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Help me piece up a machine for my son

Homerboy

Homerboy

Lifer
I used to be WAY more into PC building, but I've dropped off over time.
I'm basically looking to piece up a new machine for my son who is just starting to get into PC gaming.

He is mainly concerned with Minecraft right now, but is just starting to branch off into other things as well.

I want to build this with him so he can learn something about computer and how the hardware all works and plays together.

Can somebody help me piece together something that would run Minecraft fine for him now, but allow us to drop in a faster CPU in the future? Add a discrete GPU? etc etc?

I was thinking some of these AMD CPUs with IGP would fit the bill for right now? Something in an FX socket?

I'd like to keep it as cheap as possible. I think I have 6gb of PC1600 RAM laying around I could use. HDD I have as well. If possible a smaller form factor would be nice as he likes to take his current PC (AMD 5600+, 2GB RAM) over to friends house to have mini-LAN parties.

Anyways, let me know what you would recommend.

Thanks in advance.
 
etrigan420 said:
I'm in the same boat with a 7 and an 8 year old. Minecraft and net surfing...

Thinking about just picking up something cheap like:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16883266683

and calling it good.

In for more suggestions...
Click to expand...

Not bad (actually this would be AWESOME for my mom...) But he's going to need something more powerful than that. I think that would barely run Minecraft with any sort of mods. What's funny is that price tag is almost worth the Win7 64bit license alone!
 
Homerboy, I bought that G3258/PC MATE combo about two weeks ago at MC and have been pretty impressed. I bought it for my son to play minecraft. I put 8gb in it for the mods (I guess some mods like direwolf use a lot of ram). It's really snappy, boots instantly with win 8.1. The motherboard is actually quite nice with good features and a great UEFI. Haven't tried overclocking it yet, but I'm not sure I will need to for a while anyway. So for $99 plus tax, it's a winner. For strictly gaming on todays games, I see no reason to buy something more...i3/i5.
 
shredz said:
Homerboy, I bought that G3258/PC MATE combo about two weeks ago at MC and have been pretty impressed. I bought it for my son to play minecraft. I put 8gb in it for the mods (I guess some mods like direwolf use a lot of ram). It's really snappy, boots instantly with win 8.1. The motherboard is actually quite nice with good features and a great UEFI. Haven't tried overclocking it yet, but I'm not sure I will need to for a while anyway. So for $99 plus tax, it's a winner. For strictly gaming on todays games, I see no reason to buy something more...i3/i5.
Click to expand...

Awesome!
Now I gotta find a way to get Win7/8 64bit cheaply to use more RAM. Machine he has now is XP w/ 2GB, and yeah.... those mods SUCK THE RAM.

I wish that MB wasn't a fullsize ATX board -- I wish I could get him something smaller to take to friends house to play.
 
itx mobo for $35 AR
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...D=3938566&SID=

antec isk itx case/psu for ~$70
http://www.directron.com/isk300150.html
http://www.directron.com/isk110vesa.html

you already got ram, but itx/matx mobos only have 2 ram slots, so you can only use 2x2gb = 4gb. If you want more, you'll have to get a full size atx mobo or else buy 2x4gb for $55:
http://slickdeals.net/f/7461654-g-s...-pc3-12800-desktop-memory-54-99-at-newegg?v=1

240gb ssd for $80:
http://slickdeals.net/f/7461882-240...-5-solid-state-drive-ssd-80-free-shipping?v=1

edit: that mobo is OOS =(
here's a better one but it's $65
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...-na-_-na&cm_sp=&AID=10446076&PID=3938566&SID=
 
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Of course there doesn't seen to be a Celeron G1850 at frys.com
Link provided is dead and only item when searching there comes back as a combo deal for $100

Edit: reading slickdeals thread seems it was pulled online and only good in store (and most stores are out)

However, now you got me thinking about one of these Celerons and sticking with the LGA1150 chipset as the future upgrade path is so great. I prefer the discrete IGP for if/when he gets into more "serious" games (he loves SimCity as well...)
 
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as a cpu, it's like 10% slower than the g3258 stock, but it can't OC like the g3258 can. I think it should be fast enough for lighter games like minecraft and league of legends.

the igp is also nearly the same as the g3258, but i don't know if the igp on either one is good enough. maybe try it first and add like a $75 gpu later if necessary.

amd apu has better igp that's equivalent to like a $75 gpu, but they also cost more, so it may not be worth it unless you wanna go with that super slim isk case that can't fit a discrete gpu. It would be pretty neat to have such a small case for carrying around, though.
http://pcpartpicker.com/part/asrock-motherboard-fm2a78mitx
http://pcpartpicker.com/part/amd-cpu-ad7600ybjabox
 
shredz said:
Homerboy, I bought that G3258/PC MATE combo about two weeks ago at MC and have been pretty impressed. I bought it for my son to play minecraft. I put 8gb in it for the mods (I guess some mods like direwolf use a lot of ram). It's really snappy, boots instantly with win 8.1. The motherboard is actually quite nice with good features and a great UEFI. Haven't tried overclocking it yet, but I'm not sure I will need to for a while anyway. So for $99 plus tax, it's a winner. For strictly gaming on todays games, I see no reason to buy something more...i3/i5.
Click to expand...

Are you using the IGP? How well does it work for Minecraft?
 
No, I'm using a GTX275 I had from 2 builds ago. Works great for minecraft and direwolf mod as well. No probs at all.

On another note, I was motivated by this discussion and used the OC Genie feature in the PC Mate to overclock the G3258 to 4.3 using the intel stock cooler. One touch, and stable overclock. I ran prime for about 3 hours with no hiccups and temps in low 70s at 1.249v. I think I will dial it down a bit to get the temps down. But I was quite impressed by this little $100 cpu/mobo combo.
 
shredz said:
No, I'm using a GTX275 I had from 2 builds ago. Works great for minecraft and direwolf mod as well. No probs at all.

On another note, I was motivated by this discussion and used the OC Genie feature in the PC Mate to overclock the G3258 to 4.3 using the intel stock cooler. One touch, and stable overclock. I ran prime for about 3 hours with no hiccups and temps in low 70s at 1.249v. I think I will dial it down a bit to get the temps down. But I was quite impressed by this little $100 cpu/mobo combo.
Click to expand...

That's why I want a G3258! Dagnabbit!
 
mfenn said:
OK, so here's what I came up with:

AMD A8-7600 Kaveri $98
ASRock FM2A88M PRO3+ $62
Reuse RAM $0
Reuse HDD $0
Reuse PSU $0
Fractal Design Core 1000 $40
Total: $200

This doesn't have the potential raw CPU performance of the G3258, but it avoids the need to buy a separate GPU. I don't think the IGP on the G3258 is sufficient to run Minecraft.
Click to expand...

not bad... not bad at all. I guess my old-timer-ness is just leary of IGPs actually being GOOD, but unquestionably the R7 in this is going to be better than his HD6450 that is in his current machine.

Heck this machine for $200 will beat out my AMD Phenom x4 with GT8800 🙂

I'm toying with the idea of an SSD as well.
 
Homerboy said:
not bad... not bad at all. I guess my old-timer-ness is just leary of IGPs actually being GOOD, but unquestionably the R7 in this is going to be better than his HD6450 that is in his current machine.

Heck this machine for $200 will beat out my AMD Phenom x4 with GT8800 🙂

I'm toying with the idea of an SSD as well.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I know how you feel. AMD doesn't have a ton of niches left, but the "~$160 core with OK gaming performance" is still there. The Kaveri IGP is better than the G3258 IGP and any (new) discrete card you could get for the $40 you have left over after a $70 G3258 and $50 motherboard.

In some situations, you might say "well stick it out with the worse IGP for a bit", but in this case it seems like you're not wanting to keep upgrading the machine every few months (correct me if I'm wrong).
 
mfenn said:
Yeah, I know how you feel. AMD doesn't have a ton of niches left, but the "~$160 core with OK gaming performance" is still there. The Kaveri IGP is better than the G3258 IGP and any (new) discrete card you could get for the $40 you have left over after a $70 G3258 and $50 motherboard.

In some situations, you might say "well stick it out with the worse IGP for a bit", but in this case it seems like you're not wanting to keep upgrading the machine every few months (correct me if I'm wrong).
Click to expand...

Buuuuuuuut.... I could bequeath to him my 8800GT and get a new discrete card for myself 🙂

Still leaning towards the AMD solution. Would up his ability to play Minecraft 10 fold (he's already getting a 23" 1080x1920 monitor), and allow him to play games like SimCity and start to toy with other games to get his feet wet -- can always slap in a GPU later down the line if he buys into heavier gaming.

AMD A8-7600 Kaveri is looking like the choice
 
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