You don't need to be an 'investor' to invest in Singletrack: 6 days left: 95% of target - Find out more
Rock Jnr has his hopes on a gaming PC for his upcoming birthday. Fair enough, it’s an option. Checks costs, circa £800.....er no.
I have a small den where I WFH with a monitor and keyboard/mouse. Realistically, and I get that to “get by” it won’t be enough, what sort of box unit module thing spec does this need? And how much? Is the second hand market buoyant for these or is it all about upgrades and mods of existing so not actual used systems for sale.
I’m worried this is going to be like my virtual spending as per the Tamiya thread!!!!! 😳
As great as this forum is (and it really is) head over to Overclockers UK forum and sign up mate.
On top of the advice, they have a massive for sale forum....that you likely can't post in till after youre an established member unfortunately.... but the advice you get will be top notch.
Imagine the knowledge base of STW but on Pc's.
Imagine the knowledge base of STW but on Pc’s.
So it's full of abacus fanatics who think electric adding machines are "cheating"?
Lol, that's on interpretation hols.😆
What sort of games, what's your budget, and how about a console?
You need to know what games he wants to play, what resolution screen he wants to play them on etc. first.
I built (well added a GFX card and a bit of RAM to an already existing PC) a very capable gaming machine last year for just £300. OK, it wouldn't have played the very latest titles @ 1440HD, but they'd have been OK @ 1080HD for sure, and any slightly older titles were absolutely fine even @ 1440HD.
It's a law of diminishing returns though...
As said why PC and not a console, it's a dedicated gaming PC and the games are optimised for that specific hardware.
I quote,
FPS needs to be “pretty decent”
Just be fast in general
High quality but like not really expensive
Games
COD
Mine craft
Valorant
General online games
He’s not much help it turns out...
I would probably just buy him the highest spec xbox or ps4 and a few games. The cost of even a basic gaming PC will significantly outstrip the cost of a console
I’m thinking console too, he has a switch but I don’t think his mates use them. He actually seems more bothered about being able to communicate and join in games with his mates. I did suggest he rings them, and got an incredulous look.
PS I’m 50 on Wednesday so very very much out of touch.
As great as this forum is (and it really is) head over to Overclockers UK forum and sign up mate.
On top of the advice, they have a massive for sale forum….that you likely can’t post in till after youre an established member unfortunately…. but the advice you get will be top notch.
Imagine the knowledge base of STW but on Pc’s.
Totally agree. last 9 years bought 2 specced machines from overclockers, low end really, as in under a grand, faultless, genuinely faultless.
Edit 62 years old here. Age means FA
As said, why not a console?
But if he really "needs" a PC then what resolution and refresh rate is the monitor that you are planning to hook it up to? If you're running 1080P and 60Hz you won't need to return much more than a stable 60 frames per second for a decent gaming experience.
I built up a basic lockdown gaming PC out spare parts (a combination of my spares/scrap machines from work) for a mates wife to join us on simple games - it's since been expanded to First Person Shooters and IL2:Sturmovik (a fairly demanding flight sim) all at 1080p without too much bother, specs are something like
650W power supply
Old (4th Gen) Core i5
Surplus dell case
Surplus dell motherboard
16GB DDR3 RAM
Nvidia Gforce GTX1060 3GB
480GB SSD
So having a look on the overclockers forum for better advice than my effort and seeing what you might be able to pick up there is probably a good idea.
Checked overclockers, it’s like a different language!
Think a console is the way to go for our budget.
EDIT: Yep, age is just a number, but I have been brought up on plug and play when it comes to tech.
FPS needs to be “pretty decent”
Just be fast in general
High quality but like not really expensiveGames
COD
Mine craft
Valorant
General online games
The machine I sourced for £300 last year would easily manage that... I was getting FPS in the 90's @ 1080HD on COD for instance...
Spec was thus... Old HP Z230 Core i7 4770 workstation, upgraded to 16GB of RAM, then with a Nvidia GTX1060 6GB Graphics card fitted.
Obviously it wouldn't have the wow factor of something he has chosen from Scan etc. but then he won't really care after the first hour of online gaming anyway as the box will be tucked under his desk.
I’m thinking console too, he has a switch but I don’t think his mates use them.
Trust me... Kids don't do consoles any more! It's all about online PC gaming for them now...
I would probably just buy him the highest spec xbox or ps4 and a few games. The cost of even a basic gaming PC will significantly outstrip the cost of a console
This approach will keep him busy for a few hours, and then he'll moan once again whilst all his mates are busy online on their PC's, and he has completed all the games you've bought him. It'll then be sold, at a loss, to go towards funding a PC...
Just build/buy a half decent PC now and have done with it, honestly... It'll last years and he'll get the use out of it.
fair enough RH, go console, get warzone free, enjoy 🙂
I would also echo above about getting a system that will allow him to play with his mates. Consoles are great value, but if he can't play his mates due to cross platform issues then it's far less appealing.
Just seen the proposed price of the new Xbox/ps5.....
Might go back to PC.....
So, used or new, used to dip the toe in the online gaming world and not commit too much monetarily....
Trust me… Kids don’t do consoles any more! It’s all about online PC gaming for them now…
Really? Not as far as Ive seen. Checkout who's playing on what on crossplay! Having 18 yr old son opens one's eyes. Console W>>ker that he is, lol
That budget should be fine, unless parts have skyrocketed recently. At 1080 it should run everything nicely bar some Ubisoft games, but that’s just Ubisoft dropping the ball on their titles.
Pc part picker should have a bunch of builds.
PC v console aside
As said above, get what his mates have, if that's who he'll be playing with.
( If all his mates have full sus , and he turns up with aero roadie, bit of a crap group ride)
What age we talking here anyway?
Mesh do good value gaming PCs. Up the gf card to a 1660 Super on this job done: https://www.meshcomputers.com/custom-gaming-pcs/intel-c2-ae-gaming-pcs/elite-hero-super/
It's way ahead of the PC my 18 year old has and he doesn't complain.
14 in June
You can get something pretty workable on a budget taking an old home or corporate tower and sticking a reasonable budget (sub £150) GPU in it. eg
Tests and benchmarks you read will often be for silly resolutions and maxed-out settings that will show that the latest and greatest can do 100+fps under those conditions while older stuff would struggle. Under more normal conditions though even the latest stuff can be played on budget systems if you turn things down a little.
It almost depends on what resolution screen you are using, 1080, 1440 or higher?
You need a much better graphics card, but if the screen is only 1080 ...
As above, if his mates are on PC's then a console will be shit.
Logical Increments is your friend, really good for speccing out a build. Combine with PC Part Picker for up to date price scraping and you can usually get it under budget.
https://www.logicalincrements.com/
https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/