In reply to a post by PCJM40:

In reply to a post by jchamier:

I think prices are higher than your budget.

When I saw the budget I thought the same, although its a lot of money it isn't for a gaming PC as a half decent general use PC is likely to cost more than the current budget.

I saw this one on Ebuyer.

https://www.ebuyer.com/1896872-alphasync-ryzen-5-8gb...

I know it is pretty basic and have a APU and not a GPU, but i think this would be a better buy than the other one I linked to. For a start I have dealt with ebuyer before and the motherboard in here is a well-known one and can have a video card fitted later on if need be. All sorts of upgradability in the future.

What do people think?

I thought gaming PCs were suppose to be fast with good graphics cards but seems all you need is a case with garish lights.

In reply to a post by PCJM40:

I thought gaming PCs were suppose to be fast with good graphics cards but seems all you need is a case with garish lights.

not bothered about the case, this is not for me, this is for a 13-year-old child who don't have a huge attention span and can lose interest pretty quick. I am sure his parents would spend more on a computer if they knew he would keep interested.
The machine i saw seemd a pretty good machine for expanding.

My niece have got some info from some gamers for some parts. I would go down that route myself of building a machine, but I did not know if she wanted to go down that route. She just sent me a message saying she would as long as I helped her.

The parts that these people have picked out for her are.

https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/rZkmrv#compatibilit...

and
https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/WhRyKX#compatibilit...

They both looks ok to me, but again I am not a gamer, the games he will be playing are Fortnite and Minecraft and no doubt more. I did say to get a more powerful PSU for future updates.,

the thing is if, he loses interest, then the machine can be used for everyday use, but if he wants something better, then it can be updated.

I thought gamers liked all the flashy lights, Not my sort of thing, I have a fan that lights up blue and another one that is green and the RGB fan on the heat sink, but I can't really see them, unless I look through the top of the case.

In reply to a post by PCJM40:

I thought gaming PCs were suppose to be fast with good graphics cards but seems all you need is a case with garish lights.

The serious gamers go for overclocking with water cooling... and the pretty lights

For those games, and that budget, an XBox Series S would be a far more sensible solution.

In reply to a post by zyborg47:

I thought gamers liked all the flashy lights, Not my sort of thing, I have a fan that lights up blue and another one that is green and the RGB fan on the heat sink, but I can't really see them, unless I look through the top of the case.

Its hard to get a desktop/tower machine these days without them, at least most are software configurable to OFF.

In reply to a post by TinyMongomery:

For those games, and that budget, an XBox Series S would be a far more sensible solution.

I think he already has a Xbox, he for some reason want a computer for games for Christmas.

In reply to a post by billford:

The serious gamers go for overclocking with water cooling... and the pretty lights

Also, they spend more on their graphics cards than what I would spend on a whole computer . when he is old enough to work and have his own money, he can spend it on what ever he likes. But at the moment he is not.

I thought it would be an easy thing asking for help here, but it seems like it is not. I know the budget is low, but I doubt all gamers can afford to buy a machine that cost a grand or so.

In reply to a post by jchamier:

Its hard to get a desktop/tower machine these days without them, at least most are software configurable to OFF.

one of the reasons I build my own or did before i changed to Mac. My Ryzen 7 1700 will play a few games, the video card is around 4 years old, but was pretty poky and cost me nearly £300 then, it is a RX 5700. no doubt out of date now, but it is not being renewed, if I do update my old PC, I may be able to use the video card full potential as if it is PCIe 4.

Maybe if I could get one second hand, it will do a better job than some of the newer, lower priced ones. The only problem is a lot of video cards have been used for bitcoin and that sort of thing.

Without wanting to divert traffic from the TBB forum, try the Overclockers forum. They have quite an active forum with regards to proposing builds from the lower end that your nephew is after to the ultra high end where money is no object.

You can submit your budget, games to play and resolution and someone will quickly give you a decent build. Bare in mind they don't allow posting of links to competitors so all components are from Overclockers, and can sometimes be had cheaper elsewhere. It's orth a try.

https://forums.overclockers.co.uk/