Clueless and confused technophobe wants to know if I can get a half decent gaming PC for £500?

[GetAFurqingCompass]

First off, forgive my possibly unrealistic budget, incorrect terminology, lack of knowledge, and general woeful ignorance about PCs

DS will be 16 this summer and currently has a very old PC that came from a relative, which constantly overheats and doesn't run many of the games he wants. He is such a good kid and although I know it really frustrates him he doesn't complain about it, he is just saving up to buy himself a better one. I have a budget of £500 for his birthday (much more than usual for various reasons) and would love to be able to get him one as a surprise.

He mainly plays historical, fantasy, or strategy games through Steam. He is not into racing, shooting, or sports type games, if that makes a difference to what is suitable.

He sent me these spec when I asked him what he was looking for: MINIMUM:
Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
OS: Windows® 10 Home 64 bit
PROCESSOR: Intel Core i5-750 | AMD FX 4300
MEMORY: 8 GB RAM
GRAPHICS: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660 | AMD Radeon HD 7870 | Intel Arc A310 | Intel Iris Plus G7 | AMD Radeon Vega 11
STORAGE: 20 GB available space

We did go to the local independent computer shop a few weeks ago to ask them but they were very very discouraging, saying we wouldn't get anything worth having for less than £1k and that even that was a low budget. They were meant to be getting in touch about upgrading some parts of his existing computer but they seemed to think even that would be very expensive and they haven't got back to us anyway.

Is it really not going to be possible to get anything for £500? Am I terribly out of touch with what things cost? I just know so little that I don't even know where to start!

Probably not tbh, we got DS one a few years ago and it was around £850, it was on sale total bargain for the spec and it was probably the minimum we could get away with for his gaming needs. Since then he's added and upgraded various bits and probably does need a new PC now. You'll be looking at £1k-£1.5k for something 'good enough.'

£500 might get you a basic gaming pc that can play Minecraft and the like but it sounds like he needs a bit more than that.

Could you give the £500 towards it? And he can add in what he's saved.

Oh 😬 thank you though!

I can probably up the budget in that case because my parents and other relatives will be asking for gift ideas soon and I'm sure will all be happy to contribute and make it a joint gift.

So further to my original question can anyone suggest reputable shops (ideally online as we are in the sticks!) to look at?

And yes, seeing your edit - that would be another possibility. I've just always been a bit anti handing cash over for the DC birthdays, I love being able to get them a real thing and see their face on opening it! But at 16 I realise I should just let go of that.

we’ve just spent about £2k on a gaming pc and all the bits needed

DS2 spent 1.2k on a computer at the end of last year. It was a combination of lots of saving and our birthday and christmas present to him (and relatives chipping in).

He wanted to build it so brought all the parts separately. and kept telling us about the 'great RAM crisis' as it is now known in our house - some parts have become very expensive and some stockists stopped selling to public as selling directly to AI and data centres

I would say no, unless you know someone who could help source bits second hand and build one.
But that's no use if you don't know what you're doing or have someone who does.

I would say you're looking at a minimum of £800-£900 on one that would be usable especially using Steam

FFS why is life so expensive 😫

Obviously I know it's a luxury item. I'm just stuck in a world where £500 feels like a lot of money and apparently it isn't any more!

Is this Acer Nitro any good for example? I could definitely stretch to this.

https://amzn.eu/d/0dsSEQEq

The only other thing I thought of is to see if you can pick anything up second hand?

But again, you'd probably want the help of someone who knows what they're doing to check it over for you.

Do you know exactly which games he plays most?

Very likely, the shop is right. £1k will get you something okay, £1,500 better for a lower mid range.

It wouldn't get you a modern "gaming PC" but the specs you've listed aren't that high and you could probably get that in your budget (what you're looking at for example) the issue you may find is you're not future proofing for newer games. Maybe get your DS to look at other games he might be interested in and go from there.

My experience with the acer nitros (we've had a couple) is that they run ok, but only if you reduce a lot of settings on steam.
My sons complained about lag a lot.

I do totally get that you'd love to surprise him with it, it would be amazing. But we ended up having to upgrade the Acers fairly quickly, so you're almost certainly going to be better putting your money together with his and getting something a bit better to start with

I would just can the surprise, let him know the budget and get him to select what he wants himself.

If he is on a budget for example for the next few years he might go for something like a tower with a low end graphics card, with a view to replacing it for something better when he gets the cash.

Ultimately the surprise element is going to stop him getting what he wants.

Edit : With a buildable PC you don't have to get all the bits at once.

Not a hope. RAM and GPU costs are through the roof due to the AI boom.

My dh knows about these things and is just doing a bit of research.

You wont get a gaming PC worth having for under £1000 preferably stretching to £1200 to £1500.
The problem with buying these cheap ones is that it ends up just being frustrating to actually use.
Much better to speak to him and see how much money he has and maybe pool with him and anyone else asking what he would like you could suggest money.
It's pointless buying cheap for things like this. It might be fine for a younger child but a 16 year old is going to want to play games that just need more power.

Look on AWD- IT website.

I would see if you can get a price together, then talk to DS about whether he wants a substandard model now, or whether he wants to save a bit longer and buy a better one. Could he find work over the summer to pay towards it?

Why answer like this? I'm just referring to someone I know (dh) that knows about these things because he's helped other people as well as our ds'. You need to get that chip off your shoulder.

Dh says definitely don't buy that PC. It only contains a laptop processor. It's giving people problems quite quickly.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0D3LVQ78N/ref=sspa_dk_detail_3?psc=1&pd_rd_i=B0D3LVQ78N&pd_rd_w=KyohX&content-id=amzn1.sym.26d398c2-a8df-41ee-9d9d-c3349e39be31&pf_rd_p=26d398c2-a8df-41ee-9d9d-c3349e39be31&pf_rd_r=GZV5G953SSQS4SFW12EC&pd_rd_wg=UW94z&pd_rd_r=f8525aff-c42e-4385-98f6-477d04745563&aref=18jYNSBrqB&sp_csd=d2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9kZXRhaWxfdGhlbWF0aWM

This needs a more powerful graphics processor to upgrade it.

So currently the games he wants to play but can't are called Crusader Kings III and Hearts Of Iron. His existing PC just can't run them at all.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?k=Rtx5060&i=computers&crid=2ECZ8DVCR068H&sprefix=rtx5060%2Ccomputers%2C177&ref=nb_sb_noss_1

This is the better graphics card.