Making/Buying a Gaming PC

NOOOOO PC all the way by! cheap PC what are your price range because you can get good PC made by dino PC

A PC capable of playing Fallout 4 enjoyably for under £350 won't be easy. Do you already have a monitor? Keyboard and mouse? Because if not then an XBox or PS4 run through your TV might be a cheaper option.

BUT a PC means upgradeability, so I would go with that anyway.

A note on SSDs. They make a huge difference when doing everyday tasks, and also games with regular loading screens: such as Fallout 4. I initially had it on my HDD, but moved it to my SSD because the waits were frequent and annoying. It's the only game I run from my SSD, but I think it's worth it.

Copy and paste time. This info is about a year old and I haven't checked it, but mostly accurate I'm sure. The computer would play the newest games on the highest settings. Worst case scenario you can use this as a jumping off point. You'll need to do a lot of Googling before buying your own computer parts and putting them together:

If you've never touched a computer's insides before, it might be best to buy the parts but then have a friend or a computer shop build it for you, they won't charge that much. If you do it with no experience you'll make mistakes and it probably won't start first time, then you won't know how to fix it. Heck, when you've built a couple of computers it still might not start first time.

The places I use to buy parts is the bit-tech forum, Amazon, www.scan.co.uk, www.novatech.co.uk, www.overclockers.co.uk/, www.ebuyer.com, and there's always Ebay.

BTW if you have an account on Bit-Tech and make 20 posts or something then you get free delivery with Scan.co.uk (http://forums.bit-tech.net/showthread.php?t=186923)

I'll list the parts and my advice, though I'm not a super nerd tech head, just an ordinary person like you. I built my first PC last year, a formidable PC will only cost you around half a grand; mine cost £450 or so and plays the newest games on ultra (maximum) settings at 1920 x 1080 (full HD and pretty, in other words), my parts don't even heat up all that much.

You don't need to buy the newest and best thing, there is a lot of choice in the high tier of parts. Buy pre-owned to save even more money. Bit-Tech is a good place because it's full of nerds who keep buying new stuff, so they sell stuff that's top of the range and sometimes barely been used.

I'm assuming you just want a computer for games.

CPU/processor: You'll basically want one with a 'K' at the end of the name. This means it can be 'overclocked' (made to go faster) easily. Overclocking is an easy to follow process, on some computers it's just a click of a button.

The best value processor now and for the past few years is the 2500K. You can get this pre-owned for plenty under £100 and it easily overclocks. I have this and (combined with my graphics card) it plays Metal Gear Solid V, Dying Light, Football Manager 2014 with every single league and player, Battlefront etc. perfectly (overclocked to 4.5GHz), and at low temperatures (see below). There are newer processors, but anyone with a 2500K doesn't need to upgrade yet.

CPU cooler: Processors need a cooler (fan) to stop them frying. The unanimous choice is the Cooler Master Hyper Evo 212. It's a bit trickier to put on than the good old days, but you only have to do it once. It's a good price new on Amazon when I got it, about £20 I think. (Additionally you'll want thermal paste to put it on and TIM cleaner if you ever want to wipe it off and put fresh paste on.)

Motherboard: Also linked to the processor, because each motherboard only fits certain types of processors, so the 2500K for example will only be fit on boards made to fit for it. The type of board isn't too major a deal, the better ones might make a CPU easier to overclock.

I would recommend one that has a display that gives you a status on your computer. So if your computer doesn't start or goes weird, you'll know right away rather than going through weeks of expensive trial and error and tears. The one I have (for a 2500K CPU) is a Maximus IV Gene-Z. Naturally, my computer didn't start first time but I knew just looking at its LED display what the problem was. Also overclocking to 4.2 or 4.5 just takes a click in the BIOS, and there's an easy guide for manual overclocking. Pre-owned, I got this for £40 or £50.

GPU/Video card: A good rough guide to see what's better than what is http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/high_end_gpus.html

Price will depend on the card, you can see a rough price (in dollars) in the link. The GTX 970 is a popular recommendation as it's good value, though it is over £200. I got a 780 for £120ish, but that was major cut price. Pre-owned is fine again.

OS: Anything older than Windows 7 is out of date now. It also has to be '64-bit' and not '32-bit', otherwise you're not going to be able to use enough RAM. FYI if you ever need an OS, they can be bought from someone or a good key site like G2A.com for varying prices. There's no need to buy it new for an extortionate amount. Always make sure you're getting a '64-bit' one, like Windows 7 Pro or 8 Pro, and not a business/enterprise key or a 32-bit key.

RAM: 8GB is needed though there's a possibility 16GB will be required in time. It doesn't really matter as you can chop and change RAM easy, it's the easiest part of a build. They come in 'sticks' of varying memory size. So if you want 8GB, you can buy one stick of 8GB or two sticks of 4GB (2 x 4 = 8) or even 4 sticks of 2GB. RAM sticks have different speeds and values themselves, but the difference in values make no discernable difference, RAM is pretty simple. The only thing you need to make sure you're getting is DDR 3, which is likely what'll fit on your motherboard (check your board's specs to be sure).

You're also advised not to mix different sticks of RAM. Sticks come in pairs and, according to some, should only ever be used in those pairs on their own, not mixed with another pair. Others say it's fine, so it's up to you.

8GB of RAM pre-owned is something like £35 or £40.

Case: The thing to look for in a case is where you can put fans (and how big the size they fit), the drive bays it has (for hard drives, CD drives etc.), the sockets it has for TV and such (e.g. for HDMI cables, DVI cables). My recommendation is http://www.scan.co.uk/products/silverstone-rl04b-red-line-black-mid-tower-performance-case-with-usb-30-side-mesh-window-w-o-psu

It has everything you'll need as far as I know, it's big enough to fit the big graphics card and coolers, it's highly rated and only £30. It's what I have.

Hard drive/HDD/SSD: You'll want at least 1TB. 1TB should be enough unless you have 20 multiplayer games installed at the same time and way too much porn. People recommend buying an SSD drive as a 'boot drive' as it has faster boot times and increases load times in some games a bit, but it's a luxury and it's up to you if a few seconds saved each time is worth the price. At first at least, your computer will only take 10 seconds to boot in Windows 8.1 and about 40 in Windows 7 using a regular HDD.

Also for hard drives you might want to avoid Seagate, they have a bad reputation. I got a 1TB Toshiba HDD (from Scan) for less than £40. I preferred to buy it new, because you never know what the last owner of a hard drive had on there. Keep things backed up on a USB stick or something regularly just in case most HDDs will either fail in the first few months or last for years.

PSU (Power Supply Unit): The thing that powers your computer and should stop the whole thing dying (or setting fire) at the slightest electrical surge. This is so important to get right. You can look for a tier list (like http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/id-2547993/psu-tier-list.html) and aim for the top two categories. Power is also important, and will depend on your parts particularly your graphics card, though 750W should be enough. A 'modular' PSU is also better as you can take out cables you're not using to make the PC tidier (and cooler).

I got a 750W Seasonic EVO 80 from Scan for £80. The possibly less reliable ones can be had for about £50, and pre-owned will be cheaper, but the extra price for a new, good PSU will be excellent value. A good PSU sacrifices itself to save the other computer parts; a bad PSU takes the whole thing down with it in (sometimes literal) flames, leaving you with no computer.

Optical drive: A DVD RW is most useful. It'll play DVD and CDs but you'll also be able to burn things onto blank CDs like music or data if you wanted. Also consider writing and reading speeds. Should be cheap pre-owned.

Sound card: Not necessary, as the motherboard's on board sound will likely be as good as many sound cards. You might motice a difference with an expensive headset or a crazy speaker setup, but that's it.

I think that's it for physical parts. Other than that, when your computer boots, you'll want to stress test your graphics card (with MSI Kombustor) and your CPU (with Intel Burn Test, and also whenever you overclock). As for anti-viruses and firewalls, you'll be fine with Microsoft Security Essentials.