Hi has anyone on here ever built a gaming PC or did you just go out and buy one, not looking for Pro standards just casual gaming, internet and emails.
I’ve built several PCs for gaming, including my current one. It is a very straight forward procedure, everything goes together easily as long as you are methodical and follow the instructions. It’s one time it really is worth reading the manual before starting your build. There are lots of tutorials on YouTube too. I’ll post a pic of my build later.
If you're not feeling up to the build yourself but want to specify what parts are used, try PCSpecialist. I had my current one built by them and it's a great machine that does exactly what I want...
https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/gaming-pc/
I’m following this thread. My son is hoping for one for his birthday this year, but any I’ve seen are quite expensive. I’d be able to build buy wouldn’t know where to start buying.
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I've built plenty of PC's over the years and just did myself a reasonably budget system a few months ago based around an AMD Ryzen CPU. AMD are just about to announce (like in the next few days) their new generation of Ryzen chips so I recommend perhaps waiting for those and putting a build together based around them? I've got a 1st gen Ryzen which is a few years old now but it absolutely flies.
You could put together a good little 1080p gaming machine for about £600 no problem.
Alternatively if you just want to be a casual gamer, the overall value of consoles is hard to beat to be honest.. PC's only worth it if you want to do more than just game.
I actually put together my last system entirely from Amazon, primarily out of being impatient (was able to get every component delivered next day with Prime) but there's plenty of other good companies - like Scan, eBuyer, Overclockers, etc etc.Originally Posted by P.Sheridan
I used to build from parts around 20-years ago.
For desktop office computers now, it is much cheaper to buy a ready made system.
Unless you have loads of donor parts from an old system, a ready made gaming system is likely to be cheaper, easier to set-up, more reliable, with matched parts and a manufacturers guarantee.
I made the mistake of making a few £30 upgrades to my home/office computer, and it cost me £200 in the end - which would have bought me a brand new system.
Don't forget to add-in the eye watering £100 cost for Windows 10 - which is normally included with most of the ready made systems.
You will need to decide on your spec, then price up the cost of a self-build against a ready made system.
Don't think I could build one myself but that website is fantastic, just need to read up on certain parts and could order from there, last question would speccing and buying one from there be better than buying a ready made one from PC World or Dell for example?If you're not feeling up to the build yourself but want to specify what parts are used, try PCSpecialist. I had my current one built by them and it's a great machine that does exactly what I want...
https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/gaming-pc/
My advice, don’t buy the very latest of everything as you become a beta tester constantly waiting for driver/ firmware updates etc, stick to at least a generation old kit, you’ll save a fortune and still be able to play everything. It’s all about GFX nowadays, make your you get a good fast panel as well. Don’t forget your anti static wrist band. Have fun
Please don't use PC world, their prices are not competitive, and there is a worry that broken computers and customer returns have been refurbished to be resold as new stock.
Ebuyer is a good shout for a price comparison.
In my opinion definitely, you specify exactly what you want rather than get what you're given, which is often old spec with those sorts of companies. You'll find the forum on there useful too, you can chat about your spec so that you get exactly what you want and PCSpecialist themselves are very helpful too if you need advice. .. I'm very happy with mine and when the time comes around to upgrade again, I'd definitely go with them again.
I've always found novatech to be very good for gaming PCs and usually work our excellent value. You can either configure your own and let them build it for you or select an already configured gaming PC.
https://www.novatech.co.uk/pc/gaming-pc/
I was looking at Alienware but I’m guessing a self speced would be cheaper..
That site looks very good also thanks...
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Last edited by Martylaa; 3rd January 2019 at 12:04.
Yes, and I would never buy a pre built system unless money was no object.
It's really very simple to do, is not really 'building', you are just plugging things in to one another and screwing things into the case. Expensive Lego. The only real challenge is making sure the things you buy are compatible and will fit in the case you've chosen. I used overclockers UK to check.
My son also wanted a gaming PC, and I made a project out of it for him to look into the parts and suggest what he wanted. We bought some parts used, some new and this process took all autumn. I wanted him to get to know a bit about processors, memory, graphics cards etc.
I've built PC's before, so it just took a few hours to actually put the computer together before Christmas, taking time to make sure my son got do most work and really understood what is what. A gaming PC is made of roughly ten parts (and then the cabling), so you don't need to be an engineer to build one.
Using some used parts this game to cost more or less the same as new readymade Acer etc gaming PC with the same spec level. This was much more fun, plus we really know that the computer is made out of quality parts that are easily upgraded if needed/wanted.
This is what it looks like:
Last edited by china; 3rd January 2019 at 14:52.
PC World selling refurbished computers as new stock? That does NOT in any way surprise me!
Have to agree here. Gaming PCs can be built pretty cheaply now (LinusTechTips did a video on building a gaming pc entirely from Amazon Basics parts) but now that Microsoft have added keyboard and mouse compatibility to the XBox, you can now get that “at your desk” feel to gaming, as well as the XBox being an excellent hub to a media system, given it had HDMI throughput.
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Here’s mine:
It has the following hardware in it:
NZXT H700i case
Intel Core i7 6700K overclocked to 4.6GHz
Asus Maximus IX Hero motherboard
32GB Corsair Vengeance LPX 2666 RAM
EVGA GTX1080Ti FTW3 graphics card
HighPoint RocketU RU1144D USB3 card
Corsair H115i Pro AIO cooler with 2 140mm ML fans (intake)
Samsung 970 Evo 500GB M.2 PCIe SSD
Samsung 850 Evo 500GB SSD
2 WD Red WD30EFRX 3TB hard drives in RAID1
EVGA GQ 750W power supply
4 LED strips
3 120mm Noctua NF-F12 (top exhaust)
1 140mm Noctua NF-A14 (rear exhaust)
I bought my last machine from them and it is stunning, for a reasonable price and support is as good as it gets.If you're not feeling up to the build yourself but want to specify what parts are used, try PCSpecialist. I had my current one built by them and it's a great machine that does exactly what I want...
https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/gaming-pc/
That is a very, very neat and tidy setup!Here’s mine:
It has the following hardware in it:
NZXT H700i case
Intel Core i7 6700K overclocked to 4.6GHz
Asus Maximus IX Hero motherboard
32GB Corsair Vengeance LPX 2666 RAM
EVGA GTX1080Ti FTW3 graphics card
HighPoint RocketU RU1144D USB3 card
Corsair H115i Pro AIO cooler with 2 140mm ML fans (intake)
Samsung 970 Evo 500GB M.2 PCIe SSD
Samsung 850 Evo 500GB SSD
2 WD Red WD30EFRX 3TB hard drives in RAID1
EVGA GQ 750W power supply
4 LED strips
3 120mm Noctua NF-F12 (top exhaust)
1 140mm Noctua NF-A14 (rear exhaust)
I've built a few back in the day - pretty straight forward and worth taking the time over. I've not done one for ages (and doubt I will as I don't game anymore) but must be even simpler nowadays.
If you want ready built, I remember Scan computing www.scan.co.uk used to do decent ones. That was 10 years ago though, maybe someone here can give a more recent opinion.
Thanks for all the info, i've come to the conclusion i'm not going to build one but get one built for me by one of the companies listed today and some others i've come across, now just to decide a budget and compare various bits of kit...
Ah, I have some useful information ... A Windows 10 Professional licence is £19.99 from https://softwaregeeks.co.uk
I've bought from them a couple of times. Download Windows from Microsoft, and use the licence key you get from SoftwareGeeks. The licence key is received in minutes, and works perfectly. Totally legit and risk free.
Perfect thanks for the link.
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Sure someone on here would be happy to help advise or even build one for you?
Build, don't buy. You can find parts that are a few generations old and as such sold for next to nothing, but they're still more than enough to play the latest games. A but of research is all it takes. As to putting it all together, it's like a jigsaw with about 10 pieces, it might look a bit foreign, but it's hard to go wrong.
Don't forget to factor in the cost of mouse, keyboard and monitor, if you don't already have them.
Not built a PC in years but that looks awesome, nice one :)
Here’s mine:
It has the following hardware in it:
NZXT H700i case
Intel Core i7 6700K overclocked to 4.6GHz
Asus Maximus IX Hero motherboard
32GB Corsair Vengeance LPX 2666 RAM
EVGA GTX1080Ti FTW3 graphics card
HighPoint RocketU RU1144D USB3 card
Corsair H115i Pro AIO cooler with 2 140mm ML fans (intake)
Samsung 970 Evo 500GB M.2 PCIe SSD
Samsung 850 Evo 500GB SSD
2 WD Red WD30EFRX 3TB hard drives in RAID1
EVGA GQ 750W power supply
4 LED strips
3 120mm Noctua NF-F12 (top exhaust)
1 140mm Noctua NF-A14 (rear exhaust)
I've seen a couple of different brands today, they look good from what I've read up on so far, I'll go 16GB ram as a minimum.
Novatech Core 127 £810.
https://www.novatech.co.uk/pc/range/...html?s=PC-2398
Chillblast Fusion Sorcerer 2 RGB £986.
https://www.chillblast.com/chillblas...-tab-customise
I'll only be doing COD or some racing games tbh and the rest will be used for emails, internet boring stuff like that lol...
What you think?
I'd add another 8G RAM (and Windows which isn't included in that price) to the Novatech, and get that.
In my experience, the 1060 will not be powerful enough for the majority of racing games. They are so dependent on frame rate that they really need a high end graphics card. Are there any in particular you want to play? I have iRacing, Assetto Corsa, Assetto Corsa Competizione, Project Cars 2 and Dirt Rally.
Which gfx card would you recommend? Anything better than a 1060 seems way out of budget?
A general, unexaggerated rule of thumb is pay till you squeak. A 1070 is currently the optimum for a monitor running 1920x1080. If you have a higher res monitor then you'll need at least a 1080Ti or even a 2080.
I'd go with a 1070 or 1070Ti if funds allow. What racing games are you looking at?
I was thinking about the OP's point of view, and what was appropriate in the context of a ~£1000 PC.
I've bought my last few from here , cant be bothered building one https://www.dinopc.com/
Thanks yep totally agree on the 16GB ram but I think I'll save money getting windows from that link earlier in the thread...
Also I'll check on graphics cards as well and see if I can stretch a bit more on a better version of one of those...
Dirt rally that type of thing, so how much better a graphics card should I go please, any info or pointers are much appreciated...
Dirt Rally is pretty graphics intensive. I have a 1080Ti and have to run it with a lot of the settings turned down. I have run it using a 970, a 1070 and a 1080Ti. The 970 was underpowered for it. The 1070 started to get good and the 1080Ti is excellent. All that goes out of the window when you hook it up to a Rift like I have. It needs a lot of stuff switching off even with a 1080Ti. I haven't looked at the prices of graphics cards recently so don't know what the price difference between to 1060 and 1070 is.
1060 ~£200
1070 ~£300
1080 £500-£900
Hopefully the new RTX 20xx cards will get a bit cheaper. Damn coin miners.
Xbox/PS4 - £200?
Decent ish computer £200?
Job done.
If you’re using a Rift/VR, then you need all the graphics horsepower you can get, the frame rates take a hit as you’ve found.
If you’re using a normal computer monitor though, at 1920x1080, a 1060 6GB should be fine?
My 1070ti runs Dirt Rally at 4K resolution without difficulty, and looks good even with some settings turned down. You don’t need as much AA etc at 4K.
I’m mainly a flight simmer though, so the CPU is just as important for me.
Building PC game rigs is good fun, but can become a bit of a rabbit hole, like any hobby I suppose!
It'll be 1080 only, not interested in 4k for PC gaming so a 1060 6gb will be the one I go for, cheers for the tips...
Really good thread, my lad is desperate for a gaming PC but I tell him his PS4 is more than good enough but totally get he wants to Twitch and all that stuff!!
I think I’ll go the build route as I have upgraded PC’s in the past and can use his interest to get him to learn all the components and how they match each other, if he’s not interested then he can’t want a gaming PC that much can he!!
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I haven’t been into gaming on PC for years but I always had built up PC’s and my brother in law would always champion the idea and say what a rip off built systems were...
Then I bought a brand new Alienware laptop and wondered why I hadn’t sooner. It just seemed to be a lot less hassle and was setup to just work properly. The built up stuff I used to have was just never right and I’d find myself messing around with settings, drivers and stuff.
I get people wanting to do it, I like the putting together of the physical stuff and the search for the parts it’s just the software side of things I get easily frustrated at. That’s why I’m stuck with an iPhone forever, they just seem so intuitive and easy to use that when I’ve tried to switch it’s been hard to adapte.
If you buy a laptop, it will come with a hole load of crap software pre-installed, like McAfee trial and MS Office trial and so on. Are ready made systems are similar, or does it depend on who you buy from?
Do you console game? if so just make sure you really want a gaming PC, as with an inexpensive PC or even an expensive one, you will get a very different experience.
I tried it and hated it, went from playing on a 55in 4k tv to a 21in 1080p screen, sitting at a desk. The K&M for anything other the FPS was not good, and even for FPS I still preferred a controller.
Be ready for playing games on lowish settings, even on a 1080p screen a middle of the road PC will struggle with the best settings.
If you do go for it, spend your max budget, you don't really want to be playing on a 1080p screen and also having to reduce the settings even further.
It might be worth waiting to see how much the new 2060 is in the UK. In the US the RRP is $349, $100 less than the 1070Ti. Initial benchmarks show it outperforming the 1070Ti in all tests plus it includes support for ray tracing.
I bought an alienware last year, in dells january sale, even though i chose the cheapest spec' available, it still plays all the games i want + you get dells no nonsense warranty.
Nuke and Pave : clean install as soon as its out of the box.
Scan UK : bought about 8 ready built OCs from them. Motherboards were not what was specc’d , complained but to be fair the replacement was a better model.
Really badly put together , had to completely rebuild it .
I’ll buy components off Scan but build the box yourself is my recommendation.
My days of messing with PCs are behind me. I don’t have the time and I prefer my gaming on consoles these days.
I went from 5 PCs in the house to one macbook pro about 10 years ago and don’t miss them one bit.
This is a good overview on how to build a computer:
Shame to hear standards have gone down, but good to know for the future!
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