building a computer for my brother, please help?

A

alexjb

Member
Hello :) I have my own gaming computer that I built about two years ago now and my younger brother is always playing on it, and sometimes I really need to use it for work and things,

so I was planning on buying a decent laptop for him so that he can play Steam games on that laptop for when I'm using my computer, however I feel that it would probably be a better idea to build a budget gaming computer for him so that he can keep that in his room,

I already have Windows 8.1 that he can install on it, and a monitor and a keyboard/mouse/mousepad, and also a chair and desk for him, so the only thing left now is the computer itself,

We can afford to spend about £300-350 but the less the better, I really hope this is enough for a computer that would run the average steam game with good graphics?

I would really appreciate if someone can help me choose what parts to buy, as I'm a bit clueless but I have built my own computer before with help from this forums :) thanks :)
 
This comes in at £355 including VAT. It's not ground-breaking but actually not a bad setup at all.

i3 4150 http://www.novatech.co.uk/products/components/processors/intel4thgeni3i5i71150/bx80646i34150.html
MSI H81 http://www.novatech.co.uk/products/components/motherboards/intelsocket1150/h81chipset/h81m-p33.html
Corsair 4GB 1600MHz (I recommend 1 stick so you can upgrade to 8GB easily in the future) http://www.novatech.co.uk/products/...ry/ddr3pc3-128001600mhz/cmx4gx3m1a1600c9.html

Seagate Barracuda 1TB http://www.novatech.co.uk/products/components/harddrives-internal/sata1tbto1.5tb/st1000dm003.html

Corsair CX430M http://www.novatech.co.uk/products/components/cp-9020058-uk.html
Corsair SPEC-01 http://www.novatech.co.uk/products/components/cc-9011050-ww.html

MSI Radeon R7 260X 2GB http://www.novatech.co.uk/products/...aphicscards/amdr7260xseries/r7260x2gd5oc.html


If you prefer NVIDIA you could get the GTX 750 Ti since they cost about the same and the two cards are evenly matched: http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/1044?vs=1130
 
spirit said:
This comes in at £355 including VAT. It's not ground-breaking but actually not a bad setup at all.

i3 4150 http://www.novatech.co.uk/products/components/processors/intel4thgeni3i5i71150/bx80646i34150.html
MSI H81 http://www.novatech.co.uk/products/components/motherboards/intelsocket1150/h81chipset/h81m-p33.html
Corsair 4GB 1600MHz (I recommend 1 stick so you can upgrade to 8GB easily in the future) http://www.novatech.co.uk/products/...ry/ddr3pc3-128001600mhz/cmx4gx3m1a1600c9.html

Seagate Barracuda 1TB http://www.novatech.co.uk/products/components/harddrives-internal/sata1tbto1.5tb/st1000dm003.html

Corsair CX430M http://www.novatech.co.uk/products/components/cp-9020058-uk.html
Corsair SPEC-01 http://www.novatech.co.uk/products/components/cc-9011050-ww.html

MSI Radeon R7 260X 2GB http://www.novatech.co.uk/products/...aphicscards/amdr7260xseries/r7260x2gd5oc.html


If you prefer NVIDIA you could get the GTX 750 Ti since they cost about the same and the two cards are evenly matched: http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/1044?vs=1130
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Hello :)

Thanks so much for again for helping :)

That looks like a really good build, also the price is great thanks :) do you think this will be able to play games on medium settings? and also shall I buy a CPU cooler or is not worth getting for the time being?

Thanks again :) this looks great :)
 
You can't overclock the i3 so no point getting an aftermarket cooler. The stock cooler it comes with will be fine and i3s run quite cool anyway.

Yes this build should easily play games on medium settings. What resolution monitor is your brother going to be playing on? 1080p and medium or even high(ish) settings should be fine for an i3 with a 260X.
 
spirit said:
You can't overclock the i3 so no point getting an aftermarket cooler. The stock cooler it comes with will be fine and i3s run quite cool anyway.

Yes this build should easily play games on medium settings. What resolution monitor is your brother going to be playing on? 1080p and medium or even high(ish) settings should be fine for an i3 with a 260X.
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Yeah thanks 1920 x 1080p monitor :) that's really good that it will play on medium settings :) do you think we should buy and build this one now? or maybe wait until Christmas and have a bigger budget? thanks :)

Also i'm just wondering would it be possible to upgrade this build over time? to say an i7 in the future, and also the the fractal design R3 case as my brother really want's that case :)

Thanks :)
 
Yup you probably could upgrade it to an i5 or an i7 so long as you got a Socket 1150 one but you would want a better graphics card, another 4GB of RAM and a higher wattage PSU before you did that and maybe an SSD. See my point - the i3 probably won't need upgrading for a little while. ;)

If you can spend a lot more money nearer Christmas then wait, but if not and he wants it now then get it with the board I recommended in the post above your last from BT and it will be nice £355 rig! :)
 
spirit said:
Yup you probably could upgrade it to an i5 or an i7 so long as you got a Socket 1150 one but you would want a better graphics card, another 4GB of RAM and a higher wattage PSU before you did that and maybe an SSD. See my point - the i3 probably won't need upgrading for a little while. ;)

If you can spend a lot more money nearer Christmas then wait, but if not and he wants it now then get it with the board I recommended in the post above your last from BT and it will be nice £355 rig! :)
Click to expand...

that's fantastic thanks! :) I was thinking maybe I should buy all those parts, but with a bigger power supply, maybe 600 watts? and then he can upgrade it with an i7 for Christmas, and then a Gtx 770 for his birthday?
 
alexjb said:
Thanks I'll probably buy that one instead :) I don't mind buying from 10 sites if its better :)
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Yup sounds good. So if you want to buy it now get it with that board. If you/he can wait until you/he has more money then wait and see what's out.

The 360X should be coming out soon to replace the 260X but I wouldn't hold your breath for a massive performance increase so you are pretty safe getting the 260X now...
 
spirit said:
Yup sounds good. So if you want to buy it now get it with that board. If you/he can wait until you/he has more money then wait and see what's out.

The 360X should be coming out soon to replace the 260X but I wouldn't hold your breath for a massive performance increase so you are pretty safe getting the 260X now...
Click to expand...

Yeah he has been wanting his own one for over a year now :) I was thinking about getting a laptop that he can also use, but I suppose it would make sense if I did help him buy his own computer and it would be more powerful than a laptop :) and then he can upgrade it if he likes for his birthday and at Christmas :)

Thanks again :) just to double check this is the motherboard we should buy? http://www.shop.bt.com/products/msi-...-atx-9FF0.html
 
alexjb said:
that's fantastic thanks! :) I was thinking maybe I should buy all those parts, but with a bigger power supply, maybe 600 watts? and then he can upgrade it with an i7 for Christmas, and then a Gtx 770 for his birthday?
Click to expand...

He can do that... but personally I would just get an i5 instead of an i7 and then hey the money he saves he can spend on a GTX 780. The only problem will be that he will still have a pretty basic board unless he upgrades that too but if he's not into overclocking and stuff it'll be OK I guess. But buy it with that board now, yes, and see how it goes...

If you can get it with a Corsair CX600M now then you can save yourself a lot of hassle later: http://www.novatech.co.uk/products/components/cp-9020060-uk.html that one is semi-modular so you only need to plug in the cables he needs.

And yeah the gaming desktop would be better than a laptop especially in the £350 price range since you won't get a new gaming laptop for that.

Alright goodnight! :good:
 
spirit said:
He can do that... but personally I would just get an i5 instead of an i7 and then hey the money he saves he can spend on a GTX 780. The only problem will be that he will still have a pretty basic board unless he upgrades that too but if he's not into overclocking and stuff it'll be OK I guess.

If you can get it with a Corsair CX600M now then you can save yourself a lot of hassle later: http://www.novatech.co.uk/products/components/cp-9020060-uk.html that one is semi-modular so you only need to plug in the cables he needs.

Alright goodnight! :good:
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Thanks so much for all your help :) Yes thanks that power supply seems worth the extra money :) I don't think he will ever plan on over-clocking it so the board should be ok?:) I will hopefully order some parts this week!:) goodnight thanks again for the help :)
 
Yeah that board is ATX and whilst the chipset is low-end and overclocking on that board will be very limited it should be a stable enough board to use with an i3 or an i5 and he will have PCI expansion slots for anything else he might want to add in the future for example sound cards or Wi-Fi cards.

You could use that board with an i7 but I think I'd just get an i5 if you were to upgrade. You can get the i5 4460 brand new for about £130. That CPU would be absolutely ideal for a board like this. There would be no point getting the i5 4690K if you can't overclock very far with this board - unless you anticipate on replacing the board later too.

The other thing with this board is that he will only ever be able to use one GPU but one powerful GPU is better than two weaker ones so that's not too much of a limitation to be honest.

So it should be a decent choice and for £43 you might as well give it a stab. :good:
 
spirit said:
Yeah that board is ATX and whilst the chipset is low-end and overclocking on that board will be very limited it should be a stable enough board to use with an i3 or an i5 and he will have PCI expansion slots for anything else he might want to add in the future for example sound cards or Wi-Fi cards.

You could use that board with an i7 but I think I'd just get an i5 if you were to upgrade. You can get the i5 4460 brand new for about £130. That CPU would be absolutely ideal for a board like this - no point getting the i5 4690K if you can't overclock with this board unless you anticipate on replacing the board later.

The other thing with this board is that he will only ever be able to use one GPU but one powerful GPU is better than two weaker ones so that's not too much of a limitation to be honest.

So it should be a decent choice and for £43 you might as well give it a stab. :good:
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Yeah it seems a bargain thanks! also he will only need one GPU :) thanks :) would it be difficult to change the motherboard in a few years time?
 
alexjb said:
Yeah it seems a bargain thanks! also he will only need one GPU :) thanks :) would it be difficult to change the motherboard in a few years time?
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In a few years time you'd be looking at changing both the board and the CPU together I would have thought since the current Socket 1150 will be long dead by then.

It shouldn't be hard at all. Just unplug everything from it and remove the graphics card, lift it out and then install the new board. And then go and install the new drivers in Windows (probably best to reinstall Windows fresh when you do that actually).
 
spirit said:
In a few years time you'd be looking at changing both the board and the CPU together I would have thought since the current Socket 1150 will be long dead by then.

It shouldn't be hard at all. Just unplug everything from it and remove the graphics card, lift it out and then install the new board. And then go and install the new drivers in Windows (probably best to reinstall Windows fresh when you do that actually).
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thanks that sounds pretty simple :) also would it be possible if we did buy the i3 for the time being, to be able to remove and sell the i3 when we upgrade to i5 or 7? :)
 
alexjb said:
also would it be possible if we did buy the i3 for the time being, to be able to remove and sell the i3 when we upgrade to i5 or 7? :)
Click to expand...

Yes, absolutely.

I think you should go for it!

Off to bed now... sleepy and gotta up early tomorrow... ;)
 
I think we can add an extra £100 to the budget now :) So I am wondering what to buy, as my brother want's to keep upgrading the computer over time so we need a good power supply and maybe a better motherboard? :) What's the best way to spend the extra £100? :) thanks
 
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