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I'm looking at 2 new computers in the near(ish) future. 1 for daughter and 1 for me.
Priority is daughter's one. She is 11 soon and wants a computer for gaming. She won't be playing big RPGs or online shooters or anything that really pushes the machine. Minecraft mainly, although I will probably get her Xbox gamepass for PC as well. As price is a big factor it will be a Windows PC. She's decided she wants a desktop which I agree with as she will need either a laptop or Chromebook next year (depending whether she gets into her 1st choice school). I'm just not sure whether to get a tower or an all in one. The all in one looks better and takes up less space (in short supply in her/mum's house). The tower would be slightly higher spec for the cash and I assume would be more upgradeable if she starts doing more system intensive stuff? I'm pretty set on SSD internally plus an external SSD if she wants/needs more storage. Budget about £600
A computer for me isn't as important. My laptop works, just runs slow and I use it very little, but that is partly because it is 5 or 6 years old and has a HDD and it runs so slow. I'd use a faster machine more.
I've always used Windows but as I'm not a huge gamer the operating system isn't a key factor (I also have Xbox and PS4 if I want to play). I'd use mine for job hunting (until I find one I really like), email, online shopping, music (streaming and owned), movies/TV streaming with some downloads, basic photo and video editing and some social media (mostly do that on my phone). Again I want SSD storage that I can expand externally if needed. I'm not as bothered about future upgrades as my use won't progress much. I've not made my mind up between laptop or all in one, but definitely not a tower. A laptop makes more sense as I can use it anywhere I want and watch TV on breaks at work, but I like the screen size of an all in one for home. Tempted by a Mac as I am entering the Apple universe when I get my new phone, but open to all options. Budget will be max £1250.
All help/guidance/tribalism about OS welcomed
Have a look at PC Specialist and play around with some options that fit within your budgets…
I suggest an M.2 drive as opposed to an SSD for the OS and a second large “data” drive built into it from the outset.
Allocate a fair percentage of your budget for a decent graphics card on the gaming machine. Choosing an AMD cpu as opposed to Intel will keep performance up but will keep the costs down…
You appear to have the budgets mixed up.
Budget for daughter's PC was set by her mum. It's going to be her main Xmas present and we are going halves on it.
For you, I'd suggest a 13" macbook (second hand /refurb) and a separate monitor for when needed. You'll be well under budget.
^^^^
Use the extra on the gaming PC as the budgets would definitely be better the other way around - I assume you already have a monitor for the gaming machine???
Firstly, DON'T get a prebuilt 'gaming' PC that show up for £200-400, they're garbage.
I had similar requirements for my son's PC, ended up building one with stuff off eBay.
Graphics cards are going for ludicrous money at the moment so I went with CPU/integrated graphics - AMD Ryzen 3400G. It plays stuff like Minecraft and Fortnight perfectly fine but might struggle with more demanding stuff. The beauty of PCs is that when (if?) GPU prices come back down to earth I can just pop in something and it'll hugely upgrade the graphics capability.
If you're willing to go second hand (and the crazy price of new components should really make you consider this) you could do a lot worse than this if you manage to get it for less than £600:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/133893978999
We've a local shop who are great at finding out what's in stock and what works together.
They've built two gaming PC's for our house - and considering they fit it all together and warranty supported a driver issue, it was well worth the £60 more than if we went our own and online build. They also supply all my work machines now - again are really good at finding some good stock.
We also have a third gaming machine bought from John Lewis. It's an HP something that was in a really daft offer and in the 15 mins it took me to chat to son and decide if he wanted it, it nearly sold out. This was middle of last year though...
Definitely a proper tower and definitely build or find someone who can do it for you reasonably.
Ok.... I've taken on board what people are saying about budgets. So, I'm going to stump up the extra to improve the option for my daughter's new desktop. I'm now looking at this, or similar
Remember she is only 11 and her mum keeps an eye on what she is playing so she won't be running CoD online or anything that intensive. I've said I'll pay for the tower and her mum can cover a monitor, keyboard and mouse. I await the collective knowledge of STW
I’m not a computer expert but was looking to change out the 2011 Mac Mini I’ve had for a few years as an experiment to see if I like Mac or not (I’ve got an iPhone and thought the integration would work well).
Good points about the Mac are that it always boots up quickly ready to use and seems to do less messing about than Windows with updates etc.
Bad points are that I just find it awkward sometimes. Things that are easy to do on windows can just not work / be a pain in the Mac. I’ve persevered for a few years but I’ve decided I use Windows on my work laptop so I’m just going to stick with Windows at home as I’m more familiar with it.
I bought an HP tower directly online from HP - it’s technically in their business range rather than the personal one. I think the main thing I found was that it didn’t have inbuilt wifi as it would be normally plugged into an Ethernet cable in an office. Easily solved with a wifi dongle that can run quicker than a SS USB port according to the stats.
For £690 I got an intel i5 processor, SDD drive (think it’s either 500gb or 1tb - I forget now), 16gb of ram etc.
It does all the things you’d want really easily - I’ve been playing about with gopro footage on Lightworks (free version) and it just does everything near instantly. Obvs it’s fine for web surfing / online shopping / zoom / streaming etc.
I looked at all-in-ones but as I understand it they essentially use laptop parts rather than tower style parts to fit in the small space on the back of the screen. This meant for the price the spec was lower on them, and they were less easily upgraded. My mum has got one though and they do look slick.
My tower sits under the desk out of sight and I have a screen mounted to the wall. When I sell my Mac mini (still need to finish clearing everything off it and resetting it all first) I’m going to put that towards a bigger / nicer screen. My wife recently picked up an HP 27” monitor which is really thin / seems to have a great picture / wasn’t wildly expensive £180). I think I’m going to go for something similar - either 27” or 32”. That’ll free up my current 21” ish monitor to go in the garage so I can have a go at Zwift at some point.
I'd rather get brand new. I know refurb can offer better value for money, but I want my daughter to be the first person to open the box of her new PC
Throw an SSD in your laptop and put some of the £1200 you've just saved towards her PC.
I’m pretty set on SSD internally plus an external SSD if she wants/needs more storage.
Why would you need an external SSD with a desktop? That's the whole point of a desktop.
Personally, I'd avoid an all-in-one, they do look nice and they do save a bit of space, but practically they have all the draw backs of desktops and laptops, with few of the upsides.
The great advantage of desktops is upgradability, where Minecraft will run okay CPU only, and there's still a Java edition, if she enjoys it, she's soon progress to Fortnite or whatever the next teen game obsession is, and be moaning about frame rates and stuff.
You don't need a massive gaming tower, frankly they can be a bit problematic. We used to buy a lot of PCs for CAD work etc from Novatech and PC Specialist and they don't have a great record with us for reliability. We now only supply Branded workstations, which admittedly are very expensive, but you don't need those either.
This one isn't terrible exciting to look at, but it's on budget. Has a 256GB SSD and a TB HDD. A 6 core i5 and 8GB RAM.
If, in a few years time she wants more power, then it's be £40 to double the ram and it'll run a reasonable GPU with it's proprietary PSU, it's basically what our Helpdesk guys use in work with 1050ti graphics cards.
Throw an SSD in your laptop and put some of the £1200 you’ve just saved towards her PC
Definitely give this a try for the £50 or so it'll cost. There's no inherent reason why a 5-6 year old laptop shouldn't be up to "email, online shopping, music (streaming and owned), movies/TV streaming with some downloads, basic photo and video editing and some social media" though of those uses I'd expect the video editing would really need to be on the basic side.
Why would you need an external SSD with a desktop? That’s the whole point of a desktop.
Because it's storage she can then use cross platform when she gets a laptop for school use next year.
Isn't what OneDrive/Google drive is for.
Isn’t what OneDrive/Google drive is for.
Thus and so.
Isn’t what OneDrive/Google drive is for.
Thus and so
And you won't lose all your data if the SSD fails...
Not sure I see the point in a gaming PC at 11. A switch will do Minecraft just fine (also 60fps fortnite for later) and by wild assumption from the way you've talked about budget/mum keeping an eye on what she's playing there might be use in two homes to consider?
A switch, 2 docks and 2 screens?
Not sure I see the point in a gaming PC at 11. A switch will do Minecraft just fine (also 60fps fortnite for later
There is an awful lot a PC can do that the Switch can't. She will be photo editing and printing as she likes photo albums, very basic video editing, streaming music, doing homework and basic research (she likes to learn a lot outside of school) and using the same coding tools they use at school.
True enough.
Important added context there.
Also, a "gaming PC" and "a PC to play games on" are two very different things.
Also also, isn't the console versions of Minecraft badly cut-down? Or have they caught up now?
Sorry.... more questions
I'm going through specs on a custom gaming PC now and I have the option of getting a CPU with integrated Radeon graphics. If I add this does it take away the necessity for a GPU as well or will the PC perform better with a dedicated GPU also?
You want a separate graphics card for sure.
Really? The AMD Ryzen 7 5700G seems to negate the need for it.... certainly according to their own blurb as a Radeon GPU is built in. What additional benefit will a seperate dedicated GPU offer?
The Ryzen xxxxG processors will be absolutely fine for what your daughter needs, and so for the same money you'll end up with a better CPU, more RAM, bigger SSD, etc. I think the AMD integrated graphics depends on how much RAM you have, so if you're going for that over a dedicated GPU I'd make sure you're getting at least 16GB 3200MHz RAM in its place.
My son's last-generation 3400G is absolutely fine for Fortnite and he plays Minecraft on it with no issues. There are even software ray-tracing add-ons that make it look spectacular and it still runs at 25-30 fps. The 5700G you mention will be more than capable, and then if at some point you need it to have a bit more grunt for games then you can just pop in a dedicated GPU. It's the option I'd be choosing if I were in your shoes.
Ok... here is the spec I have come up with. It's a bit above what I wanted to spend but hopefully will do an 11 year old for a few years before considering upgrades
Case
PCS SPECTRUM RGB MID TOWER CASE
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 7 5700G Eight Core CPU with Radeon™ Graphics (3.8GHz-4.6GHz/20MB CACHE/AM4)
Motherboard
GIGABYTE B550 GAMING X V2 : DDR4, USB 3.2 - ARGB Ready
Memory (RAM)
16GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 2400MHz (1 x 16GB)
1st Storage Drive
512GB PCS 2.5" SSD, SATA 6 Gb (520MB/R, 450MB/W)
2nd Storage Drive
4TB SEAGATE BARRACUDA SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 5400RPM, 256MB CACHE
External DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
8x Slim USB 2.0 External DVD-RW
Power Supply
CORSAIR 550W CV SERIES™ CV-550 POWER SUPPLY
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
STANDARD AMD CPU COOLER
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
LED Lighting
50cm Blue LED Strip
Extra Case Fans
3x Corsair LL120 RGB LED Fan + Controller Kit
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Card
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT
Wireless Network Card
WIRELESS INTEL® Wi-Fi 6 AX200 2,400Mbps/5GHz, 300Mbps/2.4GHz PCI-E CARD + BT 5.0
USB/Thunderbolt Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Operating System
Windows 11 Home 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence
Windows Recovery Media
Windows 11 Multi-Language Recovery Image - Supplied on USB Drive
Anti-Virus
BullGuard™ Internet Security - 3 User, 1 Year
Browser
Google Chrome™
After reading through is there anything that I should consider?
Just use Windows anti-virus.
It's okay but at 1x16Gb and 2400MHz that RAM is WAAAAYYYYYY too slow. You want 2x8Gb 3000MHz at a bare minimum, 3200 or 3600 preferably. 2x8Gb is better than 1x16Gb because reasons I don't understand to do with sharing the load: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multi-channel_memory_architecture
and as before the Ryzen integrated graphics is heavily dependent on the quality of your RAM.
What's your revised budget anyway? There are some very respectable pre-built PCs at www.awd-it.co.uk for not much more than your original £600
This one knocks your one above into a cocked hat is comparable to your one above once you upgrade the memory and select the storage, and includes the monitor, keyboard and mouse for only £650: https://www.awd-it.co.uk/awd-ryzen-5-5600g-volt-with-amd-vega-graphics-desktop-pc-monitor-package-for-gaming.html
After reading through is there anything that I should consider?
A monitor?
@Cougar her mum will be buying monitor, keyboard, mouse, speakers and headset seperately
This one knocks your one above into a cocked hat is comparable to your one above once you upgrade the memory and select the storage, and includes the monitor, keyboard and mouse for only £650: https://www.awd-it.co.uk/awd-ryzen-5-5600g-volt-with-amd-vega-graphics-desktop-pc-monitor-package-for-gaming.html/blockquote >
It's ok, but a lower spec CPU and by the looks of it no built in WiFi or Bluetooth. I imagine a lower spec motherboard as well.
Built in WiFi and Bluetooth is an attractive addition...
A) if it's something you'll use
And
B) if they are both fairly recent revisions rather than old.
Also look at the quality of the audio codec chip if you don't want to be adding a sound card of some description of your planning on plugging it into some fancy speakers or something.
The built in WiFi is a necessity. They are in rented accommodation so can't install an additional LAN point and running a cable would be impractical.
As far as my laptop goes... I've ordered a new 1TB SSD, additional RAM (to max level) and a replacement battery. Hopefully that will do me for another couple of years instead of a new computer.
The built in WiFi is a necessity.
I assumed that all motherboards have onboard WiFi, but you can buy a USB WiFi receiver for not very much otherwise. No need to be running cables around anymore.
It’s ok, but a lower spec CPU and by the looks of it no built in WiFi or Bluetooth. I imagine a lower spec motherboard as well.
Maybe, but 1x16GB 2400MHz is a bigger handicap than a "lower spec" motherboard would ever be, and there's an option to add WIFI/bluetooth for about £15. The point was you can look at the systems on AWD-IT and specify what RAM/GPU/Storage/PSU/Case/etc. and end up with something much better than the one you originally posted, for roughly the same budget. There are also pretty decent PCs with dedicated graphics for less than £1000, just depends on your total budget - this one comes to ~£840 once you spec 500GB SSD, 1TB HDD and a wifi/BT card: https://www.awd-it.co.uk/awd-flash-ryzen-5-3600-six-core-4.2ghz-amd-radeon-6600xt-desktop-pc-for-gaming.html
and short of MS Flight Sim or Cyberpunk 2077 it will eat up any game you care to throw at it.
As an alternative, my daughter and I are both using refurbed Dell Optiplex Micros Core i5....she's into online games like Minecraft and I just wanted a small PC for internet browsing & office which I can use with my work monitor. They are tiny and we have the vertical stands so take up little desk space. I was sceptical and trawled through a lot of sellers (making sure to get the ones with inbuilt wifi and with SSD) but they are have been brilliant; quick to boot, silent and just get on with it. We personally couldn't see the purpose of getting some big tower PC.
£850 for a PC and we're arguing about performance increases of dual-channel architecture and audio codec quality, for a 10-year old to play Minecraft? I can't help but think we're overthinking this.
She'd probably be better off with a cheap laptop and a Nintendo Switch.
Ryzen 3400g should run most games with the settings turned down. Graphically they're on a par with something like the Nvidia 1030. And bear in mind that a average 60hz LCD is also going to limit the usefulness of a graphics card that can churn out 1440p/120fps anyway.
Don't get too hung up on specs for tripple-A game titles. It's always the case that games tend to outpace hardware by several years, Cyberpunk was better than 2000 series cards and still makes new cards work hard to get average FPS. Farcry 6 won't actually load the full set of texture files on all but a few models of cards, the games are futureproofed as much as the hardware. So whatever you buy is always some sort of compromise.
I'd probably say get that built into an mATX or ITX tower to save space and still be upgradeable.
Avoid generic prebuilt gaming PC's, you'll end up with a huge and pointless ATX case with unicorn vomit lighting.
Cougar - Full Member
She’d probably be better off with a cheap laptop and a Nintendo Switch.
allanoleary - Full Member
...She’s decided she wants a desktop
#1 consideration right there. The rest is just trying to get OP the best bang for his buck.
Fair enough.
#1 consideration right there. The rest is just trying to get OP the best bang for his buck.
3400g
B450 ITX motherboard (because itx looks cool and has built in WiFi).
Any known brand PSU.
Thermaltake Core V1 ITX case (because looks "gaming").
SATA 1TB SSD (because more capacity = less tech support)
8gb of 3200 cl16 RAM (16gb in dual channel would be nice but probably won't make a noticeable difference to an 11yo).
AMD Wraith Spire cooler, because it's cheap , compatible, does the job and has unicorn puke RGB.
Spending more is better. But with graphics cards the prices they are you'd be better off buying an entire console for gaming. Than paying the RRP of a card + scalped margin equivelent to the cost of a console.
No CPU?