First gaming pc for teenage son

[maroom]

Hello!

My 13 year old son wants to buy his first gaming pc.
He currently has a PS4 pro and 4K 60HZ monitor and mainly plays fortnite, overwatch & rocket league.
He also does fair bit of music and video editing.
After several months of nagging I’ve finally caved in to allow him to spend all his savings of around £950.
Strangely he doesn't really know what spec he wants but does know he wants to spend all of his money!

Whilst his current games aren’t that demanding, I can see that he’ll quickly want to copy his friends and be able to play all the latest games.
It’s also worth noting that whilst he does have the 4K monitor, I think he’d be happy with a lower setting like 1080p.

My aim is an easy life!
I want to make sure that the pc that will play everything he chucks at it for the next 3+ years, at a decent resolution and frame rate.
As such I’m happy to pay extra towards a better spec pc.

Unfortunately I’m a bit out of touch in this area as my current pc is 4 years old and was designed mainly to run almost silently.
From a quick bit of research, I think a i5-8400 processor, 16GB RAM, 6GB GTX 1060 graphics and SSD + HDD combo drives should do the job?
No plans for overclocking.


This is what I’ve come up with:

Case
FRACTAL DEFINE S BLACK GAMING CASE (Window)
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™ i5 Six Core Processor i5-8400 (2.8GHz) 9MB Cache
Motherboard
ASUS® PRIME Z370-P II: ATX, LGA1151, USB 3.1, SATA 6GBs
Memory (RAM)
16GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 2400MHz (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
6GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 1060 - DVI, HDMI, 3 x DP - GeForce GTX VR Ready!
1st Hard Disk
2TB SEAGATE BARRACUDA SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 7200RPM, 64MB CACHE
1st M.2 SSD Drive
250GB SAMSUNG 970 EVO M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 3400MB/R, 1500MB/W)
DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
NOT REQUIRED
Power Supply
CORSAIR 450W VS SERIES™ VS-450 POWER SUPPLY
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
CoolerMaster Hyper 212X (120mm) Fan CPU Cooler
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Wireless/Wired Networking
WIRELESS 802.11 AC1200 867Mbps/5GHz, 300Mbps/2.4GHz PCI-E CARD
USB/Thunderbolt Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Operating System
Genuine Windows 10 Home 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence [KK3-00002]
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
Windows 10 Multi-Language Recovery Image - Unlimited Downloads from Online Account
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft® Office® 365 (Operating System Required)
Anti-Virus
BullGuard™ Internet Security - Free 90 Day License inc. Gamer Mode
Browser
Microsoft® Edge (Windows 10 Only)
Warranty
3 Year Standard Warranty (1 Month Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 5 to 7 working days

Price £1,163.00 including VAT and Delivery


A few thoughts.
I picked the case as I have a Fractal Define R4 which I like a lot.
I’m not keen on water cooling (although that could be wrong) and went for a non-standard CPU Cooler hoping it would be a bit quieter.
Not sure if the motherboard or power supply are ok.

All comments and suggestions gratefully received!
Many thanks

 

[Oussebon]

It’s also worth noting that whilst he does have the 4K monitor, I think he’d be happy with a lower setting like 1080p.

No kidding, graphics cards for 4k gaming start at about about £700.

The i5 8400 is not a good buy at the moment. Intel CPU prices are sky high. I'd suggest a build based on an AMD Ryzen CPU, which is £100 cheaper, and the performance will be basically the same. For gaming at 60hz you're going to be GPU bound or FPS capped nearly all the time anyway at 1080p, and even moreso is he eventually upgrades to 4k gaming. As a bonus if he gets into streaming, the Ryzen R5s are far more capable. And the B450 mobo actually has more features like USB 3.1 Gen 2.

(AMD Ryzen system like yours, £1078: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/amd-am4-pc/9ZTjTTDepa/ )

I would suggest some tweak though like
faster RAM (can help a lot in some titles and kind of a waste buying a powerful gaming CPU without it)
RX 580 graphics card (neck and neck performance with the GTX 1060, maybe a bit ahead, and £30 cheaper...)
550W PSU for more future upgrade options.
You could stick to the AMD stock CPU cooler as unlike the Intel ones they're actually kinda decent...


Case
FRACTAL DEFINE S BLACK GAMING CASE (Window)
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 5 2600X Six Core CPU (3.6GHz-4.25GHz/19MB CACHE/AM4)
Motherboard
ASUS® PRIME B450M-A (DDR4, USB 3.1, 6Gb/s) - RGB Ready!
Memory (RAM)
16GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 2933MHz ~ (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
8GB AMD RADEON™ RX 580 - HDMI, 3 x DP - DX® 12
1[SUP]st[/SUP] Hard Disk
2TB SEAGATE BARRACUDA SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 7200RPM, 64MB CACHE
1[SUP]st[/SUP] M.2 SSD Drive
250GB SAMSUNG 970 EVO M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 3400MB/R, 1500MB/W)
​---FREE Assassin's Creed: Odyssey with select SAMSUNG NVMe SSDs!
DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
NOT REQUIRED
Power Supply
CORSAIR 550W VS SERIES™ VS-550 POWER SUPPLY
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
CoolerMaster Hyper 212X (120mm) Fan CPU Cooler
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Wireless/Wired Networking
WIRELESS 802.11 AC1200 867Mbps/5GHz, 300Mbps/2.4GHz PCI-E CARD
USB/Thunderbolt Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Operating System
Genuine Windows 10 Home 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence [KK3-00002]
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
Windows 10 Multi-Language Recovery Image - Unlimited Downloads from Online Account
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft® Office® 365 (Operating System Required)
Anti-Virus
BullGuard™ Internet Security - Free 90 Day License inc. Gamer Mode
Browser
Microsoft® Edge (Windows 10 Only)
Warranty
3 Year Standard Warranty (1 Month Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 6 to 8 working days
Quantity
1

Price £1,087.00 including VAT and Delivery

Unique URL to re-configure : https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/amd-am4-pc/C77MBB5RYu/

 

[maroom]

I was actually reading quite a few of the other threads earlier (something I should have done earlier!) and found yours and other replies very helpful.
Many thanks for your reply as I now see you've already answered similar questions before.
But at least I now have better a understanding and your advice makes a lot of sense.

I do have one further question regarding the Motherboard.
The B450M-A seems to have mixed reviews and issues with ports stopping working until a restart.
Do you have any views on this?

Thanks again

 

[Oussebon]

I wasn't aware, what reviews? Having a quick google of consumer reviews on various sites seems to give decent reviews.

Buying from PCS or any other system builder insulates you to a very great deal from faulty units that are DOA/ faulty from the start since the system's tested before shipping. Though any unit can develop faults over time of course.

 

[maroom]

I saw a few whilst searching last night mentioning disconnection issues (e.g. recent reviews on amazon.com) but agree overall they are positive.

Many thanks again. I'll run the specs by my son and if he's happy get it ordered.