU
MSI RX580 4GB GPU
2x8GB 3000Hz Ram
500GB SSD x2
450W Corsair CX PSU
Gigabyte B450-M motherboard

This plays games at a reasonable framerate on a 2560x1080P (ultrawide) 60Hz monitor. Graphics options have to be turned down on some modern games but everything is very playable and much better than playing on a console. I wouldn’t consider spending less than around the £600 mark as you’d be compromising performance too much to work with current/future games.

At that price point I’d be seriously considering an Xbox / Playstation for games and a boggo PC from Cash Converters that he can take to bits and put back together as often as he likes.

If you’re dead set on a gaming rig it’s worth searching the forum, there’s been a couple of similar threads lately.

Peripherals+ screen +pc for £600 is too tight imho.

I’d echo what they said above – with that budget you are limited to playing at 1080HD 60hz really –

Have a look here: https://forums.overclockers.co.uk/forums/new-to-pc-gaming-upgrade-advice.172/

Or join and post your budget and expectations – people seem to enjoy speccing up PCs on there, it’s almost like a competition to see who can come up with the best value build for a given budget, although the forum is owned by a retailer, so the recommendations can only be from there!

Don’t forget, you need a Windows licence too if you are building a new PC.

Don’t forget, you need a Windows licence too if you are building a new PC.

You can buy ‘grey market’ licenses for about £12 on amazon, I’ve had one for about 5 years and no issues.

You can buy ‘grey market’ licenses for about £12 on amazon, I’ve had one for about 5 years and no issues.

If you’re building to a tight budget, that £12 is still something you need to budget for. Plus cables that are compatible with your motherboard/video card, mouse, keyboard, etc. A few odds and ends like that can add up pretty quickly.

Perhaps have a look at the all in one chips from AMD, obviously not as good as a graphics card but will run slightly older games. You could build a PC based on a 3400G for half that budget. Leaving room for a nice monitor and the possibility to spend the other half on a graphics card in the future (or a console).

Thks for all the advice – food for thought. Would prefer to spend more to get something viable, than something cheaper just for the project, so I’ll look at the build options suggested.
His favourite game is minecraft, which seems the last game you’d need a powerful pc for, but he does play plenty of other stuff.

As has been said, it depends a lot of the games he wants to play now and in the future. That is a dated spec. though and will struggle already with a lot current games at 1080p, medium graphics settings and 60fps, let alone future games or higher settings.

I’d say you really need to budget the £600 for the base unit alone at a minimum and add a couple of hundred to cover a monitor and peripherals. If you can stretch it to £1000 all in you can get a system that will have a bit of future proofing built in but always bear in mind even current gen FPS games running in high quality settings, 120fps and 1440p+ resolution really need a £2k+ system so you might need to set expectations.

The one he’s looking at would have a Gigabyte Radeon R9 280 3 GB WINDFORCE Video Card, with a AMD FX-6300 3.5 GHz 6-Core Processor amongst other stuff.

I wouldn’t build that – it is so old and crap its pointless.

His favourite game is minecraft, which seems the last game you’d need a powerful pc for, but he does play plenty of other stuff.

You don’t need a particularly high spec rig to run Minecraft as far as I’m aware.

120fps and 1440p+ resolution really need a £2k+ system so you might need to set expectations.

Yeh.. a 27″ 1440p 144hz screen with an IPS panel – you’re looking at £500+ just for the screen. A very beautiful screen, mind.

Bang for buck look at the AMD Ryzen CPU’s. For keeping the budget low for now you can get the models with the in-built graphics.

We’ve just built my daughter a gaming PC – already had mouse/keyboard and monitor. The buils was nearer £700 just for the box. Ryzen 5 3600, GTX 970 (hand me down from brother who bought an RTX2070), 16GB Ram, 500gb SSD, 2TD hd, already had power supply.

Graphics look for a GTX 1060 if on a budget.

PC part picker is really good though – we used it to spec everything up.

My son got his RTX2070 for about £400, so I gave him £150 towards it for the 970. My daughter’s games aren’t that demanding, but my son is constantly playing racing sims, and VR, and the 2070 is twice the speed of the 970.

Rough prices

Ryzen5 – £160
Motherboard £70
500GB SSD £50
2TD HD £45
Graphics – Budget £150 minimum
16GB Ram £70
Case £50
Power Supply £40
ARGB Fans (look great) £35

I feel like if you’re going to the trouble of building something, you might as well do RGB everything and a water-cooled case with windows etc.

Or go the opposite way to save money and arguably have a better looking machine with a nice plain minimalist case with no side windows.

While it will be fun in a frustrating sort of way building your own, there will be no expert on hand should it not switch on after its been put together. I think its a nightmare headache waiting to happen.
There are a great many companies selling prebuilt systems and it is a cut throat market.
Think of your top line and look at price points on pre made systems, and I am sure you’ll do very well if not better, at least with the headaches and frustration removed..

While minecraft isnt a power/gpu hungry game, Im sure as time goes on he will look to play the popular or latest games, only to find then the system can’t handle it.
There are a lot more openworld games out there, seems a direction the gaming industry wants to take, especially co-op with friends on headphones and p2p talk.

Im i5 4460@3.2ghz,8gb gaming ram,nvidia g/f gtx 970, which is all quite old these days and the beautiful textures and lush undergrowth you see in youtube vids you cant achieve unless the system can handle modern games. They’re spending a lot of time making these environments pretty breathtaking, be nice to see it in all its glory.
I’m another looking for something more modern. Some of these games are truly stunning.

ARGB Fans (look great) £35

look pish and are expensive or crap.

For fans a pack of 5 arctic P12’s are about £30

Think of your top line and look at price points on pre made systems, and I am sure you’ll do very well if not better, at least with the headaches and frustration removed..

You won’t, ever. PC Partpicker and Logical Increments should ensure you get compatible bits, after that it’s just plugging them together. I’ve been quoted prices locally at least twice what I could build myself, I’d love to give them my business but not at that money. PC Specialist and such can’t compete either.

I’m another looking for something more modern. Some of these games are truly stunning.

The 10 series already accomplished it. I’m using an i5-6500 and 1070 running most games at 2k with combinations of mid/high/ultra. The clue tends to bottleneck me more. Unless you want to go AMD for graphics await til the 3xxx series comes out.