First gaming PC. Buy pre-built or custom.

Josey Wales

Hi,

Looking for some advice. I have a PS4 but would like to get involved in PC gaming and keep the PS4 for exclusives. I've never played any PC games and don't have much knowledge about the hardware side of things.

I will not be building myself so I'd rather buy one pre-made but I'd be open to having someone else build a custom PC. As for budget I'm really not sure. I'd like to play current titles at 1080p with a solid frame-rate. So any cross platform games that launch I'd like to be able to get on PC for a technically better experience. Would a budget of €600 be enough?

If I were to buy a pre-built machine were is the best place to look?


1. What is your budget? €600

2. What will be the main purpose of the computer? Gaming almost exclusively. I like a wide range of genres, sample games include Assassin's Creed, Mass Effect, FPS, RPGs like Fallout, Witcher 3.

3. Do you need a copy of Windows? Yes

4. Can you use any parts from an old computer? No

5. Do you need a monitor? No


5b. If no, what resolution is your current monitor and do you plan to upgrade in the near future? Planning of connection to 55" TV (Samsung UE55JU6400)

6. Do you need any of these peripherals? Keyboard and Mouse

7. Are you willing to try overclocking? No

8. How can you pay? Credit / Debit card

9. When are you purchasing? Early 2016

10. If you need help building it, where are you based? North County Dublin

Cheers.

Digital Solitude

I'd have a look at dabs or else TerrorFirmer and Bloodbath on adverts, its easy to get totally ripped off with prebuilts.

At that budget, a new i3 or old i5
GTX950
8gb RAM
Small SSD and a reasonable hard drive are what you should be expecting

MarkAnthony

Definitely a custom! You'll never look back. I would get someone to help you build the machine or get one built off someone like Terror - basically some of the lads here are the nicest blokes you'll ever meet and delight in helping out.

If you buy a pre-built for €600 you'll have a crappy gaming experience which is why so many people think consoles are a good deal. Roll on decent steam boxes!

Man Fallout 4 PC vs PS4 - no comparison!

Any Processor Sandy bridge (2500K) or above will still be awesome for gaming. I'm not so good on the AMD specs but GPU is where it's at, dont worry too much about the CPU.

MarkAnthony

Compare this to this.

Okay you get a warranty on the new one but it's sh1t. If you're worried about warranty buy parts new.

Also top tip - a program like Marcrium reflect will let you image the disk when you get a PC so that reinstalling windows if things go wrong is a breeze. I say this after spending 6 hours tracking down a boot problem to a pesky utility called MSI afterburner.

PS Always check people's feedback on adverts. I just pulled a PC at random off there, no idea if the seller is any good or not.

TerrorFirmer

Plus, sellers on adverts almost always accept lower than asking price, sometimes by a decent margin - sellers usually just have to set the asking price higher to stop people coming in making ridiculous offers. So the price isn't really the price.

€600 is a good budget to build your own though without having to buy a 2nd hand one if you'd prefer a new machine.