Gaming PC?

[Rac20]

My son has a flight simulator game and joystick that we got him for his birthday but he’s playing it on our very old, slow windows xp computer and consequently the game lags.

He says he’d like a gaming pc for Christmas- specifically to combat this problem but WOW! They are not cheap!

Does it have to be a gaming pc do you think? Or would any modern pc Work? He has no other games for the pc and plays things like FIFA on his xbox.

It just seems a lot of money to pay just for one game.

[americangal]

How old is he. Mine (10 and almost 15) have decent laptops at the moment. Minimum of 8gb ram and a good processor but some of it’s also down to the graphics cards. My boys prefer intel processors rather than amd ones. They both have i3 processors at the moment and they can play flight sim ok so no it’s not essential to have a gaming one but a low spec will lag.

However my almost 15 year old is about to invest in a gaming desktop, he’s using money for Christmas but has also been saving. You can spend thousands on them. He needs just over 1000 for his to get him 16gb ram, i7 processor and the best graphics card his monitor will support (and his budget).

He’s having his custom built from overclockers

[americangal]

My youngest has just had this one and even the elder one is impressed for its ability to run games

pcworld/gbuk/compu...52066-pdt.html

[Rac20]

Originally Posted by americangal

How old is he. Mine (10 and almost 15) have decent laptops at the moment. Minimum of 8gb ram and a good processor but some of it’s also down to the graphics cards. My boys prefer intel processors rather than amd ones. They both have i3 processors at the moment and they can play flight sim ok so no it’s not essential to have a gaming one but a low spec will lag.

However my almost 15 year old is about to invest in a gaming desktop, he’s using money for Christmas but has also been saving. You can spend thousands on them. He needs just over 1000 for his to get him 16gb ram, i7 processor and the best graphics card his monitor will support (and his budget).

He’s having his custom built from overclockers

See more...

Thanks for taking the time to reply. That’s really useful. 👍

[americangal]

Your welcome. Yell if you need anymore advice. With a techno teenager I’ve learnt a lot in the last few weeks

You can get decent desktops for under 400 in currys at the moment. They have the amd processor don’t go below a6 ones and no less than 8gb ram and you should be fine.

pcworld/gbuk/compu...57211-pdt.html



pcworld/gbuk/compu...64210-pdt.html

[keith1973]

Please don’t buy from PC world (no offence intended) you will get more value for your money going somewhere like overclockers.
For games better graphics card processor then memory in that order.

Buy a desktop if you can it will give you a better specification for less money.

Below is a good desktop it really depends on how much he’s going to use it and your budget.
A good quality gaming pc will do anything you want it’s not just for games. Talk to overclockers they will help you find something that fits your needs.

overclockers/titan...fs-1b9-og.html

[papamouse]

Originally Posted by keith1973

Please don’t buy from PC world (no offence intended) you will get more value for your money going somewhere like overclockers.
For games better graphics card processor then memory in that order.

Buy a desktop if you can it will give you a better specification for less money.

Below is a good desktop it really depends on how much he’s going to use it and your budget.
A good quality gaming pc will do anything you want it’s not just for games. Talk to overclockers they will help you find something that fits your needs.

overclockers/titan...fs-1b9-og.html

See more...

I echo that...

customisable to your budget with these guys or CCL

cclonline/

[americangal]

Originally Posted by keith1973

Please don’t buy from PC world (no offence intended) you will get more value for your money going somewhere like overclockers.
For games better graphics card processor then memory in that order.

Buy a desktop if you can it will give you a better specification for less money.

Below is a good desktop it really depends on how much he’s going to use it and your budget.
A good quality gaming pc will do anything you want it’s not just for games. Talk to overclockers they will help you find something that fits your needs.

overclockers/titan...fs-1b9-og.html

See more...

That’s good advice if going for a dedicated gaming system assuming she wants to spend that much but at the moment we don’t know how old he is and the op did state that they didn’t want to spend a small fortune on one for one game, although will no doubt progress to other games.

We live a few mins awa6 from overclockers and they are fantastic and agree of going for a dedicated gaming route they are the better choice than PC World if you prepared to spend the money on the gaming route.

[SimonB]

My son built his own gaming PC and since then has built a couple for his mates and has also upgraded his machine. He used it for his computer gaming design degree.

He echos what the above say about PC World.

Getting a gaming machine could be a good way forward for your son as he may ditch the console and go the PC route which apparently is better so I'm told.

[Rac20]

Originally Posted by americangal

That’s good advice if going for a dedicated gaming system assuming she wants to spend that much but at the moment we don’t know how old he is and the op did state that they didn’t want to spend a small fortune on one for one game, although will no doubt progress to other games.

We live a few mins awa6 from overclockers and they are fantastic and agree of going for a dedicated gaming route they are the better choice than PC World if you prepared to spend the money on the gaming route.

See more...

You are correct. I’m not really wanting to spend that much as it is just so he can play his flight simulator game for which he has flight controls for a pc. He’s only 12 and all his friends are on Xbox so he plays fifa against them etc. What I’m trying to say is, I don’t really want to spend £600+ for him to play one game.

He loves planes and has always dreamed of being able to fly so I think he was upset that the old pc was so slow as it affected the quality of his experience which is why he asked for a gaming pc for Christmas.

I guess what I really want to know is whether a normal, brand new pc would be ok?

Thanks everyone for your help so far.👍