Advice on buying a Gaming PC :)

T

Trunkie88

Member
Hello,

I'm looking to buy a gaming PC. I've not played on a desktop pc for at least 16 years, but I'm keen to get back into it. I'm interested in playing strategy games - so Warno, Broken Arrow, Company of Heroes etc. I'm also interested in playing Half Life Alyx on a Quest 2/3S/3. Settings for these games doesn't have to be too high, I'm not hung up on the max end of performance, so a moderate setting is fine. I'd also rather not have a desktop case with loads of multicolour LED lights if possible, but happy to go with it if it's prebuilt. Budget isn't set in stone, but I'd prefer to spend around £850 for the desktop, excluding monitor, keyboard, accessories etc.

I'm considering buying the following for £854 on a cyber monday deal:

PCSPECIALIST - Configure the Hydra R60 to your ideal requirements.

PCSpecialist is an award-winning manufacturer of high quality custom PCs & Laptops. Configure the Hydra R60 to your ideal requirements.
www.pcspecialist.co.uk www.pcspecialist.co.uk

Case
PCS PRISM II ARGB MID TOWER CASE (PWM)
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 5 5600X Six Core CPU (3.7GHz-4.6GHz/35MB CACHE/AM4)
Motherboard
ASUS® PRIME B550-PLUS (AM4, DDR4, PCIe 4.0)
Memory (RAM)
16GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3600MHz (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
8GB ZOTAC GEFORCE RTX 4060 SOLO - HDMI, 3 x DP
1st M.2 SSD Drive
1TB SOLIDIGM P41+ GEN 4 M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (up to 4125MB/sR, 2950MB/sW)
Power Supply
CORSAIR 550W CX SERIES™ CX-550 POWER SUPPLY
Power Cable
1 x 1.5 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
PCS FrostFlow 100 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 INTEL® Wi-Fi 6E AX210 2,400Mbps/5GHz, 300Mbps/2.4GHz PCI-E CARD + BT 5.0
USB/Thunderbolt Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Operating System
Windows 11 Home 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence
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
Norton 360 inc. Game Optimizer - Free 90 Day License
Browser
Microsoft® Edge
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)

Any advice would be appreciated - what do you think?

Thanks for your help!
 
T

Trunkie88

Member
Oh and I have 3 monitors that I'd use first off. They're all the following spec:

1920x1080, 60Hz, 8 Bit, RGB, SDR

Budget isn't necessarily a factor, so I'll probably buy a nice monitor in due course.
 
SpyderTracks

SpyderTracks

We love you Ukraine
Trunkie88 said:
Oh and I have 3 monitors that I'd use first off. They're all the following spec:

1920x1080, 60Hz, 8 Bit, RGB, SDR

Budget isn't necessarily a factor, so I'll probably buy a nice monitor in due course.
Click to expand...
So if we say 6k for the PC? We need a fixed budget.
 
sck451

sck451

MOST VALUED CONTRIBUTOR
The question is what you are willing to spend. You've said "budget isn't necessarily a factor", but presumably there's an upper bound to what you'd be willing to spend? While you could spend £850 on a gaming PC build, it's not really the best use of money. I certainly wouldn't buy the machine above; realistically, I wouldn't buy any gaming PC at that price.

The important questions are
  1. Your budget
  2. Your monitor
  3. What you're going to use the PC for
You have to know all three to get a good idea of what PC you might get.
 
T

Trunkie88

Member
Oh right! - I assumed you could still get an alright / baseline gaming pc for that.

1. Lets go with up to £1000

2. I don't know much about monitors, so for the purpose of this let's go with: AOC CU34G2XE Wide Quad HD 34" Curved VA Gaming Monitor - Black

3. Games: Warno, Company of Heroes 3. Half Life Alyx on Quest 2. All at minimum / moderate performance levels.

Thanks for your help
 
sck451

sck451

MOST VALUED CONTRIBUTOR
Realistically that can't be done either. That's a demanding monitor to run. You could put a weak graphics card on it, and then turn everything down to very low settings, but I'm not sure it would be a great experience. The minimum I can make that would be worth buying would be £1320, and realistically £1460 is more like where I'd look. Less than that can be done if you're willing to go for an older PC that will be outdated sooner and much less upgradable, but at that point I wouldn't buy a custom built PC.

This is why really it's helpful to know the parameters of what we're looking to build so we don't waste time going backwards and forwards with different possible budgets.
 
SpyderTracks

SpyderTracks

We love you Ukraine
Trunkie88 said:
Just focussing on the games I want to play. What's the minimum pc and monitor you'd suggest?
Click to expand...
We can only build to a budget, and we can't advise on anything outside of PCS. Your budget doesn't get anywhere near even an entry level custom PC, I'd suggest getting an old gen branded system that they're clearing stocks of, you'll get a far better deal. Just no way you're even close to a custom PC.

To drive your monitor you'd need about £2100 currently for a custom PC worth anything.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top