Gaming computer

[brums evil twin]

This is so outside my area of expertise.

Son has a laptop - we got it for him a few years ago and its ok, BUT it does not work with his Oculas headset - apparently the graphics card etc is not good enough.

So he has asked for Christmas a gaming computer - can anyone suggest a good (budget ish) gaming computer that will work with Oculas headsets, play steam online games

What sort of spec do I need to look for?

Thanks

[LimaDelta]

Overclockers and Scan offer custom gamin-specific PCs. How much does he want to spend, and perhaps more importantly, how much do you want to spend?

VR is graphics intensive, so a decent GPU is essential, but that doesn't mean you need to spend a fortune - I was running an Oculus Rift S on a laptop with a 1070M, which is a pretty low performing card these days.

Different games have differing requirements - is there something he specifically wants to do? That can have a bearing on the rest of the spec, or is he more of a general gamer? Flight simulators are particularly demanding for example, and some don't support multi-threading, so CPU choice is important.

[Griffith4ever]

For oculus (at full tilt on MOST games) and general gaming, I did very well with an RTX2060. I also recommend a 12 gen i5. If you keep his monitor to 1080p, it'll fly. It'll also manage 2k (1440p) quite happily.

If you are feeling more spendy than an RTX3070 is a great card but a lot more money.

Just steer clear of super high Mhz monitors / refresh rates if you want your wallet to stay intact.

[brums evil twin]

thanks for the replies!!

No idea what most of it means - I just don't understand computer specs!!! cars I am good to go, computers are just magic and fairy dust!!!

IS this any good for a cheap package?

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B09K7J93GB/ref...

[PHuzzy]

brums evil twin said:

thanks for the replies!!

No idea what most of it means - I just don't understand computer specs!!! cars I am good to go, computers are just magic and fairy dust!!!

IS this any good for a cheap package?

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B09K7J93GB/ref...

No, you'll need a PC with a discrete GPU and that doesn't have one.

ETA: Trying to find a decent pre built deal but there isn't much cropping up that is good value currently, maybe hold off until Black Friday and with the newer generations of CPUs and GPUs being released the current/last gen stuff will be cheaper.

Edited by PHuzzy on Tuesday 18th October 13:41

[brums evil twin]

Cheers!!!

This is how bad it is for me - never heard of a GPU (may because they are discreet !!!!)

[dundarach]

have a read of some reviews and pick something in your price range, for example: https://www.gamesradar.com/uk/best-gaming-pc-pre-b...

[Griffith4ever]

brums evil twin said:

Cheers!!!

This is how bad it is for me - never heard of a GPU (may because they are discreet !!!!)

Haha! Love it.

For a gaming PC, you need a PC that pretty much MUST have:

A discreet (seperate) graphics card - any PC listing will tell you which card it has. AMD and Intel chips can come with built in graphics - which are fine for work, but useless for play. Those are on-chip/integrated GPUs. You want a GPU on a seperate card.

An SSD, not an HDD, unless you want your kid to hate you.

16Gb Ram. 32Gb doesn't hurt.

[Captain_Morgan]

These guys are well regarded once you have a spec in mind
https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/

[brums evil twin]

Thank you - that does really help and I now have a starting place and proper spec to look at.

[castex]

Check Dell Outlet for Alienware. This laptop cost me £1.3k 5 years ago and while the battery is toast, it's lovely and still handles everything.

[Dave Hedgehog]

Captain_Morgan said:

These guys are well regarded once you have a spec in mind
https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/

messing about with their config, £1400

Case
CORSAIR 4000D AIRFLOW TEMPERED GLASS GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™ i5 Six Core Processor i5-12600 (3.3GHz) 18MB Cache
Motherboard
ASUS® PRIME H610M-A D4: Micro-ATX, DDR4, USB 3.2, SATA 6GBs
Memory (RAM)
16GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3200MHz (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
12GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 3060 - HDMI, DP, LHR
Get Spider-Man Remastered with select GeForce RTX 30 Series GPUs!
1st M.2 SSD Drive
512GB PCS PCIe M.2 SSD (3300 MB/R, 2200 MB/W)
1st Storage Drive
1TB PCS 2.5" SSD, SATA 6 Gb (520MB/R, 470MB/W)
Power Supply
CORSAIR 650W CX-650F RGB SERIES™ POWER SUPPLY (Special Offer)
Power Cable
1 x 1.5 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
PCS FrostFlow 100 RGB V3 Series High Performance CPU Cooler
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Card
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT
Wireless Network Card
WIRELESS 802.11N 300Mbps/2.4GHz PCI-E CARD
USB/Thunderbolt Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Operating System
Windows 10 Home 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence [KUK-00001]
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
Windows 10/11 Multi-Language Recovery Image - Unlimited Downloads from Online Account
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft 365® (Operating System Required)
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Browser
Google Chrome™
Keyboard & Mouse
Corsair Bundle - K55 RGB PRO Keyboard & M55 PRO Mouse
Warranty
3 Year Standard Warranty (1 Month Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 5 to 7 working days

[brums evil twin]

Love my son, but he is not getting a £1400 Christmas present!!!

I had a little play earlier today and got to £1000 - he will be saving for a long time I think!!!

[LimaDelta]

brums evil twin said:

Love my son, but he is not getting a £1400 Christmas present!!!

I had a little play earlier today and got to £1000 - he will be saving for a long time I think!!!

I have already asked, and it does make a difference to the spec and cost - what does he play?

My DCS laptop was £4k+, but a lot of VR stuff will run well on sub £1k systems, and even second hand might make sense if the budget is really tight.

A laptop can also be a good shout as there is no need to purchase a monitor (especially if primarily playing VR stuff), or other peripherals.

[FourWheelDrift]

Best value bang for buck GPU is the AMD RX 6600, try speccing a build up with that.

[FourWheelDrift]

Or.

£800 - Ryzen 5 3600 & RTX 3060 system - https://www.ebuyer.com/1538325-alphasync-onyx-rtx-...

No Operating system but you can buy Windows for less than £20 using one of the reputable CD key places, few tech youtubers use vip-scdkey and offer % discounts with their codes too, you just download the Windows installer and put it on a USB thumbdrive, put it into a USB port on the PC, boot the PC it installs windows and you put the key in when needed.

Just noticed it's 8GB RAM, easily upgraded cheaply though, whip the RAM out put these in - https://www.box.co.uk/KF432C16BBK216-Kingston-FURY... and sell the 8GB.

So maybe £850 all in.

[mikef]

I had a gaming system on PH classifieds for a month at £1,000 or offer. AMD Ryzen 5 5600X CPU, Gigabyte Aorus Elite RTX 3060 Ti GPU, 7GB/s and 5GB/s PCIe 4 NVMe SSDs (512 + 512GB), 10TB total storage (2TB SSD, 8TB HDD), Corsair H60 AIO CPU water cooling, Coolermaster S400 silent mid-sized case, Asus TUF B550 wifi 6 motherboard, 32GB 3000 GHz DDR4 RAM

Didn’t get a single response so sold elsewhere

As someone said on a Porsche thread this week, PH classifieds are a bit of a waste of time at least if you’re selling

[brums evil twin]

You are right - I dont think I have looked at the market place for anything other than a browse of the cars

[TheGroover]

Do you know anyone who is a Costco member? https://www.costco.co.uk/TVs-Electronics-Security/...

I bought one from there last year and it's been Rock solid.

[brums evil twin]

I am a trade member - is this spec any good??