Gaming PC - How much to spend

Carb

Hi,

My sons (9 & 10) have started looking for a gaming PC. I've no intention of buying one, and they are not playing games that require much in the way of performance, but I quite like the idea of having them save their pocket/birthday money to buy the components with a view to doing a self build with with them over a period of time.

How much would need to be spent now given their limited requirements, (leaving aside windows and peripherals), but would allow plenty of scope for upgrades as their gaming becomes more demanding.

I should add that they are really into electronics/computing etc. so a lot of the motivation is to get them some insight into PC building. Complete newbie myself, but have an interest in this, so happy to selfishly piggy back on their interest.

Thanks.

Redfox25

What games are they playing and do you have any pc bits already?
They could pick up a basic machine for 200 ish and a cheap monitor that would cover some gaming.
Building a pc that you can upgrade over time is a solid idea but they might need to define what they and you have in mind first.

MarkAnthony

Kudos Carb!

The great things about PCs these days is you can start with a lot less than you used to have to. Modern CPUs (Processors) come with integrated GPUs (Graphics) that (i) Don't entirely suck (ii) Actually most people use.

I'd suggest a full ATX case (in what's called a midi tower) which isn't too big but it's not too small either. The first thing they should start doing is researching what case they like, they can watch some Youtube videos for that, and also what PSU (Power supply) they need. There will be some basic maths involved in working out system power and some research needed on what's good and bad in PSUs. There's plenty of info here but if they have trouble finding it I'll try and find the link. That's the 'boring' stuff done then when the enthusiasm is at it's highest. Budgetwise €100 or so there.

Next you need RAM, CPU motherboard and storage. You can start off quite cheaply here. Firstly look at the different chipsets (hint: go with one of the cheaper ones) you can then add a low end processor and they can upgrade it later. Pentium should be fine for now. (€50-€70 Motherboard €50 CPU)

RAM is pretty cheap, go for a DDR4 (newest type) 8GB is loads. (€50 ish if I recall)

Storage - start with a hard drive, you'll be able to get a cheap one second hand for a tenner. Later you can upgrade it and they can learn about cloning an operating system over to a new drive.

After that it's the real sexy stuff of GPUs (Graphics cards) and the enthusiasm should be piqued by that and they'll be a little older and into different games by then.

K.O.Kiki

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Pentium G4400 3.3GHz Dual-Core Processor (€64.08 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Motherboard: ASRock H110M-DGS Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard (€56.24 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Memory: Crucial 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR4-2133 Memory (€29.99 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Storage: Samsung 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (€69.99 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Power Supply: XFX TS 430W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply (€43.89)
Total: €264.19
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-07-10 15:11 CEST+0200
+PC case

About the minimum build I'd recommend.
Pentium G4400 is Skylake LGA1151 so the platform is good for 2-4 years.

No joy in using 4Gb RAM nor HDD unless you really want to teach them

Carb

Thanks for the advice all.

In terms of current gaming - it's basic. They have an Xbox, and a Wii U, along with access to tablets, laptops etc. so the focus has been on the usual stuff ie. Minecraft, Mario, some simulators, Clash of Clans etc. They also tinker about with some of the kids programming, messing about with Windows and rather worryingly, trying to create virus's to break each other's machines:). They probably know more about the specs of processors than I do, and could tell you the release date of every version of Windows and the various service packs.

I guess I want to give things a little more focus, which is why the parts list above is ideal as it will give them something to research, and bring some focus to their random YouTube browsing. Budget is about right as I would be happy at about the 300 to 400 mark. We do have an old slow PC in the house, some cheap HP model, but I think there would be more interest in starting from scratch.

I'll put a bit more thought into wider needs. It may be useful if the machine functioned as a tv/dvd player also, but I don't expect that would be an issue for the initial build.

K.O.Kiki

Just make sure they learn how to USE a computer properly, or they'll end up like this.

Carb

K.O.Kiki wrote: »

Just make sure they learn how to USE a computer properly, or they'll end up like this.

Ha, I may be guilty of of one or two of those myself. I understand your point though. Drifting slightly off topic, but are there any good resources for kids for this kind of stuff. Most of the books and websites seem to focus on coding etc.

I'll do a bit more homework on the suggestions and will be back with any questions, and to update on any progress.