You don't need a Windows licence. I don't have one.

Why wouldn't you need a windows license?
(in a "they won't want to use linux or be illegal" sense)

RamSteelwood wrote:

i think Gurt's 'budget' build is still a bit high cost. my mate had sent this earlier: https://www.cyberpowersystem.co.uk/system/Ultra-5-Gaming-PC the 'shop' is also close enough to home to go shout at them if something went wrong. i tried to build the same spec on partpicker and got to about £450 and that was without a Windows 10 license apparently it's mainly to play fortnite, even though they all play on xbox anyway, someone must have decided PC is the way to go and now all his mates are doing that, so thinks he needs a PC for Fear Of Missing Out.

There's a free upgrade option to 3000MHz RAM available there, and 3200MHz 16GB for just £14 extra, which I would strongly recommend taking as there's something like a 20% difference in performance between slow and fast RAM with an APU.

That is an APU system, so it can play like Fortnite at low settings at over 60FPS, but beyond that it's not the most capable thing. It will get them going though.

There's a bunch of small upgrades I would recommend from that list, mobo, PSU, that would make a big difference when it comes to expanding and upgrading. But if they're that budget limited then I guess it's not worth mentioning. For really low budgets I would suggest getting a solid enough platform of B450 mobo, Ryzen APU, decent PSU, then keeping an eye on the used market for a GPU at a good price. Almost all of my GPUs have been used, my current one is, and you can get excellent deals if you look locally.

Here's my minimum price recommendation for a build without a GPU -

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 2600 3.4 GHz 6-Core Processor  (£112.14 @ More Computers)
Motherboard: MSI B450M MORTAR MAX Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard  (£92.99 @ Overclockers.co.uk)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 Memory  (£63.18 @ Aria PC)
Storage: Crucial MX500 500 GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  (£56.22 @ Aria PC)
Case: Fractal Design Focus G Mini MicroATX Mini Tower Case  (£39.97 @ Amazon UK)
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA G3 (EU) 550 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply  (£78.06 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £442.56
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-12-02 16:01 GMT+0000

That would need a GPU to work, you can spend £50-100 for a decent used GPU on gumtree if you know what to look for, a lot of people list things waay overpriced, but you can generally haggle them down. If anyone wants advice on used GPU buying give me a shout.

Alternatively you can put an APU in there, the 2200G, 2400G, 3200G, 3400G, with the x400G chips being the ones with multithreading for 8 threads which I would strongly recommend. They are only suitable for very light gaming, older or graphically simple stuff. Newer fancy AAA games will be a struggle, but if you know you just want to do basic computer stuff and lightweight games then it's a solid budget option. You can add a proper GPU to it later for much improved performance, so you can consider it a good stopgap, the CPU can then be upgraded later too if needed.

The problem is that the Ryzen 5 2600 six core is just over £100 and offers so much more CPU performance that it makes almost all other CPUs a bit pointless. It really is the place to start IMO. The 2200G is £80 and is only 4 cores with 4 threads, the first gen of Ryzen and generally much slower. Then there's the 3400G which is basically like the classic 8 thread i7 but with decent integrated graphics, but is £120 which makes it hard to justify vs the 2600 and putting that small saving towards a used GPU.

There's ways you can scrimp and shave down on the above build, but at that point I would say just don't bother, save the pennies for later or get a console. That or look at other used bits and pieces like a CPU + mobo etc, plenty of which will be floating around as people upgrade. You do need the time to search about and a little expertise in getting worthwhile deals though, so not for everyone.

Yeah. Thanks Gurt, you've gone above and beyond. Tempted to tell my mate to buy that build anyway, just to show some appreciation!

If like an open build but there are too many glasses of wine within knocking distance.

Mobo arrived and is in. Stock Ryzen cooler is so quiet I'll probably just leave it as is.

Yep, watercooling is highly overrated and over promoted, it can have some uses for those with very high TDP chips or in certain small form factor scenarios, but for most people a cooler with a a shelf life of five years is not that great an option to a less expensive big air cooler that will last decades and is often cooler and quieter. The Noctua D15s is what I have been using for a while now, a real beast.

It's new pc day. I'm gonna post the chillblast build I'm going for, please advise.

This is what I would pick if I were making a Chillblast build at that sort of spec, works out a few quid cheaper per month I think (£1202.51  full price) -



Unless you have some specific reason to go with Intel, the Ryzen 6 core 12 thread chip there is a better option for the long term, will perform equally well as the 9700 when paired with a GPU like that and has more overall oomph for the next gen of big games coming. I upgraded the PSU a bit there, that's a goodun and will stay silent nearly all the time, should last you over a decade. I matched your choice of the 1TB + additional 2TB 7200RPM hard drives, but if you already have some drives that are working fine I would consider just re using them, deselecting the HDDs and saving the money for a good size SATA HDD to run games off of. The Samsung 970 Evo is only £20 or so more than the one you picked and performs better, a strong boot drive is a good idea. It looks like you chose an audio card there, which you don't need if you just use the motherboard audio which should be more than fine. I would recommend a desktop USB DAC over an internal sound card these days anyway. Looks like you chose two extra fans there, just use what comes with the case - the mid range hardware should be easy to cool and you can always add a few more fans if needed.

Hope that helps.

Also, go 2070 over 2060. For the sake of £50 it's worth it.

GurtTractor wrote:

TBF the 2070 Super which is the only 2070 they have is like another £210 more than the 2060. They have the 2060 Super for another £50ish, the difference isn't that great but check reviews to see how different games perform. I would possibly recommend the 5700 over the 2060 but I'm guessing Chillblast just use the reference versions, and the AMD reference coolers are a bit naff.

I bought my 2070 Super for £380.

My dad works at Nvidia and I've got two 2080ti supers in SLI in my PC.

Thanks for the updates. Will respex.

is the answer 'spend money on new hardware'?