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Little Dude needs a gaming PC


bluzdog

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My 13 year old has been hitting me up for a while now. He doesn't know specs so he keeps sending me links to cheap boxes because he's chomping at the bit. Do any of you guys have suggestions for towers in th sub 1k range. Also how about Intel vs AMD?  Any help would be appreciated.

Rocky

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18 minutes ago, bluzdog said:

My 13 year old has been hitting me up for a while now. He doesn't know specs so he keeps sending me links to cheap boxes because he's chomping at the bit. Do any of you guys have suggestions for towers in th sub 1k range. Also how about Intel vs AMD?  Any help would be appreciated.

Rocky

AMD is good right now and cheaper then Intel.  Ryzen - 🔥

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4 hours ago, hillyard said:

Try NZXT BLD. Their starter series is in your price range. They are a well known hardware manufacturer.

 https://www.letsbld.com/starter-series

I would avoid anything from NZXT. They're currently in a series of issues over a badly designed PCIe riser in one of their cases that is a real fire hazard as tested by Gamers Nexus.

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If you're willing to take the time, you can build an incredible PC
for that price.

My FX-8100 cost me about $300 total to build, and has served me well for
years now.  Of course I already had the drives...but the MB, CPU, and Ram
cost me less than $300.  I did upgrade the motherboard about a year
after I first built it, and also I bought a non built in Graphics Card.
My next Build will hopefully be a Ryzen 9. 

As Tim the Toolman Taylor would say - MORE POWER!  Arh arh arh...

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8 hours ago, PavlovsCat said:

I just bought my son a Lenovo Legion Windows 10 gaming PC for under $1k USD and it's exceeded expectations. I can wholeheartedly recommend the line. 

I check these out. I love my Lenovo laptop. Do you know what model you bought? Thanks.

 

1 hour ago, cclarry said:

If you're willing to take the time, you can build an incredible PC
for that price.

My FX-8100 cost me about $300 total to build, and has served me well for
years now.  Of course I already had the drives...but the MB, CPU, and Ram
cost me less than $300.  I did upgrade the motherboard about a year
after I first built it, and also I bought a non built in Graphics Card.
My next Build will hopefully be a Ryzen 9. 

As Tim the Toolman Taylor would say - MORE POWER!  Arh arh arh...

I'm not that guy, I wish I was. Thanks.

Thanks for the replies guys!

Rocky

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Going against the grain here as I've just built a new PC in November 2020.

Price to performance intel is the better deal right now because AMD, being in high demand, has had its street prices driven up.

Intel is also launching its 11th generation of CPUs so you might find a good deal on a previous gen Z490 board and get good RAM speeds, even if you decide to buy a CPU that is not overclockable.

On the GPU side, things are BAD, Ethereum mining has raised the street price of even old, second hand cards up to 2x their brand new MSRP.

Maybe if you have a kind hearted friend who has a spare GPU or just upgraded and is willing to sell you the old one for a good price, it would be worth it.

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9 minutes ago, Cristian said:

 

On the GPU side, things are BAD, Ethereum mining has raised the street price of even old, second hand cards up to 2x their brand new MSRP.

Maybe if you have a kind hearted friend who has a spare GPU or just upgraded and is willing to sell you the old one for a good price, it would be worth it.

That's why I recommend a second hand GPU right now for beginners. If the kid turns out to be a hardcore gamer, it's easy to upgrade when the market is better.
If he won't turn out to be a gamer material, he has at least a decent computer.

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If you have a Costco membership and in USA they have some nice AMD Ryzen gaming laptops under $1,000.00. Just make sure you get the 4000 series chip and not the 3000 series chip. Also if you do go Costco route and have there credit card you get extra protection included  if you pay by the Costco Visa.

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Tell him to think on and just be grateful for all the things he already has. That when you were his age all you had to play with was a stick and and if you were really lucky you got an orange for xmas. That you were so poor that for your 13th birthday you only got a yo, because despite having three jobs your poor old pa couldn't afford a yo-yo.

That is the cheapest option by far.

 

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This is a good deal for a starter...at $299 for an i7 with a 256 Gb SSD...
https://www.walmart.com/ip/EVOO-15-6-Ultra-Thin-Notebook-Full-HD-Display-Intel-Core-i7-7560U-256GB-SSD-8GB-Memory-2MP-Webcam-Windows-10-Black/497864472?irgwc=1&sourceid=imp_z%3AnVMr19jxyLWG%3AwUx0Mo3ZzUkEW8234ixZYUE0&veh=aff&wmlspartner=imp_10915&clickid=z%3AnVMr19jxyLWG%3AwUx0Mo3ZzUkEW8234ixZYUE0&sharedid=&affiliates_ad_id=565706&campaign_id=9383

Windows 10 Home

15.6” FHD Display, 1920 x 1080

Intel® Core™ i7-7560U Processor (2.4GHz, Up to 3.80GHz)

Intel® Iris™ Plus Graphics 640

256 Solid State Drive

8GB Memory (RAM)

Up to 8 Hours of battery life

2MP Front Camera

Bluetooth 4.2

Micro SD Expansion Slot x 1

USB 3.0 x 2

HDMI Port x 1

Product Dimensions: 14.76” x 9.57” x 0.87”, 4.41 lbs.

Edited by cclarry
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I got a 2n1 laptop for my daughter for remote learning. She wanted a nice gaming laptop but came to her senses that see would use the active stylus more for school. Yes she still games on it at times but not the latest titles. Don't ask me what as I'm not a gamer.  I had an extra monitor so she that hooked up and uses a gaming mouse that she got for her Birthday.  So just a thought to consider.   My daughter is really happy as she uses the pen everyday especially for Chemistry and AP math class. 

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7 minutes ago, paulo said:

Tell him to think on and just be grateful for all the things he already has. That when you were his age all you had to play with was a stick and and if you were really lucky you got an orange for xmas. That you were so poor that for your 13th birthday you only got a yo, because despite having three jobs your poor old pa couldn't afford a yo-yo.

That is the cheapest option by far.

 

A little cruel IMO.  I know what you are getting at as my dad came from Europe after WWII with literally nothing for a fresh start.   Both my parents worked full time jobs plus we barely were making it growing up.  So if you do have the funds to spend on your kids without going overboard I see that as a plus.

 

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49 minutes ago, cclarry said:

If you scroll down a lot, to "Specifications" it says

Hard Drive Capacity       128 GB

Seems a bit iffy (and 128 GB is very little for a usable Windows laptop) so maybe ask a Walmart rep ?

For 300 USD it's a good deal, but only if the specs aren't fake and it's upgradable.

EDIT: Ouch, it also says

RAM Memory           4 GB

That's barely enough to run Windows 10 acceptably, definitely ask a rep and double check.

Edited by Cristian
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