Gaming PC for a 16 Year Old - Budget $2,100 to $2,400

Larrgeetee on 18/06/2024 - 15:51
Last edited 19/06/2024 - 09:49

Absolute novice here looking for advice on a gaming PC for my 16 year old using a 1080 (?) monitor. He is playing all the mainstream games and all the games he shouldn't be - games on steam etc. Buying it with money he has earned cooking burgers for you lot at MacDonalds!

He is looking at this PC from BPC - Siren Vortex Molpe GeForce RTX 4070 Gaming PC (P2-1) - and adding/getting 32gb of RAM for an extra $185. Total price including delivery approximately $2,350. (does he even need the extra ram?)

I have seen this PC - Scorptec Fusion RTX 4060 Ti Gaming PC for $2,199

A couple of questions - are we comparing like for like, are these machines going to last, are there other machines in this price range we should look at? He also does IT at school so he will use it for video applications/rendering as well. Should we disappear down the AMD/Intel rabbit hole or just stick with intel?

I just want to make sure he spends his money wisely.

Thx

Update: Thanks for all the replies - much appreciated - i have been reading them as has my son.

Computing Computer Desktop Computer

Comments

  • JownehFixIT on 18/06/2024 - 16:02

    https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/851297

    Probably best bang for buck with 3 year return to base warranty.

    Gaming PCs w/ Wi-Fi: 7500F, RTX 4070Ti S, 16GB RAM, 1TB $1948 | 7800X3D, RTX 4070Ti S, 32GB RAM, 1TB $2348 + $50 Del @ Nebula PC

  • YeemaiI on 18/06/2024 - 16:22
    +5

    If you're going to spend $2000 on a PC, definitely upgrade to a 1440p monitor as well.

  • pinchies on 18/06/2024 - 17:17

    are these machines going to last

    That is the age old question. Technology always goes out of date eventually. The next big jump will probably be CPUs moving from x86 to ARM, like Apple has done, but that is likely a few years away at this stage, and likely quite irrelevant for PC gaming for even longer than that.

    If he really wants to play games and edit video, my guess is he would run out of SSD storage before anything else on that machine.

    Those specs also seem a little overkill for gaming on a 1080p monitor.

    Essentially, these are fairly mid-range PC's slapped with upper tier GPUs. You would be unlikely to notice massive difference in general PC performance using any PC from the last 3-4 years. However, GPUs have exploded in price, and to get a good gaming GPU is eating up most of that cost. Some money could be saved going for a lower tier GPU, if he plans to stay on 1080p. However, if they wanted to go to 1440p, then the 4060 is a solid bet, or 4070 or above for 4k monitor gaming.

    For example, if I was a student looking for a "much better value" build specifically for gaming and general use on 1080p, I would build a new PC using one of the cheap 5700x3d CPUs https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/851723 — and then source a used Nvidia 1080ti GPU for $300 or so. Still go for 32GB ram, but would leave more cash for a 2TB SSD, and some savings for the future. It is not a bleeding edge computer, but it would definitely give an excellent gaming experience (albeit with no ray-tracing / RTX however), and still a strong performer for all the other use cases.

    • jv on 18/06/2024 - 19:35

      Technology always goes out of date eventually.

      Proof ?

  • jv on 18/06/2024 - 17:21
    -2

    Gaming PC for a 16 Year Old

    They should be studying, not playing games.

    • pinchies on 18/06/2024 - 17:23

      I would encourage them to learn to build the PC themself. Having a bit of know-how with computers got me my first job, and has been an asset through my career in all sorts of ways. These days, you even have copilot/chatgpt to help give advice along the way 24/7 too.

      • jv on 18/06/2024 - 17:44
        -1

        I would encourage them to learn to build the PC themself.

        Sure, but not spend the rest of their time playing games on it…

        • Ruddaga on 18/06/2024 - 18:35
          +2

          They should have a healthy balance of both. If they spend all their youth studying and not having some down time, they'll over load and crash and burn in their senior years or Uni.

          • jv on 18/06/2024 - 19:33
            -1

            @Ruddaga:

            They should have a healthy balance of both.

            I didn't play computer games at 16, and look how I turned out…

  • Jugganautx on 18/06/2024 - 18:50
    -8

    Whatever happened to teenagers working to earn their toys?

    • CrispyChrispy on 18/06/2024 - 19:11
      +5

      Did you not read the post at all lol

      Buying it with money he has earned cooking burgers for you lot at MacDonalds!

      I just want to make sure he spends his money wisely.

  • ozdog64 on 19/06/2024 - 00:52
    +1

    Just buy a prebuilt system from vendors like techfast or nebula using ozbargain discount codes. $1900 will fetch you an extremely powerful PC with AMD 7800X3D CPU (Best gaming CPU today) and Nvidia 4070S GPU (excellent mid-range card, far better than 4060ti).
    https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/850807

    Save the rest of the money for future upgrades like RAM expansion

  • arrgeetee on 19/06/2024 - 16:50

    just an additional question - is 32gb of RAM (vs 16gb) going to make much difference in performance?

    • ozdog64 on 19/06/2024 - 18:07
      +1

      Pay a little extra to upgrade to 32GB for your prebuilt. 32GB will be enough for the next 5+ years. 16GB is already pushing its capacity in some situations.

  • Lit Homie on 19/06/2024 - 19:06

    Wait for then next 150+ upvote pc deal on ozbargain. Seem to 4/5 a year

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