If I built a desktop....

FlyingPotato659

I am planning to build a desktop and would love opinions of computer experts! I have a bugdet of somewhere between £300 for the important stuff such as cpu, ram and graphics card.

Here is a specification I was looking at so want to see if it is recommended

CPU: Intel Core i3 - 7100 3.90Ghz (should this be intel core i5 instead for better gaming performances?

Ram: 8GB (The operating system will be 64 bit for sure)

Graphics Card: Nivida GTX 1050 ti

I believe these are the important stuff as I am just wondering if this is good enough for gaming wise or would it be better to get an i5 instead of i3. Thanks!

phoebebebe13

The game requires and i5 quad. Your case and cooling is just as important and so is power supply and cpu cooler. I dont know that 300 pounds is enough. Speak to user @chesterbigbird she can help yu with a partpicker list

chesterbigbird

Finbar659 wrote: »

I am planning to build a desktop and would love opinions of computer experts! I have a bugdet of somewhere between £300 for the important stuff such as cpu, ram and graphics card.

Here is a specification I was looking at so want to see if it is recommended

CPU: Intel Core i3 - 7100 3.90Ghz (should this be intel core i5 instead for better gaming performances?

Ram: 8GB (The operating system will be 64 bit for sure)

Graphics Card: Nivida GTX 1050 ti

I believe these are the important stuff as I am just wondering if this is good enough for gaming wise or would it be better to get an i5 instead of i3. Thanks!

What is your total budget? As you also need to factor in the power supply, motherboard ,Hard drive ,case and cooling.
As for a graphics card,
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01M27X994/ref=psdc_430524031_t3_B01MG15JZS
the i3 is too low and you would need the i5
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Intel-i5-7500-Frequency-Cache-Processor/dp/B01MZZJ1P0/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1506473111&sr=8-2&keywords=intel+core+i5
That there is already over the 300.
If you can tell me your total budget i can do a pcpartpicker list for you if you like?

FlyingPotato659

@phoebebebe13 @chesterbigbird sorry for that confusion - I meant £300 for those three important parts - CPU, Ram & Memory but my overall budget for the whole desktop including motherboard, CPU cooler, power supply etc would be ideally £600 but I can accept £650 max!

I kind of thought i3 cpu would be too poor for gaming so will plan to go for i5

phoebebebe13

@finebar659 in your budget you may have to go AMD. Intel/Nvidia costs more. You need to factor in the cost , case, cpu cooler, power supply, motherboard, CPU, GPU, ram, wifi if you need that.

You might be better off buying a computer on amazon for that price. UK has allot of custom desktops on amazon. I know Fierce PC gives a 3 year warranty too

phoebebebe13

PS if you buy off the shelf make sure you at least get a 500 watt power supply

phoebebebe13

@Finbar659 forgot to tell you when you add in the price for all the hardware you also need a code for windows. Just for windows is around 100 pounds so that leaves you with 550 pounds for all the hardware

Loanet

I've been doing more research lately, although Phoebe's still way smarter than me.

Personally, when I do this kind of thing I now plan for the future. What works today could be redundant in less than a year. i5 is becoming out of date itself - if you can afford it, go for i7. Also, browsing prices helps a LOT, because there tends to be very little difference between makes - a 1050Ti is about the same whether you get it from Gigabyte or Zotac, and 550W is 550W whether from Corsair or EVGA. People have preferences but honestly... there's not a whole lot of difference when you've got a budget.

Your power supply needs to be able to plug into your CD drive, and some makes like HP like to cheap you out by putting in laptop CD drives then calling it 'slimline' or something, so check that's a desktop CD drive coming in your new computer.

You can lower how much you pay by ordering some of your parts online, rather than in store, but don't forget to factor in that unless your friends know computers (in which case, why are you asking us?) you may need to pay somebody to put it together for you. They'll charge about £30 - £60, depending on how much you like to be ripped off.

You also may need to take into account whether you want to use your desktop ONLY for gaming, or if you will want to do any other work on it, and what work you'll be doing.

chesterbigbird

Finbar659 wrote: »

@phoebebebe13 @chesterbigbird sorry for that confusion - I meant £300 for those three important parts - CPU, Ram & Memory but my overall budget for the whole desktop including motherboard, CPU cooler, power supply etc would be ideally £600 but I can accept £650 max!

I kind of thought i3 cpu would be too poor for gaming so will plan to go for i5

Tomorrow i will make you a part list (It's late here and I'm in bed lol)

phoebebebe13

@Loanet chester has me beat. She has been building gaming computers for years. To buy custom name brand certified hardware costs more. Intel/Nvidia costs more than AMD. An i7 will cost more than an i5. This is even if your building yourself. OP does not have this kind of budget. OP would be better off getting a desktop off of Amazon.com with generic hardware for their budget and slowly upgrading it .They can get good deals with some desktops that may offer generic mixed with certified hardware otherwise they need to save until they can afford all the certified hardware they want.

From the questions they are asking i suspect though have not asked that @Finbar659 have never built a gaming computer before. Building a gaming computer is different than building a computer for general use like your HP. If you make a mistake building a gaming computer it can be costly. I have a custom gaming desktop that i had cyberpower build. Chester helped me pick out the custom hardware

chesterbigbird

Loanet wrote: »

I've been doing more research lately, although Phoebe's still way smarter than me.

Personally, when I do this kind of thing I now plan for the future. What works today could be redundant in less than a year. i5 is becoming out of date itself - if you can afford it, go for i7. Also, browsing prices helps a LOT, because there tends to be very little difference between makes - a 1050Ti is about the same whether you get it from Gigabyte or Zotac, and 550W is 550W whether from Corsair or EVGA. People have preferences but honestly... there's not a whole lot of difference when you've got a budget.

Your power supply needs to be able to plug into your CD drive, and some makes like HP like to cheap you out by putting in laptop CD drives then calling it 'slimline' or something, so check that's a desktop CD drive coming in your new computer.

You can lower how much you pay by ordering some of your parts online, rather than in store, but don't forget to factor in that unless your friends know computers (in which case, why are you asking us?) you may need to pay somebody to put it together for you. They'll charge about £30 - £60, depending on how much you like to be ripped off.

You also may need to take into account whether you want to use your desktop ONLY for gaming, or if you will want to do any other work on it, and what work you'll be doing.

I do have to disagree,
I5 is not outdated.. in fact it's the go to for allot of gamers, most games currently cannot make use of hyperthreaading (more cores) which the i7 has.. a overclocked i5 can be plenty poweful for even the most demanding games.
Graphics card models vary greatly.. some have better cooling and faster clock speeds some have higher boost clocks, and of course size factors in your decision.
Power supplies are the single most important part inside the pc, it's what runs everything.
Power supplies are DEFINITELY NOT ALL THE SAME. Buy a cheaper one and you can run the risk of not only crashing your system but also taking out other hardware such as expensive graphics cards. It's not only the wattage that needs to be considered, it needs to be higher efficiency and have quality capacitors and internal components. Systen stability is something that you want to achieve.

Loanet

Well to be honest I wasn't meaning that i5 is outdated NOW, just that everything gets outdated so quickly. I really can be stupidly vague sometimes.

Still, even brand names are in competition and should be price-compared between each other. The three brands to compare are Corsair, Seasonic, and EVGA. They're certainly not identical, but they're all safe and have a wide range of Wattage and modular/semi-modular options.

But you can totally trust me when I say, that it's terribly easy to get yourself ripped off, mostly because people in large stores will come up to you and say "So, are you looking for a custom computer" and start telling you that you need something like a 1080Ti for your PC to run something like TF2, or 16GB RAM for Stardew Valley, or a HP computer for any reason at all. Alternatively when somebody has a budget they'll go for the quick sale by offering you parts that have been lying around on their shelves for the last three years with the claim that it's 'good enough'. And it probably will be, but not in six months.

Half of them are on commission, and the other half have less idea of what they're talking about than I do. Usually less.

Try this site: https://elitegamingcomputers.com/the-best-gaming-power-supplies/

And even though building your computer isn't as horribly technically amazing as some people act like it is (13-year-olds build their own computers), you still need a buddy to show you the ropes when you're starting out, and if you don't have them, you're gonna have to pay somebody. I'm not the first person who needed to be taught how to plug in a graphics card.

phoebebebe13

@Loanet no offence but it is harder to build a gaming computer from scratch. @chesterbigbird knows what she is talking about and has been building for years You have a computer for general use that you upgraded. Gaming computers all the cooling and fans need to be in the correct places. You have cable management etc. We have seen several people mess up a gaming computer build. Mistakes can be quite costly. Gaming hardware is more expensive than general use hardware

Loanet

Hey, I think that, owning a HP computer and all, I have some experience with being ripped off.

LenaDieters11

@phoebebebe13 That is more than true and people should be cautious. My brother build his own and my gaming computer, but he told me stories of how he made a mistake on his first build and broke the motherboard and graphic card. Building a gaming computer seems easy once you are used to it, but is really difficult the first time.

Loanet

LenaDieters11 wrote: »

@phoebebebe13 That is more than true and people should be cautious. My brother build his own and my gaming computer, but he told me stories of how he made a mistake on his first build and broke the motherboard and graphic card. Building a gaming computer seems easy once you are used to it, but is really difficult the first time.

That's exactly what I said. You need somebody to show you the ropes before you move in on your own, and if you don't have them, you have to pay somebody for it. Which tacks another £30-£60 onto the price.

phoebebebe13

@LenaDieters11 I agree. . My advice for newbees is to buy a gaming (not general use) computer off the shelf and learn to slowly upgrade it until you are familiar with all the hardware if they want to learn to build an actual gaming computer .

phoebebebe13

Loanet wrote: »

Hey, I think that, owning a HP computer and all, I have some experience with being ripped off.

We don't ever recommend HP, DELL, Lenovo etc off the shelf computers. They are very hard to upgrade because most of the time they give you plum hardware and no room in the case for air flow and more fans. This is why chester advised you to get a mini card and keep an eye on heating issues while gaming on your hp. If you buy a gaming computer off the shelf they at least give you custom cases with good cooing in the case and room for upgrades. UK has plenty of these options. The computers are also built differently than an HP , lenovo, dell ect off the shelf. If a newbee wants to learn how to build a gaming computer buy one off the shelf slowly upgrade so you learn where everything should be in the computer. like @LenaDieters11 mentioned her brother messed up his motherboard and video card on his first build. . That is a costly mistake. We have seen several people do things like this in here

phoebebebe13

Loanet wrote: »

LenaDieters11 wrote: »

@phoebebebe13 That is more than true and people should be cautious. My brother build his own and my gaming computer, but he told me stories of how he made a mistake on his first build and broke the motherboard and graphic card. Building a gaming computer seems easy once you are used to it, but is really difficult the first time.

That's exactly what I said. You need somebody to show you the ropes before you move in on your own, and if you don't have them, you have to pay somebody for it. Which tacks another £30-£60 onto the price.

You need to find someone who is well trained in building a gaming computer.. Again it is not the same as building a computer for general use. Building a gaming computer is a little more techy

Loanet

I know foul-ups too.

There was this time when my computer was going through an update, and it seemed to get stuck at 93%. I accidentally switched it off (okay, not accidentally) and when I switched it back on, the entire hard drive had been wiped. I lost ALL of the information on my hard-drive. It took a week at the shop for them to tell me that they couldn't retrieve any of it because it was gone, and they put the basics back on. It was only a mercy that most of my important documents were backed up and it still took a fortnight to reinstall everything else.

Windows Updates. Also known as the gift that keeps on giving.

phoebebebe13

Loanet wrote: »

I know foul-ups too.

There was this time when my computer was going through an update, and it seemed to get stuck at 93%. I accidentally switched it off (okay, not accidentally) and when I switched it back on, the entire hard drive had been wiped. I lost ALL of the information on my hard-drive. It took a week at the shop for them to tell me that they couldn't retrieve any of it because it was gone, and they put the basics back on. It was only a mercy that most of my important documents were backed up and it still took a fortnight to reinstall everything else.

Windows Updates. Also known as the gift that keeps on giving.

Here is more advice for future reference. All my computers have at least two internal hard drives. I keep all my important documents, saved games ect on my second hard drive for safe keeping. This way if C drive goes bad my things on the second hard drive are safe.

I am lucky. I have windows 8 and stopped the widows 10 ( disease) from ever installing on my computer. windows 10 is a whole other issue and their forced updates.

chesterbigbird

@Finbar659
Will send you a PM

Addicted2GamZz

i totally agree, building an gaming desktop is not easy as it sounds as you need the following parts
Case(a mid size at least)
CPU(This is the most important part, as well as System Memory as this is what everything on the computer runs.
RAM(2nd most important part, as this determines how fast programs run, windows loads. 4gb/8gb is too small, although you can get 8gb and upgrade it to 16gb yourself for s better pricd)
Power Supply(3rd most important part, this is what powers your computer, what wattage you need will depend on your GPU, e.g GTX 1060 - wont require a large power wattage, where as a GTX 1080, as it is more powerful, thus, requiring bigger wattage for power supply
GPU(This is what allows you to play demanding game titles, e.g Grand Theft Auto, Call of Duty, Battlefield, etc.
Cooling(This is the final most important part of your build, as you neec not only a medium case but also good fans and cooling to cool it down, as you use the PC to game, browse web, etc. It will generate, especially when you OC the CPU(e.g i5-7600k or i7-7700k, at least if you have a mid sized case and good coolong it will do better at cooling it down and less risk on overheating and damaging the motherboard
SSD - This should be your primary storage for installing windows, your most used programs, etc. Best capacity of SSDs is an 256/512gb, i would recommend 256gb at least
HDD - This is where you should install your large files(Steam Games, COD, Battlefield, as they require 60GB or more, depending on the game.
Also you need a motherboard, which is to install your CPU, GOU, RAM, SSD and all other components
If this is your first gaming pc, you will also need a keyboard, mouse and monitor, but if you're current one works you don't need to buy them.
This will also help any simmer on building or customizing a gaming pc, such as PCSpecialist, CyberPowerSystem(CyberPowerPC if you're in US), iBuyPower(US i think)
If anybody has any questions or not sure what do to do, just post on this and i'll do my best to help you, as i like being friendly snd helpful to others :)