Gaming PC help

scottduffy

scottduffy

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Hi Guys,

I am looking to pick up a gaming pc for my son and i am lost. I would like to spend around 1k and when i was looking at sites including chillblast i was getting confused. Loads of the machines are i3 chips and i always thought I'd be looking at an i7 or so. Can someone recommend one for me please?

It'll be used for a bit of everything but needs to be on the money for gaming.
 
I suspect the graphics card is possibly more important than the processor, though not sure I'd want an i3. I don't know enough about games spec machines to advise better.
 
The top i5 CPU`s are considered best for gaming but of course that bumps up the price.

i7 are not needed for gaming because the games dont make use the extra cores and threads if i remember.

Sadly Graphics card have gone up and up and now a mid range card are eye watering if you can even find one.

I suspect a gaming PC for £1000 is not all that great.
 
Have just been through the process of buying a new p.c, while not for gaming I was looking at something aith a similar spec minus the graphics card. You can see my thread here. https://www.talkphotography.co.uk/threads/need-a-new-windows-desktop-computer.721926/

I spoke to all of the major vendors:

PC Specialist
CCL
Overclockers
Chillblast
Scan
Novatech
Box
There is loads more I can't remember.

Right now is a bad time to buy as due to issues with Brexit causing delivery issues and demand being huge at the moment because of recent new processors and graphics cards being launched and also people mining for crypto. This means stock is very limited, expensive and lead times to get something built are ridiculously long around 4-6 weeks for the vast majority.

I ended up going with a smaller company called Punch Technology while they weren't the cheapest they were there or there abouts but I liked the fact that they could ship within 2 weeks if I paid a little extra and that everytime I called them I was able to get through quickly to an actual person. My new P.C is supposed to be arriving Monday all being well with the dpd. I found them to be very good they even tried to talk me into spending less not more and they absolutely know what they are talking about. I would suggest giving them a call for advice at the very least they will be able to provide you with a rough spec that will be suitable for the games your son will be playing. Pc Specialist are also good this way too, but have much longer lead times.
 
scottduffy said:
I am looking to pick up a gaming pc for my son and i am lost. I would like to spend around 1k and when i was looking at sites including chillblast i was getting confused. Loads of the machines are i3 chips and i always thought I'd be looking at an i7 or so.
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Maybe so - of course there are "gaming" machines and GAMING machines....

But also, lots of games lean on the GPU really heavily. I've seen mine sit there with the GPU going flat out with the fans screaming and the spendy Ryzen 9 sitting there at about 10%.

But exactly what @f/2.8 said - it's a terrible time to buy a gaming machine because graphics cards in in crazy short supply. Also, there are practically no consoles about so people are buying PCs. If you can wait, wait. If you can't then maybe look at something prebuilt.
 
The term gaming PC is a bit like saying I want a camera & lens for £1000 without specifying what you intend to do with your new Kit. I suggest it is best to look at the required/recommended specification for the game(s) you wish to play or I can almost guarantee you will be disappointed with the PC and Game. £1000 for a games machine is on the thin end, typical low end prices are nearer £1500 (especially at the moment when supplies from China are very limited). I have several customers currently waiting for Graphics Cards before I can deliver their nice new PC's.
At the moment you are better starting at the graphics cards that are in stock and building around those cards. Good Luck !
 
is building one out of the question? Maybe you know someone that could help? You can get a lot more if you build it yourself. I have an i5 9400f 16gb of ram and a 2070rtx gpu. I had a 1050ti originally and it cost me £500, though I did have a power supply already. I upgraded to the 2070 for £300 a couple of years ago
 
Just looked at Punch Technology as suggest by f/2.8 and their Sapphire at £981 looks a good bet assuming they can actually deliver, but again check your game requirements first.
 
Of course it depends what you want to run.....but lots and lots of people are unloading last gen Playstations and XBoxes right now. You could pick one up with a few decent games for £200 ish which is about the *extra* that you'll pay for a decent graphics card over usual rates right now. And a last gen console will play most stuff better than a 1K PC.

Add on PSNow or Game Pass and wait out the graphics card drought. You will be able to flog it for 80 - 100.
 
My son has a ps4 just now as he's not interested in the ps5. It's more that every guy he watches on YouTube playing Fortnite seems to be using a pc. He is telling me that keyboard and mouse gives them an advantage over controller players. I am wondering now whether you can use a keyboard and mouse to play games via ps4 or ps5. Something I'm away to look up. Thanks for all the replies.
 
scottduffy said:
My son has a ps4 just now as he's not interested in the ps5. It's more that every guy he watches on YouTube playing Fortnite seems to be using a pc. He is telling me that keyboard and mouse gives them an advantage over controller players. I am wondering now whether you can use a keyboard and mouse to play games via ps4 or ps5. Something I'm away to look up. Thanks for all the replies.
Click to expand...

just plug them in...
 
scottduffy said:
My son has a ps4 just now as he's not interested in the ps5. It's more that every guy he watches on YouTube playing Fortnite seems to be using a pc. He is telling me that keyboard and mouse gives them an advantage over controller players. I am wondering now whether you can use a keyboard and mouse to play games via ps4 or ps5. Something I'm away to look up. Thanks for all the replies.
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If he just wants to play fortnite I would have said £1000 is plenty if not slightly overkill, I don’t play it but I’m pretty sure it’s not a very demanding game, I might be wrong though.
 
Aye Fortnite isn't very demanding, I installed it for a while to team up with my son on his Xbox. My eight year old i7 3770k with a GTX 1660 Super ran it super smooth.

But it's worth thinking about future proofing. AMD have taken my interest, especially the 5600X processor. They tend to run cooler as well. But as said it's the graphics cards which are difficult to come by just now, but on the plus side they are so easy to upgrade you could get away with a lesser card to get him by and then upgrade the graphics card later (make sure you have a decent PSU which can handle the more powerful cards later on).
 
scottduffy said:
My son has a ps4 just now as he's not interested in the ps5. It's more that every guy he watches on YouTube playing Fortnite seems to be using a pc. He is telling me that keyboard and mouse gives them an advantage over controller players. I am wondering now whether you can use a keyboard and mouse to play games via ps4 or ps5. Something I'm away to look up. Thanks for all the replies.
Click to expand...
Yes, ps4 supports a gaming keyboard and mouse for fortnite
 
andrewc said:
just plug them in...
Click to expand...
Keyboard yes, mouse no. The have has to specifically support a mouse to work otherwise the mouse just simulates the joysticks.

Regards the gaming PC Fortnite isn't very demanding you'll get away with a fairly old low level graphics card.
You don't mention anything about the monitor though, what resolution or framrate you want to game at.
If you're happy with 1080 at 30fps any old pc will do.
If you want 1440 or 4k at 100+ FPS your going to need to spend more money.
Personally I went with AMD this time around and an Nvidia 3070 FE.

To me a gaming pc isn't just about the graphics card is about realising you don't need the top CPUs is i5 is 99% as good as an i7 for gaming so your better saving the money and spending that on a better graphics card, you only put an i7 in if you can max out the GPU.
At the minute 16Gb is a safe bet for RAM.
 
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PS4 will let you use pretty much any keyboard and mouse for Fortnite so you could get up and running for as little as free :)

Fortnite: How to use mouse and keyboard on PS4 (teknologya.com)

According to the specs, you'll end up playing against people with similar kit (keyboard vs keyboard, controller vs controller). There are also adapters that you can get which allow a k&m to mimic a controller so it looks like you are using a controller but actually have a mouse. These are widely regarded as cheating and some games will ban you if they catch you (there are rumours that this goes on a lot on some games at the higher levels)
 
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