Gaming PC - Build one? or buy pre-built?

WentworthFox

Hi

I am thinking of buying or building a new gaming pc on a budget of £1000.

When building a gaming pc just wondering if it is worth researching all the components and constructing it. Could I get better hardware for the price?

or is it best going for the deals on pre-built gaming systems?

Thanks

Cisco001

for £1000, building one would offer better value.

Cisco001

I come up with a list like this

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor (£178.00 @ Amazon UK)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler (£24.99 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: Asus Z97 PRO GAMER ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£99.99 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance Pro 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory (£45.29 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£74.29 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£38.99 @ Amazon UK)
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 970 4GB Video Card (£255.14 @ Amazon UK)
Case: NZXT S340 (Black/Blue) ATX Mid Tower Case (£53.84 @ Amazon UK)
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA NEX 650W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply (£63.31 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £833.84
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-07-08 14:26 BST+0100

You can get Windows 7 or Windows 8.1 now. Or wait until end of july for Windows 10

d70cw6

yes you could.

gaming at 1080p i'd recommend something along the lines of:

CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor
CPU Cooler: be quiet! PURE ROCK 87.0 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z97X-Gaming 5 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory
Storage: Crucial BX100 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive
Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 970 4GB STRIX Video Card
Case: NZXT S340 (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA GS 550W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 OEM (64-bit)

WentworthFox

Cisco001 wrote: »

I come up with a list like this

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor (£178.00 @ Amazon UK)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler (£24.99 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: Asus Z97 PRO GAMER ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£99.99 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance Pro 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory (£45.29 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£74.29 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£38.99 @ Amazon UK)
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 970 4GB Video Card (£255.14 @ Amazon UK)
Case: NZXT S340 (Black/Blue) ATX Mid Tower Case (£53.84 @ Amazon UK)
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA NEX 650W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply (£63.31 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £833.84
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-07-08 14:26 BST+0100

You can get Windows 7 or Windows 8.1 now. Or wait until end of july for Windows 10

Thanks! These are good specs for the price!

bluenoseam

I just bought one last night purely because of the convenience, cost me £820 for pretty much the part picker spec including shipping, only major difference being the SSD. (I went 120gb instead of 240gb) Picked it up from Cyberpower, that's where I got the current machine & only problem I've had with it in the last 7 years was a graphics card dying & having to replace a fan. Granted that was sans OS, but that's not a major issue as I have Windows 7 anyway - which in turn means windows 10.

As for the suggestion of 16gb ram, think that's a bit overkill for any gaming unless you plan to stream or do video editing, the performance upgrade isn't worth the outlay as yet.

Retrogamer

Overclockers do a "system configuration " option on their site where you essentially pick all the parts, they assemble it and put on a 2 year warranty on the system has a whole as well.

I done this with my last built and their built quality was excellent. Although i've changed a fair few parts the original parts are still running strong.

dannyrst

The easy way to do this is find a gaming PC worth about £1300+, note the parts and then find them for around £1000. Put it together yourself and BAM.

I'm not sure why people are suggesting the 4690K as it seems a little wasted if you aren't going to overclock it. I assume you won't be doing this given you're asking whether you should buy or build.

bluenoseam

dannyrst wrote: »

The easy way to do this is find a gaming PC worth about £1300+, note the parts and then find them for around £1000. Put it together yourself and BAM.

I'm not sure why people are suggesting the 4690K as it seems a little wasted if you aren't going to overclock it. I assume you won't be doing this given you're asking whether you should buy or build.

Possibly because it's the current recomended sweet spot in processors right now - especially as we're looking beyond the "buy or build" question. Just because he mused as to if it was worthwhile does not indicate that he wont overclock, it just means that he was thinking out loud. Everyone who's savvy knows that it's cheaper to build - but it's not always the best option.

sparkiemalarkie

WentworthFox wrote: »

Hi

I am thinking of buying or building a new gaming pc on a budget of £1000.

When building a gaming pc just wondering if it is worth researching all the components and constructing it. Could I get better hardware for the price?

or is it best going for the deals on pre-built gaming systems?

Thanks

I built one for my 15 yr od son and I'm a 58 yr old mother...
It was pretty much like building an over sized Lego kit.
I watched a good few youtube videos before buying the parts and used my favourite one as a manual that I paused and rewound while building the pc.
It takes courage.... but it's not too difficult.


sparkie

qaiszqaisz

if you want to be future proof might want to wait a bit...current motherboard sockets (1150) becoming redundant, intel releasing the new Skylake CPUs in august, and 1151 will be the new 'standard' for a couple years to come, so if you'd like to be future proof wait a bit for those to release and go with the latest.