your opinion on this please

Power supply may be new, but it's not high quality at all. It's listed as Tier 3 in the Tom's Hardware PSU Tier List, but I would put it in Tier 4.

I don't think you'll be impressed with that eBay system at all. AMD FX is dead, the entire AM3/AM3+ platform is dead. Skylake components can be had for much better price/performance ratio and you can squeeze a lot into your budget if you know where to look. I'm only going to look at unused parts, but I'll take suggestions if you know any sites that sell used parts with some sort of guarantee that they actually work.

As for building it yourself... Thanks to advances in technology and newer standards making things much more friendly to work with, building a new PC is about as difficult as assembling LEGOs. I actually often refer to building a PC as LEGOs for big boys.

Maybe a z170/270 chip set...
For the Future.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i3-6100 3.7GHz Dual-Core Processor (£106.99 @ Aria PC)
Motherboard: ASRock H110M-HDS Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard (£52.44 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: Crucial 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR4-2133 Memory (£44.04 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£43.77 @ Amazon UK)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti 4GB SC GAMING ACX 2.0 Video Card (£153.93 @ Amazon UK)
Power Supply: SeaSonic 450W 80+ Gold Certified ATX Power Supply (£68.80 @ Alza)
Total: £469.97
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-01-19 18:04 GMT+0000

I also found you a UK dealer ARIA COMPUTERS that is selling a Intel Core i3 6100 - Pre Built Desktop PC

https://www.aria.co.uk/Systems/Home+and+Office/Next+Day+Systems/GLADIATOR+Intel+Core+i3+6100+-+Pre+Built+Desktop+PC+?productId=63524

Break down would work for you, all you would need is get additional 4GB for it and a video card and for the price, would look like a 1050ti would be a perfect match up

Processor: Intel i3-6100 3.70GHz (Skylake) Dual-Core Processor - 3MB Cache
Graphics: Intel HD Graphics 530 DirectX 12
Memory: 1x 4GB DDR4 2133MHz (Motheboard Supports 2x Memory Slots)
Hard Drive: 1TB Seagate Barracuda SATA III 7200RPM 64MB Cache Hard Drive
Optical Drive: 24x DVD Re-writer
Motherboard: Gigabyte H110 Express Chipset Motherboard
Onboard Graphics: Yes (VGA, DVI, HDMI) can support up to 2 displays
Cooler: Intel Socket 1151 CPU Cooler
Audio: Onboard High Definition Audio
Case: Gladiator Warrior Micro-ATX Case
PSU: 500W Power Supply
Operating System: No OS Pre-installed - Aria Recommends Windows® Software

@The Paladin, that machine has no SSD, no operating system, and doesn't list the make and model of the power supply so there's no way for me to determine unit quality.

Newer SSDs have the endurance to run an OS and hold you data and games without burning out from write cycles. You can use it as a system drive and mass storage at the same time without needing to worry about shortening its life span.

As for the power supply, if it takes a crap then it could take out the entire system. Poor voltage regulation (very common in unbranded units) could literally destroy every component in the machine.

@ weberdarren I understand but for 289.00 quid he's got a pretty good base, slap an SSD a better PSU when he checks it out and a video card..
just throwing in there as an options since he mentioned not wanting to build it

Back on desktop, yay! Why isn't there a reply button on mobile?

Anyways, I'm not sure I agree with it being a pretty good base. If they managed to fit a power supply, motherboard, case, CPU, RAM and optical drive into a less than £300 budget, I'm questioning the quality of the components they're using.

I put this together in PCPartPicker, intentionally using stupidly cheap parts in the fields where they didn't list makes and models. I've already explained my view on the possibilities of the power supply that's included, but what about the motherboard?

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i3-6100 3.7GHz Dual-Core Processor (£106.99 @ Aria PC)
Memory: Crucial 4GB (1 x 4GB) DDR4-2133 Memory (£25.18 @ Eclipse Computers)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£45.96 @ BT Shop)
Power Supply: Silverstone Strider Essential 500W 80+ Certified ATX Power Supply (£39.48 @ Scan.co.uk)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-14 DVD/CD Writer (£14.49 @ Ebuyer)
Other: Gladiator Warrior (£30.00)
Total: £262.10
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-01-20 01:24 GMT+0000

So I'm at £262.10... Let's give them some leeway for striking deals with manufacturers and bring the price down to £250. A motherboard that's worth buying for £40? I doubt it.

---Beginning of rant---

There's the Gigabyte GA-H110M-H, which is listed at £39.98 on PCPartPicker but that's only for Amazon Prime. Don't got Prime? Price just shot up to £53.39. There's also the Gigabyte GA-H110M-S2H which is listed at £51.38, but it has the same problem as the GA-H110M-H. There are only three VRMs for the CPU and then one for RAM that's next to the socket, but not for the CPU. Three VRMs with no cooling for a 51w CPU? If it didn't have built in turbo technology for the iGPU, I'd say it would be okay. However, the i3 will automatically upclock the iGPU depending on load. Four VRMs would be okay, but if you're going with three, I'd like to see them be cooled. This motherboard seems like it would be better suited for a Pentium.

---End of rant---

So we have a power supply with no way of knowing its quality, and now we have a choice of motherboards that's got me thinking "why?" With VRMs that are probably close to maxed out in their current config and no heatsink on the VRMs, any heat put out by a graphics card would be allowed to get directly to the MOSFETs. I don't like that idea.

Also, it only includes 4GB of RAM on a single stick. You mentioned that he could just throw in another 4GB stick and have 8GB. But what happens when the stick he buys is not fully compatible with the one that's already in the machine? And before you say "just look at the part number on the DIMM"... I'd like to point out that not all sticks are marked. I've had plenty of systems come through my shop that have no markings on the memory.

To recap, if OP buys your suggestion, he's left adding an SSD, probably replacing the power supply, upgrading/replacing the RAM, (maybe replacing the motherboard?), buying a graphics card and buying an operating system. Seems like a lot of wasted money in my opinion.

Doing a little more fooling around in PCPartPicker, I'm able to fit the i3 into your £500 budget, but the price of Windows goes over budget. Sorry there's no real color scheme... Function over form when on a budget.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i3-6100 3.7GHz Dual-Core Processor (£106.99 @ Aria PC)
Motherboard: ASRock H110M-DGS Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard (£45.90 @ Alza)
Memory: Crucial 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2133 Memory (£51.47 @ BT Shop)
Storage: Sandisk SSD PLUS 240GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£63.92 @ BT Shop)
Video Card: Palit GeForce GTX 1050 Ti 4GB StormX Video Card (£134.92 @ Ebuyer)
Case: Thermaltake Versa N21 ATX Mid Tower Case (£37.98 @ Ebuyer)
Power Supply: EVGA 500W 80+ Certified ATX Power Supply (£42.48 @ Aria PC)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Home Full 32/64-bit (£83.90 @ More Computers)
Total: £567.56
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-01-20 01:53 GMT+0000



I've spent enough time in PCPartPicker and watching/reading reviews that I know what is good and what isn't. If you just go into PCPartPicker, select a component, sort by lowest price and start at the top until you find something of suitable quality, you'll be on the right track. Do this enough and you'll know what names you're looking for, which makes the whole process go much faster.

@The Paladin, I advise that you do this as well so that you become familiar with what to recommend for which budgets. Once you get that down, you might be able to beat me to the punch in threads similar to this one and get a Best Answer out of it. Consider that a challenge, but you don't have to if you don't want to. I encourage friendly competition.

Anyways, it's late and I'm going to bed. Happy posting!

@weberdarren97, here you can have my ruler to measure it...

... man did not know we were "competing" to help people... geez. you must really want that "best answer" award.


anyways... I'm out.

@The paladin, I think you misunderstood. In the other hand, I could have worded it differently. Either way, I'm my going to argue. Let's agree to disagree.