Gaming PC help for a clueless father!

[eLuSiVeMiTe]

Imo some of the other recommendations here are a bit dubious but this post here is good advice, the AMD integrated graphics offer some decent bang for buck, plenty for the titles you’ve mentioned whilst offering the ability to upgrade later. It’s nice to have onboard graphics with a graphics card anyway simply for any troubleshooting later on.
To better the Vega graphics your wanting at least an old 1050 and the current crazy price for graphics cards means these are terrible value. To get cutting edge graphics budget £1-2k for the card alone.
CPU isn’t as important, plenty of people running £1k cards on systems with chips nearly a decade old. The 5600x is as high as almost any game needs. 16gb of RAM, stick to well known brands but don’t go crazy, not much gain after 3000Mhz cl16 tbh and as for motherboards, I’d have this way down on priority.

With the new gen of consoles, PC’s cannot come close for the price, to simply game they win easily. PC‘s offer a lot more and as the consoles age they will slowly catch up.

Heres my suggestion…
Palicomp
Id go for the ‘double up’ offer personally. It’s a budget system but reasonable value in the current market.

Some of the above is also dubious.

Ryzen certainly do benefit from faster Ram. Have a search. 3600 was the sweet spot iirc.
Been a while since I did some digging.

Not sure I'd be wanting to use an onboard GPU tbh. Shared ram and sacrificing some CPU performance.

As for CPU not being important. It definitely is. Why spend good money on a decent GPU only to find it's being throttled by a slow CPU and you can't utilise its power.

Had a real world experience of this again recently when I moved my old card into my lads pc. Knew it would be the case but Interesting to see the performance hit. Upgrades already in progress.


If you could get a 3060ti for retail price Of £400 that's gonna handle most of what you can throw at it. Even 700 at its current price is still lower than the above.

 

[J1nx]

Seriously, let’s see you get better for the same money without integrated?

Of course faster ram would be nicer and a 12th gen i9 whilst your there but in this case it sounds like budget is important.

i had hoped to get away with this for under £500!

Skip to 8 minutes here, then you can comment and correct Linus on his conclusion to fast RAM…

Here is fortnight on the 5600G…

 

[eLuSiVeMiTe]

Seriously, let’s see you get better for the same money without integrated?

Of course faster ram would be nicer and a 12th gen i9 whilst your there but in this case it sounds like budget is important.

Who said anything about the same money. Not me.

There's a wealth of gtx1050 1060 etc on eBay for sensible money and more still on market place. Still gonna be better than running onboard.

Gaming pc and onboard graphics aren't normally used in the same sentence and he asked for a gaming pc.


But you also said there was no point in faster Ram. I disagreed.

Testing 4000MHz RAM: the Digital Foundry verdict

Digital Foundry investigates whether RAM speed affects fps for gaming on AMD Ryzen, and what's more important: frequency vs timings.

www.eurogamer.net

Spending a bit more on the Initial build is cheaper than buying twice

 

[J1nx]

You have linked me to this…

Therefore, 3200MHz RAM remains the best value option for Ryzen systems but anything up to 3600MHz is worth a small premium (perhaps up to $15/£15). As we noted after our Intel testing, 4000MHz or higher RAM only really makes sense for high-end systems, like a Ryzen 9 3950X or Core i9 10900K with an RTX 2080 Ti, where you're already essentially at the limits of consumer PC gaming.

If that’s your point then I guess we agree

 

[eLuSiVeMiTe]

 

[Kayos]

Built a gaming pc with my lad last Christmas

I went down the repurposed server cpu and Chinese motherboard route, 11 months on and it handles everything he throws at it, Fortnite, steam, flight sim, video editing etc etc

I managed to buy a 1660 gtx just before the prices went crazy

Something like this, make sure it has an NVME slot

￡104.30 28%OFF | Atermiter X99 D4 Motherboard Set With Xeon E5 2620 V3 LGA 2011-3 CPU 2pcs X 8GB = 16GB 3200MHz DDR4 Memory REG ECC RAM

Atermiter X99 DDR4 D4 Motherboard Set with Xeon E5 2620 V3 LGA2011-3 CPU 2pcs * 8GB = 16GB PC4 3200MHz DDR4 Memory RAM REG ECC

Smarter Shopping, Better Living! Aliexpress.com

a.aliexpress.com

 

[knighty]

I've skipped a few posts, lots of stuff I agree with but a lot I don't agree with too

for a 12yr old, and for a £500 ish budget - you're best of getting a decent used pc and the upgrading it as/when needed


best bet would be to get him to look on facebook marketplace, find a few local to you then post them here so people can help you decide - you need to double check everyhting because a lot of people will market stuff as "gaming pc" when it's nothing of the sort

prices are high right now (brexit+covid) and graphics card prices are crazy high


but on the bright side... anything half decent is super fast now.... years ago there was a big gap between the top end stuff and the next tear down, and a big gap between what was new and what was a year old... these days there's a lot less difference - enough that it's more statistics about speed than the actual 'feel' of a system when you use it, so don't worry about getting the newest greatest thing or spending a fortune. Get something to get him started for now and then upgrade it in a year or two when the market sorts itself out and prices come down.

 

[gaz1]

 

[Snowy90]

I guess its like anything you can always pay for the latest tech but not always necessary. Good video

 

[J1nx]

I have found a very useful video by GamersNexus, a well regarded YT tech guy with 1.5M subs. If you look at the description he gives time stamps and you can jump straight to sections with Fortnite and Minecraft.

As above if you can get a second hand PC with a better graphics card then that’s definitely worth looking into, however sellers generally know what the market is doing and bargains are very rare.

I also looked up last drop on scan for FE cards:
3060ti £369
3070ti £540
3080ti £1060

I hope that’s why people can see that the Vega graphics are so popular currently, even a 4gb 1050 (just beats the Vega APU) will set you back £200+ alone looking at eBay and then you need everything else including a reasonable CPU, MB, RAM & PSU.

I wasn’t looking to argue with other users, just give valid, current advice in this strange PC market where mild gamers are going for integrated graphics. Anyone can build a Ferrari PC by picking the most expensive parts but suggesting X570 MB’s on a sub £500 build is crazy and I’d challenge anyone to post that on even dedicated tech forums and find the consensus different.

Anyway here’s the vid….

 

[PhillipM]

yeah, honestly at a budget 500 quid build for fortnight and similar games? Get a 5600G with integrated graphics and a pair of 3200 or 3600mhz ram sticks, a cheap B450 board and call it a day. Fortnite doesn't need anything magic


PC parts prices are insane at the moment and discrete GPU's worth having are trading for 200% over retail prices.
It'll also be a great base if he wants to get into more demanding games once GPU prices drop you can just drop one in.

 

[Migmac]

Jeez, does nobody play with a ball anymore or run around with a stick and pretend it’s a Sten gun

 

[Snowy90]

I always fire the mig gun like James Bond when no one is looking!

 

[eLuSiVeMiTe]

There ya go. Eldests upgrade sorted
Nice and easy.

AMD Ryzen 3 4100 Hardware Bundle

Buy from Scan - 3XS AM4 Gamer Bundle, AMD Ryzen 3 4100, ASUS PRIME B450M-A II, 8GB DDR4, AMD Wraith Stealth

www.scan.co.uk

Old PSU HDD SSD and GPU in original case . Huge performance boost from his current spec.

 

[gaz1]

a quick view

yours

same main board, lower cpu, poor memory
£349.99

https://www.cclonline.com/search/?q=ASUS+PRIME+B450M-A+II

https://www.cclonline.com/product/355324/KF432C16BBK2/16/Desktop-Memory/Kingston-FURY-Beast-16GB-DDR4-Dual-Channel-Desktop-Memory-Kit-2-x-8GB-3200MHz-PC4-25600-CL16-1-35V-Black/RAM4907/

https://www.cclonline.com/product/287404/100-100000025BOX/CPU-Processors/AMD-Ryzen-7-3800X-3-9GHz-Octa-Core-Processor-with-8-Cores-16-Threads-105W-TDP-36MB-Cache-4-5GHz-Turbo-Wraith-Prism-Cooler/CPU0604/

total
£395.59

or

https://www.cclonline.com/product/331765/100-100000065BOX/CPU-Processors/AMD-Ryzen-5-5600X-3-7GHz-Hexa-Core-Processor-with-6-Cores-12-Threads-65W-TDP-35MB-Cache-4-6GHz-Turbo-Wraith-Stealth-Cooler/CPU0679/

id go for ryzen 7 3800 or id go for the ryzen 5 5600

but the 8 core ryzen 7 id aim for and 10 less

 

[eLuSiVeMiTe]

a quick view

yours

same main board, lower cpu, poor memory
£349.99

https://www.cclonline.com/search/?q=ASUS+PRIME+B450M-A+II

https://www.cclonline.com/product/355324/KF432C16BBK2/16/Desktop-Memory/Kingston-FURY-Beast-16GB-DDR4-Dual-Channel-Desktop-Memory-Kit-2-x-8GB-3200MHz-PC4-25600-CL16-1-35V-Black/RAM4907/

https://www.cclonline.com/product/287404/100-100000025BOX/CPU-Processors/AMD-Ryzen-7-3800X-3-9GHz-Octa-Core-Processor-with-8-Cores-16-Threads-105W-TDP-36MB-Cache-4-5GHz-Turbo-Wraith-Prism-Cooler/CPU0604/

total
£395.59

or

https://www.cclonline.com/product/331765/100-100000065BOX/CPU-Processors/AMD-Ryzen-5-5600X-3-7GHz-Hexa-Core-Processor-with-6-Cores-12-Threads-65W-TDP-35MB-Cache-4-6GHz-Turbo-Wraith-Stealth-Cooler/CPU0679/

id go for ryzen 7 3800 or id go for the ryzen 5 5600

but the 8 core ryzen 7 id aim for and 10 less

He's 10.
He's currently running an ,a10 5800k
It's a good match for his rx480 and it will be here tomorrow.

Perfect for his needs and by the time it needs an update things will have moved on.

I could have specced up but little point.


He doesn't need a workstation. He needs a cheap upgrade to allow his gpu to do it's stuff instead of being bottlenecked by a 12 year old chipset

 

[ukracer]

He's 10.
He's currently running an ,a10 5800k
It's a good match for his rx480 and it will be here tomorrow.

Perfect for his needs and by the time it needs an update things will have moved on.

I could have specced up but little point.


He doesn't need a workstation. He needs a cheap upgrade to allow his gpu to do it's stuff instead of being bottlenecked by a 12 year old chipset

What's his current GPU?

 

[eLuSiVeMiTe]

What's his current GPU?

My old rx480 8gb just got popped in his rig Paired with a decent CPU that thing still holds its own. With the current build it's not seeing the benifits of it.

 

[fizzy]

I will throw out a different option.
Gaming PCs need expensive graphics cards.
How about this?
Stand alone and any kid would love it.

OCULUS Quest 2 VR Gaming Headset - 128 GB

Jump into VR without needing a PC or console; Advanced Qualcomm Snapdragon XR2 processor; Enhanced resolution for seamless graphics; Cinematic 3D audio; Includes redesigned Oculus Touch controllers

www.currys.co.uk

 

[eLuSiVeMiTe]

I will throw out a different option.
Gaming PCs need expensive graphics cards.
How about this?
Stand alone and any kid would love it.

OCULUS Quest 2 VR Gaming Headset - 128 GB

Jump into VR without needing a PC or console; Advanced Qualcomm Snapdragon XR2 processor; Enhanced resolution for seamless graphics; Cinematic 3D audio; Includes redesigned Oculus Touch controllers

www.currys.co.uk

The consoles of the vr world.
I'm having to run older versions of games to keep decent graphics and options because the latest releases have been dumbed down to run on what's essentially a mobile phone.