Spec me a gaming PC... (Updated 02/08/2016)

Good morning, was looking for a little bit of guidance. I am currently using a
HP Pavilion 550-153na Desktop for my PC gaming needs.

Now I know it's hardly a top of the line gaming PC, I play mostly simulation games, RTS games, I am finding the performance of the graphics card underwhelming to say the least.

Can someone point me in the right direction for a new Graphics card? I think I am savvy enough to fit a new power unit if required, I wouldn't want to pay more than around £250.

Thanks in advance.

I think a GTX 1060 6GB is right at that price point. It's the card I have and it does 1080p at high settings on the games I play.
There will also be an ATI equivalent card, I think it's the RX 580 8GB.
 
Needing some help choosing a gaming PC for my son. He is a keen PS4 & Xbox gamer but wants to move to a gaming PC. I'd want one that will be future proof for as long as possible, he expects to be playing games such as Overwatch, PUB G, Fortnite etc.

How would the spec of the HP Omen 870-270na stack up for him?
  • Intel® Core™ i5-7400 (3 GHz, up to 3.5 GHz with Intel® Turbo Boost Technology, 6 MB cache, 4 cores)
  • NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 1070 (8 GB GDDR5 dedicated)
  • 8 GB memory; 1 TB HDD storage; 128 GB SSD storage

https://www.amazon.co.uk/HP-Omen-870-270na-Desktop-SteelSeries/dp/B01N21BJUM

That's a pretty good spec, be tempted to up the ram to 16gb but the games you mention he should be ok.
 
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That's a pretty good spec, be tempted to up the ram to 16gb but the games you mention he should be ok.

Thanks, I don't have much knowledge of gaming PC's and don't want to spend good money on one that turns out to be a little bit under powered. Whichever one I get him would need to last a fair while. I assume most of them allow you to upgrade components individually?
 
Googling a quit review there looks to be custom bits in there and a mini motherboard. I suspected you'd fairly limited on upgrading it.

But the price is pretty similar to custom builds from overclockers and scan.

Personally for those games and assuming 1080p gaming (don't forget to add keyboard, mouse, monitor) I'd go for a custom build form overclockers / scan with a gtx1060.
 
I think a GTX 1060 6GB is right at that price point. It's the card I have and it does 1080p at high settings on the games I play.
There will also be an ATI equivalent card, I think it's the RX 580 8GB.

Thanks mate, would either of those cards require a new PSU or would they just be a straight plug and play?
 
Thanks mate, would either of those cards require a new PSU or would they just be a straight plug and play?

The GTX 1060 and RX 580 require a power connection from the power supply (I think both require a 8 pin connector but I might be wrong).

A quick google of your PC found this page - HP Pavilion 550-153na Desktop PC Product Specifications | HP® Customer Support Is that your PC? If so it says the power supply is a 180w power supply which seems very low. I doubt it could handle a graphics card that needs extra power (and if it has the spare connector). On Nvidia's site it says the standard GTX 1060 takes a maximum of 120w and requires a minimum of a 400w power supply - GeForce GTX 1060 | Specifications | GeForce

I have never changed anything in a pre-built PC but I've heard stuff in the past that some large PC builders used to use custom power supply and/or motherboards meaning swapping them out maybe tricky (although this could not be the case with your and the vast majority of machines).

Also the site mentioned the PC either comes with integrated graphics or a AMD Radeon R5 330 graphics card. I can't tell by the picture but that graphics card looks like it takes up 1 slot at the back of your PC and most newer high(er) spec graphics cards take up 2 slots. Does your case have 2 slots at the back?
 
The GTX 1060 and RX 580 require a power connection from the power supply (I think both require a 8 pin connector but I might be wrong).

A quick google of your PC found this page - HP Pavilion 550-153na Desktop PC Product Specifications | HP® Customer Support Is that your PC? If so it says the power supply is a 180w power supply which seems very low. I doubt it could handle a graphics card that needs extra power (and if it has the spare connector). On Nvidia's site it says the standard GTX 1060 takes a maximum of 120w and requires a minimum of a 400w power supply - GeForce GTX 1060 | Specifications | GeForce

I have never changed anything in a pre-built PC but I've heard stuff in the past that some large PC builders used to use custom power supply and/or motherboards meaning swapping them out maybe tricky (although this could not be the case with your and the vast majority of machines).

Also the site mentioned the PC either comes with integrated graphics or a AMD Radeon R5 330 graphics card. I can't tell by the picture but that graphics card looks like it takes up 1 slot at the back of your PC and most newer high(er) spec graphics cards take up 2 slots. Does your case have 2 slots at the back?

That is the correct PC, It has two slots at the back I believe. If push came to shove and it wouldn't be cost effective to upgrade, I am open to building one myself
 
That is the correct PC, It has two slots at the back I believe. If push came to shove and it wouldn't be cost effective to upgrade, I am open to building one myself

I'm not sure... :confused:

Normally I'd say take the CPU and RAM (and case if you can mount a standard motherboard into it) but looking at the specs from the HP website I'm not sure if they are correct or if it might cause an issue... The site says your PC uses a Intel Core i5-6400 which would make it an Intel Skylake processor but the site also says it uses DDR3 RAM which can be used with Skylake CPUs but it's not recommended (due to DDR3 RAM voltage being higher than DDR4 and DD3L) or officially supported (and you would have to find a motherboard that can work with it). Not sure if the HP site means it uses DDR3L or if it's made a mistake somewhere.

How much of an upgrade are you looking for and what specs are you looking to play at?
If your machine is using an AMD Radeon R5 330 (and not the integrated graphics) maybe an AMD RX 550 or Nvidia GTX 1030 would give you a minor bump but those use more power than the AMD Radeon R5 330 (even though most can be bought without the need for extra power to be feed to them via the power supply) and I'm not sure how much of an increase you would see in performance if any.
 
I'm not sure... :confused:

Normally I'd say take the CPU and RAM (and case if you can mount a standard motherboard into it) but looking at the specs from the HP website I'm not sure if they are correct or if it might cause an issue... The site says your PC uses a Intel Core i5-6400 which would make it an Intel Skylake processor but the site also says it uses DDR3 RAM which can be used with Skylake CPUs but it's not recommended (due to DDR3 RAM voltage being higher than DDR4 and DD3L) or officially supported (and you would have to find a motherboard that can work with it). Not sure if the HP site means it uses DDR3L or if it's made a mistake somewhere.

How much of an upgrade are you looking for and what specs are you looking to play at?
If your machine is using an AMD Radeon R5 330 (and not the integrated graphics) maybe an AMD RX 550 or Nvidia GTX 1030 would give you a minor bump but those use more power than the AMD Radeon R5 330 (even though most can be bought without the need for extra power to be feed to them via the power supply) and I'm not sure how much of an increase you would see in performance if any.

I am not a massive PC gamer in terms of AAA titles. I play mostly RPG's RTS Simulation type games, I bought this PC 18 months ago as a replacement after my last one died. My issue with it isn't the speed it boots up and runs fine, but there is a huge noticeable difference in quality in detail on games such as the Total War games. I don't mind spending money for the right parts, Beyond minor upgrades here and there I am bit out of my depth in terms of what is a good PC Build.
 
I am not a massive PC gamer in terms of AAA titles. I play mostly RPG's RTS Simulation type games, I bought this PC 18 months ago as a replacement after my last one died. My issue with it isn't the speed it boots up and runs fine, but there is a huge noticeable difference in quality in detail on games such as the Total War games. I don't mind spending money for the right parts, Beyond minor upgrades here and there I am bit out of my depth in terms of what is a good PC Build.

You going to play at 1080p?

Might be worth opening the PC case up and seeing what the power supply is rated at. Looking at a similar post online someone mentioned you might get by with a low power graphics card with a 180w power supply - I need a gpu that can handle 180w psu - [Solved] - Graphics Cards

If you are switching the power supply you could get something like a 80 Plus rated 450w power supply for about £50 or get a more powerful one for more. But you would need to make sure it fit's the case and that your motherboard doesn't have any custom keys/connectors for power on it. I'm not the best with power supplies so maybe someone else on here can take a look at the motherboard image and see if it's OK (I'd imagine it's fine but I'm not sure) - HP Pavilion 550-153na Desktop PC Product Specifications | HP® Customer Support

If you get a 450w or higher power supply then that should be OK to power a GTX 1060 or RX 580 or higher with your £250 budget.
 
You going to play at 1080p?

Might be worth opening the PC case up and seeing what the power supply is rated at. Looking at a similar post online someone mentioned you might get by with a low power graphics card with a 180w power supply - I need a gpu that can handle 180w psu - [Solved] - Graphics Cards

If you are switching the power supply you could get something like a 80 Plus rated 450w power supply for about £50 or get a more powerful one for more. But you would need to make sure it fit's the case and that your motherboard doesn't have any custom keys/connectors for power on it. I'm not the best with power supplies so maybe someone else on here can take a look at the motherboard image and see if it's OK (I'd imagine it's fine but I'm not sure) - HP Pavilion 550-153na Desktop PC Product Specifications | HP® Customer Support

If you get a 450w or higher power supply then that should be OK to power a GTX 1060 or RX 580 or higher with your £250 budget.

Ok Mate will have a look and get back to you, thank you very much for your help :) I appreciate it
 
I’m thinking about getting myself a new gaming PC and have been looking at Alienware. I’m shocked that you have to pay quite a lot more to get an SSD drive as well as a normal SATA drive and when I changed the RAM to 32GB it comes to about £2.5K

Looking at other stuff it seems that is the going rate for that kind of spec (with a 1080Ti card) and I’m not sure that I can source the components to build myself much cheaper than that.

In the past I’ve built my own PCs but not sure I can be bothered this time. Are there any others I should be looking at?

I’ll also be using this PC to connect to my synthesisers running DAW software etc.
 
I’m thinking about getting myself a new gaming PC and have been looking at Alienware. I’m shocked that you have to pay quite a lot more to get an SSD drive as well as a normal SATA drive and when I changed the RAM to 32GB it comes to about £2.5K

Looking at other stuff it seems that is the going rate for that kind of spec (with a 1080Ti card) and I’m not sure that I can source the components to build myself much cheaper than that.

In the past I’ve built my own PCs but not sure I can be bothered this time. Are there any others I should be looking at?

I’ll also be using this PC to connect to my synthesisers running DAW software etc.

Have you looked on Scan at their 3XS systems? You get a good choice of components to choose from and even if there’s something you want that’s not listed (but they sell on their site), you can add it if it’s compatible. And a 3 year warranty as well.
 
I’m thinking about getting myself a new gaming PC and have been looking at Alienware. I’m shocked that you have to pay quite a lot more to get an SSD drive as well as a normal SATA drive and when I changed the RAM to 32GB it comes to about £2.5K

Looking at other stuff it seems that is the going rate for that kind of spec (with a 1080Ti card) and I’m not sure that I can source the components to build myself much cheaper than that.

In the past I’ve built my own PCs but not sure I can be bothered this time. Are there any others I should be looking at?

I’ll also be using this PC to connect to my synthesisers running DAW software etc.

Overclockers are pretty good on bundles and builds
 
Want to build a ~£1000 max desktop pc, I have no components but have read a lot of recommendations about the ryzen 5 2600X, and also a 1060 6Gb GPU. A SSD would be a must too.
It will be for gaming and photo editing mainly, the only other things I'd like are a decent amount of USB ports, a case with a clear side with big fans and lights! (Always wanted a case like that from since I was a kid...). Thanks in advance!
 
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All,

For the past 12 months I have been contemplating building my own PC and then finally the other day, I picked up a 1070ti, so that is my starting point. What the bloody hell do I do next? :)

I am looking for advice on "stuff" to pair with that graphics card. I am as inexperienced as you can get with all this, so apologies in advance, if I am not asking the correct questions.

I guess my next purchases would be CPU and RAM? Any recommendations?

Cheers.
 
so you need - case (with fans to keep things nice and cool), power supply, motherboard, cpu (with cooler), ram and drives. Checkout overclockers and scan for bundles
 
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Firstly you need to decide at which resolution/details level/FPS you wanna play at, from there we can deduce the hardware requirements.
 
Firstly you need to decide at which resolution/details level/FPS you wanna play at, from there we can deduce the hardware requirements.

I think 1080p would be fine. I am really wanting to dip my toe into VR, so the spec will have to meet the requirements for that.
 
I was watching some YouTube footage from last year where someone was doing a build and it was mentioned that the Ryzen systems were very fussy about which RAM they were partnered with and lots of people had problems. Is this still a problem does anyone know?
 

Thanks for that, much appreciated. Is this is a list of stuff that I need or a mixture of stuff I need and nice-to-haves?
 

Thats a huge saving over your other post. The bundle from Overclockers looks incredible value. Is that a significant saving over purchasing them separately?
 
In the past when I’ve done self-builds, I’ve preferred to get everything from the same supplier as if it doesn’t boot up, there’s just one place to go back to :)
 

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