Gaming PC Help

[Total LOLige]

I'm thinking of getting a good PC for my birthday, as all games are better on PC and cheaper. So escapist share your wisdom with me please. What websites do the best deals on high quality PCs? I'm looking for a PC that costs around £300 - £500(if possible not really sure about the cost of a decent PC). UK based companies would be best. Games that I would want to play on it would be games like Fallout 3 & NV, the witcher, stuff like that and some shooters.
Thanks in advance.

Little Edit: I'm not very computer savy so advice on which PCs are the best would help alot

 

[Katana314]

The best deals can be had from building your own computer. Most sites like Alienware massively overcharge for their builds.

You might initially say that you don't know the first thing about building a computer. I didn't either, but was able to build one anyway. The principle is simple;
1. Pick components, make sure the slot types listed match between components (ie, 240-pin memory)
2. You will need: Motherboard, CPU, RAM, Video/Graphics Card (most important part for gaming), Case, Hard Drive, and Disc Drive. Depending on your availability, also Monitor, Speakers, Keyboard, and Mouse.
3. Slot components into each other wherever they fit. No square peg into round hole, and follow instructions if they seem useful.

The best site I know of for getting components with solid information on their specs is NewEgg.

 

[Total LOLige]

The best deals can be had from building your own computer. Most sites like Alienware massively overcharge for their builds.

You might initially say that you don't know the first thing about building a computer. I didn't either, but was able to build one anyway. The principle is simple;
1. Pick components, make sure the slot types listed match between components (ie, 240-pin memory)
2. You will need: Motherboard, CPU, RAM, Video/Graphics Card (most important part for gaming), Case, Hard Drive, and Disc Drive. Depending on your availability, also Monitor, Speakers, Keyboard, and Mouse.
3. Slot components into each other wherever they fit. No square peg into round hole, and follow instructions if they seem useful.

The best site I know of for getting components with solid information on their specs is NewEgg.

I thought that building one would be best, I could probably buy a book on buliding.

 

[Not-here-anymore]

At £300, you're gonna have to build.
If you're in the UK (clearly you are, from your post), one of my housemates swears by overclockers UK. Don't think you can use their marketplace straight off, but their forums are pretty much entirely dedicated to helping people build PC's and source components on the cheap.

Also, you probably won't need a disc drive at all, unless you have some kind of anti-Steam bias

 

[Kabutos]

I thought that building one would be best, I could probably buy a book on buliding.

I don't think there are any books on building a PC; it's a lot simpler than you think.

Just look up some videos on youtube or something.

Although yeah you won't be able to get much with £300. I'd say save up around £500.

2. You will need: Motherboard, CPU, RAM, Video/Graphics Card (most important part for gaming), Case, Hard Drive, and Disc Drive. Depending on your availability, also Monitor, Speakers, Keyboard, and Mouse.

Don't forget PSU.

 

[Total LOLige]

I thought that building one would be best, I could probably buy a book on buliding.

I don't think there are any books on building a PC; it's a lot simpler than you think.

Just look up some videos on youtube or something.

Although yeah you won't be able to get much with £300. I'd say save up around £500.

I've had a look on the web and PCs are around £500 but I saw a few used ones on ebay for £299 the specs for the ebay ones were:

AMD Athlon II 250 3.0GHz Processor
4GB 1333Mhz DDR3 RAM
1TB (1000GB) Hard drive
High performance Motherboard
DVD RW
Stylish, Black Mars Gaming case
ATI Radeon HD5450 1GB Graphics Card
WIFI PCI Card
don't know if thats good

 

[V8 Ninja]

As Katana314 mentioned, building a computer would be the most cheap option (and depending on the situation, the best). As far as the difficulty to build one, it's not that hard. When people compare it to expansive Legos, they mean it. As long as you have every part, you should be generally good to go. You have to play with some screws and possibly be extremely careful with thermal paste on the CPU, but that's about it as far as doing extra things besides putting each piece together.

Also, you probably won't need a disc drive at all, unless you have some kind of anti-Steam bias

As much as I love Steam, I don't think I would ever say that. A DVD drive allows you to watch DVD movies, rip music off of a CD, and it allows for an easy way to store data (provided you got a DVD burner instead of a DVD reader).

 

[Kabutos]

I've had a look on the web and PCs are around £500 but I saw a few used ones on ebay for £299

Which ones.

Most of the PCs I've seen on ebay are generally terrible.

 

[Total LOLige]

I've had a look on the web and PCs are around £500 but I saw a few used ones on ebay for £299

Which ones.

Most of the PCs I've seen on ebay are generally terrible.

Yeah I edited my last post, the specs were:

AMD Athlon II 250 3.0GHz Processor
4GB 1333Mhz DDR3 RAM
1TB (1000GB) Hard drive
High performance Motherboard
DVD RW
Stylish, Black Mars Gaming case
ATI Radeon HD5450 1GB Graphics Card
WIFI PCI Card

I think the computer itself is a Vibox GA

 

[Stickey Jackson]

I'm thinking of getting a good PC for my birthday, as all games are better on PC and cheaper. So escapist share your wisdom with me please. What websites do the best deals on high quality PCs? I'm looking for a PC that costs around £300 - £500

Hmm, do you have a computer you own now that you can scavenge for parts? If yes can you post its specs? At that budget you may be better served upgrading said computer to enjoy higher end games. If not I can throw a newegg list together. It is better to pass on those ebay pre-builts as they don't have the power you need at that price.

 

[the spud]

My grandma just got a new laptop, and no longer needs her old PC's anymore. She said I could have them, So I was wondering how much I could salvage from them. They are pretty old, mind you. What all would need to be replaced were I to turn them into a decent gaming rig?

 

[Kabutos]

Yeah I edited my last post, the specs were:
AMD Athlon II 250 3.0GHz Processor
4GB 1333Mhz DDR3 RAM
1TB (1000GB) Hard drive
High performance Motherboard
DVD RW
Stylish, Black Mars Gaming case
ATI Radeon HD5450 1GB Graphics Card
WIFI PCI Card

Yeah, I'd recommend against it.

Also I like how it's just 'high performance motherboard'.

And the PSU is left completely out.

My grandma just got a new laptop, and no longer needs her old PC's anymore. She said I could have them, So I was wondering how much I could salvage from them. They are pretty old, mind you. What all would need to be replaced were I to turn them into a decent gaming rig?

Well depends on what the specs are.

Probably could get the CD Drive and HDD, although they might be IDE if it's old enough.

 

[Total LOLige]

I'm thinking of getting a good PC for my birthday, as all games are better on PC and cheaper. So escapist share your wisdom with me please. What websites do the best deals on high quality PCs? I'm looking for a PC that costs around £300 - £500

Hmm, do you have a computer you own now that you can scavenge for parts? If yes can you post its specs? At that budget you may be better served upgrading said computer to enjoy higher end games. If not I can throw a newegg list together. It is better to pass on those ebay pre-builts as they don't have the power you need at that price.

The pc I use now is an E-System the specs are on a sticker on the csae they are:

Intel Celeron D 358 (3.33GHz)
512MB DDR2 Memory
80GB Hard Disk Drive
DVD RW dual format
Unicrome Pro 3D/2D Graphics & video integrated

It's a windows xp home edition, I've got a belkin wireless PCI card but it stopped working 4 weeks ago.

 

[Inithra]

At £300, you're gonna have to build.
If you're in the UK (clearly you are, from your post), one of my housemates swears by overclockers UK. Don't think you can use their marketplace straight off, but their forums are pretty much entirely dedicated to helping people build PC's and source components on the cheap.

Also, you probably won't need a disc drive at all, unless you have some kind of anti-Steam bias

Overclockers are good, and they have some decent motherboard/cpu bundles. Sometimes they will have RAM in there too.
Also, you WILL need an optical drive, so that you can install Windows. Which you will also have to pay for.
Personally I think you will need to spend between £400-£600, depending on whether you will need a screen, keyboard and mouse in addition to the base unit

 

[Total LOLige]

Overclockers are good, and they have some decent motherboard/cpu bundles. Sometimes they will have RAM in there too.
Also, you WILL need an optical drive, so that you can install Windows. Which you will also have to pay for.
Personally I think you will need to spend between £400-£600, depending on whether you will need a screen, keyboard and mouse in addition to the base unit

I've got monitor, mouse and keyboard . I'd probably buy an hd monitor though

 

[Inithra]

Well what size/resolution is the monitor now? If you are on a budget, as long as the monitor is say 19" or more, I would stick with it. It's the easiest piece to replace in a month or two.

 

[Total LOLige]

Well what size/resolution is the monitor now? If you are on a budget, as long as the monitor is say 19" or more, I would stick with it. It's the easiest piece to replace in a month or two.

I think it's 16" not sure

 

[Baneat]

At £300, you're gonna have to build.
If you're in the UK (clearly you are, from your post), one of my housemates swears by overclockers UK. Don't think you can use their marketplace straight off, but their forums are pretty much entirely dedicated to helping people build PC's and source components on the cheap.

Also, you probably won't need a disc drive at all, unless you have some kind of anti-Steam bias

I specced up a tower on OCUK last week, and could not get it to be cheaper than £375 without being useless

 

[Worgen]

well if you dont have the knowledge to build your own then probably your best bet is to just look for a small computer shop around and have them build you one, I would avoid a premade machine they like to come bloated with crap

 

[Katana314]

2. You will need: Motherboard, CPU, RAM, Video/Graphics Card (most important part for gaming), Case, Hard Drive, and Disc Drive. Depending on your availability, also Monitor, Speakers, Keyboard, and Mouse.

Don't forget PSU.

Yes, thank you! Thought I might have forgotten something. (By PSU, he means Power Supply)

Most of the time for parts you can be cheap, but I'll warn you the PSU is the one part you don't want to skimp on. It's not like "Oh, this game runs poorly, I guess I should upgrade my graphics card." The PSU lets you know it's inadequate by burning out and destroying half your computer.

Basically, make sure it has enough wattage for the sum of the components you're putting in. The big part to be concerned towards is the graphics card, but other components use some power too.