Help for 14yo’s birthday present

sal78 on 18/06/2020 - 09:53
Last edited 18/06/2020 - 09:57

Looking to buy my son a gaming pc for his birthday.

I’m interested in the latest techfast deal on the bargains page.

“This affordable PC comes with the AMD Ryzen 5 3500X processor, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 6GB, 8GB DDR4 2666MHz RAM, a 240GB SSD and a 550W power supply.Microsoft Windows 10 Home Edition is pre-installed on the system.” $790

But he wants to build it himself. I did a rough quote and all the parts come to approx $700. He has no experience in building pcs and I have heard disaster stories from other mums.

What do you recommend? if I bought the techfast deal or diy, are there any must upgrades? Can I ask techfast to sell the same pc but parts only?

My budget is around $800 I still need to add periphereals. I’m also reluctant to buy gaming pc but it’s what he really wants and he doesn’t game much during term. He did well this semester all As so far and he did well last yr.
I offered to organise a dinner with his friends, maybe upgrade phone to iPhone SE or iPad Pro etc but he doesn’t want any celebrations this yr. Just wants to build his own gaming pc. Currently he has a Lenovo for school which he loves and we have a PS4. Help!

Thanks!

Computing

Comments

  • No Username on 18/06/2020 - 10:09
    +7

    Give him a chance to learn and build it himself. Everyone has to start somewhere. As long as you stay in a static safe room you should be fine. If you want some places like Centrecom will offer to install the CPU for you so there is a lesser chance of the CPU pins bending which can be a pain to fix given how small they are. Also take it slow when screwing in the motherboard so you don't slip and damage a cap or chip.

    • ONEMariachi on 18/06/2020 - 10:49
      +3

      Ryzen Cpus literally just fall into place with no force required. The only way you would bend the pins is if you purposefully and forcefully try to shove it in the wrong way and pay zero attention to the clear arrow that shows what direction to place it in.

  • chartparker on 18/06/2020 - 10:11
    +3

    Follow how to videos on YouTube. Linus Tech tips has a whole bunch of them. I've been building my own computers since about his age and that was when things were way more confusing.

    Well worth the experience and it's relatively straightforward if you follow the guides. You have to be pretty negligent to do serious damage while building your own PC

  • whooah1979 on 18/06/2020 - 10:19
    -6

    Just get him an Ipad Mini. There is less of a chance of ESD.

  • jace88 on 18/06/2020 - 10:42
    +1

    I'm not sure if Techfast will install the CPU onto the motherboard if you buy it as parts since I thought they test before sending.

  • ONEMariachi on 18/06/2020 - 10:48
    +5

    Building a PC is like building a lego set now. It's incredibly simple. Watch a bunch of youtube videos together, and sit with him whilst he is doing it and support him and he'll be fine.

  • Axelstrife on 18/06/2020 - 10:54
    +1

    PC's are extremely easy to build these days it's pretty hard to mess things up.

    There are ALOT of Youtube videos https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=How+to+build+a+… that can help you and is what i learned from when i built my first one years ago, plus lots of people over on reddit that can help you with anything. https://www.reddit.com/r/buildapc/

    I would definitely recommend you to allow him to build his first PC go with whatever's cheaper, techfast or buying parts separately.

  • sal78 on 18/06/2020 - 11:06
    +3

    Thanks guys! yup 1st PC, cheapest parts, build himself, good advice!

  • Ryven on 18/06/2020 - 11:09
    +1

    The most important thing to note is insulting the CPU fan. Sometimes they can be a pain. I've not installed the standard blower on a current gen Ryzen so this may not be the case, used a water cooler with a horrible mounting bracket.

    Otherwise you will need to read the motherboard manual as well as case manual to make sure all power connections/case power button and lights are set up correctly.

    And avoid touching metal pins like on the CPU/RAM.

    • ssquid on 18/06/2020 - 11:37
      +12

      The most important thing to note is insulting the CPU fan.

      It's doing its best you big bully.

      • Ryven on 18/06/2020 - 15:41

        I did a lot of swearing installing my liquid cooling system, so perhaps it was a Freudian slip rather than an autocorrect.

    • Quantumcat on 18/06/2020 - 11:38
      +2

      CPU fan, you're so stupid and ugly! Edit: too late to make a joke

    • ONEMariachi on 18/06/2020 - 19:56

      The wraith coolers are pretty easy. Screw in the anchors, then plonk it on top(they come with thermal paste already- so up to you if you want to wipe that off and add your own) then flick the arm that holds it in place, and you're done.

  • Heaps for Cheaps on 18/06/2020 - 11:11
    +1

    I would go the route of getting him to build it himself. He most likely has friends that have done it and can also help out. However, if he gets frustrated quickly I would be weary… Also, I would suggest buying a Windows license from eBay for $15 instead of retail.

    • sal78 on 14/07/2020 - 08:14

      We bought 2 dodgy keys for >$10 each before forking out $50 for a usable key.

      I would advice to spend a big more.

      Also, there are so many keys for Windows Pro but hardly any suppliers for Windows Pro.

  • urahara on 18/06/2020 - 11:42
    +1

    BTW youtube is your helper. Let him build it ..Use https://au.pcpartpicker.com/ to find compatibility

  • [Deactivated] on 18/06/2020 - 11:58
    +2

    I built a PC at 14yo and your kid doesnt sound like a lost cause, go for it

  • outlander on 18/06/2020 - 12:37
    -2

    As someone who was overzealous about computers which lead to breaking his at 14, I have two suggestions

    1: Get an old computer from eBay or somewhere, confirm that it works, then break it up into parts. If he can put it back together and have it work, he'll be better prepared for the good thing. Should cost less than $100, and you can probably get half that back by reselling it after you're done

    2: Find a nerd hangout, and take your son there. Something like a hackerspace, LAN gaming, that kind of thing. He won't need them to put the computer together, but if things don't work it's really handy to have someone experienced around. Often you break things not with the first mistake you make, but with what you do after that. You panic, start doing things without thinking, and before you know it you've gone too far.
    If you bring a plate of something delicious, and talk about how clever they all are, I'm sure they will be tripping over themselves to help your son.

    • sal78 on 18/06/2020 - 13:21

      wow never heard of these places. Any in brissie?

      • outlander on 18/06/2020 - 13:28
        +1

        Yep. If you google hackerspace brisbane, one pops up. A good place to start if you're looking for groups of people is on meetup.com
        Searching for Lans brings up this https://www.meetup.com/lansmash/

        The only problem is that right now with all the virus fears a lot of places are closed.

  • sal78 on 14/07/2020 - 08:36
    +1

    Update:

    Thanks everyone for the great advice. It took him a day to build his PC. His school buddy came over to help though neither of them have any experience but they did a lot of research. There were a few breaks in between because they couldn’t work it out so they gave up and played some PS4.

    A 3 pin fan controller cable that did not fit anywhere but still worked plugged into the PSU, no display on monitor but after taking a break he noticed a cord and connected to mobo and suddenly monitor worked and coukdn’t get wifi card to detect our network which was solved with a quick call to ISP.

    We didn’t help him at all. They did it by themselves. He spent a lot if time rearranging the cable mgmt.

    My only concern is that the 4 included fans are running at 100% since it’s not connected to MOBO so cannot alter the speed. He tells me it’s quiet and he has no issues. Would it be better to buy 4 fans? or at least 2? not sure if I can buy a splitter? there are no 3pin fan header on MOBO.

    He swapped his desk for a larger unused desk which meant he had to rearrange his bedroom and as a bonus, he cleaned out his room, decluttered, vacummed etc Totally did not expect that.

    4 RGB lights with remote. Looks great. One very happy boy!

    CPU: AMD Ryzen 3 3300X 3.8 GHz Quad-Core Processor ($204.00)
    Motherboard: Gigabyte B450M GAMING Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard ($127.20)
    Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V Series 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory ($116.00)
    Storage: Kingston A400 480 GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($83.20)
    Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 1650 SUPER 4 GB Ventus XS OC Video Card ($260.00)
    Case: GAMDIAS Talos P1 ATX Mid Tower Case ($99.00)
    Power Supply: Thermaltake Smart BX1 550 W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($89.00)
    Wireless Network Adapter: TP-Link TL-WN881ND PCIe x1 802.11a/b/g/n Wi-Fi Adapter ($21.00)

    Total $909.40

    Also bought the LG ultrawide monitor for $250 from Scorptec on 30/6 to claim back tax up to $300

    https://au.pcpartpicker.com/b/k9CLrH

    pics on pc partpicker

    • Twix on 14/07/2020 - 12:09
      +1

      The Gigabyte AM4 motherboard has 3 of the 4-pin fan headers & you can plug in a 3-pin fan to the 4-pin fan headers. 1 fan header is taken up by the AMD CPU fan & there is 2 spare fan headers for case fans. You can purchase fan splitters but if he says it's quiet there is no need to change the fan cabling.

      3 front fans in-taking air & 1 rear fan exhausting air is plenty for that PC. The PC is setup for positive airflow & less dust which is good. Don't over do it with more fans & negative airflow. Every so often clean the dust filters & inside the PC!

      Check that the HDMI cable coming out from the LG display monitor is plugged into the HDMI port on the back of the MSI GTX 1650 video card & not plugged into the HDMI port on the back of the Gigabyte AM4 motherboard next to the blue USB 3.0 ports.

      My suggestions for future upgrades are new mouse & keyboard with RGB lights & if possible an ethernet connection from the router to the PC.

      • sal78 on 14/07/2020 - 18:01
        +1

        wow thanks for the tips!

        He will need to get a PT job for keyboard and mouse!

        • Twix on 14/07/2020 - 18:24
          +1

          Yeah a PT job to fund his upgrades is a good idea :-)

          Install the latest video card driver from Nvidia

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