Help please !

Thewife

Firstly I’m sorry if this is not allowed or if it’s the wrong place.

My 13 year old son wants a gaming pc for Xmas . I have zero idea what I need to look for and was wondering if some of you experts could help a Mamma out !

Obviously I don’t want this to cost me a fortune , but at the same time I don’t want to buy a dead donkey . Can anyone give me tips or specifications I need to look out for when I got about my search ? He plays games like GTA , fortnite , fifa , call of duty etc .

Any help would be GREATLY appreciated x

Spear

Buying a prebuilt machine or can he build it himself?

Thewife

I am looking for something already built . Something that he can take out of the box and plug in and get started !

Spear wrote: »

Buying a prebuilt machine or can he build it himself?

Skerries

whats your budget and does he have any peripherals such as keyboard, mouse, monitor(model if you have it), headset?

Kiith

Easiest way to do this is get one 2nd hand off adverts. I've sold mine there, and you can get some good deals.

Other then that, building it yourself is the best way to go. Many of the "gaming pc's" you'll find in shops are not good for gaming at all.

Thewife

No keyboard etc im looking to ideally buy a package that has everything he needs ! I’m not really sure on budget either , I don’t want to spend thousands but I also don’t want to get one that isint going to be much use to him so I suppose I’m looking for something in between . I have seen some bundles on amazon ranging from £350 right up to thousands so I suppose I’m looking to spend the least amount possible for a somewhat good system . That probably makes no sense , but as I said I don’t have a clue !

Skerries wrote: »

whats your budget and does he have any peripherals such as keyboard, mouse, monitor(model if you have it), headset?

Thewife

I have looked at adverts etc but the problem is I don’t have a clue what I’m looking for really .i suppose I’m hoping one of you experts can give me guidance as to what specs I need to look for as in memory , graphics , makes etc etc and I suppose once I know the minimum requirements and makes to steal clear of then I might have a idea what to look for . I wouldn’t have a clue where to start with building one myself , I would like to think I’m technically minded as in phones, tv systems etc I’m quite good at sorting out and setting up those kinds of things , but gaming pcs is a totally new one for me so id be going in blind ! If I had a list of the parts I needed and instructions on how to build it I’m sure I could manage it , but I don’t have a clue where to look and what to look for !

Kiith wrote: »

Easiest way to do this is get one 2nd hand off adverts. I've sold mine there, and you can get some good deals.

Other then that, building it yourself is the best way to go. Many of the "gaming pc's" you'll find in shops are not good for gaming at all.

Homelander

Depends on where you buy. There are loads of crap PC's out there for sale for big money. It really depends on how much you want to spend. Something like this here is fairly good for £500 and would run new games at high settings. Something like this one here for 400 pounds is really the cheapest you can do a new decent PC. Forget about places like Currys, you'll pay 800 or 900 quid for a far slower PC.

Taylor365

No idea on your budget, but here are a few ideas from adverts:


€799

€799

€799

€850

If you want my opinion on these let me know, as i don't want to comment on them individually. (there are a lot of dreamers)

OneOfThem Stumbled

Just throwing this out there:

If you want a custom made PC without having to build it yourself (and run the risk of incompatible parts) PC Specalist is really good. They can take a while to deliver though (about 4-6 weeks). While they give plenty of information about components, you'd still need to know a thing or two about them in order to configure an appropriate machine though.

https://www.pcspecialist.ie

The problem with off-the-shelf machines is that they might have a single component that is really shoddy. This would usually be either the CPU or graphics card, as these tend to be two of the most expensive components.

Homelander

Taylor365 wrote: »

No idea on your budget, but here are a few ideas from adverts:


€799

€799

€799

€850

If you want my opinion on these let me know, as i don't want to comment on them individually. (there are a lot of dreamers)

These are all pretty terrible value for 2nd hand machines with no warranty. €850 for a 7 year old 3770k and gtx1070? €800 for i7-7700 and gtx1060? These are not even remotely close to good value to be honest. If you are willing to spend €800 you might as well get a new one, it'll be as fast, brand new with warranty, and way more modern as long as you shop right.

Homelander

For example here is one with a ryzen 2600 and rtx2060 for £679, miles better than any of those PC's, brand new, and actually cheaper. Also comes with free call of duty modern warfare and 3 month game pass which is worth another €80. It wouldn't make a lick of sense to drop €800 on some out of date 2nd hand PC. Most of those aren't worth more than 400-500, let alone 800.

krissovo

I was shopping around for a 12 year old and yes you can build a decent gaming PC yourself for good value but for those of us who would like ease I was recommended a pre-built from Overclockers.

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/ocuk-gaming-xvi-essential-gaming-pc-amd-ryzen-5-2600-geforce-gtx-1660-6gb-fs-1df-og.html

I upgraded the RAM at checkout to 16GB and added a cheap gaming keyboard & Mouse and my child was delighted. Its more than capable of playing the games at a decent resolution but they are also recording Youtube streams. Also has just enough bling with LED lights.

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/cooler-master-masterkeys-combo-rgb-gaming-bundle-keyboard-and-mouse-kb-03e-cm.html

The warranty covers Ireland and was much cheaper than anything available here.

Taylor365

Homelander wrote: »

These are all pretty terrible value for 2nd hand machines with no warranty. €850 for a 7 year old 3770k and gtx1070? €800 for i7-7700 and gtx1060? These are not even remotely close to good value to be honest. If you are willing to spend €800 you might as well get a new one, it'll be as fast, brand new with warranty, and way more modern as long as you shop right.

You missed the dreamer part. Nice.

BIGT4464

I got one on donedeal for 400 2 years ago, & upgraded the GPU to a 1060.
OP you need to look in there first, there are some good machines built a few years ago, from enthusiasts who put the best of gear in them at the time of build. You need at least an i5 processor, few years old is fine, that runs with ddr4 Ram. And a Graphics card that has at lease 4GB memory like a nvidea 1060 .

Thewife

Wow thank you all so much for all the advice I REALLY appreciate it . I’ll check all the suggested links out and try and make a informed decision , but I’ve written down all your suggestions and notes so hopefully I’ll have some idea of what to look for . Thanks everyone x

Homelander

Taylor365 wrote: »

You missed the dreamer part. Nice.

Sorry, nice yourself, you're the one recomending 2nd hand PC's worth €400 that are advertised at twice that price.

Taylor365

Homelander wrote: »

Sorry, nice yourself, you're the one recomending 2nd hand PC's worth €400 that are advertised at twice that price.

Yea, so you make an offer of €400. AS i said to OP, i would offer my opinion on them individually, and privately, as to not spoil the dreamers.




But you had to go and break their little hearts.

Homelander

Taylor365 wrote: »

Yea, so you make an offer of €400. AS i said to OP, i would offer my opinion on them individually, and privately, as to not spoil the dreamers.




But you had to go and break their little hearts.

Not sure what your gameplan is here, but you recommended a lot of 2nd hand PC's for 800 euro that are on-par with brand new €600 PC's. There's not really any defending that, no matter what "message me privately" defenses you're throwing out. Sorry, they were just terrible recommendations, accept it and move on.

Taylor365

Homelander wrote: »

Not sure what your gameplan is here, but you recommended a lot of 2nd hand PC's for 800 euro that are on-par with brand new €600 PC's. There's not really any defending that, no matter what "message me privately" defenses you're throwing out. Sorry, they were just terrible recommendations, accept it and move on.

No, great recommendations for €350-450.

Shiminay

Jebus lads, would you ever just get a room, eh?

Samuel T. Cogley

Ask over in the PC building and upgrading forum. Plenty of us are happy to build you a PC for a six pack (you supply the parts obviously). They'll also point you in the direction of reputable PC builders and tell you the ones to avoid.

Ponster

As others have suggested, building your own PC is often the best value for money as you get exactly what your money can buy and there isn't 1 component that lets the rest of them down. Often a pre-built PC might for example have a high spec RAM for example but doesn't have the rest of the kit designed to take advantage of it.

Learning how to build one is not that hard once you can find the time to learn (a) how to physically build it with the use of lots of YouTube and (b) how to actually pick the parts which we can help with.

if you don't go down that route though I'd use this thread to have others vet what you find for sale and we'll give it our review

If you're not already a PC owner then it's worth understanding that unlike consoles there isn't one 'specification' that is common. A game designed for consoles is always limited to the hardware. A PC that can play GTV-V today may not be as capable in 2 years time when the next even-better game comes out. But this isn't a problem, as most of the parts can be updated. So when the latest and greatest game comes out, you can grab some extra RAM or a more powerful CPU rather than having to update everything.

It's very simplistic but when choosing you'll need to pick one with a good CPU and graphics card. A decent monitor is also important as is a case with flashy LEDs (very important when you're 13!)

Both krissovo and Homelander posted decent machines in and around the 650 mark. They come with a motherboard that can take an updated CPU in the future (Ryzen 7) and enough RAM (8Gb) to get the kid playing games from the moment it's powered on. Based on these 2 posts I'd say that if you were spending more it would be for a specific reason. Note that these PCs don't come with a monitor I don't think but these are a little easier to choose. I'd just go for a 24" 1080p monitor. A 120hz refresh rate would be great if budget allows it

john9876

What is a suitable gaming monitor?
I'm another dad with a 13 year old hoping to buy a pc for gaming on Black Friday.
Does the monitor matter in terms of performance or is it just the 'cool' factor?

Shiminay

It can do. it's not just about the screen size The sorts of things that matter in monitors are the refresh rate (default is 60Hz, but it goes up to 144Hz), response rate (measured in milliseconds, less is usually best) and resolution (1080 would be the minimum you'd want, 1440 is tasty, 4K is astronomical ). I reckon a 1080p and 60Hz monitor is fine for a young fella and if in time, he wants more, then it's always nice to have a second monitor. As for the size, well I wouldn't have less than 22", but 24" is common and not terribly expensive (about €120ish for a decont one).

Taylor365

Do remember though: higher the resolution, beefier the pc has to be

2ndcoming

Worth noting the pre-built bargains have nearly always cut corners so it isn't as simple as Homelander makes out.

Cheap Chinese components used where they can get away with it instead of enthusiast parts chosen with care by someone... you may need that warranty more than they will.

Homelander

2ndcoming wrote: »

Worth noting the pre-built bargains have nearly always cut corners so it isn't as simple as Homelander makes out.

Cheap Chinese components used where they can get away with it instead of enthusiast parts chosen with care by someone... you may need that warranty more than they will.

Chosing low-level components such as basic chipset motherboards or cheaper vendor graphics card's isn't cutting corners, it's making the price as cheap as possible for someone who don't care for that sort of thing.

The only place it's possible to chose 'cheap inferior' components that could be considered an actual risk is the power supply but most companies (including the ones I linked to) don't do this as it's not worth the hassle.

Talking about 'cheap chinese components' is nonsensical when talking about reputable companies. What 'cheap Chinese components' are you talking about?

I posted links to AWD and someone else to Overclockers UK. Both use regular and reliable off the shelf branded components, as does pretty much every reputable company.

Enthusiast parts are for exactly that. Enthusiasts. Not the average buyer on a budget who can't/doesn't want to build but prefers to buy a pre-built.

2ndcoming

I've never heard of AWD but OCUK are obviously reputable.

Important to stress the importance of using reputable sellers if going pre-built, there are a huge numbers of cowboys out there.

Power supply is the obvious one but cheapo hard drives can also cause nightmares down the road, cheapo cases and GPUs can leave you with something as loud as a jumbo jet, and just lack of care going into the build in the first place can affect reliability negatively.

I agree with you on the prices on Adverts, like most niche things people tend to think they will get back what they put in somehow.

There are however reliable guys over on the PC Building forum who regularly build and sell on Adverts at fair prices and I would be as quick or quicker to deal with them as anyone.