Buying gaming pc for christmas. Help!

Imnoexpert_2

Hi

After a week of research and 40 years owning and using computers I am buying lucky (tech savvy) son aged 13 his own PC.

Narrowed down to:
AMD A10 7850 processor with built in AMD R7 graphics and 16 MB of Ram

or

Intel I5 4460 processor with R7 240 graphics but 'only 8gb' of Ram which costs £50 more. Which I'm happy to pay.

Child is a Minecraft junkie now (which these spec's should murder), but I'm trying to future proof a bit in case he wants to do more game playing. Oh I'm told it will be useful for homework too but.......

Any advice on benefit of more RAM against better processor and graphics?

I'm also planning to buy from Fierce PC so wonder if anyone has experience of them?

Thanks

Fightsback

Can you provide links to the two systems that you have seen ?

giraffe69

I'd prefer Intel to AMD. If the Intel one has 8gb (hope its gb not mb) of memory as opposed to 16gb then presumably it could get upgraded at birthday time or if son washes car 50 times or some other chosen task?

Cisco001

Budget?
Link?

stator

I used to buy AMD CPUs but they have been awful recently (performance wise) so I would stick with Intel for the CPU. AMD Graphics cards are ok. You will definitely want a discrete Graphics card instead of built in graphics if it's to be used for gaming.

Imnoexpert_2

Thanks for your replies. This is what it has come down to. I have looked at lots of other makes so am open to suggestions.

So Fierce computers 210320 and Fierce computers 214914

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/like/ULTRA-FAST-Quadcore-16GB-1TB-Desktop-Gaming-PC-Computer-4GHz-AMD-210320/141790453456?hlpht=true&ops=true&viphx=1&_trksid=p5197.c100068.m2280&_trkparms=ao%3D1%26asc%3D20140211130857%26meid%3D79ba33581f4a4fb0992647da641eaa7b%26pid%3D100068%26clkid%3D1698046758202203269&_qi=RTM2063723

or

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/FAST-Intel-Quad-Core-Gaming-PC-Bundle-i5-4460-R7-240-8GB-RAM-1TB-214914-/131659282144?hash=item1ea78136e0:g:VtYAAOSwp5JWUvAM

Hope you can help.

enkoda

The AMD system looks like it has no graphics card, whereas the Intel one does.
The Intel's i5 processor is almost 20% faster on paper than the AMD offering.
Don't let the 16GB lure of the AMD machine sway you (I game, process video, edit multiple 18MP RAW camera images, edit 90+ minute audio files all within 8GB and never had an issue).

Or how about this:

http://www.ebuyer.com/727908-zoostorm-tempest-gaming-desktop-pc-7260-5170

Has a 2TB drive and a GTX960 for £499.98 (only 1 year warranty though)? The GTX960 wipes the floor with the R7 240 too.

spaccanaut

Hardcore gamers prefer CRT monitors to flatscreen ones.

Fightsback

spaccanaut wrote: »

Hardcore gamers prefer CRT monitors to flatscreen ones.

^ ^

Is it kicking out time at the pub ?

Check watch, 11.30PM, yep.

Imnoexpert_2

Thanks for the heads up on the zoostorm. As you say a much better machine.

I had seen lots of zoostorm but not this one. Their website is pretty awful so relies on you looking at lots of retailers and I looked at Amazon not ebuyer

The ebuyer website is a bit strange. Does it come with KB and Mouse? Says different things on the same page. It also doesn't have wi fi which the fierce does.

Oh and adding a monitor pushes the price up a tiny bit and adds a bit more hassle.

Cycrow

enkoda wrote: »

The AMD system looks like it has no graphics card, whereas the Intel one does.
The Intel's i5 processor is almost 20% faster on paper than the AMD offering.
Don't let the 16GB lure of the AMD machine sway you (I game, process video, edit multiple 18MP RAW camera images, edit 90+ minute audio files all within 8GB and never had an issue).

The AMD system is an APU, it has both a CPU and GPU. And the A10 is better than the dedicated A7 240. So for gaming, it'll actually be better. But its more difficult to upgrade in the future.

So i would go for the i5, then you can always replace the GPU (and install more memory) later on when its needed