Advice for a Gaming Prebuilt PC for a Friend

LAlexMX on 20/12/2021 - 16:40
Last edited 20/12/2021 - 16:42

My friend is trying to get a pc for the first time and usually I help order the parts and build it for them. However, given the current market it seems prebuilts seem to be the better option at the moment.

This deal caught my attention: https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/670028

Upon reviewing it seems okay. Better than DIY especially since cards are selling at $400 for a bloody 1050ti which is a joke.

A second hand market was an option but it’s too difficult overall since this person lives far away etc so we started strictly looking at prebuilts.

I did have a few concerns with the prebuilt I wanted some advice on.

  • The case is an Leaper Air Mini [mATX] case but can be changed to a MSI MAG Forge 100R [ATX] for $75 which I think is better for airflow overall and seems to be a better quality case overall.

  • The GPU is a Gainward Pegasus RTX 3060 which is a mini one fan card so it will likely run hotter and louder. The GPU can be swapped to a MSI Aero (still one fan mini) for $50 (seems like a bad option) or a MSI Ventus 2X (2 fan) for $79.

  • The motherboard is a Biostar B550MH. I’ll be honest I’ve barely heard of biostar and thought the upgrade to the Gigabyte B550M DS3H for $39 seemed decent. The other options are X570 for $200+
    Note: a network card is not needed

  • One major flaw is that the PSU is a 650W Bronze Gigabyte P650B which can’t be changed whatsoever and it ranks on the C tier for Linus’ PSU list.

Any advice on which upgrades options are worthwhile or any other prebuilts to eye at would be greatly appreciated.

Overall I noticed a lot of other prebuilt systems for ~$1400-1500 still only containing a GTX 1650 at times which seems like terrible options

My account is fresh because I never had a reason to make one but I’ve been a long time lurker of this site

Computing

Comments

  • Zorololo on 20/12/2021 - 17:56
    +1

    Overall I think it's ok if you really wanna go prebuilt. I prefer the look of the Leaper case over the MSI case, hard for me to tell the airflow from the single angle picture. The front does seem to be mesh so I think it might be ok.

    Other than that, all your changes are the way to go, definitely would go with the gigabyte board and the two fan GPU over a single(though the Gainward Pegasus does have a slightly higher boost clock). As for the PSU, I think it should ok, Newegg's PSU calculator says the system would need about 380 watts, so little bit of headroom there.

  • 7ekn00 on 20/12/2021 - 18:24
    +1

    TechFast has decent prices on GPUs, making the whole system a decent price!
    Faster RAM and bigger SSD tend to be the best value upgrades ;)

    • Kangal on 20/12/2021 - 20:59
      +2

      They've got bad prices for lower-quality products.
      The entire market is horrendous, as most have much much worse prices for better quality products but likely as fast or slower. That's the only way we can call them "decent". I can't believe how bad it has gotten. And I said this last year "Now is a horrible time to buy or build a PC." Who woulda thought it was only going to get worse?

      I remember a time when the GTX-1070 was considered "pretty extreme", and you could build/buy with it for roughly $1,500. A similar level today would be an RTX-3080 and that's going to set you back around $2,500 if you're lucky.

      • 7ekn00 on 20/12/2021 - 21:09
        +2

        Point being, Techfast has an entire system that performs with 3060 performance for the price others are charging JUST for the 3060:
        https://www.pccasegear.com/category/193_2154/graphics-cards/…
        Hence the "decent" comment ….

      • Zorololo on 21/12/2021 - 14:46

        Wouldn't the 1070 be more equivalent to a 3070? 1060=3060 1070=3070 1080=3080 Titan=3090?

        Also when was it $1500? I thought the 1080ti was like $1200? I recall the 1070 was a $700-800 card.

        • Kangal on 21/12/2021 - 17:12

          Yeah, I meant back in like 2017 you can either build yourself or configure a Prebuilt for $1,500 total. I remember this being before they released the 1080-Ti, so it was as good as it gets besides the 1080. And there's no inflation to account for it (not yet, but -60% coming soon).

          Prices for SSDs have come down heaps, RAM is cheaper too, and Cases are a bit cheaper. But Mobo is roughly same, PSU are a bit higher (mining?), CPU prices have gone up, and GPU prices have gone haywire.

          On top of all this, I remember something like back in 2011 you could build a i7-2600k and a GTX 680 for about $1,000 and that was a premium PC Gaming experience.

  • [Deactivated] on 20/12/2021 - 20:05
    +1

    Just keep it stock, if any of the parts concern you can ask for boxed parts and substitute them out and resell the originals
    Changing out PSU, GPU, Mobo and case won't improve performance much, if at all.
    The money is better spent on the next tier up Techfast build imo.

  • buckethat on 20/12/2021 - 22:12

    My friend is trying to get a pc for the first time and usually I help order the parts and build it for them.

    This statement is contradictory.

    • AlexMX on 20/12/2021 - 23:06

      Sorry should have clarified I have helped my other friends previously buy parts and assemble

      • buckethat on 20/12/2021 - 23:13

        Haha all good, understood what you meant, just wanted to be an idiot.

        For the budget, you're probably not gonna do much better than some of the prebuilds deal you see here.

        The market is just bad.

  • ZachBlasphemy on 21/12/2021 - 16:23

    It's such a sad time for computers. I wouldn't even be able to rebuild my current PC which I built a year ago for close to the same price.

    For quality reasons I'd still build it myself and wouldn't go with a pre-built. You get to decide where to cut corners, not them.

    • AlexMX on 21/12/2021 - 16:40

      I agree but it’s next to possible to find a GPU at a reasonable price. I’ve always done DIY previously

      • ZachBlasphemy on 21/12/2021 - 16:46

        I'm sure it is very hard and I'm thankful haven't had to look. You're stuck comparing what is available today and since you know what prices used to be it's making the decision much harder.

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