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Pre-built PC for Gaming - mom needs advice

T

TampaGirl99

Junior Member
Hi All,

I want to get my son a desktop to play games on. He's 12 and has been gaming since he was a toddler. He's a pretty serious gamer. Is it possible to buy a pre-built PC that is around $750.00 that will last a couple of years?

www.cyberpowerpc.com offers a number of specials. I have no idea what I'm looking for, so any advice is deeply appreciated.

P.S. This is a Christmas gift.

All the best,
TampaGirl
 
TampaGirl99 said:
I have no idea what I'm looking for, so any advice is deeply appreciated.
Click to expand...

If you have the time to do some homework on these forums and others around the web, in general, you can get a much better compliment of hardware for a given price by selecting and building your setup. For a list of the kinds of parts you'll need and explanations of what they are and how they go together, see these sticky threads at the top of this forum:

~~~ Computer-building resource thread ~~~

Attention System Builders 2.0

See this list of questions you should answer to help others reply with answers directed to your specific goals.

NOTICE - PC builders, when asking for input on YOUR projects Please Tell us...

TampaGirl99 said:
P.S. This is a Christmas gift.

All the best,
TampaGirl
Click to expand...

Considering your son's experience, maybe the best gift would be to do enough homework to give you have a basic understanding of the kinds of hardware he would want and give him a budget to select his own components. 😎

Don't forget to include software in the budget, including a copy of Windows and other basic software he'll need.
 
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Well I am not the expert that some of these people are but I would suggest looking at the review for computers that the anadtech staff did last month

http://www.anandtech.com/show/4025/holiday-2010-system-builders-guide/4

the AMD budget gaming system, the midrange intel system, and the midrange Oveclocking system are all made up of good parts so if you can find a prebuilt with similar components that would be a pretty good bet.

as a rule of thumb with that price range i would look for something with either AMD 6850 or Nvidia 460 for the graphics card.

oh and make sure it has at least 4gigs of ram, sometimes the prebuilt computers try to skimp on that (or buy a memory upgrade seperately thats a real easy pc upgrade if you want to give him a bit of a hands on project)
 
gJabberwock said:
oh and make sure it has at least 4gigs of ram, sometimes the prebuilt computers try to skimp on that (or buy a memory upgrade seperately thats a real easy pc upgrade if you want to give him a bit of a hands on project)
Click to expand...

Another place where makers of prebuilt machines tend to skimp is in the power supply. Make sure you check the power requirements for the system you're considering.
 
Hi All,

thank all of you for responding. All of you have given me lots of homework.😀 I'll be sure to include the info the forum requires, and submit the details and ask for suggestions to my component decisions.

do you really think i can build it myself? is there a particular source for parts that are recommended? I'm relying on all of your to guide me through this! I have until Christmas! 8-(

thank you all again.
p.s., i do need a monitor and keyboard... 'can i use on old keyboard from an old (4-5 years old) Dell desktop?
 
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TampaGirl99 said:
Hi All,

...
do you really think i can build it myself? is there a particular source for parts that are recommended?
...
p.s., i do need a monitor and keyboard... 'can i use on old keyboard from an old (4-5 years old) Dell desktop?
Click to expand...

it depends on the time you have everyone had to build there first system sometime. the actual process of building is fairly simple if your not trying for anything exotic (overclocking, cutting corners, or really high end (or super cheap) parts). The real time commitment in my experience is doing the research. the article i mentioned in the earlier post has some good recommendations but isnt necessarily written for someone just starting to research things. and dont forget if your involved with the school system or government sometimes you can get cheap copies of windows.

I have always bought alot of parts off newegg.com, there are cheaper places sometimes but its always a good start. I also live a couple miles from a store called microcenter, while thier normal prices arent the greatest thier sales are definately competitive with online. sometimes its nice to just be able to visit a store and look at things even if you intend to purchase them off of online.

keyboard tech is pretty standard you could almost definitely use your old ones, but they tend to get rather dirty after that many years. a cheap but descent set can be had for $20 sometimes wireless logitech sets can be had for that from office depot/max.
 
TampaGirl99 said:
do you really think i can build it myself?
Click to expand...
Yes, as long as your vison is good enough to read the motherboard manual and you know which end of a phillips screwdriver is the business end. All the connectors are unique and keyed to their mating parts so these products only fit together one way... the right way... as long as you don't try to force something into a slot backwards. 😎

TampaGirl99 said:
is there a particular source for parts that are recommended? I'm relying on all of your to guide me through this! I have until Christmas! 8-(
Click to expand...

As a general source, I like newegg.com. They have a continuing stream of daily and weekly specials, including all individual parts and combination deals on various parts, and they offer free shipping on many of them as part of the deal. The other thing I like about newegg is that their user comments on their parts seem very honest because they include explicit, detailed negative comments when applicable. I've also had good results with them when I've needed to contact a live person for help.

For price, another good source is frys.com, but it's important to know which of their sale parts are really good choices. You can always check newegg's reviews for a model number you find on frys.com. Searching Google for part model numbers will also find reviews, but you have to take some of them with a grain (or a boatload) of salt.

TampaGirl99 said:
p.s., i do need a monitor and keyboard... 'can i use on old keyboard from an old (4-5 years old) Dell desktop?
Click to expand...

Your old keyboard should work. Unless you need a fancy keyboard, that's a relatively inexpensive part you can upgrade later, after the machine is working.

Your insecurity about assembling the system brings me back to the idea of giving your son a budget to choose parts. You can give him the added excitement of building the system. If he has enough experience with computers, I bet he'd love it, and he'd be that much more personally invested in his machine.
 
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Harvey,
thank you for responding so quickly. I am inspired to involve my son! thank you for your inspiration; involving him will also help if we get it a little late for Christmas.

I've been reviewing some of the links others have suggested. I'm sure I can build it physically. I've opened up a case and added more memory.... My biggest concern is buying all the right components at the right price.

What comes first the CPU, Motherboard, graphics card? where do I begin if I want to stay on a budget? I can see the dollars adding up quickly. I really have about $900US but shipping cost will probably keep me around $750 or $800.

Thanks for your time and advice!

TampaGirl
 
$750 is a bit tight for a gaming computer with monitor and OS. Here's something decent:

Athlon II X3 450 $80
MSI 870-G45 + Windows 7 Home Premium combo $155
G.Skill DDR3 1333 4GB $48
GTX 460 $140 AR
Samsung F3 500GB $55
Samsung DVD Burner $20
Seasonic S12II 430W $60http://detonator.dynamitedata.com/c...42&cm_re=three_hundred-_-11-129-042-_-Product
Rosewill Blackbone case $40
ASUS 23" 1080P monitor $155 AR
Total $753 AR (so close! :awe🙂

It's my belief that any reasonably intelligent person can put together a computer as long as they (a) stay calm, (b) research the process, and (c) ask for help if they get stuck.

That being said, you're only looking at about 2 weeks to sort out any RMAs if you get a DOA part (it happens), so you're cutting it close.
 
I would not recommend liquid cooling. I would buy good gear and run it at stock speeds. Some of the systems on that site looked like they had some good components. A lot depends on how much money you think you want to spend. Then you pick out components in that price range. Another good idea is to find out what kind of games your son or child would want to play.

There are some sites on the internet that will assemble the computer for you. There may also be some local companies that custom built computers.

I think the most important thing is the Processor and the Video Card, because they are the big ticket items that cost the most. The quality of the processor and the video card can really push the price up or break the deal if they are not fast enough or will not play the games you want.

My question is do you know anyone that does gaming, and did they buy something from that website? Anyone can make a website or have someone make a website for you. Maybe someone at work like to play video games ask around and get some references.
 
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Generally you can do a bit of reading here and there (anandtech has excellent reviews and makes comparisons really easy) then search a couple online stores part by part. You can find a step by step computer building guide online very easily, then go through the parts like a checklist. For example newegg, you can look in each section, one for motherboards, one for cpu's and one for power supply's. After you've chosen each part, and made sure they're all compatible, which is easy after you've researched a bit, you can do some price matching between stores in your area, and other online sites. newegg and tigerdirect both have great online shops, and tiger direct has an actual stores you can visit also. Stores like bestbuy dont have a great selection, but do offer price matching as well as 10% discount and financing options. After you've selected all your parts for your computer, if you don't feel up to assembling your the computer yourself, you can take all your parts to most computer hardware stores to have them assemble them for you. Do not use geek squad or anything like that, they will rip you off. The key to this is looking around, and comparison. You will not find anything worth your money prebuilt for a gaming rig. Computer manufacturers know that people who know what they're doing will do it themselves, and people who don't know will pay anything because they just don't know! I hope this helps, like anything doing research and comparisons is everything.
 
TampaGirl99 said:
Harvey,
thank you for responding so quickly. I am inspired to involve my son! thank you for your inspiration; involving him will also help if we get it a little late for Christmas.
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You're welcome. Now, part of the gift is that he gets to be involved in choosing his own parts, it starts when you tell him, and it keeps giving through the excitement of ordering, receiving, and building the system, even before he gets to use it. 😎

TampaGirl99 said:
I've been reviewing some of the links others have suggested. I'm sure I can build it physically. I've opened up a case and added more memory.... My biggest concern is buying all the right components at the right price.
Click to expand...

The "right" price isn't always the lowest listed price for every item. Don't forget to include the cost of shipping in your calculations, and don't ignore the value of paying a LITTLE more if it buys you the convenience of a getting a good overall price from fewer vendors and those with a good history of customer service.

And don't forget to shop for the same parts locally. You may find some or all of what you need in one or more good shops, and if you have problems, you'll have the convenience of having a live human being, instead of having to go throught the RMA process and ship stuff back.

TampaGirl99 said:
What comes first the CPU, Motherboard, graphics card? where do I begin if I want to stay on a budget? I can see the dollars adding up quickly. I really have about $900US but shipping cost will probably keep me around $750 or $800.
Click to expand...

The CPU and motherboard go together. Once you choose your CPU, you need a motherboard that is designed to support it and is known not to have current problems or incompatibilities. You can bounce specs around to adjust to your budget. For example, you can save money without a lot of compromise by choosing a slightly slower version of the same CPU, or you can by choose a CPU from AMD over an Intel.

That is exactly the kind of homework you want to do, and it's probably the kinds of choices your son would love to help make. Between him and his friends, they'll probabaly have some good ideas where to start.

The most important thing is to get a good, reliable, stable platform that will last and perform to your son's minimum expectations when he fires it up. Once you have that, you can always add to it with more RAM, a faster video card, a bigger or faster hard drive, etc.

Extra strokes to you for being a kewl mom. :thumbsup:
 
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