Gaming PC

PierremontQuaker03

I am looking to build one, budget around 1k - has anyone got any good links tips about getting the best spec for this amount of money? Thanks

Neil_Jones

What games do you want to play?  Spec the computer around the most intensive game you play.  Pointless building a machine specced for F1 2020 if your own gaming consists primarily of old DOS games.

Also do not skimp on the power supply, particularly in terms of brand and wattage.   A no-budget white box brand that claims to be able to put out 750w probably can't.

forgotmyname

F1 2020 doesn't need high end equipment like some other games.  It will play well on 5 year old hardware.

Other fairly recent games may run badly on a 5 year old machine.  Issue with building a gaming PC now

is most decent hardware is overpriced or out of stock.

Who wants a £300 3 year old video card when a new gen £300 card is more than double the speed. Problem is

nobody has stock of a new gen card.  Nephew spent almost £2000 on a video card because nothing else was

available.

[Deleted User]

PierremontQuaker03 said:

I am looking to build one, budget around 1k - has anyone got any good links tips about getting the best spec for this amount of money? Thanks

Is the £1k just for the PC itself or will you be needing a monitors / keyboard / mouse etc?

A great website is:
https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/

This allows you to play with different builds within your budget to see what works and also has some example configurations. It will tell you if there are compatibility issues as well, even minor things.

My tips are:

• For a gaming PC, build the spec around the graphics card. 30% of budget on this.  This is a good link to see performance vs price https://www.videocardbenchmark.net/gpu_value.html
• AMD Radeon RX5700 XT or Nvidia GTX 1660 TI are good examples in your budget as a starter to compare against. 
• Decide whether to go the AMD or Intel route for the rest of the build. AMD generally offer better value for money in your price range. https://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu_value_available.html
• CPU - AMD Ryzen 5 3600 is currently best bang for buck in your budget
• Motherboard - spend about £100 - ASRock B550 is a good example to compare against.
• 16GB ram - make sure you research the speed compatible with your processor / motherboard and get maximum you can afford DDR4-3200 CL16 as a starting point
• Hard drive / SSD - NVME M.2 - eg HP EX920 1TB is good value
• Corsair case and power supplies are great quality - 500W will be enough for the above

All the above can be purchased for £1000.

My last word on this is wait if possible, I've been following PC builds closely this start of 2020 as I want to build a new one, pandemic started and prices shot up. Thought I'd wait till late 2020 as the next gen video cards and processors were coming so the last gen would be cheaper but actually all hardware prices are up due to shortages so I'm hanging fire for now, maybe mid-year will look again.

PierremontQuaker03

Thanks everyone, I am looking to build a PC for my son and he wants to Play Planet Zoo - which I understand requires quite a powerful machine. The 1k budget is for the build.  The Monitors, keyboard etc is not included in this and I might go second hand say for the monitor:
Th system requirements are as follows:

CPU: Intel i7-4770k or AMD Ryzen 5 1600
RAM: 16 GB 
HDD: 16 GB available space
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 (8 GB) or AMD Radeon RX 580 (8 GB)
OS: Windows 10 64 bit
DirectX: Version 11
Screen Resolution: 1080p
Network: Broadband Internet connection

But I didn't want to go and get this spec if there is something slightly better for a little more money.

[Deleted User]

This spec will easily play Planet Zoo, it is my £1000 build that I've been playing around with for 12 months or so waiting to decide whether to buy it.


Note this doesn't include Windows 10 operating system in the price so you may want to factor that in.

A_Lert

The website Logical Increments has example builds at all price points. Treat them as a starting point - you might change components to better fit your needs, get better value, or for personal taste. Planet Zoo is a CPU intensive game, so you could consider a high-tier CPU paired with a graphics card a tier or two down.

JustAnotherSaver

What's the deal with supply issues? Have seen a few videos on YouTube complaining about out of stock problems.

bob99999

Hi
My son's favourite games are Planet Zoo and Jurassic World Evolution.
Plays on a old Dell 7020 Tower i5-4590, SSD, 16gb. With a 1060 6gb card , £130 off facebook about a year ago, but prices seem crazy now. No problems as yet.
This system should last for a while until he moves onto more intensive games.

neilmcl

JustAnotherSaver said:

What's the deal with supply issues? Have seen a few videos on YouTube complaining about out of stock problems.

Mmm I wonder, could it be anything to do with a certain global pandemic 😉

serdaka

Gaming laptop with a £1K budget is not a future proof. I would but a laptop and Geforce Now membership you can play all the games with highest settings without heating