Any ideas on how/what to buy or not buy for my son for about £1100 for gaming desktop PC for Fortnite and homework?
Amazon has CYBERPOWERPC Luxe Gaming PC - Intel Core i7-12700KF, Nvidia RTX 4060 8GB, 32GB RAM, 1TB NVMe SSD, 650W 80+ PSU, Wi-Fi, Liquid Cooling, Windows 11, Prism RGB.
I’ve had good service from Overclockers UK who can build to order and usually have some off the shelf. I’m guessing the cost of the monitor, keyboard and mouse comes out of this total price as well. Don’t forget to add wifi as this is a small extra. Gamers often prefer a wired connection. But at the moment this isn’t very demanding. Overclockers also have a useful forum where you can ask questions.
Perhaps OcUK Gaming Kalis - at £824.99? AMD Ryzen 5 5500, 6 Core/12 Thread Processor Up to 4.2GHz boost speed, Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 8GB Graphics Card, 16GB DDR4 3200MHz Memory, 1TB M.2 Storage, WIFI Optional
Thanks Stokie
Is it best to spend more on the CPU, the GPU, or the RAM, or something else?
Would he gets any short, medium or long term benefits from buying the Firefly Plus rather than the Kallis?
AMD Ryzen 5 5500, 6 Core/12 Thread Processor Up to 4.2GHz boost speed, Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 8GB Graphics Card, 16GB DDR4 3200MHz Memory, 1TB M.2 Storage
Intel Core i5 12400F 6 Core/12 Thread CPU, Up to 32GB 3200MHz RAM, AMD Radeon RX 6000/GeForce RTX 3000/4000 Graphics, 1TB Hard Drive, WIFI6
AMD has a gamer following and used to be cheaper than Intel. But the AMD machine should be fine for Fortnite. The Firefly is more powerful and could be future proof. (My lad’s machine is 6 years old and going strong with a careful vacuum.
Thanks Stokie
I forgot - he already has a 1440P gaming monitor - it’s a Dell Nvidia G-Sync.
Would that benefit from any particular GPU, etc?
Beyond my skillset, I’m afraid Jim. You could ask Overclockers (they will probably suggest the Firefly)
Thanks Stokie
Jimdog; bit of ambiguity in the second package listed; 3000/4000 series nvidia (could be the x050 variant graphics cards, rather than the 4060 series card in the cheaper rig…)
for games, mostly held back by gpu for performance -unless looking at super high refresh rates/upper price point stuff, a better cpu will ‘not hold back’ a gpu in some instances
fortnight is unreal engine 5 and scales well to whatever the end user wants to do; eg I opt for all the eyecandy and settle for 60 frames per second, where as more serious competitive gamers, who will generally opt for for higher refresh rates, even of that means turning the eye candy down a little.
likely the first package, with the 4060, is a good match for the monitor, and those games- spending more won’t render better, so to speak…
(and fake/false economy to pay more for ‘future proofing’ when the gamer enjoys easy to render games, and isnt trying to hit 4k at high refresh rates…)
as a gaming PC veteran, having had many many of the parts from both greed (ahem ‘green’),red and blue teams… I will certainly vote with my walletand buy AMD every time.
the 825£ package having an nvidia gpu is what the monitor will marry up well with (but check if monitor is “freesync” as AMD GPUs like that)…
if monitor isnt freesync capable, do what just about every gamer does and buy an NVIDIA card… (variable refresh rate support is very worthwhile)…
gsync is nvidias variable sync to the monitor tech (akin to freesync), and so a 4060 gpu is a good target tier of card in terms of doing anything you can throw at it…
(I’d go AMD 6600/6700 and 7000 series GPUs, personally, due to that is what is in the gaming consoles and is a huge benefit for the underdog gpu maker)
the cpu so long as 6core/12 thread capable will probably not seriously hold back a GPU for a few years yet
lionshare of games are made to run on consoles, and the present consoles dont seriously challenge decent CPUs available…
a 4060 is a much much better graphics card than a 4050, and even paired with a much less impressive sounding CPU, will absolutely thrash a 4050 gpu at any game played.
for high refresh rate, the 4060 will be a good ‘minimum tier’ to invest in…
(equivalent AMD cards being 6700 and higher models (6800/6900,/7000 series models), but go better with a Freesync capable monitor).
16gb ram
6core+12 thread cpu
nvidia 4060 series card (good minimum spec)
well done finding that config for a tidy pricepoint!
Many thanks for your detailed, super helpful advice and thoughts.
My son’s existing screen is a Dell Gaming Monitor S2721DGFA 69cm(27").
This Dell documentation says that it is compatible with Nvidia G-sync and AMD Freesync.
Is this screen holding him back from playing much better Fortnite?
Does he need a 4k screen?
The man who worked in the local gaming shop told me when I was shopping for the original screen that it was often sensible to buy a 4K TV of the appropriate size to go on one’s desk rather than a ‘gaming specific’ monitor as you can often get better value in The TV realm.
I have no idea whether this is true but it seemed like potentially a good idea - but I don’t know whether there are any technical reasons why TVs would not respond as well to instructions from gaming PCs compared to gaming monitors?
My son is nearly 12 years old, but he is trying to become a serious competitive gamer at Fortnite.
I think he’s currently on Diamond 2, level 120.
The question is should he sell his monitor as well as the Xbox series X and get a better monitor for his desk as well as a PC to plug his XBox upgraded controller into?
He has a budget of £1250 if he sells the monitor as well as the Xbox.
I am willing to bite the bullet and sell the monitor as well if I think he can afford to get something better paired with a suitable desktop PC that will give him a more competitive set up.
He is more interested in winning games and making friends while doing so, than he is in soaking up the visual aspects of the game.
My daughter uses 2 Dell S2721GGFA monitors. They are quite something, It’s not just about the resolution (though 27" QHD is considered a sweet spot), but these have a response time of 1ms and refresh rate of 165 Hz, making them ideal for fast moving games. I doubt a cheap 4k TV could offer that, so no need to change your monitor. My daughter mainly plays Final Fantasy XIV (she was an FFXIV ‘ambassador’ at a Düsseldorf games fest a couple of years ago), If you want to test your set up, try a benchmark test that Final Fantasy offer, it will give you a good idea of how capable your gear is. I’m no gamer (I gave up at Space Invaders) but I enjoy putting these things together.
perfect;
both Gsync and Freesync -buy either Nvidia (ethically a ‘no no’/big can o worms with that statement though) or AMD video card.
I’d buy AMD latest two series of GPU cards (6700/6800/6900/7600/7700/7800/7900); the 7000 series are RDNA3, hence a wee bit more futureproof…
(an Nvidia 4060 or up (3070/3080/4070/4080) being the alternative)
27" (and smaller) is generally preferred screen size of ‘real pros’; dont have to use neck to look around the screen…
anything highish refresh rate (generally 100"Hz" or more), will cut down response times of the player… (can see stuff sooner!) and help with competitive gaming…
that being said: the best controller users seldon rub shoulders with keyboard and mouse warriors…
upgrading 100hz to 240hz (and the required cpu and gpu to render 240frames per second) isnt viable for ‘controller users’.
at the very least, ‘wire’ the controller to the PC to lower latency from the wireless step,… but ideally - might be worth transitioning to keyboard and mouse.
hardware (cpu and gpu) targeting towards 120-165hz or framerate (with lowered graphical settings) is all most would recommended for a budget build “games and homework” box.
a few laptops were on clearance near to your budget, and might do the trick, but will run hot, short battery life in use, and be ‘big and heavy’ (vs lightweight tablets and 2in1s).
That first package for 825quid seemed like you’d found a fit was my take…
most PC gamers buy nvidia GPUs,so , there might be some envy factor or social credo that comes with buying an nvidia gpu.
check with your ‘techie’; whichever brand they like is recommended (otherwise swearing during services will ensue)…
cheers, and ‘fun times’.
for the record there is competitive and there is competitive.
I used to watch housemates practice combos and play for hours offline just to be primed for ‘competitive’,…
once a certain level of hardware is reached, personal capability (prqctise and experience) does take over…
some of the gaming arena competitors sl(and champs) simply walk into netcafes and use generic 60hz monitors and standard keyboard and mice etc…
perhaps add a nice open back headphone like some AKG k612pro, for an honest open sound rendering… (off screen cues ‘for the win’!)
I just did test it again lol. It’s been a long long time since i ran any benchmarks on my pc. But must admit, it was a lot of fun clocking my cpu and gpu tonight to come up with this score 
As you can see, it’s not an up to date cpu or gpu, but still not a bad result.
The gaming industry has the most incomprehensible naming strategy I’ve encountered:
OcUK Gaming Kalis - AMD Ryzen 5 5500 GeForce RTX 4060 Gaming PC
What a load of nonsense! 
That’s one posh pc.
His controller is wired to the console - does this carry signal as well as power? - and he has wired the headphones from the controller; and the console is now wired via cat 6a Ethernet cables and a switch back to the isp router.
And, yes, we discussed again the idea of him making the leap to mouse and keyboard last night.
He thinks it will take a few weeks but he doesn’t really know much about it - nor do I.
[Since Galaxian in the Snooty Fox in Solihull in 1980, the only game I’ve ever played is Zelda.]
I’ve never had a techie.
I’m 60 and I’ve always done it myself…and hopefully learn from my numerous mistakes and blind spots…
Thank you so much for all your experience and ideas…
The son of a friend of ours who is a gamer said:
“You need a good monitor at least 165 Hz per sec to see the benefits of a pc.”
Is this correct? And should I get a 165 Hz monitor?
Am I wasting my time on my 120 Hz monitor?
Your monitor is 165 Hz. My daughter has the same. Sorry for typo in my first post, I meant to type Dell S2721DGFA, which is what you have right?
Second hand from Ebay is incredibly cheap. In my opinion as long as it runs windows 11 for future proofing, a gtx 1080 is loads for fortnight. Rtx 2080 better for other games. Half your budget would be fine. But No 1 son might want something beefier / newer.
Where abouts are you? I’ve a minty i5 something or other running windows 11 that I’d not be asking much for. Just add your graphic card of choice.
