Looking for advice from computer gurus

[Fazerruss]

Evening all, with Christmas on its way to us very soon I have been tasked with researching the best bang for buck gaming PC.
Its not for me but rather my teenage son. Not sure whether its relevant but he currently has a Nintendo Switch, Meta VR and an Xbox and now wants a PC to add to the pile!
Im not sure what budget but I assume 1K as a round figure.
So what do I need to look for?
Best places to buy?
Any advice welcome.
Just to add we have a fast fibre Internet connection.

Just to add I'm not completely computer illiterate but Ive no idea what is best to look for or what will the requirements be for a fast, hi spec PC for a good experience.
Over to you......

Many thanks
Russ

 

[skotl]

This is going to be one of these threads where you get 100 opinions, and five of them agree with each other...

But, given I'm first, I'll dive in with scan.co.uk: https://www.scan.co.uk/shop/computer-hardware/gaming-pcs/all

Scan is a UK assembler of components and PCs and I've used them on and off for years. Whenever I've needed to build something up that's a little off-piste, I've ended up realising that I can get an off-the-shelf computer from Scan for less than I would spend on the components. Reason? I guess quantity of scale and razor-thin margins.

That link should give you a variety that, in my opinion, are all great value for money. At that point it just comes down to what you're willing to spend. The one point I would make is that Nvidia are still the record holders on graphics, so I'd pick an Nvidia graphics card over an AMD Radeon any day of the week.

===

In terms of components, then a graphics card is the greatest factor for gaming performance. But, a meaty graphics card needs a beefy power supply, so the cost quickly mounts.
For CPU an i5, i7 or i9, or an AMD Ryzen 5 or 7, are the minimum spec. 16GB RAM is an acceptable spec.

If I was me (and I am, and I did!), then a Ryzen 5 or 7, 16GB RAM and the highest numbered Nvidea graphics card you can get for your budget would be where I'd go.

===

I am assuming that the £1k excludes a display. If your TV supports 4k then that's good enough, otherwise add £200 for a 4K monitor.

===

This is the sweet spot, IMO, for £1,000: https://www.scan.co.uk/products/sca...dr5-16gb-nvidia-rtx-5060-ti-1tb-m2-ssd-win-11

 

[skotl]

Quick either/or:

Graphics card - Nvidea over Radeon
CPU - AMD Ryzen over Intel

(other opinions, even though they are wrong, are available)

 

[MattF]

(other opinions, even though they are wrong, are available)

 

[Shedendman]

And as soon as you get one,it'll be out of date within weeks

 

[Fazerruss]

This is going to be one of these threads where you get 100 opinions, and five of them agree with each other...

But, given I'm first, I'll dive in with scan.co.uk: https://www.scan.co.uk/shop/computer-hardware/gaming-pcs/all

Scan is a UK assembler of components and PCs and I've used them on and off for years. Whenever I've needed to build something up that's a little off-piste, I've ended up realising that I can get an off-the-shelf computer from Scan for less than I would spend on the components. Reason? I guess quantity of scale and razor-thin margins.

That link should give you a variety that, in my opinion, are all great value for money. At that point it just comes down to what you're willing to spend. The one point I would make is that Nvidia are still the record holders on graphics, so I'd pick an Nvidia graphics card over an AMD Radeon any day of the week.

===

In terms of components, then a graphics card is the greatest factor for gaming performance. But, a meaty graphics card needs a beefy power supply, so the cost quickly mounts.
For CPU an i5, i7 or i9, or an AMD Ryzen 5 or 7, are the minimum spec. 16GB RAM is an acceptable spec.

If I was me (and I am, and I did!), then a Ryzen 5 or 7, 16GB RAM and the highest numbered Nvidea graphics card you can get for your budget would be where I'd go.

===

I am assuming that the £1k excludes a display. If your TV supports 4k then that's good enough, otherwise add £200 for a 4K monitor.

===

This is the sweet spot, IMO, for £1,000: https://www.scan.co.uk/products/sca...dr5-16gb-nvidia-rtx-5060-ti-1tb-m2-ssd-win-11

When writing this post I had you in mind and was hoping you would share your experience. Much appreciated
I'll have a look at the link.

 

[Fazerruss]

And as soon as you get one,it'll be out of date within weeks

Yeah, I figured that. Buying stuff like this is more akin to paying for a day out at a theme park..... it's great while it lasts but in the end you know you have paid a ton of money for a very short lived experience!

 

[Kayos]

Quick either/or:

Graphics card - Nvidea over Radeon
CPU - AMD Ryzen over Intel

(other opinions, even though they are wrong, are available)

This has been the case for a long time, for me since my first "proper" system, a
AMD athon 64

I currently run mini pcs in the office and they are very capable, I have an intel one that happily runs 3* 4k monitors for office use

I needed something with a little more oomph for Design builder, being based on laptop chips and wanting to keep the aesthetic, AMD cpu and Nvidia GPU is not an option

Found a good deal on one with AMD and discreet (laptop) GPU

While it indeed has more oomph I have had to install AMD bloatware and do some registry tweaks to get 2 monitors running stable. This is current gen hardware, running a dp and hdmi monitor together should not be hard.

That is also the other issue, could not find one with dual/triple dp or hdmi, it was all dp/hdmi/dp over USBC. I should have built a tower

 

[Fazerruss]

This is going to be one of these threads where you get 100 opinions, and five of them agree with each other...

But, given I'm first, I'll dive in with scan.co.uk: https://www.scan.co.uk/shop/computer-hardware/gaming-pcs/all

Scan is a UK assembler of components and PCs and I've used them on and off for years. Whenever I've needed to build something up that's a little off-piste, I've ended up realising that I can get an off-the-shelf computer from Scan for less than I would spend on the components. Reason? I guess quantity of scale and razor-thin margins.

That link should give you a variety that, in my opinion, are all great value for money. At that point it just comes down to what you're willing to spend. The one point I would make is that Nvidia are still the record holders on graphics, so I'd pick an Nvidia graphics card over an AMD Radeon any day of the week.

===

In terms of components, then a graphics card is the greatest factor for gaming performance. But, a meaty graphics card needs a beefy power supply, so the cost quickly mounts.
For CPU an i5, i7 or i9, or an AMD Ryzen 5 or 7, are the minimum spec. 16GB RAM is an acceptable spec.

If I was me (and I am, and I did!), then a Ryzen 5 or 7, 16GB RAM and the highest numbered Nvidea graphics card you can get for your budget would be where I'd go.

===

I am assuming that the £1k excludes a display. If your TV supports 4k then that's good enough, otherwise add £200 for a 4K monitor.

===

This is the sweet spot, IMO, for £1,000: https://www.scan.co.uk/products/sca...dr5-16gb-nvidia-rtx-5060-ti-1tb-m2-ssd-win-11

Will I need to purchase and install any other operating system software or does the tower in the link come pre installed with windows that will be ready to accept current games?
In an ideal world I would just like to buy the tower and plug it in ( obviously i need to get a mouse, keyboard, monitor, speakers, headset etc) and say merry Xmas son then spend they rest of the day listening to him shouting at all his mates on a team game for the rest of the day!

 

[gaz1]

i will throw this in

https://www.cclonline.com/amz-gam-core-a23-horizon-ryzen-5-rtx-5070-pre-built-gaming-pc-509292/

• Windows 11 Home
• AMD Ryzen 5 8400F CPU
• 32GB DDR5 Memory
• 2TB Gen4 NVMe SSD
• GeForce RTX 5070 12GB

 

[knighty]

This is the sweet spot, IMO, for £1,000: https://www.scan.co.uk/products/sca...dr5-16gb-nvidia-rtx-5060-ti-1tb-m2-ssd-win-11

that looks good to me

but I'd hang on for as long as you can.... they keep promising they're right around the corner but the next gen of gfx cards is supposed to be coming soon... so get a newer card, or get one of the cards that's out now for a much reduced price... either way you'll get more bang for your buck...

I'd assume they'll try to get the new cards out before Christmas to maximise sales.

 

[Jackimus]

Different and wrong opinion here: Nvidia graphic cards only win when raytracing is involved, which is a borderline gimmick that tanks performance for small, nitpicky gains. Turn off raytracing and the gap closes and AMD graphic cards are cheaper. AMD graphic cards can actually be better outside of raytracing by having much more DRAM.

AMD graphic cards and CPUs can also synergise and share memory dynamically using their 'Infinity Fabric' technology, giving more to whichever of the pair needs it at that given moment. Basically a bonus for pairing AMD.

 

[skotl]

Will I need to purchase and install any other operating system software or does the tower in the link come pre installed with windows that will be ready to accept current games?
In an ideal world I would just like to buy the tower and plug it in ( obviously i need to get a mouse, keyboard, monitor, speakers, headset etc) and say merry Xmas son then spend they rest of the day listening to him shouting at all his mates on a team game for the rest of the day!

Comes with Windows 11 Home

 

[skotl]

And as soon as you get one,it'll be out of date within weeks

Welllll.... £1,000 is a lot of money to spend on a computer but, for a gaming rig, it's very easy to spend four or five times that (check the first link I posted) and that £5k machine is still going to be out of date tomorrow. So it's a case of spending what you feel comfortable spending, knowing that you can always upgrade it if needed.
Any of these £1k machines will be great for general gaming - you're not looking to win a performance competition.

 

[drjim]

I got my Son a gaming PC for Christmas 2 years ago, but did it a bit differently. Ebay style..

HP Z230 workstation with i7-4790 32GB RAM and an SSD for £110. Got a Nvidia GTX1650 for £70 to replace the pair of Quadro's that it came with (put them into my dual xeon HP workstation as an upgrade).

Got a 24 inch 75hz gaming monitor from amazon for £70 and a nice click cheap mechanical keyboard/mouse/headset from B&M bargains, admittedly the headset got trashed in afew months.

Runs everything he wants, and if he gets good enough that the FPS of the card isn't enough I can upgrade it again.

 

[ukracer]

And as soon as you get one,it'll be out of date within weeks

That's why I always used to buy a "bundle" from the local computer show.
Not even sure they have any local now.

 

[gaz1]

i tend to hunt out everything that im buying

i check whats on the mainboard
check on the cpu for upgradable
check on the memory
check on the gcard is the main one nothing worse when you get a gcard with issues and many are already out there a usa gets them before uk gets them

 

[Kayos]

I got my Son a gaming PC for Christmas 2 years ago, but did it a bit differently. Ebay style..

HP Z230 workstation with i7-4790 32GB RAM and an SSD for £110. Got a Nvidia GTX1650 for £70 to replace the pair of Quadro's that it came with (put them into my dual xeon HP workstation as an upgrade).

Got a 24 inch 75hz gaming monitor from amazon for £70 and a nice click cheap mechanical keyboard/mouse/headset from B&M bargains, admittedly the headset got trashed in afew months.

Runs everything he wants, and if he gets good enough that the FPS of the card isn't enough I can upgrade it again.

I did something similar a few years ago

Bought one of the chinesium motherboards that harvest parts from old servers, Xeon CPU and 32gb ram

GTX1660 (the one with gddr ram) was a bit more than £70 though

Bit of jiggery pokery to get win 11 running and it plays everything he wants

Would not recommend to someone who does not know about pcs though