So I want to buy a new gaming PC

But I’m not really sure what to look out for. I just want one than can run games with decent graphics. I’m not sure how much I should be paying or whether it’s safe or not (CPU fan). Any advice would be great

Reply 1

999tigger

Original post by BenjiInTheBox

Need a budget, whether you want a monitor, what sort of games and what your idea of decent graphics is?

The CPU market is undergoing a lot of change at the moment with AMD being the value for money choice at the moment and they have just announced their Ryzen 3000 chips which still need independent testing in July, but should be comparable to intel at a much lower price.
The Ryzen 2000 range is also very cheap at the moment as they get rid of inventory and people are upgrading.

Graphics cards are the most expensive item and you could be spending anything from £150- £500,

You want 16gb of fast ish ram and at least a 240gb SSD. Both have fallen dramatically in price over the last year. By at least half.

So excluding monitor then you should decide where your budget wants to be in the £500-1500 range. You can then pick up a build from pc part picker or people will do you one here.

Reply 2

RichPiana

What’s your budget and what type of games?

Reply 3

BenjiInTheBox

Original post by RichPiana

What’s your budget and what type of games?

Budget is probably about £1000 but I want to spend at least as possible but I also want it to be safe.
Typically pvp games like overwatch, fortnite, r6 etc. Not games that have a lot of detail such as destiny 2

Reply 4

username2411545

Are you interested in the prospect of building a Gaming PC? Whilst it is easy for a lot of us to say that it's quite a simple process, it is just a process of slotting and screwing in components. You'll get a much faster PC for the same or less money with better quality parts as well as the knowledge of building one. All you need is a screwdriver.

Reply 5

username8408717

Lol, this is a thread where I would usually tag . But now he's gone :cry2:

Reply 6

BenjiInTheBox

Yeah but I wouldn’t know how, like what parts do I need and where do they go, I’ve only done my computer science gcse couple of days ago and have done nothing else to do with computers otherwise

Reply 7

999tigger

Original post by TS33

Lol, this is a thread where I would usually tag @Acsel. But now he's gone :cry2:

He has gone? Where? Quit?

Reply 8

999tigger

Original post by BenjiInTheBox

Yeah but I wouldn’t know how, like what parts do I need and where do they go, I’ve only done my computer science gcse couple of days ago and have done nothing else to do with computers otherwise

It is really easy to assemble you own. No different from putting lego together. Once you make your own then you would always build your own from thereon.

Ryzen 2 / Ryzen 3000 is about to launch on July 10th so I would wait for the test results then.
The games you talk about arent demanding at all and will run at high frame rates even on a modest graphics card. The reason is because they want as many participants as possible so they are less demanding.

I would build a new pc based around (waiting for results) the new Ryzen 5 3600/ 3600x or 2600/2600x which have been reduced.
I would have 16gb of Ram of at least 3000mhz.
A decent B450 motherboard either the MSI Tomahawk or Carbon Pro.
Graphics card is the most expensive and could be anything from a RX570 (king of the bargain cards for 1080p at the moment) c £100 all the way up through RX580, GTX 1660 and 1660ti. £280 You can go a lot higher, but I dont see how you would need more than a 1660ti, unless you want 1440p at high refresh in demanding games.

Get an SSD either the slower Sata drives or faster but more expensive NVME. Size should be min 240 and preferably 500gb. £28-70.
Crucial MX500 , anything by Samsung, Corsair MP510.

Get a 1-2tb internal HDD.

Case + monitor+psu+keyboard and mouse+ own heatsink if wanted.

Monitors vary, but the cheap ones have 60hz refresh rates. If you are playing first person shooters, then you will get a much more fluid experience and faster updates by choosing one capable of delivering higher refresh rates like 100 or 144hz as well as a bide card that can do those sort of refresh rates.

If you dont want to build your own, then AWD IT have offered some good deals in the past.
You can also select your own parts. Most companies will do this for you.

Start looking at these tech youtubers and you will learn a lot.
https://www.hotukdeals.com/search?q=awd+it

Pauls Hardware is very friendly and explains everything.
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLRnHcRQUxuodtrqVX886AqeurmbtDLueb

Benchmark kings are hardware unboxed. Look at his graphs on the parts that interest you, then you can see how many frames each processor or graphics card delivers.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCI8iQa1hv7oV_Z8D35vVuSg

https://pcpartpicker.com/

Reply 9

username8408717

Original post by 999tigger

He has gone? Where? Quit?

Yep he's gone .Here's the thread he made, you can check it out :smile:

https://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=5966140

Reply 10

999tigger

Original post by TS33

Yep he's gone .Here's the thread he made, you can check it out :smile:

https://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=5966140

Thanks I looked up last night.
I didnt know until you said so as I am not on tech that much these days.
People underestimate how draining and time consuming it is answering questions, especially when questioners can be very vague or lazy.

Reply 11

TheMcSame

Original post by BenjiInTheBox

Yeah but I wouldn’t know how, like what parts do I need and where do they go, I’ve only done my computer science gcse couple of days ago and have done nothing else to do with computers otherwise

It's very simple really...

Case - Simple enough, manufacturers list sizings that are supported by the case. Instructions give you a guide on how to prep the case for specific motherboard sizes.

CPU - Slots into a very obvious spot on the motherboard, I believe both AMD and Intel use markings to show which orientation is correct, making it very difficult to put it in the wrong way.

CPU cooler - Many coolers support all kinds of CPU sockets, instructions are provided showing you how to fit for specific sockets. I'd get something aftermarket, perhaps a hyper 212, or whatever budget cooler is an absolute bargain these days (I haven't really kept tabs on the market since I built my PC back in 2014)

Motherboard - Probably the more complicated part of the process. You need to make sure it has the right socket and the chipset used supports your CPU. You also need to make sure it has enough ports for everything you need. If you're not crazy about having a load of fans or a media junkie that needs a lot of storage space, it shouldn't be an issue.

E- Totally missed the GPU LMFAO

GPU - The main powerhouse really. Best I can say is see what fits in your budget and look at reviews for the cards within your budget. Don't disregard older cards either. Older high-end cards can still pack quite the punch, especially if you're still playing at 1080p.

RAM - Simple enough. Most modern motherboards only support the newest generation, DDR4. You don't really need anything insane here, pretty much any kit will do since RAM doesn't have a huge impact on performance. RAM can be very complicated when you dig deeper, looking past the marketing speeds and timings and calculating the true latency of the kit for example. Higher speed kits don't necessarily have a lower latency than budget kits since higher speed kits usually have higher CAS timings as well.

But yeah, a simple 16GB kit will be fine. As for fitting? RAM uses a slotted fitting. It's physically impossible to fit it the wrong way, or to fit a previous generation kit into a current gen slot.

Storage - Go with your needs. At the very least I'd go with 1 SSD (240GB or more) and 1 HDD (1TB maybe 2TB minimum). Again, instructions with your case will show you how to fit them I think. Very simple, a few screws (or a screwless system depending on the case) and two cables.

Power supply - Has it's own specific spot in the case, very obvious, very out of the way. 80+ is a standard rating system used. Personally, I'd recommend something like the EVGA 750 G2. Solid supply, one of the best on the market. Most connectors are different and I believe they're usually labelled on the connector as to what they fit. Pretty much just screw it in and hook cables up to where to go.

Optical drive- Purely an optional feature. Nice to have though if you ask me. Fitting is basically the same as storage, albeit fitting into a larger 5.25" slot

Operating system - Most likely some flavour of windows. Installation is easy to follow. Make sure you install it on your SSD. Also be sure to move some Windows folders (like downloads, videos, music, etc...) to your HDD.

Case fans - Your case will probably come with sufficient fans. If not, you can't really go wrong with Noctua, or Corsair if you want something a bit more budget friendly. Cougar's CF-V12HP is a pretty beastly fan at a very good price, though the design of the bearing means it doesn't like being mounted horizontally. There are two main things to look out for with fans, airflow and pressure. Airflow is simply the amount of air the fan moves. Pressure is essentially how strong that airflow is (can't really think of a better explanation. Airflow optimised fans are great for open spaces, pressure optimised fans are great for restricted airflow. The previously mentioned Cougar fan is definitely the best of both worlds, though again, it's not to keen on horizontal mounting.

If you plan on using Wi-Fi you'll need a wireless network adapter. Some motherboards come fitted with one as standard, else you can buy a simple PCIe or USB adapter.

PC Part Picker is the tech community's general recommendation to help people plan builds.

The most important part though? Understand that once you build your PC, something better is just over the hill. The tech industry moves fast. The latest and greatest parts now probably won't be the latest and greatest 6 months from now and almost certainly won't be a year from now. Don't fall into the trap of constantly upgrading, cause it's an expensive trap at that. 4 1/2 years after building my PC and it's still a powerhouse. A high-end PC can last you a good few years without an upgrade unless you're gaming in high res. Even then, if you're willing to drop the settings every now and again, you'll get a few years out of it before you really need to scratch that upgrade itch.