Budget gaming desktop

[bebevita]

I would appreciate some help please. My son wants a gaming desktop for Christmas and the budget is £300. I'm not clued up to all the specs but I know my son plays online games from steam so need a computer that can handle this ( even if it's not on high settings). There's so many online that claim to be gaming laptops but not sure which one would give me the best performance for my budget. Suggestions very much appreciated.

 

[RababNoor]

It may exceed your Budget
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD Athlon X4 860K 3.7GHz Quad-Core Processor (£54.96 @ Aria PC)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-F2A88XM-D3H Micro ATX FM2+ Motherboard (£49.73 @ More Computers)
Memory: Kingston HyperX Fury Black 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory (£33.57 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£34.74 @ Aria PC)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 750 Ti 2GB Superclocked Video Card (£97.88 @ More Computers)
Case: Thermaltake Versa H22 ATX Mid Tower Case (£26.70 @ CCL Computers)
Power Supply: Corsair CX 430W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply (£39.22 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £336.80
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-10-20 19:03 BST+0100

 

[cleanshot911]

My build is almost the exact same as RababNoor's the only differences are that it has 4gb less of RAM, which would have a bit of an effect on performance, but you can always buy another 4gb of RAM for like £16 whenever you want. You don't need to buy it right away if you don't want to. The other difference is that it just barely goes over your budget, but I have the feeling you can throw another £8.42 at this build. Either of these builds would work just fine, but you're not gonna get anything better for the price, that's for sure.

PCPartPicker part list: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/N42tGX
Price breakdown by merchant: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/N42tGX/by_merchant/

CPU: AMD Athlon X4 860K 3.7GHz Quad-Core Processor (£54.96 @ Aria PC)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-F2A78M-D3H Micro ATX FM2+ Motherboard (£45.40 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: Kingston 4GB (1 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£16.23 @ Ebuyer)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£39.76 @ Amazon UK)
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 750 Ti 2GB Video Card (£93.70 @ Ebuyer)
Case: BitFenix Comrade ATX Mid Tower Case (£28.43 @ CCL Computers)
Power Supply: EVGA 430W 80+ Certified ATX Power Supply (£29.94 @ CCL Computers)
Total: £308.42
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-10-20 19:14 BST+0100

 

[bebevita]

It may exceed your Budget
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD Athlon X4 860K 3.7GHz Quad-Core Processor (£54.96 @ Aria PC)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-F2A88XM-D3H Micro ATX FM2+ Motherboard (£49.73 @ More Computers)
Memory: Kingston HyperX Fury Black 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory (£33.57 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£34.74 @ Aria PC)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 750 Ti 2GB Superclocked Video Card (£97.88 @ More Computers)
Case: Thermaltake Versa H22 ATX Mid Tower Case (£26.70 @ CCL Computers)
Power Supply: Corsair CX 430W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply (£39.22 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £336.80
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-10-20 19:03 BST+0100

 

[bebevita]

That sounds good but I have no idea how to build a computer. Can I buy it prebuilt at that price?

 

[Gze]

That sounds good but I have no idea how to build a computer. Can I buy it prebuilt at that price?

Most likely not, prebuilts tend to be more expensive.

There are a lot of guides on how to build a PC. Just search for it on google and you'll find loads. It's not too hard to build a PC.

 

[Gze]

Here another with the G3258 instead. Might get you a bit more performance in single threaded tasks.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Pentium G3258 3.2GHz Dual-Core Processor (£51.36 @ Aria PC)
Motherboard: MSI H81M-P33 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£33.46 @ Dabs)
Memory: Kingston HyperX Fury White 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR3-1866 Memory (£31.23 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Toshiba 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£31.19 @ Aria PC)
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 750 Ti 2GB Video Card (£93.70 @ Ebuyer)
Case: BitFenix Comrade ATX Mid Tower Case (£28.43 @ CCL Computers)
Power Supply: be quiet! 300W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply (£32.40 @ Aria PC)
Total: £301.77
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-10-20 20:08 BST+0100

 

[bebevita]

That sounds good but I have no idea how to build a computer. Can I buy it prebuilt at that price?

Most likely not, prebuilts tend to be more expensive.

There are a lot of guides on how to build a PC. Just search for it on google and you'll find loads. It's not too hard to build a PC.

 

[bebevita]

Gosh I think that might be too hard for me but will have a look online. Thankyou.

 

[cleanshot911]

Gosh I think that might be too hard for me but will have a look online. Thankyou.

Just so you know, building a pc is not that hard. It's basically Legos for grown ups with detailed instructions. And it's absolutely worth it.

 

[Prostar Computer]

You won't find a gaming laptop for £300, but you might find a desktop that can tackle some games within that budget. Building one will offer value, but I understand building a computer seems a little daunting to the inexperienced (and sometimes to the experienced, even).

It may require stretching your budget further if you want something prebuilt that is at least a very entry level gaming computer. Alas, gaming systems tend to be pricey, but you may find some holiday deals coming soon.

Good luck!

 

[bebevita]

Gosh I think that might be too hard for me but will have a look online. Thankyou.

Just so you know, building a pc is not that hard. It's basically Legos for grown ups with detailed instructions. And it's absolutely worth it.

 

[bebevita]

Thanks for all the advice. http://www.ebay.co.uk/ulk/itm/151616052512
I saw this on ebay ( I think I've pasted it properly). Is the specs ok for gaming. My son 11 so doesn't need to be top notch so so long as no lagging. On the item it says it plays all modern games. Thankyou

 

[RababNoor]

Thanks for all the advice. http://www.ebay.co.uk/ulk/itm/151616052512
I saw this on ebay ( I think I've pasted it properly). Is the specs ok for gaming. My son 11 so doesn't need to be top notch so so long as no lagging. On the item it says it plays all modern games. Thankyou

If you build that System, you need to Spend only £385.
But for buying a pre-built you are spending 80 bucks more.

 

[bebevita]

Thanks for all the advice. http://www.ebay.co.uk/ulk/itm/151616052512
I saw this on ebay ( I think I've pasted it properly). Is the specs ok for gaming. My son 11 so doesn't need to be top notch so so long as no lagging. On the item it says it plays all modern games. Thankyou

If you build that System, you need to Spend only £385.
But for buying a pre-built you are spending 80 bucks more.

 

[bebevita]

Yes I understand that I will be paying more but I'm really not confident in building one so only alternative is to buy. Could I ask is that one I showed link for an ok gaming pc for average gaming and decent enough graphics for an 11 year old.

 

[bebevita]

Thanks for all the advice. http://www.ebay.co.uk/ulk/itm/151616052512
I saw this on ebay ( I think I've pasted it properly). Is the specs ok for gaming. My son 11 so doesn't need to be top notch so so long as no lagging. On the item it says it plays all modern games. Thankyou

If you build that System, you need to Spend only £385.
But for buying a pre-built you are spending 80 bucks more.

 

[cleanshot911]

Yes I understand that I will be paying more but I'm really not confident in building one so only alternative is to buy. Could I ask is that one I showed link for an ok gaming pc for average gaming and decent enough graphics for an 11 year old.

Yeah I suppose so. It kind of depends on the 11 year old I think, but I suppose the kid will be more concerned about whether the game is fun or not. Everything should run at 60fps at 1080p on at least medium settings in most games. So that should be just fine for him.