Really OT: gaming pc's

[giordana93]

Much to my chagrin, my 15 year old would rather spend the day inside gaming than go for a walk or ride. So be it. Anyway, got him a budget laptop (Saab, you interested?) 3 years ago that now will not run the latest and greatest. I will not feed his instant gratification just yet (he needs to learn the meaning of yearn/work for something) but I'll have to give in at some point. So I have a couple questions for those of you who know this sort of thing (I don't. My idea of gaming is working a 15 minute Sudoku waiting for him to finish swim practice.)

1st: build your own vs. pre-built. He's smart but knows nothing about pc components; kinda surprising given his nerdiness. I know the basics of psu/gpu/cpu/ssd/ram and think it would be a good idea for him to tackle this with me, especially if one can really build an equivalent rig for less than a pre-built. On the other hand, if it's like the world of bikes where hand picking components and a frame not only takes more time but costs as much or more, then forget it, I'll go pre-built.

2nd: actually, since I'm prone to 3 paragraph intros to threads, I'm stopping there. Just requesting discussion from those in the know, along with suggestions for places for more research. Oh, yeah, I want to keep the budget at 500 or so. He's a teen who's already spoiled enough, about to go on the most expensive car insurance in the US (Louisiana, don't get me started). If he at least learns how to upgrade components as we go, that's a plus. thanks in advance

[j44ke]

Our nephew went through this process. He was hugely into gaming through junior and high school. To the point where it was wrecking his studies. So when he asked for a gaming computer, there were two deals wrought. He had to get his grades up and he had to build it himself for $500. If the grades went down, he had to bring them back up before he could continue working on the computer. We were allowed to buy a couple things for him where the price difference pushed him over-budget but increased the longevity of the completed package, but only if it was in lieu of a birthday or Christmas present. Sounds strict maybe, but he was probably the same age as your boy and was having real problems seeing beyond the end of his nose and this gave him a discernible horizon, forced him to plan, budget, read, study, seek advice, tutelage - all skills I had been urging him to develop without success while tutoring him in writing. In the end, he actually did turn the corner on his studies, he didn't become a gaming junky and now he is in Syracuse studying engineering & using a new laptop that is better and less expensive than the one offered by the school, because he knows a lot about computers and what makes them tick.

So I'd go for build your own.

[mmoore]

turn down the render quality and keep on keeping on at full refresh rate. $0.

**Not a gamer**Ive been nerding out on computer stuff because our 8 year old pc (and all the technology we have is about the same age) is getting near the point where i want to upgrade it and i find the youtube channels amusing to watch.


That said, i took some computer classes along the way and we build, destroyed (mechanically) and configured some computers. Its really no harder than you defined in your description. The major components of a computer havent massively changed even though technology allows them to have more performance than prior.


Does it need to be portable? Laptops performance really arent on the same level as a desktop. That said, building a high performance small form factor desktop either gets expensive or isn't REALLY that small. **this is the area I am most interested in for my personal build**


a $500 budget will be hard to meet in a gaming PC. though im not sure the implications of that on gameplay. There are endless websites with performance benchmarks where you can see how it performs in real life as an arbitrary number compared to other systems... but i would have your 15 year old figure out what kind of games they use and what performance they could benefit from with the respective games. Some games have higher graphics and some have higher cpu requirements from what i understand. both of those things are the expensive parts of a build so doing a budget build your going to need to compromise on one or the other.

If you have an old PC that you can upgrade to win10 for free if that is still a thing you can probably migrate the licence over and save the $ from buying a new OS. Would look into that because Windows is a pretty expensive part of a DIY build.

Have fun, it will probably take you guys less than an hour to click it all together so dont worry about that.


My gamer friends also suggest that monitor quality makes or breaks a game... and that TV's even with HDMI or similar isnt as good as a dedicated gaming monitor... not sure how that works but it sounds like refresh rate and how things move on the screen is a big factor.

[Matthew Strongin]

I'm with Jorn. It's not that hard to actually build the machine, but the work to research and identify parts, particularly looking at cost/benefit analysis to build the most robust possible computer on a strict budget, will be a great learning experience. And the resultant knowledge about how computers work will serve him very well. As someone who works in Tech, it's amazing how few people actually understand the computing stack from the hardware up.

[mmoore]

oh, to add to @Matthew Strongin

there are websites out there that allow you to confirm compatibility. i use pcpartpicker
that way your system will physically work together and you dont have a motherboard for a different cpu. you can confirm your power supply is sufficient, etc.

[giordana93]

he's got a laptop now, but I made the argument that a desktop will have more horsepower (and easier to add upgrades) for the money and you don't have to buy a new monitor every time you get a new computer as you do with a laptop and he bought that argument. Fortunately, his grades are still good or this wouldn't even be a discussion.

[j44ke]

My nephew did a desktop. I think the laptop becomes attractive when kids are meeting up in different places and gaming together on shared networks etc. But they are definitely more moolah.

[bigbill]

My kid had an Alienware laptop that he used for 5 years. It comes down to the video card and drivers when new games come out. It was easier when he went almost all Xbox because it has a 4K output so as long as you have a 4K TV, the graphics will be good.

On a side note, around age 12-13, my kid was a chubby Cheeto eater who gamed 4-5 hours a day. He liked the first person shooter type games. I put a pull-up bar in his room and told him he had to do pull-ups or bent arm hangs when his character died. He could also do pushups. It made him get out of the chair and exercise. It worked.

[Hoonjr]

I just went through this with my son a year ago. $500 is probably the entry point for a decent gaming pc. Windows OS license alone is $100 so you're immediately down to $400 if you build your own. If you add a keyboard/monitor/mouse, there's not much left over for a graphics card (most important piece for gaming), chassis, motherboard, drives, processors.

We opted for an Acer Nitro 5. I believe the latest iterations have the fan noise reduced. It will not play all games at the highest settings but for your $500 budget it'll be decent. Get the one which comes with a SSD and an additional bay for another drive. The newer games take up a lot of disk space so being able to add another drive is often necessary.

We did make him pay for the laptop with money he was gifted/earned ...and I'm able to limit how much screen time he gets on through Windows. You need to create a microsoft account and add his account to yours as a child. He's only 13 so we did not want him on it endlessly. Good luck, your next post and then my next reply will be how to block access to adult websites.

[giordana93]

not really thinking about a laptop for reasons mentioned. he has gotten 3 years out of a B & H special at $420 so not so bad, and it will suffice as portable back-up until he turns pro . The deals are plenty to be had on pre-built desktops these days but he doesn't have a technical bone in his body and I'm still leaning towards having him figure these things out, be able to upgrade it down the road and take ownership of it both $ and intellectually. Debating somewhat about picking up someone else's "no longer good enough" system (with a Windows license) as a template then upgrade as needed. $500 is not a hard number, just a starting point for the build. Tiagra 10 speed is pretty good stuff and I'm thinking somewhere in that Tiagra/105 equivalent (without the red/blue led/clear case aesthetic) should be good enough for now. Until he gets a job.