Build my 7 year old son a PC

sprite-

sprite-

sprite-

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Hi All,

So last week we welcomed our 2nd son into the world, as such i've relented and agreed to build my 7 year old son a PC. Yes parental lock-down is going to be a nightmare but he loves technology and will build it with me, so i view it as an education tool despite it mostly being used as a minecraft tool ;).

So what do i need? Well i buy at the higher end of the budget scale, for example i've got a MSI Gaming X 1080 etc.. I've got no idea what low / mid end looks like, so here is what i need;

  • I need everything except the monitor, i already got him a 27" Asus 1080p monitor which i ordered from Overclockers today. So that's Case, CPU, GPU, RAM, PSU, Motherboard, Keyboard and Mouse.
  • It has to have longevity, while cost is a primary concern i want him to have something that'll play stuff into the future. While he'll play Minecraft, he may end up wanting to play No Mans Sky. It doesn't have to be bleeding edge as he'll be gaming at 1080p. So definitely a budget gaming PC.
  • He will use it for school work / gaming.
  • Happy to take suggestions on good second hand kit to look out for
 
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wouldn't this be a perfect time to upgrade your own system and give your son the old one?

that's what I did with my son.
 
jbh110tdi said:
wouldn't this be a perfect time to upgrade your own system and give your son the old one?

that's what I did with my son.
Click to expand...

It was tempting mate - but i have a 4790k with a MSI Gaming X 1080..

I'm not going to be upgrading that for a while hehe.. Plus there is no way he needs something that powerful.
 
sprite- said:
It was tempting mate - but i have a 4790k with a MSI Gaming X 1080..

I'm not going to be upgrading that for a while hehe.. Plus there is no way he needs something that powerful.
Click to expand...

Yea good point there.. I was moving on from an FX8350 and an Msi 7950 at the time so it was a bit different..

what sort of budget are you looking at? would you want it to upgrade through time?
 
jbh110tdi said:
Yea good point there.. I was moving on from an FX8350 and an Msi 7950 at the time so it was a bit different..

what sort of budget are you looking at? would you want it to upgrade through time?
Click to expand...

Budget, that's a difficult one... £300-400 max...

I'm mainly guided by what people recommend or whether they think some second hand parts are worth a shout.

Providing say in 2-3 years i can bang a new GPU in it... So wouldn't want something which is CPU bottle-necked from the get-go. Not bothered about OC or anything, case again providing it looks classy then not to fussed about removable this and that etc. SSD purely for OS, he can live with all his games on a normal HDD etc.
 
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Includes windows 10 OEM, GPU could be added later for more grunt, SSD + HDD.

Your basket at Overclockers UK:

Total: £432.48
(includes shipping: £11.70)
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nkata said:
Includes windows 10 OEM, GPU could be added later for more grunt, SSD + HDD.

Your basket at Overclockers UK:

Total: £432.48
(includes shipping: £11.70)
​


​
Click to expand...

I typically buy Intel, is AMD definitely a good budget alternative?

I dont need a HDD come to think of it, have some 2TB drives about the place.

Does look like i may have to rethink budget and go upto £500 tho to include a GPU.
 
I personally think you can do better for this money.

If you want longevity then in my opinion making sure you have a quad core i5 is the important bit. Graphics cards are easy to upgrade where as CPU's / Motherboards are often more expensive and more hassle. Normally I wouldn't recommend a last generation graphics card but given just how cheap GTX 970's are at the minute I think there a cracking deal. I'm using one in my main rig and quite happily game at 1440p they will have no problem at 1080p for a good while yet. If you really do want to get this closer to the magic £500 mark you can remove the SSD and use one of your old drives instead.

My basket at Overclockers UK:

Total: £566.80
(includes shipping: £0.00)
​


​
 
BinnsY said:
I personally think you can do better for this money.

If you want longevity then in my opinion making sure you have a quad core i5 is the important bit. Graphics cards are easy to upgrade where as CPU's / Motherboards are often more expensive and more hassle. Normally I wouldn't recommend a last generation graphics card but given just how cheap GTX 970's are at the minute I think there a cracking deal. I'm using one in my main rig and quite happily game at 1440p they will have no problem at 1080p for a good while yet. If you really do want to get this closer to the magic £500 mark you can remove the SSD and use one of your old drives instead.

My basket at Overclockers UK:

Total: £566.80
(includes shipping: £0.00)
​


​
Click to expand...

I like this one, only the GPU requires a different PSU with 2 x 6-pin instead of a single.
 
BinnsY said:
I personally think you can do better for this money.

If you want longevity then in my opinion making sure you have a quad core i5 is the important bit. Graphics cards are easy to upgrade where as CPU's / Motherboards are often more expensive and more hassle. Normally I wouldn't recommend a last generation graphics card but given just how cheap GTX 970's are at the minute I think there a cracking deal. I'm using one in my main rig and quite happily game at 1440p they will have no problem at 1080p for a good while yet. If you really do want to get this closer to the magic £500 mark you can remove the SSD and use one of your old drives instead.

My basket at Overclockers UK:

Total: £566.80
(includes shipping: £0.00)
​


​
Click to expand...

Yup liking this, definitely gives me a great idea on what to aim for.
 
If you can I would seriously look at fitting in a better keyboard and mouse to that budget. You need to expect a bit of gamer rage and mechanical keyboards can be had for pretty cheap now plus a a more solid mouse shouldnt upset the budget too much.

As for the 6400 and the h110m, they will run great, ive not had any problems on mine.

I was having a toss up between the gtx970 or the Gigabyte r9 380x 4gb (which is a great deal on here at the moment) and went with the later, its a lot cheaper and still has very solid performance, id say in between the 960 and 970.
 
I honestly disagree with both the above. As much as I love my mechanical keyboard and razer mouse these simply aren't needed for a 7 year old when the budget for the entire system is as close to £500 as possible.

I work in a school where we use those keyboards and mice with our desktop machines and they take plenty of punishment and will do the job perfectly fine. If he wants a better keyboard / mouse later on these make nice birthday / Christmas presents as single items rather than having to push the purchase budget even further.

The same is true with the PSU, yes I'm sure the superflower is better but it's nearly 50% more expensive and that XFX unit isn't going to cause any harm. I'd agree with something better on a more expensive rig, but the increase in cost is nearly 5% of the total budget and just isn't worth it.
 
That's a seriously tight budget. You'd be hard pushed to get an Intel build for that price with a GPU and an i5.

My basket at Overclockers UK:

Total: £532.95
(includes shipping: £13.20)
​

I would most definatley suggest an AMD build as the inbuilt GPUs are pretty good now. This would then enable you to judge the use of the PC and upgrade the GPU accordingly

My basket at Overclockers UK:

Total: £424.50
(includes shipping: £13.20)
​
 
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yea I do agree there is no need for a mechanical keyboard.
My lad will be 10 in October and hes using an old Microsoft sidewinder x4 keyboard and it has taken plenty of abuse and still works fine. ( hes just happy that it lights up!! )
 
bigjimmyauk said:
sorry to jump in but how do you lot do this basket thing?
Click to expand...
once you have added items to your basket go to view basket. underneath you'll see bbcode click on the link and copy the text in the popup then just paste.

Capture_zpsjnnua2vf.jpg
 
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