Gaming PC and kit questions

[DidSomebodySaySiamese]

DD has a budget of c£1,500 for a gaming PC. I have no idea what I’m doing.

She plays Overwatch and watches Twitch and YouTube.

Is Alien any good?
Is a 27 monitor the right size?

Can she do school work on it as well? Is a gaming PC just a PC on steroids for gaming graphics?

We can’t build one can you recommend one that comes ready to go. Budget can go up if necessary.

Thanks for reading

Thank you.

Scan also recommended by the gamer in this house.

Don't know if you've bought yet, but I'll be another to recommend one of the smaller system builders. Scan are good. Others I'd consider are Chillblast, Cyberpower, PC Specialist, and Overclockers UK. Companies like this use standard parts that are well-known and can be high quality, the same kind of parts enthusiasts use for building their own. You usually get a lot of choice - although currently there are supply issues so you might consider "off the shelf" rather than customised.

Logical Increments has example builds. You'll obviously pay more to have it built for you, but it will give you an idea of what makes a balanced PC - one where you don't have a low-end component holding back other high-performance parts.

Big-name OEMs often use cheaped-out parts, sometimes non-standard so repairs are more costly if needed, and tend to be overpriced. Alienware are a major offender in that respect.

£1500 is a generous budget. At that price I'd consider allocating some for good quality peripherals if you don't already have them.

And yes, it'll be good for school work too. Especially if DD does stuff like photo or video editing where the performance will help.

Sorry have not been back to the thread until now (life getting in the way!). DS wants to go through Scan to get his gaming PC. We are looking to order before start of the school summer holidays.

I think we are going with Scan. Does this look reasonable?

I tried to chat on line with them but no response as didn’t move from number 6 in the queue for an hour.

I would be very grateful for any opinions on our choice.

I'm not sure that 8 gb of Ram will be enough

Thanks @JellyBellies we have a bit more budget so I will look again. I want a future proof bit of kit.

Hi there

The PC that you're thinking about is under your budget, and I don't think it's particularly future proof. If I had your budget (and this is only my opinion, please don't take it as gospel) I would probably go for the following parts (all from Scan)

LN114847
Scan Gamer RTX, Intel Core i5 10400F, 16GB DDR4, 12GB ASUS RTX 3060, 1TB M.2 SSD, Win 10 - SEE INFO

More memory and a much newer and better graphics card

LN89347
28" BenQ EL2870U 4K Monitor, 3840x2160 HDR 60Hz, FreeSync, 1ms, 12M:1, 300cd/m², VESA, DP/HDMI

A 4k monitor with Freesync instead of a 1080p monitor

LN115233
Corsair K55 RGB PRO Keyboard, 5-Zone RGB, Membrane, 12-Key Rollover, Anti-Ghosting, 6 Macros, USB

A gaming keyboard (I just picked this because it seems reasonably priced and Corsair is a good brand)

LN115420
Corsair Gaming GLAIVE RGB Optical Gaming Mouse, Aluminium RGB Back-Lit, 16,000dpi,Wired,USB,6 Button,3 Grips Refurbished

High resolution gaming mouse (picked for the same reason as the keyboard)

This setup comes to £1505

I'd also add the following:

LN104383
Xclio MP-02 Invade XXL Gaming Surface/Pad, Regular, 900x400mm, Textile-Weave Material, Non-Slip Rubber Base

Big keyboard and mouse mat to protect the table that the keyboard and mouse are on

LN113219
Corsair HS35 Stereo Gaming Headset, Carbon, 50mm Drivers, 3.5mm 4-pole, PC/Mac/Console/Tablets/Smartphones, Refurbished

A gaming headset. You might want to go with one that isn't refurbished, but as I'm already over your budget this is a good compromise

LN115652
Xiaomi IMILAB Vidlok Pro W90 Webcam , Full HD 1080P @ 30fps, 4.5mm AutoFocus, Skype/MS Teams/Zoom Ready, USB, Black

A cheap 1080p webcam

These bring the price up to 1570, but you'd have a decent gaming PC setup that should play most current games well and be future proof.

The 3060 graphics card is the bottom of the most current range of Nvidia graphics cards. Going up to 3070 or 3080 would be even better, but would blow your budget.

I wouldn't touch Dell or Alienware (who are owned by Dell) with a bargepole

You might need to buy a display port cable from the PC to the monitor (I don't know if one comes with the monitor), and you'll also need to consider how the PC is going to connect to your network. It does come with WiFi, but for gaming a cable is always better.

Talk to Scan - they might tell you that I don't know my arse from my elbow...

Ooh, great post @scorpio32. Yes that is better and more future proof spec.

@DidSomebodySaySiamese I went for 32 gb ram and nvdia 2070 graphics card. However I did have a bigger budget, closer to 2k

@scorpio32 what a fantastic post! I can’t thank you enough. You are a brilliant person for taking the time to write that.

@JellyBellies we might be able to stretch so if there is any extra money I will look to increase ram and graphics.

Going to spend a happy couple of hours digesting Scorpios post and will come back with final details of purchase in case it helps anyone else.

Exciting!

@DidSomebodySaySiamese, thank you, and enjoy browsing!

We bought DD's from Punch Technology as at the time Scan didn't have what we needed. She had a monitor and has bought a second since from elsewhere. She is also tracking the cost of graphics cards as she wants a Nvidia 3080 but they are still a lot of money. She researched her build and chose it herself.

The computer came built and cost us £1066

AMD Ryzen 7 Pro mATX Desktop PC

Customised:
Case: Gamemax Commando White mATX ARGB Gaming Case
CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 4750G 3.6GHz 8 Core CPU, Radeon Vega GPU, 4.4GHz Boost
Motherboard: Gigabyte B550M AORUS Elite Motherboard
Graphics Card - Choose 750w+ PSU to unlock all options: Standard Graphics Integrated with the CPU
Memory: 32GB CORSAIR VENGEANCE LPX 3200MHz (2x16GB)
Primary Storage Drive: 500GB WD Blue SN550 NVME M.2 SSD (2400MB/R, 1750MB/W)
Secondary Storage Drive: 2TB Seagate BarraCuda 3.5″ Hard Drive
CPU Cooling: Be Quiet Shadow Rock 3 CPU Cooler
PSU: Corsair CV650 650W 80 Plus Bronze PSU ATX Black PSU
Sound Card: Integrated Sound Card On The Motherboard
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Home 64 Bit
Additional Chassis Cooling Fans: 2 x Be Quiet! Silent Wings 3 PWM – 120mm Case Fans

I’ve placed an order with Scan.

Upgraded to RTX 3070 XC3 Ultra to boost clock speed.

Red Mechanical keyboard Corsair

27 inch monitor 110671, Headset and gaming mouse

Upgraded on all the kit so total came to £1900 but the bulk of that was for pc 3070

Thanks so much for everyone’s advice. I will pop back with a photo and feedback on graphics etc once it arrives in 3 weeks time.

DS had his gaming PC custom built a few years back, it cost around £1600. It’s spec will be out of date now, it’s about 3 years old now, uses it every day, his was built by a company called PC Specialist.

That sounds excellent, and I think your upgrade choices are really good. The 3070 is meant to be an excellent graphics card. Can't wait to see it