My son wants to build a gaming computer

[Mottie]

BTW, once he has his own PC, if it's in his room then you will never see him again except to get food/drink...

...and to change the bandages on his wrist.

 

[IT Minion]

I’ve now got the x570 motherboard, ryzen 5 chip, 32gb of ram, 700w power supply, a 500gb ssd memory card and the 1660 graphics card he already had.

I think I’m missing a HDD hard drive, the case and operating system.

Can anyone recommend a good HDD? Ebuyer seem really good with price and delivery but not sure exactly what I’m looking for. If I swapped his hard drive accross to the new machine would it then work with the operating system already insts

Why do you want a HDD? Apologies if you know this but a HDD, or hard disk drive is essentially the same as a SSD, just slower.

If you pulled out the existing one it would probably not work. The OS is optimised for the stuff it's installed on, so swapping it out is like lifting a house off an old set of foundations and putting it on some new ones designed for a different house. It's also mean you couldn't make full use of the SSD.

Definitely reinstall.

Having done that you can reuse the old HDD (ideally reformat it) to allow your child to have more storage, steam libraries can get quite large, but it's optional.

 

[Ian H]

Ah, I thought they were both needed. I’ll stick with the SSD, thanks

 

[mattylad]

Just wait 6 months, the 500gb may start to be quite filled after he has joined steam or got some of the many free games on offer.
ISTR The average size of a good game is in the 30gb+ to 50gb+ range.

Having a HDD of say 1TB+ is very common to store the files on.
My son backs up the internet every week (900gb monthly downloads was quoted at one point by the ISP)

 

[Ian H]

Ok thanks. For now then the last thing I need is an operating system. Where do I start? He said he can buy one on a memory stick but that sounds a bit dodgy.

 

[IT Minion]

Ok thanks. For now then the last thing I need is an operating system. Where do I start? He said he can buy one on a memory stick but that sounds a bit dodgy.

Windows 10 home. List price is £120, but you can get legit keys (or at least genuine keys that will be fine as it's common for OEM keys to be used 'imaginatively') for half that or less.

All you need these days is the product key, you can download windows from Microsoft directly and they've got a guide for how to copy it into a USB key to install it.

You could get Windows 10 pro, but you won't use any of the additional features.

 

[sxturbo]

You can buy just the windows 10 product key from eBay for less than a fiver, I've used them before and been fine.

You will need to download the operating system on a USB stick , this is free from Microsoft, then when loading enter the license key.

 

[Ian H]

Merry Christmas to you all.

We have put the computer together but can’t seem to get windows onto it.

We downloaded windows creation tool onto a usb, put that in the new machine but only get these screens up:

Any idea where we are going wrong?

Thanks

 

[Ian H]

Might have sussed it now, I think we needed to take the usb further on the other computer first

 

[sxturbo]

Looks good,

Merry Christmas

 

[Ian H]

 

[Ian H]

All done now, that was much easier then I expected. He is well pleased with it and proud to have done it

 

[HERTS P&D]

Well done Ian. (and son)

Andy

 

[Ian H]

Our other son wants to build one now. We were going to get him an Xbox Series X for Christmas but couldn’t get one and would never pay over the odds for one.

We said we would get one when they are back in the shops but he wants to build a PC instead. The list he has given me adds upto about £1100 once I add a couple of bits on it


Ryzen 5 3600X

MSI X570-A PRO

GIGABYTE AORUS GeForce RTX 2060 Super

(2x16GB) Corsair Vengeance LPX 2400

WD Blue SN550 500GB

Corsair iCUE 220T Black

Corsair LL Series LL120 RGB 120mm Dual Light Loop RGB LED PWM Fan 3 Fan Pack with Lighting

 

[Ian H]

Are there any good deals around before I start trawling the Internet for hours on end?