Is there such thing as a cheap gaming PC around £500

Goodmane

Maybe something like this:

Dell Optiplex 3020 MT PC Intel Core i5-4590 3.3GHz 4GB 500GB HDD DVD-RW WIN 10 5397063618767 | eBay

It was an i5 4590 (3.3Ghz) based Dell desktop with Win 10 for £129. Not overclockable so should be fine condition.

It has/had a PCI-e x16 slot. May need to change the case to fit in a proper graphics card and decent cooling. Maybe pick up a GTX 970 for another £130.  Add an ssd for £50, double up the RAM. You are on your way then...although an xbox one x is still going to beat it in raw power, it will be able to play games with other pcs if that is the goal, whilst also being a pretty fast pc for homework etc.

I'd run a search for 'intel i5' in desktops on ebay and see what comes up.

HeavenlyWarrior

At that price point I'd be getting an Xbox One X so I have the option to play both on console and PC.

Fat_Tony

Hi Jouster

I've been looking at this one for my 13 Yr old son, I'm pretty sure he falls into the fortnite and minecraft category so I'm hoping it will do the job

ULTRA FAST Quad Core Gaming PC Tower WIFI & 8GB 1TB HDD & Win 10   2GB Graphics  | eBay

Peter Parker

Funnily enough I've been looking at the same approach.

I picked up an i5 3470 8GB 500GB Dell 3010 with Windows 10 for £110 inc delivery. There are quite a few Dell gaming builds on youtube if people want to see what some are doing with Dells and various graphic card combinations, but the 1060 is quite common.

Amazon are doing warehouse deals for a Zotak mini 3GB 1060 for £149,95 (the longer ones may fit, but with some Dell motherboards it could foul on something like a front panel header) and you'll need a 400w (or more) PSU which can be had for over around £25. Add an optional SSD if you want faster boot times - say 120gb at around £20 for the OS, and use the HDD for storage and where newly installed games will be placed. You should then have a reasonable starting machine for around £300. Keyboard and mouse don't have to cost the earth either if you need those too. If you want to make it look new, some new gaming cases can be had pretty cheaply on ebay for over £20, or just add in some internal RGB lighting

There are plenty of built gaming PCs on ebay that are based on a similar idea as they are using 'refurbished' motherboard memory and processor, so are probably from Dells etc. They seem to start at over £400 but you do get some warranty with those.

drzepsuj

Hi guys!

I have been pc gamer for the last 20 years or so, my insight is that if your budget is limited, look for a second hand gaming pc, you will get most for your money. New gaming pc for 500 will be very limited, especially if your price must include monitor and accessories. Single most important part in your gaming pc is the graphics card, focus your search on the fastest gpu included in the pc that is within your budget. Most cpus made in the last 5 years can handle gaming. 8gb ram is a minimum, 16 is nice. You can always add more later. As further upgrade I would suggest an SSD. I hope this helps

Goodmane

@Fat_Tony I wouldn't get that one if I were you. It's made from a used Core 2 quad cpu. They are really old. It's probably an old q6600 or something they were really popular back in the day, I think they were 2006 or something, and worth about a tenner these days. Don't get me wrong, with an ssd it could still feel really fast, but not in games. Not games more advanced than an xbox 360 could handle and then only if you upgrade the graphics to something like an old AMD HD 6850. Any better gpu than that is arguably wasted on a Core 2 cpu, as the cpu will be the bottleneck in most games.

The trouble is if you buy such an old motherboard, then you are really limited for upgrades (because new cpus now have different sockets every year, and can only fit with that year's motherboards), and you may have trouble with the Win 10 license if you have to change motherboard to upgrade to something else in future, as the license is linked to the motherboard.

I'm all for used pcs, but pick up a motherboard and cpu / ram bundle yourself, and screw it into a new case if need be rather than that deal imo. I would get an i5 2500k generation at a minimum if possible. [Note the i5 2500k and 2600k were really popular and will have been overclocked. So long as they are kept cool and not run excessively its not a problem but don't buy one that was run too fast imo, i.e. if seller is bragging about how high it will go...] The i5 I linked to above was even newer; althoug not overclockable it would still be several times faster than an old Core 2 series.

UserBenchmark: Intel Core i5-4590 vs Core2 Quad Q6600

A less old cpu/mobo will be able to cope with a much more modern graphics card, whilst also having more modern ports / usbs / pci-express etc.

Also the gpu that they are shipping is awful. Just don't go there, hope you see this in time!

drzepsuj

Following on my earlier suggestion, something like this would be reasonable and is quite well balanced:

Gaming pc setup, Core i7   GTX 1060, VR Ready  | eBay

This particular pc is collection only and im not sure if you are local to this area, but the price is right and maybe you could get it down to 500-550
If I had 500 to spend, it's something that I would buy.

LJx

What about this from Currys  PC SPECIALIST Tornado R3 AMD Ryzen 3 GTX 1050 Gaming PC - 1 TB HDD

Fat_Tony

Thanks for all the info, its really useful as I havent got much of a clue about this stuff.

He's currently making do with an awful old toshiba laptop, and an ancient macbook - he's managed to get windows running on his macbook, thats the sort of stuff he has been figuring out recently.

We dont plan on spending more than about £200-£300 - its really to test the water and see if its something he sticks at in future. I am very keen to avoid old components that limit upgrade potential for the future.

As mentioned above, gaming PC seems such a vague term. My sons needs are probably not quite as advanced. Im torn between spending more now or just getting him a basic set up and maybe looking more high end once he's tried it for a year.

Having re-read all the above posts, should we perhaps look at something like this then spend the rest of the budget on some upgrades?

Dell Optiplex 3010 Intel Core i5 3470 - 8GB Ram 500GB HDD Windows 10 Pro - HDMI  | eBay

I hope Jouster doesnt mind my questions on his post, its so hard trying to research something like this when all the terms and lingo means nothing to me

Thanks for the input chaps

Peter Parker

The PC you have linked to is a small form factor (SFF) model so has a limited upgrade path - it doesn't use a standard PSU so the best graphics card you could probably fir would be a low profile GTX1050ti, but that will probably be as far as you can go with that machine and I think that kind of money would be better spent on a mini tower (MT) which is more upgradable. There are videos on  youtube showing SFF PCs being upgraded with 1050s as well as MTs with GTX 1060s and 1070s.

This video shows a 1050ti inside a 3010 (the 3020 didn't look as viable)

                               
I would go for a mini tower if you want a better graphics card though as you can swap out the PSU for a more powerful one and then fit a much better graphics card. I think the 3020 (and maybe all those ending in '20) are the range where the motherboard power changed form standard ATX 24pin to a DELL proprietary 8 pin or something, so you'll need to find an adaptor if that's the case. I'd stick with the 3010 range or one of the others that take normal ATX PSUs and short GTX type graphics cards (790 etc IIRC - again, youtube is is very useful - just search for Dell Optiplex gaming PC for example.