Review my build please!

[jimborae]

Hola folks,

So I've been asked to spec a build for a friend's kid & it's been a long time since I've bought newish stuff so could you review please and suggest alternatives where appropriate while keeping the budget around the same mark.

Just a general pc with some gaming use. Apparently he's not too into gaming but does some but he's more about learning Linux and coding etc and he's only ten but he really wants to build it himself. Bless him....

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel - Core i5-7500 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor (£155.94 @ Aria PC)
Motherboard: Gigabyte - GA-B250M-DS3H Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard (£59.99 @ Aria PC)
Memory: Crucial - 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2133 Memory (£68.52 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Kingston - SSDNow UV400 240GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£73.75 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Western Digital - Blue 4TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive (£100.00 @ Aria PC)
Video Card: Gigabyte - GeForce GTX 1060 3GB 3GB Windforce OC Video Card (£188.34 @ Aria PC)
Case: Fractal Design - Focus G Mini (Black) MicroATX Mini Tower Case (£44.99 @ Novatech)
Power Supply: SeaSonic - FOCUS Plus Gold 550W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply (£79.99 @ Box Limited)
Optical Drive: Lite-On - iHAS124-14 DVD/CD Writer (£12.73 @ Amazon UK)
Operating System: Microsoft - Windows 10 Home OEM 64-bit
Other: 5 Fan splitter cable (£4.79)
Other: Thermaltake riing 12 RGB LED (£43.00)
Total: £863.68
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-10-17 16:06 BST+0100

[MrJim]

Hola folks,

So I've been asked to spec a build for a friend's kid & it's been a long time since I've bought newish stuff so could you review please and suggest alternatives where appropriate while keeping the budget around the same mark.

Just a general pc with some gaming use. Apparently he's not too into gaming but does some but he's more about learning Linux and coding etc and he's only ten but he really wants to build it himself. Bless him....

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel - Core i5-7500 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor (£155.94 @ Aria PC)
Motherboard: Gigabyte - GA-B250M-DS3H Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard (£59.99 @ Aria PC)
Memory: Crucial - 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2133 Memory (£68.52 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Kingston - SSDNow UV400 240GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£73.75 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Western Digital - Blue 4TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive (£100.00 @ Aria PC)
Video Card: Gigabyte - GeForce GTX 1060 3GB 3GB Windforce OC Video Card (£188.34 @ Aria PC)
Case: Fractal Design - Focus G Mini (Black) MicroATX Mini Tower Case (£44.99 @ Novatech)
Power Supply: SeaSonic - FOCUS Plus Gold 550W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply (£79.99 @ Box Limited)
Optical Drive: Lite-On - iHAS124-14 DVD/CD Writer (£12.73 @ Amazon UK)
Operating System: Microsoft - Windows 10 Home OEM 64-bit
Other: 5 Fan splitter cable (£4.79)
Other: Thermaltake riing 12 RGB LED (£43.00)
Total: £863.68
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-10-17 16:06 BST+0100

I'd be inclined to get one of the new Coffee Lake i3 CPUs like the i3 8100 which will have similar performance and costs quite a bit less at £109:

https://www.scan.co.uk/products/inte...pu-65w-cpu-box

The downside is that at the moment the only motherboards available for it are Z370 boards, which are a bit overkill for a CPU you can't overclock. I don't think cheaper motherboards are planned for Coffee Lake, either:

https://www.eteknix.com/no-b360-h370...fee-lake-z370/

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Hola folks,

So I've been asked to spec a build for a friend's kid & it's been a long time since I've bought newish stuff so could you review please and suggest alternatives where appropriate while keeping the budget around the same mark.

Just a general pc with some gaming use. Apparently he's not too into gaming but does some but he's more about learning Linux and coding etc and he's only ten but he really wants to build it himself. Bless him....

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel - Core i5-7500 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor (£155.94 @ Aria PC)
Motherboard: Gigabyte - GA-B250M-DS3H Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard (£59.99 @ Aria PC)
Memory: Crucial - 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2133 Memory (£68.52 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Kingston - SSDNow UV400 240GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£73.75 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Western Digital - Blue 4TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive (£100.00 @ Aria PC)
Video Card: Gigabyte - GeForce GTX 1060 3GB 3GB Windforce OC Video Card (£188.34 @ Aria PC)
Case: Fractal Design - Focus G Mini (Black) MicroATX Mini Tower Case (£44.99 @ Novatech)
Power Supply: SeaSonic - FOCUS Plus Gold 550W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply (£79.99 @ Box Limited)
Optical Drive: Lite-On - iHAS124-14 DVD/CD Writer (£12.73 @ Amazon UK)
Operating System: Microsoft - Windows 10 Home OEM 64-bit
Other: 5 Fan splitter cable (£4.79)
Other: Thermaltake riing 12 RGB LED (£43.00)
Total: £863.68
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-10-17 16:06 BST+0100

What is your total budget??

If it is less for gaming and more for coding I would dial back on the GPU and get a faster CPU. If anything,I would argue a Ryzen 5 1600 or even a Ryzen 7 1700 would be a good starting point,especially since the socket is apparently going to be supported for a few years.

[Hoonigan]

If it is less for gaming and more for coding I would dial back on the GPU and get a faster CPU. If anything,I would argue a Ryzen 5 1600 or even a Ryzen 7 1700 would be a good starting point,especially since the socket is apparently going to be supported for a few years.

The kid is 10, he's gonna start gaming on it within no time at all, whether he plans on doing so or not.

[DanceswithUnix]

For someone wanting to learn Linux, I would say a Raspberry Pi 3 starter kit for £50.

If they are into Minecraft, which I expect they are at that age, then building a cheap Pentium system Minecraft server to play on with their friends is probably a good way forward. That would mean 2 machines, perhaps cheap 2 core 4 thread Pentium boxes. Only one needs Windows.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

The kid is 10, he's gonna start gaming on it within no time at all, whether he plans on doing so or not.

If he is under Linux then his games choices are going to be far limited anyway,and I would be including a copy of Windows. For things like coding,etc I would be concentrating on a decentish CPU and Ryzen will be supported for a few years on the AM4 socket and will have more than enough performance to last a few years.

I would build a solid base system which would last a good couple of years,and if AMD is going to support the socket for a while,it also means replacement motherboards,etc will be easier to source.

Heck,I would argue when Raven Ridge is released to the desktop next year that would be enough!!

Edit!!

I used to have a GTX960 before my GTX1080,and even though the GTX1080 is just PCMR in comparison,I still played quite a few newish games at lower res and settings fine on the GTX960.

Main my concern is the sub £200 market is warped due to mining and a 3GB card might be OK for Blizzard games,but I would not be getting one to last a few years in 2017,which I expect if a family is buying a £800 to £900 rig for their kid,they want it to do.

I mean even on my GTX960 4GB,games could push past 3GB at times!

If anything I would be likely to get a solid base PC now,and save some of the budget for a better card next year! Something like Volta or the new small Vega cards which will be released.

In the end if they don't game that much a better GPU will be wasted,but a better CPU will only mean a longer lifespan.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

This is my effort at a build:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/...KL5A1OLE&psc=1
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/...KL5A1OLE&psc=1
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/...KL5A1OLE&psc=1
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/...KL5A1OLE&psc=1
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/...KL5A1OLE&psc=1
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/...KL5A1OLE&psc=1
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/...KL5A1OLE&psc=1
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/807442
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/769472

The total comes to around £795. It gives you a Ryzen 5 1600,16GB of 3200MHZ DDR4,a higher end B350 motherboard,a 275GB Crucial SSD and a good GTX1050 2GB. That should be more than enough to serve as a solid base systems for a few years for gaming,or if he wants to get more into programming,etc. When it comes to non-gaming performance,the Ryzen 5 1600 is actually close to CPUs like the Core i7 6800K overall.

But even that might be OTT.

Another alternative might be this:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/AMD-YD1200B...s=ryzen+3+1200
https://www.ebuyer.com/784964-msi-am...d-b350-pc-mate

Then cut back to 8GB of reasonable speed RAM. That should save you around £165 too.

The Core i3 8100 is also a consideration but it is around £116 from Ebuyer. The cheapest Z370 motherboard is around £110. Remember reviews tend to be for the Core i3 8350k which has much higher clockspeeds and can benefit from MCE in the Z370 boards.

The problem is if you get even a midrange B350 motherboard at £80,thats £53 cheaper going with the Ryzen 1200 and that means you can slot in a Ryzen 5 1400 or Ryzen 5 1500X for around the same money which is generally going to be probably a better long-term choice.

Even Coffee Lake performs best with 2667MHZ to 3000MHZ RAM too,so I don't think RAM will be massively cheaper on the Intel side too.

[Xlucine]

I'd be inclined to get one of the new Coffee Lake i3 CPUs like the i3 8100 which will have similar performance and costs quite a bit less at £109:

https://www.scan.co.uk/products/inte...pu-65w-cpu-box

The downside is that at the moment the only motherboards available for it are Z370 boards, which are a bit overkill for a CPU you can't overclock. I don't think cheaper motherboards are planned for Coffee Lake, either:

https://www.eteknix.com/no-b360-h370...fee-lake-z370/

Factoring the extra cost of the Z370 boards over any sensible value motherboard (+£60 ish), that £109 CPU effectively costs £169. So you get identical performance for £10 more - the 8100 is a useless CPU, no-one should recommend it when cheaper alternatives give the same performance or more (7th gen i5 is the same thing but cheaper, ryzen 3 is basically the same and much cheaper, low end ryzen 5 provides SMT for less dosh)

[jimborae]

For someone wanting to learn Linux, I would say a Raspberry Pi 3 starter kit for £50.

If they are into Minecraft, which I expect they are at that age, then building a cheap Pentium system Minecraft server to play on with their friends is probably a good way forward. That would mean 2 machines, perhaps cheap 2 core 4 thread Pentium boxes. Only one needs Windows.

He's already done the pi thing and now wants something more powerful to build himself, I've already offered a really good Ivy Bridge i5 based PC with a HD6970 card and apparently it's not good enough!!! So his Dad is no going to have to spend near on a grand rather than a couple of hundred.

[jimborae]

This is my effort at a build:

........

The total comes to around £795. It gives you a Ryzen 5 1600,16GB of 3200MHZ DDR4,a higher end B350 motherboard,a 275GB Crucial SSD and a good GTX1050 2GB. That should be more than enough to serve as a solid base systems for a few years for gaming,or if he wants to get more into programming,etc. When it comes to non-gaming performance,the Ryzen 5 1600 is actually close to CPUs like the Core i7 6800K overall.

But even that might be OTT.

Another alternative might be this:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/AMD-YD1200B...s=ryzen+3+1200
https://www.ebuyer.com/784964-msi-am...d-b350-pc-mate

Then cut back to 8GB of reasonable speed RAM. That should save you around £165 too.

The Core i3 8100 is also a consideration but it is around £116 from Ebuyer. The cheapest Z370 motherboard is around £110. Remember reviews tend to be for the Core i3 8350k which has much higher clockspeeds and can benefit from MCE in the Z370 boards.

The problem is if you get even a midrange B350 motherboard at £80,thats £53 cheaper going with the Ryzen 1200 and that means you can slot in a Ryzen 5 1400 or Ryzen 5 1500X for around the same money which is generally going to be probably a better long-term choice.

Even Coffee Lake performs best with 2667MHZ to 3000MHZ RAM too,so I don't think RAM will be massively cheaper on the Intel side too.

Thanks Cat, I'd totally forgotten about the new AMD cpu's so this does create a cheaper alternative to look into, especially if their no going to pull an intel and change the socket compatibility every 5mins. .

[jimborae]

Ok taking on board what has been said and input from the people buying the bits how about this for a cheaper AMD build.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 5 1500X 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor (£149.94 @ Aria PC)
Motherboard: Gigabyte - GA-AB350M-D3H Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard (£68.00 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: Patriot - Viper 4 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-3200 Memory (£83.97 @ Ebuyer)
Storage: Crucial - MX300 275GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£79.40 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Seagate - Barracuda 3TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£75.60 @ Aria PC)
Video Card: PNY - GeForce GTX 1050 Ti 4GB Video Card (£116.80 @ Amazon UK)
Case: Fractal Design - Focus G Mini (Black) MicroATX Mini Tower Case (£44.99 @ Novatech)
Power Supply: SeaSonic - FOCUS Plus Gold 550W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply (£71.38 @ Amazon UK)
Optical Drive: Lite-On - iHAS124-14 DVD/CD Writer (£12.73 @ Amazon UK)
Operating System: Microsoft - Windows 10 Home OEM 64-bit
Case Fan: Thermaltake - Riing 12 RGB Triple Pack 40.6 CFM 120mm Fans (£43.99 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £746.80
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-10-18 14:27 BST+0100

[DanceswithUnix]

Not bad.

My 15 year old son has the 525GB version of that SSD in his PC as the only storage on there. That is enough for a few big games, some video captures for a YouTube channel and an install of Visual Studio for his homework. Just having the bigger SSD would save more cash.

But, if you want to put Linux on there I would suggest a second drive for dual boot. Perhaps a 500GB laptop drive as even the 7200rpm ones are pretty quiet.

Edit: From my experience of 10yr olds, it will need to run: Scratch, Python, OBS video capture, some sort of video editor but above all else YouTube and Minecraft. You got that covered My daughter has been more than happy with an AMD APU and aged 12 has only recently upgraded to a R7 260X GPU and it seems that is way beyond her friends who generally have to share a family laptop.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Ok taking on board what has been said and input from the people buying the bits how about this for a cheaper AMD build.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 5 1500X 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor (£149.94 @ Aria PC)
Motherboard: Gigabyte - GA-AB350M-D3H Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard (£68.00 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: Patriot - Viper 4 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-3200 Memory (£83.97 @ Ebuyer)
Storage: Crucial - MX300 275GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£79.40 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Seagate - Barracuda 3TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£75.60 @ Aria PC)
Video Card: PNY - GeForce GTX 1050 Ti 4GB Video Card (£116.80 @ Amazon UK)
Case: Fractal Design - Focus G Mini (Black) MicroATX Mini Tower Case (£44.99 @ Novatech)
Power Supply: SeaSonic - FOCUS Plus Gold 550W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply (£71.38 @ Amazon UK)
Optical Drive: Lite-On - iHAS124-14 DVD/CD Writer (£12.73 @ Amazon UK)
Operating System: Microsoft - Windows 10 Home OEM 64-bit
Case Fan: Thermaltake - Riing 12 RGB Triple Pack 40.6 CFM 120mm Fans (£43.99 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £746.80
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-10-18 14:27 BST+0100

I would make sure the memory is listed on the QVL,just to make sure. I still think the Ryzen 5 1600 is worth the extra but again TBH,the 1500X is hardly slow I suppose!

[jimborae]

Well maybe if I follow yours & DwU's advice I could upgrade to larger SSD & Ryzen 5 1600 and still stay within budget. I've got a few 500 GB spinners that I could gift him for storage needs or dual booting purposes. Cheers guys, will let you know the outcome.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Well maybe if I follow yours & DwU's advice I could upgrade to larger SSD & Ryzen 5 1600 and still stay within budget. I've got a few 500 GB spinners that I could gift him for storage needs or dual booting purposes. Cheers guys, will let you know the outcome.

RAM is not mentioned on the QVL,but I have not been following the Gigbayte lower end boards as well,so it might be OK at the rated speed or not.