Looking for a new Computer

[Bradderz369]

Hey guys, my father has got back to me in need of a computer and I was wondering if there were any tech wizards here who are able to help me out of point me in the right direction. It's 10 years old and is in need of replacing. He's not tech savvy and we don't have anyone near us to build a computer for us even though we're well aware that would save us a small fortune.

We're based in the UK and after doing some browsing through some sites, it's hard to choose which one will do the job. He's mainly browsing the internet, watching movies and rarely playing games on it. Nothing too intense but would like to last a fair while. He's done some research and apparently he's found some good parts to choose from and would like something close to these specs if possible. If anyone wouldn't mind pointing us in the right direction or recommend us a place that could fit close to these specs, that would be greatly appreciated.

The most important ones are access to sound, wifi with 3TB hard drive and USB ports on the front so he can plug his USB stick with ease. Other specs are as follows:

• Intel Core i9 12900k 3.2 ghz
• Nvidia Geforce RTX 3060 GDDR6
• 32GB of ram (probably overkill)
• 500GB SSD
• 3TB Hard Drive
• USB 3.2 Card
• Windows 11
• Sound card and access to wifi

He's looking to spend around £700-£800 but would happily pay more knowing that it would do the job.

 

Many thanks,

Brad.

[Tetras]

From what you describe, those specs are way overkill and even though you consider the RAM the one that is overkill, that's actually the one part I'd keep 

 

I'd look at a prebuilt PC with a 8600G or 8700G, which would suffice for some mild gaming.

 

The i5-12400 and i5-12600K are currently on offer (£135 and £180) and I don't think there's any point buying better than that for a desktop PC. Not only that, but you only need modest air cooling for these CPUs, whereas an i9 will need something much beefier.

 

With OEM prebuilt PCs, if you're happy enough to put in a new M.2 or SATA drive, or add some memory, you'll often find that it increases the price unreasonably to have large capacity (either RAM or storage) and pushes you into buying something higher-end than you need.

 

[Eigenvektor]

15 minutes ago, Bradderz369 said:

Sound card and access to wifi

Any modern motherboard has sound built in, so no need for a dedicated sound card. There are also motherboards that have Wi-Fi on board already, so maybe check for one of these.

[Bradderz369]

5 minutes ago, Tetras said:

From what you describe, those specs are way overkill and even though you consider the RAM the one that is overkill, that's actually the one part I'd keep 

 

I'd look at a prebuilt PC with a 8600G or 8700G, which would suffice for some mild gaming.

 

The i5-12400 and i5-12600K are currently on offer (£135 and £180) and I don't think there's any point buying better than that for a desktop PC. Not only that, but you only need modest air cooling for these CPUs, whereas an i9 will need something much beefier.

 

With OEM prebuilt PCs, if you're happy enough to put in a new M.2 or SATA drive, or add some memory, you'll often find that it increases the price unreasonably to have large capacity (either RAM or storage) and pushes you into buying something higher-end than you need.

 

5 minutes ago, Eigenvektor said:

Any modern motherboard has sound built in, so no need for a dedicated sound card. There are also motherboards that have Wi-Fi on board already, so maybe check for one of these.

I'm not much of a tech guy myself, I had some help building my computer so I guess I'm not entirely sure what's overkill haha

 

Thanks for your reply, don't suppose there are any recommendations on sites or places to visit that are generally good or well rated for pre built computers? I see so many sites that have so many mixed reviews, it's hard finding a reliable source. I'll look into those components that you mentioned and see if I can find something online.

 

And thanks for the update in regards to the motherboard. Not sure how to use the quote system properly but this will have to do haha!

[Eigenvektor]

1 minute ago, Bradderz369 said:

 Not sure how to use the quote system properly but this will have to do haha!

Don't worry, you did it properly

 

Building your own really isn't that difficult. There's also a sub-forum where you can ask for recommendations on the components you picked: https://linustechtips.com/forum/18-new-builds-and-planning/

 

Not in the UK, so not sure which place would be reliable for pre-built computers or buying computer parts.

[PDifolco]

36 minutes ago, Bradderz369 said:

Hey guys, my father has got back to me in need of a computer and I was wondering if there were any tech wizards here who are able to help me out of point me in the right direction. It's 10 years old and is in need of replacing. He's not tech savvy and we don't have anyone near us to build a computer for us even though we're well aware that would save us a small fortune.

We're based in the UK and after doing some browsing through some sites, it's hard to choose which one will do the job. He's mainly browsing the internet, watching movies and rarely playing games on it. Nothing too intense but would like to last a fair while. He's done some research and apparently he's found some good parts to choose from and would like something close to these specs if possible. If anyone wouldn't mind pointing us in the right direction or recommend us a place that could fit close to these specs, that would be greatly appreciated.

The most important ones are access to sound, wifi with 3TB hard drive and USB ports on the front so he can plug his USB stick with ease. Other specs are as follows:

• Intel Core i9 12900k 3.2 ghz
• Nvidia Geforce RTX 3060 GDDR6
• 32GB of ram (probably overkill)
• 500GB SSD
• 3TB Hard Drive
• USB 3.2 Card
• Windows 11
• Sound card and access to wifi

He's looking to spend around £700-£800 but would happily pay more knowing that it would do the job.

 

Many thanks,

Brad.

You don't need a sound card, boards have an onboard one, nor a USB card, decent boards have 10+ nowadays

12900K is ridiculously overkill for browsing and light gaming, a 12600K will be more than fine

3060 is pretty poor value, rather get a 6600 or 6650XT 

Don't get any HDD neither, get a boot NVme and then a 2TB storage NVme (cheap model)

 

 

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: Intel Core i5-12600K 3.7 GHz 10-Core Processor  (£187.67 @ Clove Technology) 
CPU Cooler: Thermalright Peerless Assassin 120 SE 66.17 CFM CPU Cooler  (£49.93 @ Amazon UK) 
Motherboard: MSI PRO B660M-A WIFI DDR4 Micro ATX LGA1700 Motherboard  (£169.07 @ Amazon UK) 
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3600 CL16 Memory  (£82.99 @ Amazon UK) 
Storage: Western Digital Black SN770 500 GB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive  (£49.99 @ Amazon UK) 
Storage: Crucial P3 2 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 3.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive  (£108.99 @ Ebuyer) 
Video Card: XFX Speedster SWFT 210 Core Radeon RX 6650 XT 8 GB Video Card  (£228.10 @ Amazon UK) 
Total: £876.74
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2024-03-23 19:32 GMT+0000

 

[Tetras]

8 minutes ago, Bradderz369 said:

Thanks for your reply, don't suppose there are any recommendations on sites or places to visit that are generally good or well rated for pre built computers? I see so many sites that have so many mixed reviews, it's hard finding a reliable source. I'll look into those components that you mentioned and see if I can find something online.

Some of the main PC hardware sites in the UK:

- Scan

- Ebuyer

- Overclockers.co.uk

- Amazon (be careful of third party sellers and also getting an empty box or a box with a brick in it, due to returns abuse)

- Currys

and previously: CCL Computers & Box.co.uk

 

For prebuilds, since you're really just looking for a decent desktop PC, I'd take them from anyone, even the likes of Dell or Acer if the price is good. You could also consider a pre-assembled bundle (CPU+board+RAM+CPU cooler) if you're comfortable screwing it into a case.

 

For CPUs, if you want a PC that can fit in a compact case and play games without a graphics card (mainly older games, or browser games) then look at:

- 5600G/5700G

or

- 8600G/8700G

 

Recent reviews can be found on Hardware Unboxed (YouTube), or Gamers Nexus (YouTube) and TPU.

 

If the gaming use is very basic, e.g. point and click or simple indie games, then any Intel 12th-14th gen (EXCEPT -F) or AMD 7000 (EXCEPT -F) are also sufficient, but don't try loading up a recent game like BG3 on one of these.

 

If you want some more serious gaming (with a separate graphics card), then I'd suggest:

- Ryzen 5600 or Core i5-12400

- Ryzen 7500F or 7600 (this would have more future upgradability)

 

Graphics:

- Entry 1440p: 6500 XT or 3050 6GB

- 1080p - RX 6600 or 3060/4060

- Entry 1440p - RX 6700 XT, RX 6800, or 3060/4060 Ti

- 1440p - 7800 XT or 4070

 

I doubt anything better than that is worthwhile, but you could clarify exactly what kind of games (or name some specific games).

[Bradderz369]

Hey everyone sorry for the late replies but thank you all for you suggestions. Unfortunately my dad isn't comfortable buying a computer and I'm sure it's easy to build a computer following a guide but I'd rather not cause him any potential issues since we don't have anyone comfortable with computers in our area. 

 

I'll check out all your recommendations and do a little dive into some research and see what I can pull up. Thanks again everyone!

[rikitikitavi]

On 3/23/2024 at 3:38 PM, Bradderz369 said:

Hey everyone sorry for the late replies but thank you all for you suggestions. Unfortunately my dad isn't comfortable buying a computer and I'm sure it's easy to build a computer following a guide but I'd rather not cause him any potential issues since we don't have anyone comfortable with computers in our area. 

 

I'll check out all your recommendations and do a little dive into some research and see what I can pull up. Thanks again everyone!

Do you mean buying any computer or building a computer? Because he should not be afraid to buy a preassembled (aka ready-to-go) one, especially a new one, since if anything is wrong he should be able to mail it back for a return or exchange.

 

For example:

 

https://www.scan.co.uk/products/scan-gamer-amd-ryzen-5-5600-16gb-ddr4-4gb-nvidia-gtx-1650-1tb-m2-ssd-win-11

 

or

 

https://www.apple.com/uk/shop/product/FMFJ3B/A/refurbished-mac-mini-apple-m2-chip-with-8‑core-cpu-and-10‑core-gpu?fnode=210d282e1e14a3981f3828296dc227ca4ae8fc65c89fa837c69734e869680e42096745a0af1eb8a62aebd6cd90b0a2f0765ff5d1277286d380b359b5fc6897e5c59dd692cf6f22609a8d80d553a43768

 

Depending on the games - you can go even cheaper.

 

...

 

Also:

- a laptop might be a better solution or all-in-one - so your dad won't have to connect the cords.

- a tablet (an iPad for example) might be a better choice in some cases, if browsing the web, watching movies and playing random game is all that is needed.

[Bradderz369]

On 3/27/2024 at 9:36 PM, rikitikitavi said:

Do you mean buying any computer or building a computer? Because he should not be afraid to buy a preassembled (aka ready-to-go) one, especially a new one, since if anything is wrong he should be able to mail it back for a return or exchange.

 

For example:

 

https://www.scan.co.uk/products/scan-gamer-amd-ryzen-5-5600-16gb-ddr4-4gb-nvidia-gtx-1650-1tb-m2-ssd-win-11

 

or

 

https://www.apple.com/uk/shop/product/FMFJ3B/A/refurbished-mac-mini-apple-m2-chip-with-8‑core-cpu-and-10‑core-gpu?fnode=210d282e1e14a3981f3828296dc227ca4ae8fc65c89fa837c69734e869680e42096745a0af1eb8a62aebd6cd90b0a2f0765ff5d1277286d380b359b5fc6897e5c59dd692cf6f22609a8d80d553a43768

 

Depending on the games - you can go even cheaper.

 

...

 

Also:

- a laptop might be a better solution or all-in-one - so your dad won't have to connect the cords.

- a tablet (an iPad for example) might be a better choice in some cases, if browsing the web, watching movies and playing random game is all that is needed.

Hey sorry I was quite tired replying to that post but yeah I mispoke. I meant he isn't comfortable building computers and with no tech guys in our area, we aren't confident enough looking into a guide online as easy as it might be.

But thank you for mentioning some options, I'll have a look into those and forward those on and hopefully it helps him out. Thanks again!