My 11-year-old daughter would like a gaming PC for Christmas, and we're hoping to keep the budget at £500 or less. We're in the UK, and the main games would be Roblox, Fortnite, Minecraft, and Five Nights at Freddy's. She doesn't need ultra settings or 144 FPS; a steady 60 FPS at sensible settings would be perfectly fine. Is a suitable PC possible at this price, and would it be better to build one from parts, buy used components, or look for a complete second-hand system?
4 Answers
Another budget route is an AMD APU system. A Ryzen 5 5600G with 16GB of dual-channel RAM can run Roblox and Fortnite at modest settings without a separate graphics card, and you could add a dedicated GPU later. It won't offer the same performance as a used gaming PC with a graphics card, but it gives you a working computer now and leaves room for an upgrade. A console is also worth considering if Roblox isn't essential, since Fortnite and many family-friendly games run well on an Xbox or PlayStation.
£500 is very tight for a brand-new build once you include the case, power supply, storage, memory, and Windows-related costs. The most realistic option is a complete used gaming PC from a reputable shop or seller, or a carefully chosen collection of second-hand parts. Look for something with a Ryzen 5 or similar Core i5, 16GB of RAM, an SSD, and a graphics card around the GTX 1050 Ti, GTX 1660, RTX 2060, or RX 5600 XT level. That should handle Roblox, Fortnite, and similar games at 1080p, although newer games may need reduced settings.
For a parts build, use a compatibility tool such as PCPartPicker and compare prices across UK retailers and second-hand stores. Prioritise 16GB of RAM, a decent SSD, and a reliable power supply rather than spending the whole budget on the graphics card. Used CPUs, memory, and graphics cards can offer good value, but I would generally buy storage new if possible because it is difficult to know how heavily a second-hand drive has been used.
A used AM4 or LGA1700 system could fit the budget, especially if you find a complete machine rather than buying every part separately. A Ryzen 5 3600 or 5600 paired with a used GTX 1660 Super, RTX 2060, RX 6600, or similar would be a good target. Check that the power supply is from a known brand and has enough capacity, and test the PC before paying if possible. Be cautious with office PCs such as Dell OptiPlex systems: some have proprietary power supplies or poor airflow, so installing a powerful graphics card may not be straightforward.
That makes sense. I'm a bit nervous about buying through private listings because there isn't much protection if something fails, so I'll look at reputable used retailers as well.