I'm looking for some guidance on buying a new gaming PC for my 18-year-old son. He's been using his current PC for about five years, but he feels it's lacking the power and memory for the games he wants to play. My budget is around £500, but I'd prefer to spend less if possible. I've been considering refurbished PCs, but I'm not sure if that's a wise choice since my son thinks they might be overpriced.
He's also expressed interest in possibly building his own PC by selecting all the components and putting them together himself, which I believe he can do since he's been upgrading his current setup frequently. I've got a list of parts he's interested in, and I'd appreciate it if anyone could take a look and see if they think the selection is decent. Alternatively, if you have recommendations for a good website or a solid pre-built PC, that would be wonderful. Thanks in advance for any help, as I'm pretty lost in this area!
3 Answers
First off, it's important to identify what parts your son's current PC has. If he's running an i7 4790k, 16GB of DDR3, and a GTX 1070, that's a decent setup, but upgrading from that for £500 will be tough. Given that he already has a foundation, maybe we can help him upgrade specific components instead of a complete rebuild. Knowing his current specs will also help us determine the best potential upgrades. If he's open to that, it might be a great solution!
Given your budget of £500, building a new PC from scratch might be tough, especially with current hardware shortages. You might want to check out older used PCs on sites like Facebook Marketplace or eBay. You can often find PCs with good specs, like an RTX 2080 Super or even RTX 30 series cards for around that price. 32GB of DDR4 RAM would be ideal for modern gaming. It sounds like your son is considering an upgrade rather than a full build, which might be more feasible. If you list his current components, maybe we can find some upgrades that fit within your budget. Just keep in mind to prioritize the CPU and GPU when searching!
I'm a bit wary of buying from Facebook Marketplace due to potential scams. Are there other platforms you'd recommend for second-hand purchases?
The phrase 'five-year-old PC' can mean different things. It's crucial to know what's inside. Your son seems to have a solid foundation with his current components, so perhaps enhancing what he has might yield better performance without exceeding your budget for a new build. You could consider upgrading the GPU and RAM, assuming those could be twisted for better performance.
Right, his current specs are i7 4790k with a GTX 1070. Could upgrading those two help with modern games?
I did confirm his current parts: i7 4790k, 16GB DDR3 at 1300MHz, and GTX 1070. What do you think?