Gaming PC retailers

Delta Skies

Delta Skies

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My youngest is wanting a gaming PC and has been looking at Overclockers, CCL, Ebuyer. He's keen to get a high-ish spec intel, graphics card and even water cooled let alone he has his eye's on a white case with a see through panel. His budget is about £700 but seems to be growing by the day :eek:. He's seen some component deals on Amazon (a few of those buy these two and save £'s) but I think he'd be better off having it pre-built and tested.

Does anyone have any recommendations for any retailers (high-street or online) that I could point him towards as alternatives to the above?
 
The best and cheapest way of buying a gaming pc is to go to a independent computer shop tell them what you want and give them a budget.
Most of the people running these computer shops are gamers anyway so they can give the best advice.
I would avoid the gaming magazines because they tend to charge over the odds just because they are called gaming pc's.
Water cooling a pc is a bit of a gimmick IMO unless you have a high end rig costing silly money.
 
I'm not a gamer but I was fed up of Lightroom on laptops so I bought a gaming pc, 2nd hand off eBay to teach Lightroom a lesson! I thought I'd get better value by buying 2nd hand and I did but I bought a recognised branded system rather than one somebody had knocked together themselves. I then over clocked both the cup and gpu. It will run any game at ultra settings too if I ever fancy a dabble!
 
I bought all my stuff from CCLOnline..

When I had a problem with one stick of ram, it was swapped straight over, no questions asked..

It'll pay to shop around (As always) but with an actual shop at least you get to speak with a person..

Would you build it yourself?
 
We are lucky we have a very good local company by us who built a very high spec system for my son and when we had and issue it was sorted the same day, no messing about sending it back, just dropped it of in the morning ready by tea time.

So my advice is do a bit of googling and see if you can find a local shop near you.
 
I built my PC with all components bought from Ccl. I now tend to use them for all my PC needs . If you don't fancy building yourself you could always have a word with them and have one built to spec . Just to warn you though my friend had them build him one a few years back and it ended up around the 1k mark :oops:
 
I've always built my own but very nearly went with scan last time. A high degree of customisation and it should work together so is less of a headache.
 
Another for scan they will build or do the parts for building mine has been flying for the last couple of years they built for me
 
I had problems with Dino PC and would not recommend. Didn't deliver on promises, and lied about the status of the order. Ended up cancelling.

Finally ended up going with Computer Planet and they were brill. Kept me informed and delivered when they said they would.

For my next rig though, I'm going to go through https://uk.pcpartpicker.com where you can build the machine on their site and they will go-compare style find the cheapest places for each component. It's a good start for a self-build if you're going that route.
 
Just let him build his own. The educational and fun value starts with getting the component list together exactly how you want it. Then shop around for the best deals on it. And putting it all together.

Don't skimp on a good quality and high efficiency power supply. Swap out the stock fans that come with many cases for nice and quiet ones. And just enjoy it. It is really hard to get it wrong, don't force anything and it will only fit one way.

Oh and don't forget about static ;)
 
Built my own many years ago. Loved the experience and learnt a lot!

Ended up with a PC that was top spec (for the time), and cost less than 50% of what it would from a shop.

It only gets tricky when you start introducing watercooling etc, but even that isn't rocket science.
 
You wont get proper water cooling within that £700 budget as well as a top pc. If he just wants the ready made water cooling kits then he might, but i don't rate them at all.
£700 isnt a lot for a full system, does it include a monitor, keyboard and mouse or just the desktop? Even then i think i would struggle.
 
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Overclockers, Scan and CCL are all good companies to buy from (bought a lot from all of them).

As someone mentioned above, don't skimp on the PSU (can't go wrong with Corsair).

I agree with getting him to build his own - loads of great video tutorials on YouTube,

Be a little wary of water cooling. Up until yesterday I would have sung it's praises but if it goes wrong it can go very wrong. Here's what happened if your interested:

My PC runs 24/7 but somehow it had been switched off at the plug during the weekend. I switched it back on yesterday morning and about 30 minutes later there was a noise like a large animal was caught in part of my house. It was the pump on my PC. No harm done, I switched the system off and went in the other room to use another PC. I was a bit annoyed as I'd now have to buy another pump.

After a few hours I had the "maybe I can fix it" thought so went back through. Somehow the PC had switched itself back on and with no pump running it cooked it. The clear acrylic tubing was white, water was spraying out all over the place where the rubber seals had melted, the pipes were so hot I couldn't touch them. I thought I'd lost the whole (very expensive) PC. Luckily in the end the components seem fine and all still work so all I've lost is £600 worth of water cooling and my custom case (damaged taking the system apart).

I'm now going back to air cooling.
 
Or as a halfway house there are hybrid sealed water coolers. I've got one of those and it seems to work fine to get my first generation i7 well over 5Ghz and stable.
 
Wissel said:
Overclockers, Scan and CCL are all good companies to buy from (bought a lot from all of them).

As someone mentioned above, don't skimp on the PSU (can't go wrong with Corsair).

I agree with getting him to build his own - loads of great video tutorials on YouTube,

Be a little wary of water cooling. Up until yesterday I would have sung it's praises but if it goes wrong it can go very wrong. Here's what happened if your interested:

My PC runs 24/7 but somehow it had been switched off at the plug during the weekend. I switched it back on yesterday morning and about 30 minutes later there was a noise like a large animal was caught in part of my house. It was the pump on my PC. No harm done, I switched the system off and went in the other room to use another PC. I was a bit annoyed as I'd now have to buy another pump.

After a few hours I had the "maybe I can fix it" thought so went back through. Somehow the PC had switched itself back on and with no pump running it cooked it. The clear acrylic tubing was white, water was spraying out all over the place where the rubber seals had melted, the pipes were so hot I couldn't touch them. I thought I'd lost the whole (very expensive) PC. Luckily in the end the components seem fine and all still work so all I've lost is £600 worth of water cooling and my custom case (damaged taking the system apart).

I'm now going back to air cooling.
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To be fair its a bit silly running water cooling without a thermal cutoff, if my cpu or gpu reach a set temperature the pc shuts down. Plenty of temperature monitoring programs for free that do it. Can even do it based on the pumps rpm sensor if you want so if it doesnt see an rpm speed it shuts down.

The all in one watercooling i just don't see the point, not as quiet as watercooling done properly and no cooler than a decent air cooler.
 
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robj20 said:
To be fair its a bit silly running water cooling without a thermal cutoff, if my cpu or gpu reach a set temperature the pc shuts down. Plenty of temperature monitoring programs for free that do it. Can even do it based on the pumps rpm sensor if you want so if it doesnt see an rpm speed it shuts down.

The all in one watercooling i just don't see the point, not as quiet as watercooling done properly and no cooler than a decent air cooler.
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I had all that running - no idea what went wrong. I had the pump monitored, all temps monitored, everything you could think of monitored.

When the pump first went the PC shut down no problem. It was when it came back on (it stopped at the BIOS) that none of the sensors worked. I have no idea why. The pump was connected directly to the CPU fan header (exactly as it should be). Just pleased everything still works (as in CPU, MB etc). Really thought it was all fried.

So as mine was connected this way, I would imagine any proper loop or AIO could act the same way?

I agree that AIO watercoolers probably aren't worth it. Going with Noctua air cooling again now in a very airy case. This was the PC by the way - not any more ;)

IMG_0106.jpg


For a normal gaming rig water cooling just isn't worth it IMO. My PC is a couple of years old but the newest Intel processors run quite a bit cooler and don't need extreme cooling.
 
Agreed.

Anyway, so OP what sort of specs is he after? Definitly agree with self building even if it costs more, you learn a lot the first time you build one.
To keep initial costs down you could leave the graphics card untill later really easy to add one at a later date, just make sure the motherboard and cpu have onboard graphics, so are really capable these days and will run a lot of games on low-medium settings.
 
Thing is if you want things like watercooling there is no point buying a pre-built system.
They simply will not warranty it as they know you will be overclocking.

Even overclockers sell fully maxed chips with only a 30 day warranty.
forget watercooling and just buy a nice fully built one for the warranty
I think companies like CCL online are as good as it gets.

For £700 you aren't even going to get beyond a decent i5 and a GTX970, still VERY respectable tho.
 
Thanks for all the replies guys. I've been feeding my lad all the suggestions. It seems the more he's now read about water cooling the more he's been put off by the worry of leaks and obviously whether they are actually worth it.

robj20 said:
Agreed.

Anyway, so OP what sort of specs is he after? Definitly agree with self building even if it costs more, you learn a lot the first time you build one.
To keep initial costs down you could leave the graphics card untill later really easy to add one at a later date, just make sure the motherboard and cpu have onboard graphics, so are really capable these days and will run a lot of games on low-medium settings.
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I'll have to get more info from him about the exact specs. He's currently got a decent PC - or at least it was when I bought it - with a good graphics card. Maybe we need to think again about the self build option. I work it IT (systems rather than hardware) so I can always get some local advice from the PC guys. We're also not far from CCL so I think we'll pop over on Saturday to have a chat.
 
I've found novatech normally quit competitive as well. And for quiet and energy efficient components quietpc has never given me reason to complain either.
 
Thanks for the further responses.

One thing I forgot to mention re: budget (which might be growing by the look of it :confused:) is that the spec doesn't need to include monitors, keyboard, mouse, or even Windows. He's also talking about transferring over his hard drive although wants to have a SSD.
 
Delta Skies said:
Thanks for the further responses.

One thing I forgot to mention re: budget (which might be growing by the look of it :confused:) is that the spec doesn't need to include monitors, keyboard, mouse, or even Windows. He's also talking about transferring over his hard drive although wants to have a SSD.
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What do you think your maximum budget will be Peter? I've just costed out what I'd go for if I wanted a gaming rig and it comes to £850 without the case. This is for a very good, fast and expandable system with all great parts. If you can give a maximum budget I'm happy to spec a system if you want.
 
Wissel said:
What do you think your maximum budget will be Peter? I've just costed out what I'd go for if I wanted a gaming rig and it comes to £850 without the case. This is for a very good, fast and expandable system with all great parts. If you can give a maximum budget I'm happy to spec a system if you want.
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That's really good of you David.

George and I have been to CCL today armed with some specs he’d come up with and returned with a change of a few bits to ensure compatibility. Some of the critical items were out of stock as well so he’s been pulling together his “final” spec. If you're wondering about the colour scheme it matches his desk. It seems the budget has risen LOL The below is either £855 or £787 depending on the graphics card. Any feedback on the spec would be appreciated:

Motherboard - MSI Z97S SLI Krait Edition Intel Socket 1150
CPU - Intel Core i7-4790 3.6GHz Quad Core (Socket 1150)
RAM - HyperX FURY Black 8GB (2x 4GB) 1866MHz DDR3 RAM
Graphics - ASUS NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 Strix 4GB Card
Or - MSI NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960 4GB Graphics Card
SSD - Samsung EVO 850 2.5" 250GB SATA III SSD
PSU - Corsair CS650M 650W Power Supply 80 Plus Gold
Case - NZXT H440 Gaming White Midi Tower Case
 
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That's practically what I'd have gone for Peter.
Not used a lot of MSI boards but they seem to have a good name, an 1150 system makes sense as a little more bang for buck than the newest Skylake (besides there's nothing wrong with Haswell at all),that processor is great but the i5 4690K would give about the same with a simple overclock and save £50, the Ram is very good, both graphics cards are great but the 970 will give better gaming performance, the SSD is exactly what I use in 3 of my own PC's, the PSU is a good choice and the case is a personal choice anyway.
 
Wissel said:
That's practically what I'd have gone for Peter.
Not used a lot of MSI boards but they seem to have a good name, an 1150 system makes sense as a little more bang for buck than the newest Skylake (besides there's nothing wrong with Haswell at all),that processor is great but the i5 4690K would give about the same with a simple overclock and save £50, the Ram is very good, both graphics cards are great but the 970 will give better gaming performance, the SSD is exactly what I use in 3 of my own PC's, the PSU is a good choice and the case is a personal choice anyway.
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Thanks David et al. It's now a case of us finding the best prices across CCL and co.
 
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