Budget gaming PC

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capybarachris

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Jan 12, 2018
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Hi

I would appreciate opinions on buying a budget gaming PC.

I'm not too bothered about playing the very latest titles on high settings. Probably the most modern games I'm interested in are Witcher 3 and GTA V, but probably more time on various Civ games and (e.g.) Skyrim. I also want to be able to use photoshop. I am also interested in upgradability - I've never built a PC before and don't want to start now, but would like to be able to meddle and upgrade in a couple of years when the warranty runs out on one I've purchased, maybe thinking about building my own in the distant future.

This is what I've come up with:

CPU : AMD Ryzen 3 1200 Quad Core CPU
CPU Cooler : Standard AMD CPU Cooler
Graphics Card 1 : nVidia GeForce GTX 1050 Ti 4GB GDDR5 Graphics Card
Memory : 8GB Standard DDR4 2400MHz Dual Channel Memory Kit (2 x 4GB)
Motherboard : Asus Prime B350M-A Motherboard
System Drive : AMD Radeon R3 240GB SATA III 6Gb/s Solid-State Drive
Storage Drive 1 : Seagate 1TB Barracuda 7200 64MB Cache SATA III Hard Disk Drive

The company I found will also overclock the CPU, and this comes in at £635. But I can reduce that to under £600 by getting rid of the SSD and getting a 2TB HDD instead.

How essential is the SSD in a budget PC?

Any thoughts on the above?
 
Solution
clutchc
If you've never had a SSD, you can probably live fine w/o it. But once you have one, you'll always want it for at least your boot drive. I'd keep it if I were you.

I don't know where you're getting the pre-built from, but I doubt their OC will amount to much and may be unstable. That board doesn't have any heat sinks on the VRMs and won't take a heavy OC while remaining stable. If it's costing extra, skip the OC.

What are the specs of your current system?
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clutchc

clutchc

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If you've never had a SSD, you can probably live fine w/o it. But once you have one, you'll always want it for at least your boot drive. I'd keep it if I were you.

I don't know where you're getting the pre-built from, but I doubt their OC will amount to much and may be unstable. That board doesn't have any heat sinks on the VRMs and won't take a heavy OC while remaining stable. If it's costing extra, skip the OC.

What are the specs of your current system?
 
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imsqam

imsqam

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Mar 25, 2011
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To follow up to what clutchc states, why would you want an overclock anyways? The 1200 is already fast enough to handle the 1050 Ti. And if the overclock is stated in your bill then it will void manufacturers' warranties.

And I would keep the SSD as well, actually you can get by with a 120GB if you only use it for programs.
 
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capybarachris

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Jan 12, 2018
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510
They include the overclock as standard, no extra charge, so thought might as well. They have really good reviews so no suspicion that they will do a dodgy job of it, but if you think it's a bit pointless it's not mandatory!

Current "system" is a five year old (at least) laptop with integrated graphics that can just about cope with civ v on low settings. I miss playing games and have a bit more time than I used to!
 
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clutchc

clutchc

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Then you're in for a major gaming experience. There is no comparison.
I recently built a budget gamer like that (1300/1050 Ti) for resale. Put it thru some benchmark runs before sale. Impressive.
 
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