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Recommendations from fellow PC enthusiasts

Dark Drakan

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Looking for some PC spec recommendations for some "budget" components for a new PC build. I want to build a new gaming rig with my stepson & hopefully teach him how to build/maintain his own machine.

Looking for suggestions for decent priced components to run latest games at decent frame rate. With currency miners pushing up price of GPU's I'm finding it hard to get a CPU/GPU combo that won't bottleneck one another for a good price.

Any suggestions would be most welcome (don't need monitor as it will be running through his TV) & remember this is for budget parts for a basic gaming rig...

Below are my finds so far based on a little research with some approx prices and are subject to change (I have spare HD's & CD/DVD Drive so havent included those in list)... edited with Steves suggestions

CPU: Ryzen 3 1300X (£114)
GPU: GTX 1050Ti (£166)
RAM: Hyper X Fury 8GB DDR4 (£68)
Power Supply: Cooler Master V550 (£101)
Motherboard: Asus Prime A320M-K (Around £52) (Though Amazon reviews arent great)​
 

Steve

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PC master race represent!

Here are two lists that should help you out. Both of which are aimed at 1080p modern gaming with FPS with modern games, but should have you future proofed for a while. One I'd consider 'budget' and the other an eBay-based 'super budget':

Budget:

Mobo: Go cheapest ASUS mobo you can find
CPU: Ryzen 3 1300X

GPU: GTX 1050, but the 4GB Ti will mean that you can get away with conservatively dialing up advanced graphics settings
RAM: Could get away with 4GB RAM (I did until recently with my HTPC), but modern games apparently require 8GB for full benefits.

PSU: Over the past few years I've come to realise that the most important area not to skimp is with PSUs. They cost a premium, but SeaSonic are by far the best and more often than not it seems that other manufaturers source their cponents for their own PSUs (Corsair does with a few of their models IIRC). For your needs I would highly recommend the Cooler Master V550; it doesn't include any SeaSonic components but it's up there in reliability and performance, and was very well received. I'm not familiar with the new 'modular' version, but my semi-modular oldie is still going strong and costs a helluva lot less.

OS: Get a second hand copy of Windows 7 Home and upgrade to 10 for free (provided the original owner signed up for the free upgrade, although I have heard that Microsoft are giving out W10 upgrades now anyway)

Case: Need a low-profile ATX form factor? I use this for my HTPC and it's great; although, it only cost £30 when I paid for it... cheeky beggars. TBH a lot of the cheap-o BitFenix and CiT cases look great, typically cost around £30 or less and don't take up a ton of room

Super Budget:

Mobo:
Cheapest ASUS mobo (check the website to make sure it's compatible with the older CPUs, though)

CPU: Intel i5 2500K (still kicks butt after however many years)

GPU: GTX 750 Ti - AMAZING graphics card and runs entirely off the mobo for power, no additional power cables required. Currently in my HTPC and runs Marvel vs Capcom: Infinite at 1080p with max settings without breaking a sweat. Tried out the Mass Effect Andromeda demo a few months ago and I don't recall any issues there, either. There's no chance that it'll run Doom (2016) or the like all that well, though...

RAM: See above.

PSU: You could go Bronze/Silver quality I guess, provided it's a good brand... in which case you could probably also go as low as 500-550W if going the GTX 750 Ti route.

OS: Windows 7 if you're not looking to keep up with uber modern games. My HTPC still runs Windows 7 SP1 (even though I have a free W10 upgrade), but Steam still works fine, as do all of my emulators... so no need to upgrade. Windows 10 is riddled with telemetry anyway.

Case: A mega cheap CiT case OR (and I have legitimately been wanting to do this for a while) see if anyone you know still has an old Tiny/Time/HP PC lying around and gut the internals. I love the look of old PC cases. If you want to save even more you can do what I did when I built my arcade: build your own case using MDF. I effectively built an open-air... slab(?) and attached the mobo to it using standoffs, made a slit for the graphics card I/O and Robert's your father's brother. Before using my HTPC I actually used one of the cupboard's of my TV unit to house the computer, so it was hidden away and a homemade vent in the back served as an exhaust so it was nice and chill with the door closed.
 
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Dark Drakan

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Cheers I will look into this, I actually looked at the 750Ti & it had some impressive benchmarks for an older card. I think I can afford to go slightly more though so I thought the 1050/1050Ti was better route to go down with more wiggle room as don't want him getting frustrated that new machine won't run games he wants it to. I imagine he will primarily game on his Xbox One for a while still until he's used to it.

CPU/Motherboard/GPU combo was giving me the most trouble & saw that the Ryzen 3 1300X was highly recommended earlier on & not bad price at £114 just have to find out which motherboards support it at a good price & make sure they are decent too.

I do have a spare small case that I could strip but not sure if components would fit inside it until I try I guess. Cases are pretty cheap so shouldn't be an issue if they don't, might have to strip it all out ready and when I order the parts just double check they will fit inside first before giving them to him for Christmas.

I did look into the Windows 10 free upgrade a while ago for his current machine through various channels and most weren't still active. I do have a Windows 7 disk lying around somewhere would just need to sort a key out but haven't been able to locate that disc as of yet.
 

Dark Drakan

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Will edit as I go along... (Parts in Red are penciled in as selected parts) and others im open to suggestions still...

Disk Drive: Already have multiple spares
CPU: Ryzen 3 1300X (£114)
GPU: GTX 1050Ti (£166) Might have to go for single fan for space reasons
HD: Western Digital 1TB (I have a few spare I can format)

RAM: Hyper X Fury 8GB DDR4 (£68)
Power Supply: Cooler Master V550 (£101) or Corsair CP-9020098 650w (£50)
Motherboard: Asus Prime A320M-K (Around £52) (Though Amazon reviews arent great)​

Price is coming in at around £500 mark at moment it seems so some parts/brands might change if I find better prices or any sales on any components as haven't factored in Windows & case into this cost yet & want to keep it under £500 if possible. Though I do have 2x4GB RAM sticks in an old machine that I might be able to salvage if I check what type/speed they are as that could save me nearly £70 & that spare case ive just got to check fittings and sizes on.

Also what GPU brand would people recommend? As they vary in price too & I have an MSI GTX 970 which I've been very happy with so been tempted to go for that brand 1050Ti but it's got higher price than some others. Best price one ive seen was the single fan EVGA model so far but I like the 2 fan MSI one best currently.
 
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