Advice on buying a desktop

zanador

We are looking to by a desktop computer and would like to do so in the sales. The computer will be used mainly by my 9 year old for gaming. I need some advice on what would be the best option to buy. Do I need 8gb of RAM? Someone said something to me about CPU being important?

I found an acer aspire xc-115 on sale in pcworld - are they any good? How about Lenovo as a brand?

Thanks a million, am in the dark here and it's a big purchase!

delly

A PC purchase for gaming is a very specialised field. You have to consider the games being played, the RAM, CPU, graphics card etc. A lot of users here would tailor their purchase knowing what games they are aiming for, so you will need to provide some more info.

From a quick look at the one you mentioned, it is not going to set the world on fire I'm afraid. Ballpark you would really need to start with would be €500+.

PropJoe10

A gaming PC can be quite hard to advise on. Can you tell us what games he's planning on playing? Generally, the best way to get a good gaming PC is to build your own but I'm assuming you dont want to go down that route. Telling us what your budget is also would be very beneficial. Cheers.

zanador

I have understood that about gaming pcs as have been googling a fair amount and I think that at 9 he can't really have a high spec machine - it's out of budget and just not possible to do. I have told him that down the line he can build his own but for now he is going to have to make do with what I can afford (which is very low, 300 or under). He has everything (monitor, keyboard, mouse etc) so just need the tower.

It was suggested I just buy online from uk but there are too many options and I am wary of falling into buying something rubbish.

harrymagina

You can build a very good gaming machine for around 350 excluding windows. If you start a thread on the PC building and upgrading forum guys will help you there. On phone so can't put up exact prices

G3220
4gb g.sill ram
WD blue 1tb
750 ti graphics card
Vs series 450 w.
H81m motherboard.
20 euro case.

On phone there now but PCs in places like PC world and dell are not gaming PCs. They have no graphics cards and would have to pay another 120 for a decent one and are not upgradeable really as have low end power supplies. Also ones of eBay are also rubbish for that price

uncle_sam_ie

There is a guy on Boards.ie that goes by the user name Bloodbath. Get in touch with him and he'll build you what you need. He posts a lot in the building and upgrade forum. Anything you buy from a brick and mortar store is going to be an overpriced piece of crap.

riclad

The most important thing is the cpu, processor , and graphics card .
how much video memory the grahics card has .
Look at pc games , recommended specs , minimum specs.
some pc games need 500meg video ram minimum.

see cpu required recommended spec for a few games you might buy.
IF You are on a tight budget maybe consider ,buying a 360 preowned console .
Preowned games in game shop, or adverts.ie are cheap.
and there s a wide range of games on console.
it,ll work plugged into a tv thru vga or hdmi,
or even on a vga monitor .
Set video options, 360 console 720p mode.for use on hdtv, or pc monitor.
fast graphics cards need a powerful pc power supply .

most aaa pc games are released on 360 console,
eg cod, fifa, battlefield 4.

braddun

I would give acer a miss,they use cheapest crappiest parts

zanador

Thanks, guys - am definitely more informed, and a little more confused will look in to buying the bits separately - any suggestions of the best place to do that, or I'll ask in the build forum?

braddun

whats on dell site

TerrorFirmer

He's 9, I would assume he's not playing Battlefield 4 or Call of Duty.

I would think more maybe Farming Simulator, Minecraft, possibly Fifa, et al.

In that case, I think you're better off considering 2nd hand. For those types of games, much older PC's are still fine and can be picked up very reasonably.

An old Dell with E8400 type-CPU, 4GB ram would cost about €100, throw in a €80 euro GT740 video card and you'll be able to play those types of games at high settings perfectly.

Also, a machine like that at €180 would be far more balanced for games than a PC for €500 in PC World.

Then when he's a bit older you can re-visit the idea of a proper gaming PC.

If you're set on buying a new one though, you are best off building it yourself - some websites will build it for you if you select the parts. Gaming PC's are very poor value when bought from PC World or Dell - places like that offer good value on all-round family machines, less so gaming machines.

You could buy a basic, decent machine from Dell for about €380 and add your own 80-100 euro video card, which isn't terrible value either, but you will pay about €120 more than you would if you built yourself.

zanador

That's really useful advice and sounds like a good option, yes it's mainly minecraft and terraria at the moment, he's not allowed play the others - are there any reputable sites for seconhand I should be looking at?

correa cristobal

Heyas!

I'm also putting together a desktop (altohugh for myself).
I just recently moved to Ireland and I have to say the prices here are absolutely crazy compared to what I was used to.

Your best friends if you want to build your son a computer should be pricespy.ie - uk.pcpartpicker.com/parts/pricedrop/ and reddit.com/r/bapcsalesuk

If your kid is gonna be playing the games mentioned above you might wanna go for a middle budget desktop. Nothing too fancy, nor a Pentium IV hehe. Maybe an Intel i7 950 would be more than enough (use the "System Build" tab on pcpartpicker and it will tell you which components are compatible with each of the ones you previously have selected).

Also, there are plenty listings on Adverts worth looking at, although I would highly recommend buying new components for warranty purposes.