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Thanks for your thoughts.

crzylgs said:
Any chance of you building the PC yourself or not something you're looking to do?

Never built a PC. I’m supposed to be renovating the bathroom at the moment so I am cautious about taking on an ambitious project for the sake of £50. Have built a power supply for record player (using a parts kit and some mild soldering, a success) and replaced batteries in mobile phones (one success, one spectacular failure)
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crzylgs said:
Depending on that situation and a rough price guide I could answer in more detail.

£600??

crzylgs said:
However, a system based on the AMD 5600G (G-stands for built in graphcis) CPU could probably fit those needs and remove the need for an expensive dedicated graphics card. Intel have similar offerings but AFAIK especially for gaming the AMD CPUs with built in graphics tend to do better. When dedicated graphics cards get thrown into the mix it becomes more of a wash.

IT tech is a little complicated at the moment due to still inflated Graphics card prices but also both INTEL and AMD (the two CPU makers) have new generation of CPUs requiring new motherboards which use the more expensive DDR5. So, unless you're planning on spending a bomb and getting a really cutting edge system. You're almost certainly better on the previous Gen CPUs, motherboard and DDR4 ram.

Cutting edge definitely not required. I don't want to emphasise the gaming angle.

crzylgs said:
This website is a font of regularly updated data in terms of which bundle of components are good value at a range of price points:

https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/


for example:

https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/guide/DWv6Mp/entry-level-amd-gaming-build

That above build guide uses the same 5600G CPU I mentioned as being a decent option.

Even if you don't build a system yourself, their guides can be a good check list for one you'd buy from a supplier.

Thanks again.
 
Good advice from crzylgs.

To throw some general stuff in to the mix about specs: AMD CPUs tend get better reviews these days than intel so worth looking in that direction. Id be err towards getting more RAM than faster RAM, 16GB seems a bit of a sweet spot but depends a lot on what you do (if you so much as look at premiere pro or other video editing software prepare yourself for 32GB or even 64GB). Worth spending a bit on a decent SSD, 256GB as a minimum. If you need more capacity add a second HDD, read/write speeds are rubbish but way cheaper than a comparably sized SSD.

I think it's worth looking at some of the pre-assembled options, seems quite a competitive market so if you look around you can find decent specs for reasonable money e.g. https://www.ebuyer.com/store/Computer/cat/Desktop-PC

Something like this might suit https://www.ebuyer.com/1537388-xenta-mt-amd-r7-5750g-16gb-ram-500gb-ssd-wifi-windows-11-xr-d5451
 
Completely understand not wanting the extra hassle of building it yourself to save as you put it around £50 give or take.

Remus added some good advice. These days I tend to forget to highlight the massive speed boost you get from an SSD over a traditional Hard Drive as they have become the norm. But yes definitely get a system with an SSD as the primary drive and if you need a lot more storage space traditional HDD can be cheaper £/GB. The suggestion of 16GB RAM is also spot on, this will likely be 3200MHz (CL16) IF available in any systems you find 3600MHz (CL16 best, CL18 decent) would be a small performance boost but not massive.

In terms of the monitor I'd honestly go for the cheapest one you think looks pleasing. Until you start spending quite a lot more money the panels will be of a very similar standard. BENQ, Samsung, Phillips, LG - I've used all of these in the past and in the value range will all be decent. These days you can pick a 24" up for £100 or assuming 1920*1080 will be good enough for the photo work? The other numbers you might see in product specs - response time is better lower (the reporting of this number can be highly inaccurate though), refresh rate higher is better but might not be all that relevant for your uses.
 
The Benq monitors I've recommended elsewhere on UKB are excellent for photos. I think a few others have subsequently bought them (or came to the same conclusion)?
 
Here:
https://ukbouldering.com/board/index.php/topic,29845.msg577588.html#msg577588
 
I'm also a BENQ fan, my current primary monitor is a BENQ 24" and it replaced a BENQ but didn't want to appear to much of a fanboi. In the more value price range I'm not sure I could tell the difference in visual quality so any well known brand should be more than up to scratch.
 
I also use it for CAD work (it has CAD mode 8) where everything is very vibrant or very black) and the monitor I was given in the office was a £120 24" (ish) thing and the quality difference is marked. The bloody thing also used to wobble when anyone walked past which got quite annoying.

The HP gaming monitor (25mx) we bought with vouchers at Argos is also passable.
 
crzylgs said:
Any chance of you building the PC yourself or not something you're looking to do?

...

Even if you don't build a system yourself, their guides can be a good check list for one you'd buy from a supplier.

Thanks again for the help. Brief recap.: bought an off the shelf PC which appeared to do the job but then started to malfunction and have just returned it. It was a useful exercise as I now have a better idea of the spec. that is adequate.

The lad is now agitating to build one himself as this will allow him to choose a case (very important, he prefers Muji style to the usual gamer aesthetic), gains bonus points in his social circle, learn some potentially useful skills, and because it's all over YouTube. Strangely, building your own seems to be currently more expensive than buying off the shelf. I am assuming I'm going to have to finish the job/pick up the pieces when it goes wrong. Whilst I'm not clueless (see further up the thread) I'm a bit nervous when playing with £600+ of parts without a helpdesk to phone. The lad's answer to all this is 'just look on YouTube'. He's probably right but I need reassurance...
 
I did the same thing when I was a teenager, my parents had the same concerns that you have now, and it worked out alright. It is handy if you or your lad know someone who has experience building PCs just in case you need a hand or anything walking through. That said, there are loads of online threads and discussions where most issues can be resolved if you do encounter them. The odds of breaking stuff by accident is pretty slim as long as you don't try and force things in and are generally careful.

And once the PC is done, it should've built some good tech confidence for both of you, which is always a good thing!
 
As Ross says just being careful is the biggest thing, especially around the CPU/motherboard pins and not using too much paste for the cpu cooler, but it is straightforward.

Only thing I would suggest to minimise potential problems if you've not already is to check the motherboard QVL (qualified vendor list) to make sure the CPU/socket and memory are confirmed as compatible.

Happy to be a helpdesk if needed.
 
duncan said:
crzylgs said:
Any chance of you building the PC yourself or not something you're looking to do?

...

Even if you don't build a system yourself, their guides can be a good check list for one you'd buy from a supplier.

Thanks again for the help. Brief recap.: bought an off the shelf PC which appeared to do the job but then started to malfunction and have just returned it. It was a useful exercise as I now have a better idea of the spec. that is adequate.

The lad is now agitating to build one himself as this will allow him to choose a case (very important, he prefers Muji style to the usual gamer aesthetic), gains bonus points in his social circle, learn some potentially useful skills, and because it's all over YouTube. Strangely, building your own seems to be currently more expensive than buying off the shelf. I am assuming I'm going to have to finish the job/pick up the pieces when it goes wrong. Whilst I'm not clueless (see further up the thread) I'm a bit nervous when playing with £600+ of parts without a helpdesk to phone. The lad's answer to all this is 'just look on YouTube'. He's probably right but I need reassurance...

By all means ask any questions you might have here but also i'll link you back to this site:

https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/

They have suggested build guides that you can trust to contain compatible parts. Also a useful forum section.

Your lad is actually quite right about 'just watch YouTube' there will be a world of useful tutorials on there or you can google specific questions.

Ultimately just be very careful and take it nice and slow on your first build. Don't be afraid to check, double check, watch 2-3 different tutorial guides and you'll be fine. A poster above mentioned the CPU/Motherboard pins being a potential site where you can make a mistake. So depending which CPU/Motherboard pair you go for I would definitely check an up to date guide for your exact cpu+socket type as they do vary.

In terms of it being more expensive to build your own I think this is usually a case of not comparing apples for apples. The pre-built options might have a relatively cheap PSU/case/motherboard/RAM/SSD but will headline the GPU+CPU for example. So I would have thought you can be competitive on price and have a fun, learning project at the same time.
 

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