Need help buying prebuilt PC in the UK

[Maki_Thunderbolt]

hi guys,

I sadly won’t be able to build my dream pc as i would need help gluing the processor in place and help installing the water cooling. I am quarantined for the foreseeable future so i have decided i need to buy a prebuilt PC instead.

There was a company that sponsored a video on LTT last week that do lovely pre-built pc’s but they do not ship to the UK. 

There is the corsair one that has two left in stock on amazon but it is a thousand pounds more expensive then my budget and is it seriously how much those components cost?? 

i appreciate i will add a few hundred pounds for the labour and will happily remunerate the company that will build my PC but i don’t want to be ripped off like you see on ltt or bitwit vidéos who expose companies who cut corners selling the worst components, ugly ketchup and mustard wires and are clearly ripping you off.

I have the rest of my life to build my own pc someday, but for the foreseeable future i am in quarantine for medical issues and i am sure i will feel so much happier as soon as i have more than just my iphone as my one and only source of contact with the outside world! 

 

i am very visually impaired so i shall have to buy a very large monitor so that i don’t have to sit so very close to it.

 

it’s the worst time for buying computers but it is going to be a very very very long quarantine so such is life!

 

do you know any pc building companies who ship to london?

do you have any advice for configuration?

why is the corsair one So expensive?!?!

any advice would be very well appreciated!!

 

we are in a strange new world where i can’t order food which i rely on, but at least you can order a pc!!!

thanks in advance!

[Maki_Thunderbolt]

*correction: will gladly pay for the cost of the Labour.... not the neighbour!

[Letgomyleghoe]

You don’t glue a processor in, you drop it into a socket, and you don’t need water cooling, I highly advise you to build something yourself.

 

and what is your budget?

[boggy77]

what is your budget and what do you want to do with your pc?

[Fasauceome]

1 minute ago, Maki_Thunderbolt said:

*correction: will gladly pay for the cost of the Labour.... not the neighbour!

There is an edit button, little pencil icon at the bottom of the post.

 

6 minutes ago, Maki_Thunderbolt said:

i would need help gluing the processor in place

???¿?? What does this mean?

[Maki_Thunderbolt]

lol!

well we have a problem if i don’t feel competent to stick the very delicate little cpu into place!!!

i am very clumsy and isn’t it a bit risky building a pc without help and it being my first build?

aren't there honest pc companies who’s job is to build wonderful pc’s?

 

[boggy77]

1 minute ago, Maki_Thunderbolt said:

lol!

well we have a problem if i don’t feel competent to stick the very delicate little cpu into place!!!

i am very clumsy and isn’t it a bit risky building a pc without help and it being my first build?

aren't there honest pc companies who’s job is to build wonderful pc’s?

 

there should be. what's your budget and what do you want to do with the pc?

[Maki_Thunderbolt]

budget was about £2000-£2500 including a monitor that i am willing to pay £1000 for as remember i have a visual impairment and will need a very large monitor. 

i only have an iphone and i struggle to follow what is going on when there is a lot going on. you know how things smudge when they move fast? i so dream of having a high refresh rate monitor!

 

i just play an anime rpg 24/7 so the PC will be for an immersive gaming experience.

can we call it therapy while we are quarantined??

[boggy77]

cclonline have quite cheap components and cheap assembly. i would get it from them. and the pc can be customised quite a lot.

https://www.cclonline.com/pc/gaming-pcs/reaper/ccl-reaper-gaming-pc/advanced-customiser/custom/322/

[Maki_Thunderbolt]

and with the quarantine plus the added cost of paying a pc builder, and just me going a bit nuts here facing a good five months being quarantined, i would go up to the £2500 side of my budget and possibly add a bit....

 

i forgot to add, it sounds a bit like the game developers are taking the piss, but to be selected as their lucky chosen beta testers, you have to show content you create. you basically need to be an influencer making social media content about their game.

But the beta testers get everything, hundreds and thousands of cristals, you have to test their gaucha and you get all the new battle suits, weapons, everything!!!!

 

so content creation of simple guides for that game. 

that shall be the second use for my pc!

[Maki_Thunderbolt]

3 hours ago, scuff gang said:

You don’t glue a processor in, you drop it into a socket, and you don’t need water cooling, I highly advise you to build something yourself.

 

and what is your budget?

£2500 including the monitor

 

3 hours ago, boggy77 said:

cclonline have quite cheap components and cheap assembly. i would get it from them. and the pc can be customised quite a lot.

https://www.cclonline.com/pc/gaming-pcs/reaper/ccl-reaper-gaming-pc/advanced-customiser/custom/322/

thanks! they are up the other end of england tho....

i like the look of this store.

you know the youtube videos that go through the parts lists of prebuilt pc’s explaining how some of the components are seriously troublesome? would these be chosen and compiled to the highest standard for that price range?

[Maki_Thunderbolt]

4 hours ago, Fasauceome said:

There is an edit button, little pencil icon at the bottom of the post.

 

???¿?? What does this mean?

lol that meant i clearly don’t feel competent to build a pc on my own. you know that step where you instal the cpu onto the motherboard? it looks so delicate, i always inhale and hold my breath watching youtubers making pc’s

[boggy77]

10 hours ago, Maki_Thunderbolt said:

thanks! they are up the other end of england tho....

I think they deliver. and as for components, they have lots of options for customising it. I would encourage you to give it a try and post the list you come up with here. then we can help with advice or let you know if anything needs to be changed.

[Maki_Thunderbolt]

thank you!

[king113]

i can build you pc I work  as a laptop engineer so pic of cake building a PC for me ,

i wont lie i will charge you a simbolic amount of money to do that , and build will take some time so i can sort parts for cheap for you , 

send me priv if you intrested cheers

[Dravinian]

Maki,if you have not bought yet.

 

I did a thread on building companies in the UK.

 

The top 3 for price in my comparison were:

 

Fierce PC - https://www.fiercepc.co.uk/

 

PC Specialist - https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/

 

Punch Technology - https://www.punchtechnology.co.uk/

 

I think any of those in my thread will be better than buying from a place like Amazon or Dell.

 

I think you should do some reseach in your particular circumstances on the monitor that is best for you, get the absolute best monitor you can get within your budget, from whatever seller you can, don't limit yourself to builders for that.

 

Find out what budget you have left, and then grab the best PC you can.

 

Most of these companies will do a 'Next Day' PC, it won't be the 'best' bang for your buck, but it won't be the worst either and it will likely be a tried and tested design that they have used for awhile.

 

GIving what you say you are using the PC for, I would imagine anything that runs from £1,000 to £1,500 is likely to meet your needs and each of these companies have a variety of options, so you can just have a look around see who is giving the most RAM, or the best GPU or the best CPU within your budget or see which of them are offering the best 'bundles' maybe you want a headset or a nice new mouse and keyboard.  One of the companies in my thread gives away like 5 new games for you to waste some quarantine time on, for free.

 

Check out my thread for the list of other UK builders too, so that you have a wider range of companies to look at and a wider range of PCs to choose from.

 

One that is not on my list is UK Gaming Computers.  So that is another to look at when picking a PC.

 

As for components, you are not looking for a high video editing workstation, nor a streaming/playing/editing machine.

 

Sounds to me that as long as it has a decent amount of RAM (16gb to 32gb), a mid-range CPU (i5 or Ryzen 5) and a mid-range GPU (1660 to 2070 super), that you are going to be happy playing your game.

 

As an example:

 

RIght now on Fierce they have these specs on a PC:

 

Intel Core i5 9600K Hex-Core CPU

MSI Z390-A PRO Motherboard

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER 8GB

16GB of 3000MHz DDR4 Memory

500GB M.2 Solid State Drive

2TB Hard Drive

 

£1,519.95

 

PC Specialist has:

AMD Ryzen 7 3800X

ASUS® TUF X570-PLUS GAMING

16GB Corsair VENGEANCE 3000MHz

8GB AMD RADEON™ RX 5700 XT

2TB SEAGATE BARRACUDA HDD

 

£1,550.00

 

If you are persuaded by the AMD hype and want to go that route instead.  Comes in a nice Corsair case too!

 

Either of these would leave you almost £1,000 for a very good monitor and I suspect that this machine would chug away all day on the games you want to play.

 

Check out the sites and spend a bit of time, write it all down and happily compare.

 

2 days spent compariing and getting the best deal now will help you in the months or years to come using the machine.

[Dravinian]

Just to clarify those examples were not to say that PC Specialist is AMD or Fierce is Intel.

PC Specialist do:

 

Intel® Core™ i7-9700K

Gigabyte Z390 UD

16GB Corsair VENGEANCE 3000MHz

8GB GEFORCE RTX 2070 SUPER

2TB SEAGATE BARRACUDA HDD

 

£1,460

 

Fierce do:

 

AMD Ryzen 7 3700X Octa-Core CPU

MSI MEG X570 ACE Motherboard

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER 6GB

16GB of 3000MHz DDR4 Memory

1TB WD Blue SATA M.2 SSD

 

£1,519.95

 

So do check out each of the sites and write down what they are offering.  You will find the right place for what you want.

[Dravinian]

Components you should be looking for though, to make sure that you do not miss out on anything.

 

NVMe m.2 PCIE storage;

SSD storage - measured in terabytes;

 

Do not get just a mechanical drive, you will regret it later on.

 

i5 to i7 with the most cores possible; or

Ryzen 5 to Ryzen 7 with the most cores possible;

 

I am not the most knowledgeable on CPU, so perhaps read on this site, but 8 cores appears to be within your budget.

 

You want either Nvidia or Radeon Graphics cards (those listed above are good, 2060/2070 Super or Radeon rt 5700 xt)

I would go Nvidia for graphics myself

 

Again, I am not great on GPU, they all have stupid names and designations, but these cards, from the bench testing I have seen on LTT seem much a like for like.

 

You want 16gb of 3000 mhz DDR4 RAM, but if you can manage to grab more as part of a build/deal, then go for it, 32gb is better than 16gb, but dont be led by RAM.

 

Again, I am no expert, but don't waste money on RGB ram, just get the best performing that you can.

 

[Maki_Thunderbolt]

wow WoW wow!!!!!

guys i didn’t know i had more replies!! thank you so much and apologies for the delay!!! 

i am still very much at the planning stage (adhd poor ability to plan or stay on task....) and very much still need to do this so thank you very very much!!

lemme scroll back up and get back individually

 

 

 

[Maki_Thunderbolt]

On 3/23/2020 at 6:29 PM, Fasauceome said:

There is an edit button, little pencil icon at the bottom of the post.

 

???¿?? What does this mean?

i don’t know where i got the idea that you glue the cpu into place!!! i think i got confused with the cpu cooler that you glue... needless to say it is probably safer to buy a prebuilt!!!

[Fasauceome]

1 minute ago, Maki_Thunderbolt said:

i don’t know where i got the idea that you glue the cpu into place!!! i think i got confused with the cpu cooler that you glue... needless to say it is probably safer to buy a prebuilt!!!

you don't need a prebuilt, just watch a tutorial video on the subject.

 

For example, you don't glue anything in place, you add thermal paste to transfer heat. The cooler is attached to the motherboard by some screws.

[Maki_Thunderbolt]

2 minutes ago, Fasauceome said:

you don't need a prebuilt, just watch a tutorial video on the subject.

 

For example, you don't glue anything in place, you add thermal paste to transfer heat. The cooler is attached to the motherboard by some screws.

but is it wise for a complete beginner to take on such an endeavour while in lockdown because what do i do when i get stuck?!?! 

 

I love that new little NZXT H1, for example, and they don’t ship prebuilds to the uk so even if i bought the case and it has lots of the hard work already done, i have watched tutorials showing how to install the stuff on the little motherboard and honestly it looks really hard!

I just took the plunge and got the LG CX50 to use as a monitor. i am legally blind so that will be a nice size for me.

now comes the hard work figuring out the PC and this epic saga of choosing the Gpu that can tide me over until the HDMI 2.1 gpu’s are released...

i have up to £2,000 left and how do you decide on a system to get the 120hz going for my gaming until the HDMI 2.1 cards arrive??

 

fhanks again! :)))

[Fasauceome]

32 minutes ago, Maki_Thunderbolt said:

a system to get the 120hz going

can the LG CX 50 do 120Hz? Had a quick google and it looks like a TV, and high refresh is not so standard for TVs.

[Maki_Thunderbolt]

3 minutes ago, Fasauceome said:

can the LG CX 50 do 120Hz? Had a quick google and it looks like a TV, and high refresh is not so standard for TVs.

it’s got g-sync! 

there is a bit of an epic debate going on about it ‘only’ having 40 gigabytes per second bandwidth instead of the full 48 expected for HDMI2.1 and to be honest, mate, it’s a bit over my head as i am not an AV connoisseur!

can i please refer you to the post i created the other day as it links the two LTT videos about the 2019 range that got the g-sync software upgrade 

 

what advice do you have about this whole issues choosing a gpu for my build just before the next generation of gpu’s come along that can do the hdmi2.1

thank you

[Fasauceome]

43 minutes ago, Maki_Thunderbolt said:

i have up to £2,000

I made a very beginner friendly build for this budget. It is cheaper so that you can save money now and buy really nice parts down the line. Have a look:

Spoiler

PCPartPicker Part List

Type	Item	Price
CPU	AMD Ryzen 7 3800X 3.9 GHz 8-Core Processor	£299.99 @ Amazon UK
Motherboard	Gigabyte X570 I AORUS PRO WIFI Mini ITX AM4 Motherboard	£225.99 @ Amazon UK
Memory	Corsair Vengeance LPX 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory	£64.98 @ Amazon UK
Storage	Sabrent Rocket Q 2 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive	£219.99 @ Amazon UK
Video Card	PowerColor Radeon RX 5700 XT 8 GB Red Dragon Video Card	£359.99 @ CCL Computers
Case	NZXT H210 Mini ITX Tower Case	£75.64 @ Amazon UK
Power Supply	Corsair TXM Gold 550 W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-modular ATX Power Supply	£79.98 @ Amazon UK
	Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
	Total	£1326.56
	Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-06-05 20:46 BST+0100

 

The case is not my usual small form factor recommendation, but it has lots of space for you to work with, while still being compact. 

 

These videos should help you with some of the small stuff:

 

 

 

And basically any build guide out there will get you the rest of the way..

 

Quote

what advice do you have about this whole issues choosing a gpu for my build just before the next generation of gpu’s come along that can do the hdmi2.1

Buy a cheaper GPU now and get a nice high end one later.