# Anyone planning to build a PC over Christmas?



## RCCampus

Pretty much as the title goes, anyone planning building a new PC this Christmas for either themselves or family? I'm offering advice for anyone thinking of doing so, just post a link of the specs you were planning on! (I can also give thoughts on prebuilt gaming PCs)


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## RS3

I am looking at getting a gaming desktop for my kids to share.
I was considering when back in stock:
https://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/compu...ming-pc-1-tb-hdd-128-gb-ssd-10194274-pdt.html and Samsung 24 Inch CRG5 Curved Gaming Monitor LC24RG50FQUXEN - 144Hz, Gaming Monitor with FreeSync, VA, 1080P, Game Mode, 2 HDMI https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07PFJH2YX/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_gf.4DbEF001WB


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## RS3

RS3 said:


> I am looking at getting a gaming desktop for my kids to share.
> I was considering when back in stock:
> https://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/compu...ming-pc-1-tb-hdd-128-gb-ssd-10194274-pdt.html and Samsung 24 Inch CRG5 Curved Gaming Monitor LC24RG50FQUXEN - 144Hz, Gaming Monitor with FreeSync, VA, 1080P, Game Mode, 2 HDMI https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07PFJH2YX/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_gf.4DbEF001WB


I have started looking at buying separate components and building myself but keeps going over budget (about £800).


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## RCCampus

RS3 said:


> I have started looking at buying separate components and building myself but keeps going over budget (about £800).


Consider this

PCPartPicker Part List

*CPU:* AMD Ryzen 5 2600 3.4 GHz 6-Core Processor (£108.78 @ Aria PC) 
*Motherboard:* MSI B450M PRO-VDH MAX Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard (£64.99 @ CCL Computers) 
*Memory:* *Team T-FORCE VULCAN TUF Gaming Allian 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 Memory (£58.99 @ Overclockers.co.uk) 
*Storage:* Team L5 LITE 3D 1 TB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£82.99 @ CCL Computers) 
*Video Card:* Zotac GeForce GTX 1660 Super 6 GB Twin Fan Video Card (£214.00 @ Box Limited) 
*Case:* Thermaltake Versa H18 MicroATX Mini Tower Case (£39.99 @ Amazon UK) 
*Power Supply:* Corsair CX (2017) 550 W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply (£42.99 @ Corsair UK) 
*Monitor:* AOC 24G2U/BK 24.0" 1920x1080 144 Hz Monitor (£169.97 @ Laptops Direct) 
*Total:* £782.70
_Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available_
_*Lowest price parts chosen from parametric criteria_
_Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-12-01 17:25 GMT+0000_


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## Cyclonetog

Myself and a good friend are considering getting into online racing, but unsure what's the best route? Console or PC? GT or iRacing, or other?

No idea what the costs are, and I'm very apple orientated here. Although I'm sure my MacBook Pro would do a good job if I need to run windows in bootcamp.


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## RS3

Thanks for the advise. Can you tell me how your recommendation would perform better than the system i chose?.


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## RCCampus

Cyclonetog said:


> Myself and a good friend are considering getting into online racing, but unsure what's the best route? Console or PC? GT or iRacing, or other?
> 
> No idea what the costs are, and I'm very apple orientated here. Although I'm sure my MacBook Pro would do a good job if I need to run windows in bootcamp.


From what I'm reading it seems like competitive sim-racing is pretty PC focused, unfortunately I have little experience with it. Perhaps this subreddit may be useful to you?


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## RCCampus

RS3 said:


> Thanks for the advise. Can you tell me how your recommendation would perform better than the system i chose?.


Certainly. So compared to the Curry's PC (which tend to be mediocre in general), the list I gave had these improvements:


double the RAM to 16GB (which is generally recommended these days)
1TB of decent SSD storage rather than just 128GB with a 1TB traditional hard drive
Significantly faster video card

If you look at the following graph of relative performance, the Curry's build has the video card in green, the one I've given you sits at about the 1660Ti/1070 level (i.e. 1.7x the performance)


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## Harry_p

I think for anything other than fairly basic games you need to be looking at 16gb ram and a 1060 / 1660 spec graphics card. They are above the current minimum specs for most games and will give some headroom for a few years.

While it's very easy to get sucked into the 'for just £20 more I can get xx' cycle when suddenly you've doubled your budget, it's still worth spending a bit extra in certain areas to give a buffer for future releases and to complement future upgrades.

For instance, when building a pc I would always spend a little more for a board with 4 ram slots and which will work with higher spec processors than you intend to fit, making future upgrades cheaper and easier and increasing the system lifespan until you need to either start from fresh or go down a more major upgrade path.

I'm not planning any upgrades or builds over Christmas as I've just finished one and gone massively over budget. Will have to sell off some of the old bits!


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## Crackfox

Got mine up on gumtree at the minute.as I've had to move to a laptop.

Sent from my SM-G960F using Tapatalk


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## John-R-

Damn, wish I'd seen this earlier :wall:

Here's the spec I've just ordered for my lad;

https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/DqqpK4

John


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## Harry_p

I used one of those fractal cases when I built a pc for my stepson last year. Very pleased with it for the money, and one of the few I found which looked good and still had DVD drive slots.


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## GhirlsInGreen

Built my own last year and it was soo satisfying powering it on for the first time seing if it would post. I didnt have doubts but theres always that what if... heres a wee pic of it set up for anyone interested.









Sent from my SM-G973F using Tapatalk


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## RCCampus

John-R- said:


> Damn, wish I'd seen this earlier :wall:
> 
> Here's the spec I've just ordered for my lad;
> 
> https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/DqqpK4
> 
> John


It's not the worst and it'll certainly run anything you chuck at it. Obviously there could be room for improvement, but all I can say is enjoy it!


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## RCCampus

Harry_p said:


> I think for anything other than fairly basic games you need to be looking at 16gb ram and a 1060 / 1660 spec graphics card. They are above the current minimum specs for most games and will give some headroom for a few years.
> 
> While it's very easy to get sucked into the 'for just £20 more I can get xx' cycle when suddenly you've doubled your budget, it's still worth spending a bit extra in certain areas to give a buffer for future releases and to complement future upgrades.
> 
> For instance, when building a pc I would always spend a little more for a board with 4 ram slots and which will work with higher spec processors than you intend to fit, making future upgrades cheaper and easier and increasing the system lifespan until you need to either start from fresh or go down a more major upgrade path.
> 
> I'm not planning any upgrades or builds over Christmas as I've just finished one and gone massively over budget. Will have to sell off some of the old bits!


Sure for a computer that can run games at 1080p60 then not much more than a 2600 + used rx580 build is needed

As for spending extra on a board to make it "future proof", I disagree. A higher tier board that costs more now doesn't make sense for either Intel or AMD as DDR5 ram is imminent, and both platforms are a dead end really now - i.e. nothing new is coming on LGA1151 and if we're lucky AMD will release one more AM4 socket series. It makes more sense to spend e.g. £750 now and then £750 in 3 years than it does to spend £1500 now


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## Harry_p

Yes, I'd always assume 1080 60fps at medium to high settings when speccing a modestly priced gaming pc.

I didn't mean spend loads more but 'enough' some cheap boards only have two ram slots or don't support the faster processors.

I don't know much about amd processors but on intel an i5 8500 would be fine for most games, and run fine on any 300 chipset board, but spending £30 extra could get you a z370 board and be able to run unlocked k series 8th and 9th gen processors when you have the budget at a later date. Likewise if you can only afford 8gb now you could use 2x4gb sticks now then add another two later, instead of having to get rid of what you have then buy a two stick 16gb kit.

Like all things you have to weigh up the budget vs benefit, my approach of allowing some futureproofing in the original build has allowed me to build a decent system I could afford at the time, but give a decent refresh after a few years when the componants I couldn't afford when they were new became more reasonably priced.

The approach is different if you've got a bigger budget or want to be at the higher end, as there's always something newer and better around the corner so just buy the best you can afford at the time.

The pc I built last year for my stepson was built using carefully chosen new parts along with some used parts I already had salvaged from an old acer aspire and some parts off eBay. It was built to a very tight budget because we really weren't sure how much he was going to use it, turns out it's all the time! And runs an old sandybridge i7 2700k on an msi board with 8gb of ddr3 and a 6gb gtx 1060. It runs everything we throw at it at 1080 /60 and high settings, and most things will run at very high or ultra with no bother despite being what many would consider to be pretty ancient componants.


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## John-R-

RCCampus said:


> It's not the worst and it'll certainly run anything you chuck at it. Obviously there could be room for improvement, but all I can say is enjoy it!


Cheers, I'm a total novice at this PC stuff :lol:

Once I picked up a nice 23.6 curved monitor and keyboard/mouse etc I think I managed to keep it around £1250 all-in, which is where I wanted to be budget wise, hopefully it wont go out of spec too soon and is still up gradable through the changing of a few components in a couple of years or so if need be.

Me & the lad will be building it together over the festive period once I get back from work.

John


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## RCCampus

Harry_p said:


> Yes, I'd always assume 1080 60fps at medium to high settings when speccing a modestly priced gaming pc.
> 
> I didn't mean spend loads more but 'enough' some cheap boards only have two ram slots or don't support the faster processors.
> 
> I don't know much about amd processors but on intel an i5 8500 would be fine for most games, and run fine on any 300 chipset board, but spending £30 extra could get you a z370 board and be able to run unlocked k series 8th and 9th gen processors when you have the budget at a later date. Likewise if you can only afford 8gb now you could use 2x4gb sticks now then add another two later, instead of having to get rid of what you have then buy a two stick 16gb kit.
> 
> Like all things you have to weigh up the budget vs benefit, my approach of allowing some futureproofing in the original build has allowed me to build a decent system I could afford at the time, but give a decent refresh after a few years when the componants I couldn't afford when they were new became more reasonably priced.
> 
> The approach is different if you've got a bigger budget or want to be at the higher end, as there's always something newer and better around the corner so just buy the best you can afford at the time.
> 
> The pc I built last year for my stepson was built using carefully chosen new parts along with some used parts I already had salvaged from an old acer aspire and some parts off eBay. It was built to a very tight budget because we really weren't sure how much he was going to use it, turns out it's all the time! And runs an old sandybridge i7 2700k on an msi board with 8gb of ddr3 and a 6gb gtx 1060. It runs everything we throw at it at 1080 /60 and high settings, and most things will run at very high or ultra with no bother despite being what many would consider to be pretty ancient componants.


Problem with Intel CPUs in general is they keep their value quite well, thus making buying an i5 8500 at the minute a bad idea since for roughly the same price you can get a Ryzen 3600 which is generally better


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## Andyblue

Not building one, but trying to decide if it’s worth buying a small SSD for wife’s laptop (doesn’t need a big one, really just trying to speed it up some) and swapping the HDD out... and if I’m feeling brave enough to try


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## RCCampus

Andyblue said:


> Not building one, but trying to decide if it's worth buying a small SSD for wife's laptop (doesn't need a big one, really just trying to speed it up some) and swapping the HDD out... and if I'm feeling brave enough to try


100% would recommend doing so if it's possible, for those who do build new PCs I tell them don't build a PC in 2019 without an SSD. It's probably the biggest performance increase you can do to computers. Check the laptop manual to see how you'd go about doing it

Something like this  would work well.


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## Andyblue

RCCampus said:


> 100% would recommend doing so if it's possible, for those who do build new PCs I tell them don't build a PC in 2019 without an SSD. It's probably the biggest performance increase you can do to computers. Check the laptop manual to see how you'd go about doing it
> 
> Something like this  would work well.


Cheers - going to have a look / keep my eyes open. Only needs 120 or 250 size of drive, need to check if I need an adapter to hold it :thumb:


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