Help please with buying a gaming pc for son

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miss_phoenix

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Nov 6, 2016
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hi I'm sorry if I'm in the wrong place, Im buying a second hand pc for my son. Can someone please just let me know if these specs will be suitable for him, he's wanting to play games such as gta v watchdogs 2 when its released and his games on his steam account.

Zoostorm 7010/i7-4790/12GB Ram/2TB HDD/DVD-RW/Windows 8/

Custom /i3-4170/8GB Ram/1TB HDD+120GB SSD/GTX 750 Ti 2GB/Windows 10

this is all the info i have on the 2 he's looking at at the moment. Any advice would be much appreciated
 
Solution
izoli


You will need a new motherboard as the current one is LGA 775. you will need an LGA 1151 motherboard for the i5-6400 processor. If he really wants a tower then you can buy some decent ones for fairly cheap.
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miss_phoenix

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Nov 6, 2016
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As i know nothing at all about gaming pcs i bought him one for his birthday from amazon, despite good reviews its actually shocking, I'm unable to return it as its not faulty. It has 2tb hard drive, 8gb ram, nvidia gt730 2gb gpu. Now he can play games on this but they lag and the frame rate is terrible. Honestly I don't have a clue but these are the things he says annoy him most. He's now selling his xbox one to put money towards a new pc so we really don't have a lot at all. I was just hoping one of the above may be better than what he has now.
Izoli I've no idea about the first one, thats all the info i have at the minute, I don't even know what gpu is!!
 
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izoli

izoli

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Depending on the motherboard and processor, you may be able to just sell off the gt730 on a local posting or ebay and just upgrade the card for a much cheaper upgrade.

You should find out what processor he currently has
 
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miss_phoenix

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Nov 6, 2016
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1,510
i think this is the right info, intel core 2 duo cpu e7500 2.93ghz, 8192gb ram, nvidia geforce gt730,
Im sorry I really am clueless, how do i find out the motherboard info?
 
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izoli

izoli

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Yeah it'd require you replacing the motherboard, cpu, gpu, and possibly power supply. Or just replace the whole thing if you aren't comfortable with changing hardware although it's really simple and a better deal.
 
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miss_phoenix

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Nov 6, 2016
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I just wouldn't know what to replace with, I could look up how to replace them and although I've never done anything like it before I'm sure i could manage, its just not knowing what i even need to buy.
 
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NerdIT

NerdIT

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Jun 6, 2015
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Bottom line if you want he system to play new games and last for a couple of years:

The GPU (graphics card) needs to have at least 4GB of vRAM (video RAM)
The system needs at least 8GB of RAM
The processor (CPU) needs to be at least 4 cores.
And Windows 10
 
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miss_phoenix

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Nov 6, 2016
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1,510
Thanks thats really helpful. I think in all honesty he'd prefer a new set up as he doesn't like the one he has, its a flat unit that sits on the desk hp compaq 6000, he'd like a tower.
 
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miss_phoenix

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Nov 6, 2016
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he has around £300 in vouchers for cex at the minute so hoping it may be possible to buy what he needs from there? they have a lot on their website I'm just unsure as to what i actually need to buy to make improvements
 
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Neur0nauT

Neur0nauT

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Dec 1, 2014
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Unfortunately you will be very confined to getting anything decent and at a fair price from CEX. They are a rip off. If you could manage to get those CEX vouchers sold, then you might fair better.

To get a decent gaming PC to play the likes of GTA V and any newer games at a good FPS, you are talking in the region of £400-£500

You should be able to pick up a good gaming PC being sold off before Christmas locally via Gumtree or something. It would be best to see if the seller could show you any games running on it to get an idea if it is going to be suitable. Most PC gamers/builders do sell off their parts after upgrading and they tend to buy decent stuff for this reason.
 
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miss_phoenix

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Nov 6, 2016
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i don't have a budget as such, i kind of need to know roughly what to buy at as low a price as possible so i can make improvements to what he has. I just spent almost £500 on what he has and I can't get a penny back so I'm kind of stuck at the minute. Im just wanting to improve on what he has and in time buy far better components.
 
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Ecky

Ecky

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Feb 3, 2013
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In my opinion, it would be idea if you could find a PC with:

CPU - Intel Core i5 4xxx (4th generation) or newer, or Core i3 6xxx) or newer. The Core i7 3770 is a good chip but it's getting a bit old at this point. The problem with that machine is the video card.

RAM - minimum 8GB, the 4xxx CPUs will have DDR3 and the 6xxx CPUs will have DDR4, don't worry about this

Video card - This is a bit more complicated, video card naming has gotten silly lately.

AMD cards:
HD7xxx, probably no lower than HD7850, higher is better (e.g. HD7970)
R9 265 or higher (not R9 260, 250 or 240)
R9 370 or higher
RX 460 or higher

nVidia cards:
GTX 670 or higher
GTX 760 or higher
GTX 950 or higher
GTX 1050 or higher

So, for example, a GTX 750 is slower than a GTX 670. The 750 is a newer card, but it's lower in the product stack and not as fast. If he doesn't have high expectations you might be able to go down one tier, so for instance GTX 670 -> GTX 660, HD7850 -> HD7790
 
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Neur0nauT

Neur0nauT

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We would really need to know the specific model of motherboard before offering viable upgrade options. If you download a program called "Speccy" to his PC, and run it. It is free, and will provide you with all the info of the current setup. You can download it HERE Once you have the info if you post the details we can do our best to help.

Once we know the motherboard model, we can start to show you what other parts would be suitable at your budget.

By the way, You are a pretty cool parent for trying to sort this for your son! ;)
 
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Ecky

Ecky

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Feb 3, 2013
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With a Core 2 Duo, it's almost certainly a lost cause. Even the best drop-in upgrade is going to be slow.
 
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miss_phoenix

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Nov 6, 2016
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1,510
Thanks so much for taking the time to help. all the model numbers and card numbers etc are so confusing!!

i5-4460 8GB Ram 1TB HDD GTX 960 2GB is this possibly a reasonable one temporarily until we can start really looking into upgrading?
i think i got it right with the i5-4xxx and above? its the graphics card I'm unsure of.

Yeah I kind of feel bad because i just bought a computer based on reviews and had no idea how it all works, what i should of been looking for. Lesson learned there! So I'm now doing my best to try and get something better and in time save up and buy far better things for it.
 
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Ecky

Ecky

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Feb 3, 2013
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i5 4460 + GTX 960 is a decent combo, and would perform decently in all games.

With CPUs:

i3 = 2 cores, 4 threads
i5 = 4 cores, 4 threads
i7 = 4 cores, 8 threads
So, higher is better

The first number is the generation, so i5 2xxx is much older than i5 6xxx. The other numbers show that it's a slightly faster CPU in the same generation. E.g. i5 4460 is not quite as fast as i5 4670, but the difference isn't huge.

A newer i3 can equal or outperform an older i5, despite having fewer cores, but it's on a case-by-case basis.

With video cards, generally speaking the first number is the generation and the following are its location in the product stack. So, GTX 750 is lower than 760, but newer than 670. However, you can't know for certain whether a 750 or 670 is faster/better just by looking at the numbers.
 
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Neur0nauT

Neur0nauT

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Yeah the i5-4460 would work well until later upgrade. However bare in mind that if you change the generation of processor or socket type, it will usually require a different motherboard, and RAM also. The last four digits denote the generation of CPU i.e the i5 4000 series is 4th generation.

The GTX 960 would also suffice for medium-low settings in newer games, however will start to struggle as it only has 2GB of video memory. Most games nowadays prefer 4gb+ for high texture settings etc. but this is optional, and not a requirement for the most part.

If you are unsure about the different GPUs and their performance, you can check if they are going to be decent quickly by googling something like: GTX 960 GTA V benchmark, (or insert GPU name) and it should show you some Youtube videos on how it performs. Generally if a card can run GTA V at around 40-60fps then it will be half decent at most other things. GTA V is quite graphically intensive.

You can alway fire any additional questions here, and somebody will be happy to assist with the best tips or answers.
 
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miss_phoenix

Commendable
Nov 6, 2016
12
0
1,510
i5-6400 / 8GB RAM
2TB HDD / R9 380 4GB

would this be better as the graphics card has 4gb? its a lot more than i wanted to spend out but i'm going to trade my ps4 in to help him out

your help has been great, i have a pretty good idea now of what to look out for and what to search google for
 
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