Buying my son a gaming PC, help.

[Wilkeh]

I upgraded to 16GB when GTA5 came out as was paging out a fair amount, very game dependant though but with Windows 10's bloatware it makes sense if you're building a new machine to put 16GB in it, why would you compromise on a new build?

I wasn't talking about compromising on a new build I was just talking about building to a budget that's all. If I had the choice between 16GB of RAM and a s**t PC case vs 8GB RAM and decent PC case I'd pick the latter all day on the basis that I can easily chuck another 8GB in whenever.

Doesn't really matter now anyway because Simon998 managed to get both within budget, so may as well continue with 16GB.

 

[Rojer]

I'm in a similar position to you and i want to build a new PC for gaming & work.

The first questions i would ask is what kind of games do you want to play and at what resolution? From there it's pretty easy to work out a spec for the budget, i would be happy to provide you with some ideas if you can answer the questions above.

EDIT: I can see the monitor you have bought is 1080p so that answers the first question. Shame that monitor has no mention of G-Sync or FreeSync which can be pretty beneficial on a slightly lower spec machine.

I will do a full spec of what i would do later when i get back home.

 

[GiT]

Case doesn't do much except look good, RAM does a shedload of work. RAM>Case Vanity.

I'm looking at a new build - may get an i7 8086 and build round that, replacing my i7 4770k

 

[Ex-User (19928)]

Case doesn't do much except look good, RAM does a shedload of work. RAM>Case Vanity.

I'm looking at a new build - may get an i7 8086 and build round that, replacing my i7 4770k

I'm on devils canyon i7 too. Likewise like the look of that 8086 but I'm going to try and hold out till the 1180Ti and get whatever the i7 of the moment is out at the time.

 

[Wilkeh]

Case doesn't do much except look good, RAM does a shedload of work. RAM>Case Vanity.

I'm looking at a new build - may get an i7 8086 and build round that, replacing my i7 4770k

Can't beat a decent case mate! It's lovely building inside a nice case, I absolutely love my 740 Air. Plus better cases will have far greater airflow etc. You can easily upgrade your RAM, but upgrading your case is a ball ache swapping everything over

 

[Steven103]

On the point of assembling it yourselves, pleaaase don’t bottle it at the last minute and cave in to buying a prebuilt. One you get massively more for your money buying parts as has been shown. Two it’s way easier than everyone thinks, it’s like a car literally everything is designed with different shape connectors etc so it’s impossible to plug anything in wrong. And as has been said it’s a great opportunity for him (and you) to learn something.

 

[Greeny.]

I'm on devils canyon i7 too. Likewise like the look of that 8086 but I'm going to try and hold out till the 1180Ti and get whatever the i7 of the moment is out at the time.

I’ve been waiting for the 1180 for ages, getting on for a year now I think, my pair of old 780 ti’s are showing their age now, also I’ll never go sli again, just not worth the hassle, only did it initially as I bought a 144hz 1440p ROG so needed to try to get the native res towards 144fps and that’s very hard work with games from the last couple of years with my old cards!! Nvidea are just making to much money from the current gen with the still inflated prices so perhaps they are riding the price train for as long as possible!

 

[SharkyUK]

I've only had a chance to quickly skim the thread but the only thing I'd perhaps change on Simon's list is the PSU. I would opt for a slightly higher rated 650W. I'd also go with 16GB RAM.

Regarding Corsair stuff, I've never had a problem (or been lucky) and found their AIO's to be ok. I recently bought the new Hydro Pro setup and it works a LOT better than I expected. I was worried about the cooling ability (given the fact I'm running an OC'd i9 7900X) but it keeps temps reasonable even when stressing all 10 cores heavily.

 

[Rojer]

I've only had a chance to quickly skim the thread but the only thing I'd perhaps change on Simon's list is the PSU. I would opt for a slightly higher rated 650W. I'd also go with 16GB RAM.

Regarding Corsair stuff, I've never had a problem (or been lucky) and found their AIO's to be ok. I recently bought the new Hydro Pro setup and it works a LOT better than I expected. I was worried about the cooling ability (given the fact I'm running an OC'd i9 7900X) but it keeps temps reasonable even when stressing all 10 cores heavily.

The new Corsair AIO's are actually pretty decent, i used to have a much older H80 i think and cooling was OK, but noise was pretty bad. These days things are a lot better.

I just fired over a PM to the OP with some rough specs and ideas. For 1080p you only really need an Nvidia 1060, it's not worth spending nearly double the money on a 1070 that's for sure! For a single GPU a 5-600W PSU will be enough.

 

[Daz...]

I had one of the original H80’s and the pump died after about 4 years. The new ones are much quieter and more efficient.

As for only needing a 1060 - you’re right, but a 1070 means everything can be turned up to ultra and he can make the most of the 144hz refresh rate. That’s what I do.

Also, if you get a PSU with a fanless mode then using a 650w will mean it’s pretty much always silent.

But all of this is the beauty of PCs, you can cut back on certain parts at first and upgrade at a later date.

 

[Ex-User (19928)]

If you buy a 1060 then you might as well tighten up your budget and save some cash. Do not spend 1200 on a gaming PC only to put a 1060 in there.

 

[Rojer]

If you buy a 1060 then you might as well tighten up your budget and save some cash. Do not spend 1200 on a gaming PC only to put a 1060 in there.

You could still spend 1200 because you could get a really decent set of components and then when you want to get a better screen or push more resolution you just change the graphics card and the rest wont be a problem, but yer you could do it for less than 1k i would imagine. The specs i had were overkill anyways like a i5 8700k.

 

[SharkyUK]

I'm a bit of a PC snob if I'm being honest (sorry!) and a gaming PC, to me at least, needs a 1070 ti or better. That's why I'd also look to a slightly higher rated PSU because you can bet your bottom dollar (well, dad's bottom dollar!) that the GPU will likely be one of the first things to upgrade if you stick a 1060 (or less) in it.

Just my own opinion of course, I appreciate others will disagree!

 

[SharkyUK]

Overkill? Perhaps... I use one of these!

#powaaahgoals #headroom

 

[Mr R.]

Many thanks to you all, I know everyone will have a different opinion but so far it seems everyone is on pretty much the same road, just with a couple of tweeks here and there.

I appreciate your inputs. ??

 

[Mr R.]

Overkill? Perhaps... I use one of these!

#powaaahgoals #headroom

View attachment 1378770

Engine for the Trophy? ?

 

[SharkyUK]

Engine for the Trophy? ?

It would save a lot of time and trouble!

 

[Rojer]

I'm a bit of a PC snob if I'm being honest (sorry!) and a gaming PC, to me at least, needs a 1070 ti or better. That's why I'd also look to a slightly higher rated PSU because you can bet your bottom dollar (well, dad's bottom dollar!) that the GPU will likely be one of the first things to upgrade if you stick a 1060 (or less) in it.

Just my own opinion of course, I appreciate others will disagree!

I am a total PC snob haha, I have always just sunk my money Into cars instead of PC's, when I do build my next one for work/gaming I'll will likely be total over kill and run into thousands.

 

[Wilkeh]

I have a 1080Ti and I literally play CSGO and Dota lol

 

[N0ddie]

When I was doing my son’s system I looked at getting him a 1070 as he has my old 2560x1440 monitor. However after a quick search on Gumtree I found a 4 month old 1080 for £400.

Performance difference between the 1070Ti and 1080 ain’t too big but it is better.

I’d definitely be putting nothing less than a 1070Ti in for you son.

 

[Simon998]

I have a 1080Ti and I literally play CSGO and Dota lol

5930k oc'd to 4.7ghz, 1080, 32GB DDR4 and it's mainly used for browsing the web/youtube and 3 or 4 hours of gaming (CS:GO, PUBG) at the weekend, lol.

To be fair, the rigs most of us have posted are overkill for a 10 year old. I would have killed for something like that at that age, but I think that scrimping and saving, learning how to OC my hardware and optimise cooling to try and get every pennies worth out of what I had to work with benefited me in the long run.

I thought that getting my little brother away from the xbox and onto a gaming pc when he was 8 would have made him some sort of super kid. Far from it, he can only use it to play games on, anything else and he has to phone me. I've tried showing him so many times but he just has no interest in how it works, he just wants it to work. When something breaks, my parents just buy him a new part. He doesn't even try to diagnose the issue.

My old rig had an oc'd 3570k, 970, 16GB ddr3 and ran my dual screen (27" 1440p, 75hz, IPS panel and a 24" 1080p, 144hz, TN panel) set-up just fine. Rarely dipped below 70FPS in AAA games on high settings @ 1440. My little brother uses this rig now and he has zero issues playing new release games and he's putting in a solid 40-50 hours a week on his. If he was having issues, he would have been crying on the phone to me by now to sort it out. Something along those lines would be a fine starter PC.


Well s**t, that turned into quite the rant. Work's slow this morning.

 

[Goodj]

I’d definitely be putting nothing less than a 1070Ti in for you son.

If you're not going to SLI a pair of Titans, you're clearly a neglectful parent, TBQFHWY.


THIS IS FOR A 10yr OLD!!!?!??!?!
Jeez.

Ryzen 5 APU with 32gb of the fastest ram you can jam in it, with an NVME C:, done.
When that can't run Roblox quick enough anymore, jam a GPU in it then.

EDIT: Post below clarifies ages, still, as above

 

[Mr R.]

5930k oc'd to 4.7ghz, 1080, 32GB DDR4 and it's mainly used for browsing the web/youtube and 3 or 4 hours of gaming (CS:GO, PUBG) at the weekend, lol.

To be fair, the rigs most of us have posted are overkill for a 10 year old. I would have killed for something like that at that age, but I think that scrimping and saving, learning how to OC my hardware and optimise cooling to try and get every pennies worth out of what I had to work with benefited me in the long run.

I thought that getting my little brother away from the xbox and onto a gaming pc when he was 8 would have made him some sort of super kid. Far from it, he can only use it to play games on, anything else and he has to phone me. I've tried showing him so many times but he just has no interest in how it works, he just wants it to work. When something breaks, my parents just buy him a new part. He doesn't even try to diagnose the issue.

My old rig had an oc'd 3570k, 970, 16GB ddr3 and ran my dual screen (27" 1440p, 75hz, IPS panel and a 24" 1080p, 144hz, TN panel) set-up just fine. Rarely dipped below 70FPS in AAA games on high settings @ 1440. My little brother uses this rig now and he has zero issues playing new release games and he's putting in a solid 40-50 hours a week on his. If he was having issues, he would have been crying on the phone to me by now to sort it out. Something along those lines would be a fine starter PC.


Well s**t, that turned into quite the rant. Work's slow this morning.

Billy's 15 mate, my younger son Alfie is 13 and all he is interested in is his Xbox one.

 

[Rojer]

You can't beat a console for ease of use, download a game or put a disc in and away you go, no problems.

 

[Rojer]

Do you think @Phase1sr will adopt me so i can get a new machine ha

 

[Simon998]

Billy's 15 mate, my younger son Alfie is 13 and all he is interested in is his Xbox one.

Where the hell did I get 10 from? Sorry, I got my wires crossed somewhere.

Even at 15, that system will blow his mind.

Is he watching streamers on Twitch or where is he getting the interest in PC gaming from? Do you know what games he's interested in yet?

 

[Wilkeh]

I bet he can't wait to play with the cancerous CSGO community. The most toxic bunch alive

 

[Goodj]

Is he watching streamers on Twitch or where is he getting the interest in PC gaming from? Do you know what games he's interested in yet?

I bet he can't wait to play with the cancerous CSGO community. The most toxic bunch alive

Bet he can't wait to get online and screech back at the americans:

"ur mom gay"
"No u"

?

 

[Ex-User (19928)]

I bet he can't wait to play with the cancerous CSGO community. The most toxic bunch alive

I'll take your CS community and raise you with Heroes of Newerth community. The most radioactive of all the mobas. Shame as it was my favourite to play. Probably for the best though.

 

[Simon998]

I bet he can't wait to play with the cancerous CSGO community. The most toxic bunch alive

Can't be any worse than the Xbox crowd lol.

I don't find CS too bad these days, It was a lot worse at LEM because everyone was a try-hard but down at GNM/MG1 it's not too bad. Apart from the odd angry Russian..


CYKA BLYAT.

 

[Ex-User (19928)]

Davai davai

 

[Greeny.]

I bet he can't wait to play with the cancerous CSGO community. The most toxic bunch alive

Yeh low rank players are usually around 12 years old and act their age well, not to bad when you play at the higher ranks tbh, obviously you get the odd Russian who thinks he knows it all but its not to bad.

 

[Wilkeh]

Can't be any worse than the Xbox crowd lol.

I don't find CS too bad these days, It was a lot worse at LEM because everyone was a try-hard but down at GNM/MG1 it's not too bad. Apart from the odd angry Russian..


CYKA BLYAT.

It's why we tend to play Faceit instead of MM. Quite a bit less toxic on there, and much better players. Also 128 tick servers so win win

 

[Wilkeh]

Yeh low rank players are usually around 12 years old and act their age well, not to bad when you play at the higher ranks tbh, obviously you get the odd Russian who thinks he knows it all but its not to bad.

What makes you think I'm playing with the low ranks haha ?

 

[Greeny.]

What makes you think I'm playing with the low ranks haha ?

I like to make wild assumptions with little or no reason to

 

[Simon998]

It's why we tend to play Faceit instead of MM. Quite a bit less toxic on there, and much better players. Also 128 tick servers so win win

I played 1.6 for 8 years like an addict. I could never get used to 128tick servers, my nades didn't work and something just felt off, like my timing was off or something for my usual peeks. I play a game or so a week now, I have no idea how I used to sit and play it for 10+ hours. A good team of mates really makes a difference. Most of the guys I used to play with hardly get on anymore due to family/life commitments.

 

[Wilkeh]

I played 1.6 for 8 years like an addict. I could never get used to 128tick servers, my nades didn't work and something just felt off, like my timing was off or something for my usual peeks. I play a game or so a week now, I have no idea how I used to sit and play it for 10+ hours. A good team of mates really makes a difference. Most of the guys I used to play with hardly get on anymore due to family/life commitments.

Same mate, started playing CS when it was at 1.3 when I was 12. I'm more of a Dota player now though, but I'm better at CSGO than I am Dota definitely. I only have around 500 CSGO hours but have well over 5000 on Dota haha

You're more than welcome to come play a few games with us if you like

 

[Ex-User (19928)]

Noobs I started on 0.8!! Although I'm not proud of it, literally destroyed my school life. I'll end up swinging the other way, no kids of mine will be using computers for anything other than productivity until they've got a less impressionable head on their shoulders.

 

[Simon998]

Same mate, started playing CS when it was at 1.3 when I was 12. I'm more of a Dota player now though, but I'm better at CSGO than I am Dota definitely. I only have around 500 CSGO hours but have well over 5000 on Dota haha

You're more than welcome to come play a few games with us if you like

Same, installed and started back at 1.3 during high school. Back when it was a melt to get it running right and finding servers was a task in itself.

Sure, add me on steam: Synister (avatar of Jake from Blues brothers)

 

[Greeny.]

I started CS at 1.0 and played every version since, CSGO less now as expected as apparently im an adult but still get a chance to play for a few hours a week when I get a chance/can be arsed, still loving 1024x768 with black bars I have around 2k hours on CSS and 1k on CSGO, CS was before it was on Steam so god knows, wouldn't want to know tbh lol, 6 digit Steam ID as none of us wanted to jump onto 1.6 when they released it along with Steam, my ID should be lower

https://steamcommunity.com/id/c0dec is me

Got to a Lan final on 1.6 so happy enough with that, good waste of my some of my teenage life lol.

Good luck with that Jeff