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Reply to: Gaming PC advice

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Previously on "Gaming PC advice"

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  • voodoo1927
    replied
    My son is a fortnite PS4 user (but uses a keyboard and mouse instead of the controller)

    When he and I looked at getting specs on a PC about a month or so ago we were looking just under the 1k mark, that was with parts sourced from ebuyer. We no longer have 1k to spend on a gaming PC...so we he's back using the PS, I did upgrade the virgin media fibre broadband though so it's fast as F now

    Leave a comment:


  • Spoiler
    replied
    Originally posted by ladymuck View Post
    For a hobbyist gamer, I would do as mentioned above. Look at the specs of a current, rather juicy, game and invest most of your money in the graphics card. RAM would come next and CPU is a lower contender. I would also invest in a decent motherboard as that is ultimately the backbone of the whole set up. If you spec towards the top end of the range suggested on a current game, you could eke a good couple of years of decent play out of it without needing to upgrade. If you've gotten a decent motherboard, you should be able to get away with just upgrading the graphics card to get another couple of years of play before you'd need to redo the whole lot.
    Looking at Valorant, it recommends this:
    • Graphics: Nvidia GTX 1050 Ti (alt: GT 730)
    • RAM: 4GB+
    • CPU: Intel core i5 4460 (alt: i3 4150)

    Leave a comment:


  • ladymuck
    replied
    Originally posted by wattaj View Post
    Ok, I'm curious: why would a gaming PC be necessarily better that a top-flight console?

    Is it merely the option to upgrade components as and when required? If so, a brand new console every couple of years would appear to be the more economical choice.
    Personally? I have never owned a console and when I used to do a lot of gaming it was therefore PC all the way.

    A PC appealed to my multi-purpose tendencies, as it can be used for more than one thing. I don't like how a new console comes out every few years with minimal backwards compatibility (maybe that's changed) so you either have to keep the old kit for playing an old game or lose it. You simply don't have that issue on a PC. You can upgrade the innards and still be able to play Theme Hospital on it (I lost my CD of that, if anyone has a copy!). A PC can also be used to emulate consoles and other platforms thus extending its multi-functional capabilities.

    Then there's the geeky aspect of game performance, finding the perfect combination of motherboard, graphics, CPU and RAM to build the best rig. I used to be hot on that as I was upgrading about every 9 months at one point but I haven't followed technology developments for a while since I fell out of the habit of gaming.

    For a hobbyist gamer, I would do as mentioned above. Look at the specs of a current, rather juicy, game and invest most of your money in the graphics card. RAM would come next and CPU is a lower contender. I would also invest in a decent motherboard as that is ultimately the backbone of the whole set up. If you spec towards the top end of the range suggested on a current game, you could eke a good couple of years of decent play out of it without needing to upgrade. If you've gotten a decent motherboard, you should be able to get away with just upgrading the graphics card to get another couple of years of play before you'd need to redo the whole lot.

    Leave a comment:


  • Spoiler
    replied
    Originally posted by wattaj View Post
    That would tend to suggest that Master Spoiler just wants something with flashy lights like all their mates. Surely then it's just a numbers game of steady rising component serial numbers until one of them appears to be top dog among their gang?

    Seems like an expensive way to float up the social ladder... but then I don't remember what it was like to be a teenager any more.
    Not sure, it seems mainly related to the Twitch thing as the PC talk only started just after using it.
    It's his cash, and I try not to get too involved in what they spend their money on even if it seems a waste (within reason).

    Leave a comment:


  • wattaj
    replied
    Originally posted by Spoiler View Post
    I think it's something to do with Twitch as he's just started using that - I think there's more functionality on the PC than the PS4??
    Ah, ok... but: Help: Twitch on PS4


    -- Edit --
    Sorry, I missed the "more functionality" bit. Apolz.
    Last edited by wattaj; 17 April 2020, 11:18. Reason: Further clarity.

    Leave a comment:


  • wattaj
    replied
    Originally posted by Spoiler View Post
    Pointless. The snowflake has less of a clue than me and I' wouldn't trust his advice
    That would tend to suggest that Master Spoiler just wants something with flashy lights like all their mates. Surely then it's just a numbers game of steady rising component serial numbers until one of them appears to be top dog among their gang?

    Seems like an expensive way to float up the social ladder... but then I don't remember what it was like to be a teenager any more.

    Leave a comment:


  • Spoiler
    replied
    Originally posted by wattaj View Post
    Ok, I'm curious: why would a gaming PC be necessarily better that a top-flight console?

    Is it merely the option to upgrade components as and when required? If so, a brand new console every couple of years would appear to be the more economical choice.
    I think it's something to do with Twitch as he's just started using that - I think there's more functionality on the PC than the PS4??

    Leave a comment:


  • Spoiler
    replied
    Originally posted by caffeine man View Post
    Get your kid to do some research.
    Pointless. The snowflake has less of a clue than me and I wouldn't trust his advice
    Last edited by Spoiler; 17 April 2020, 11:13.

    Leave a comment:


  • wattaj
    replied
    Ok, I'm curious: why would a gaming PC be necessarily better that a top-flight console?

    Is it merely the option to upgrade components as and when required? If so, a brand new console every couple of years would appear to be the more economical choice.

    Leave a comment:


  • caffeine man
    replied
    Originally posted by Spoiler View Post
    My kid wants to get a gaming PC and unfortunately, he has some money saved up so keeps pestering me about it but I know nada about these.

    At the moment he mainly plays Fortnite on the PS4 and streams to Twitch so the PC just needs to do something similar.

    There's some cheap stuff on Amazon ~£265 which I'm guessing isn't great - example spec:
    • AMD A6 9500 4.1GHz Turbo Dual Core Processor - Socket AM4
    • Onboard ATI Radeon R5 Graphics
    • USB 3.0, 120GB SSDB Hard Drive
    • 8GB 2400MHz DDR4 RAM
    • No OS


    I took a look on gumtree as hopefully some sap has bought one last year and already upgrading. Heres one I found for ~£700
    • Intel Core i7 7700T ES CPU
    • 32GB Memory
    • 1.5TB Total Hard Disk space
    • 480GB SSD
    • Dedicated 8GB AMD Radeon R9 390X Graphics Card
    • Windows 10 Pro Preinstalled


    Or should I be looking on Scan or Overclockers for this ?

    Edit: Quick check on overclockers forum and I found this advice:
    My basket at Overclockers UK:
    1 x AMD Ryzen 5 3600 Six Core 4.2GHz (Socket AM4) Processor - Retail= £179.99
    1 x MSI B450 GAMING PRO CARBON AC (Socket AM4) DDR4 ATX Motherboard= £128.99
    1 x Zalman T7 Mid-Tower ATX Case - Black Window= £29.99
    1 x Team Group Dark T-Force 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 PC4-25600C16 3200MHz Dual Channel Kit - Black/Grey (TDGED4= £68.99
    1 x Powercolor Radeon RX 5700 XT Dual Fan 8GB GDDR6 PCI-Express Graphics Card= £329.99
    1 x WD Blue SN550 500GB NVME M.2 2280 PCIe Gen3 Solid State Drive (WDS500G2B0C)= £71.99
    Total: £809.94 (includes shipping: £0.00)

    Thanks
    Get your kid to do some research.

    -Most of the load on a gaming PC goes on the GPU / graphics card. You don't need to max out the CPU.
    -most games quote minimum and high end spec. Base your spec on a recent popular game title
    -use benchmarking tools to compare the performance of CPUs and GPUs:
    *geekbench.com is a useful for comparing CPU performance by model.
    *useful GPU benchmarks are futuremark, and 3dmark
    -you also need to know the resolution your son is gaming at on the monitor e.g 1080P or 4K usually. These have a big impact on the GPU needed.

    Leave a comment:


  • Spoiler
    started a topic Gaming PC advice

    Gaming PC advice

    My kid wants to get a gaming PC and unfortunately, he has some money saved up so keeps pestering me about it but I know nada about these.

    At the moment he mainly plays Fortnite on the PS4 and streams to Twitch so the PC just needs to do something similar.

    There's some cheap stuff on Amazon ~£265 which I'm guessing isn't great - example spec:
    • AMD A6 9500 4.1GHz Turbo Dual Core Processor - Socket AM4
    • Onboard ATI Radeon R5 Graphics
    • USB 3.0, 120GB SSDB Hard Drive
    • 8GB 2400MHz DDR4 RAM
    • No OS


    I took a look on gumtree as hopefully some sap has bought one last year and already upgrading. Heres one I found for ~£700
    • Intel Core i7 7700T ES CPU
    • 32GB Memory
    • 1.5TB Total Hard Disk space
    • 480GB SSD
    • Dedicated 8GB AMD Radeon R9 390X Graphics Card
    • Windows 10 Pro Preinstalled


    Or should I be looking on Scan or Overclockers for this ?

    Edit: Quick check on overclockers forum and I found this advice:
    My basket at Overclockers UK:
    1 x AMD Ryzen 5 3600 Six Core 4.2GHz (Socket AM4) Processor - Retail= £179.99
    1 x MSI B450 GAMING PRO CARBON AC (Socket AM4) DDR4 ATX Motherboard= £128.99
    1 x Zalman T7 Mid-Tower ATX Case - Black Window= £29.99
    1 x Team Group Dark T-Force 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 PC4-25600C16 3200MHz Dual Channel Kit - Black/Grey (TDGED4= £68.99
    1 x Powercolor Radeon RX 5700 XT Dual Fan 8GB GDDR6 PCI-Express Graphics Card= £329.99
    1 x WD Blue SN550 500GB NVME M.2 2280 PCIe Gen3 Solid State Drive (WDS500G2B0C)= £71.99
    Total: £809.94 (includes shipping: £0.00)

    Thanks
    Last edited by Spoiler; 17 April 2020, 10:25.

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