Entry level Gaming PC

[TIOAOA]

My youngest is looking to get into the PC Gaming arena. As you lot know far more about it than me can anyone recommend an entry level package that represents good value for money

[Fazza]

You need to say what your price range is as HP do entry level gaming laptops starting at around £999 but if you've only got a budget of £500 then that's no use to you and you wont get the answer you're looking for. Do you want a laptop or a desktop and if desktop do you need a monitor, if so what size would you like?

[TIOAOA]

@Fazza budget is unfortunately around the 500 mark and ideally I'd like a desktop

[Fazza]

@Fazza budget is unfortunately around the 500 mark and ideally I'd like a desktop

 

With or without a monitor as if you need a monitor that could be £100 off the cost of a desktop?

[Davit2005]

Look at some of the Dell PCs i.e. the 3020 with a i5 or i7, SSD, as much RAM as you can and something like a nvidia 1050Ti GPU. The only issue is that the 3020 has got a non standard PSU so you are limited what power the GPU can take.

 

I gave a Dell i5 3020 to a friend for his teen son with GPU not as good as the 1050Ti ( SSD for OS, HDD for slow storage and 8GB Ram) and he seems happy with it but the expectations should be set at a low level for the types of games and performance for a budget of £500 given cost of a GPU at the moment if that is in the budget too.

 

Start running loads of fancy stuff on the PC and the performance will drop.

Edited August 19, 2022 by Davit2005

[RLR]

I bought my son an entry level gaming PC a couple of years ago. I usually don't mind building them myself but overclockers had a half decent one up for sale on their website so I went with that. I spent around £600 on the PC but needed to get other stuff such as monitor, desk, chair, keyboard, mouse, mouse pad etc and it ended up being around £1000. Prices have gone up since the chip shortage too so I don't think £500 will get you far. For examples, you can check out Overclockers current entry level pc prices: https://www.overclockers.co.uk/pc-systems/gaming-pcs/entry-level-gaming-pcs

[Kitkatninja]

When you say gaming PC, what games are you actually talking about? For example minecraft's requirements are alot lower than God of War.

So your gaming PC may just be a standard home/office PC that just happens to play games (especially if the budget is £500).

[lifeisshort]

With this budget a gaming PC would be enough to play modern AAA titles at 1080p at a reasonable fps. To play something at 4K with 60 fps then it would be probably better off buying a PS5 or Xbox Series X/S. With this option games are limited to the platform and a regular subscription for online play would be added.

 

Sticking to a PC gaming at £500ish, I would check configurations with AMD and Nvidia GPU because of decreasing price trend and it would be worthwhile to look at refurbished as well.