Leading father astray...

RedXIV

It's my father's birthday soon and he's expressed an interest in building a PC but he needs a nudge to get him started.

As half the fun is picking your own components, I want to get him one of the more boring options first to get him on his way. He has plenty of peripherals so I was thinking of getting him a solid PSU but now my siblings want in.

what do you reckon would be 2 or 3 (~60-80 quid each) components that could be worth getting?

cheers!
Red

Nonoperational

Graphics card is the issue now, almost impossible to get.

PSU, mainboard and processor first I guess...

the_syco

I'd say the prebuilt machines with the extras, such as the graphics card, will probably be cheaper than buying it all yourself, solely because of the graphic card availability issue.

Due to the lack of graphics cards, I'd say to perhaps hold off for now.

JoyPad

Maybe the man is not looking for a gaming PC, just something to browse the Internet, Zoom with the grandchildren, etc.
You're all talking about high-end GPUs, but you won't need one, unless you want to play games.

OP, have a look at this template and answer as many questions as you can. It will help understand your needs better.

As you stated that he would like to be involved in the process, some of the parts he will definitely need to get started would be the case and the PSU.
There could be some relatively safe choices to make with regards to RAM and storage e.g. 16Gb of 3000MHz RAM or a SATA SSD will work with almost any system.

But the fun is picking yourself what CPU to go with, then pick a suitable motherboard and cooler, adequate RAM and disk drive(s).

SeanW

OP, what would the machine be used for? If it's a machine for web browsing, zoom calls etc, maybe have a look at Intel's CPUs with integrated GPUs? Graphics cards are just not available and even low end video cards are getting scarce.

RedXIV

Cheers guys,

He's recently bought himself a VR headset and is unimpressed with the fact that his current machine can't support it so he'll be looking for something fairly beefy. The GPU thing is certainly something he mentioned last we discussed this but as it took me almost a year to afford all the parts when I did it a few years ago, I imagine it'll be the same for him so I'm hoping he can pick up all the other parts for the next few months or year or so anyway.

Is the graphics card issues expected to go on beyond the end of the year?

JoyPad

RedXIV wrote: »

Is the graphics card issues expected to go on beyond the end of the year?

Apparently, the crystal balls are also hard to come by, so nobody knows.
Worth noting though that the most optimistic prognosticators say at least one more year until you will get a 30-series card at or around its MSRP.

If the crypto bubble doesn't pop soon, it will likely last longer.

errlloyd

For the record I think getting him a nice big (if he has space for it) Lian Li case or other similar brand is a good shout.

A good case fits the bill as a gift, because gifts should always be things that are luxuries (what I want) as opposed to practicalities (what I need). But it'll also make the whole process of building the machine much more enjoyable for him. The cable management and ventilation features are more satisfying to work with than in budget cases.

JoyPad

In line with the suggestion above, I would add a PSU with enough power to fit most needs, e.g. 850W or more.
Another thing you can add could be a CableMod pack of sleeved cables. You don't need these, but they look amazing.

K.O.Kiki

850W is only if he's looking to get a power-hungry (250W+) GPU in future, e.g. RTX 3080/3090.

For the majority of systems, 650-750W is still overkill but more easily attainable.