Budget gaming build for 12 yr old

Toxile · 23 Oct 2020 at 19:39

My son has asked for Christmas this year to buy him parts for his first gaming build. His mother will get him the 1080p monitor, keyboard, mouse and headset and i will have to supply the parts for the tower.

I have a few parts left over from a previous system which are as follows.
2600X CPU, Asus Prime Plus B450 MB, 16GB Corsair 3000Mhz ram and a Red Dragon Vega 56 GFX

Will need CPU cooler, a couple of SSD's, PSU, a WIFI adapter card and a nice case with RGB. Looking to spend around £200 - £300 max

Does anybody have any recommendations of what to look for or what to give a miss?

Stumpy&Frumpy · 23 Oct 2020 at 20:00

not so good on AMD builds, but case wise there are a lot of nice glass RGB cases for <£50.

Suggest you get one with a good USB ports on the top. So handy for the kids and thier perhiperals. Headsets, phones , capture cards......

Have a think about the primary SSD size. 256 is just not big enough these days with FN taking up like 80/90 GB. Size over write speed I think for this level.

Gray2233 · 23 Oct 2020 at 20:10

If you still have the stock cooler for your 2600X it'd be fine for gaming, if not the linked HSF is more than ample for that chip.

My basket at Overclockers UK:

1 x Bitfenix Formula Series 650W 80 Plus Gold Power Supply= £74.99
1 x WD Blue SN550 1TB NVME M.2 2280 PCIe Gen3 Solid State Drive (WDS100T2B0C)= £109.99
1 x Kolink Observatory Lite Mesh ARGB Midi Tower Gaming Case - Black= £54.95
1 x Arctic Freezer 34 CPU Cooler - 120mm= £20.99

Total: £260.92 (includes shipping: £0.00)

Plenty left over for a wi-fi adapter.

Quartz · 23 Oct 2020 at 20:49

Make sure you build it with him. It will be a great bonding experience. And suggest to your wife that she get a 144 Hz Freesync monitor.

Toxile · 23 Oct 2020 at 21:42

For the life of me i can't find the stock cooler anywhere. Thanks for the suggestion regarding the parts and i do think the ex wife is getting him a Freesync AOC monitor.
The plan is for me to have him over the Christmas period so he can build it with my supervision.

Chaos666 · 23 Oct 2020 at 21:44

Quartz said:
Make sure you build it with him. It will be a great bonding experience. And suggest to your wife that she get a 144 Hz Freesync monitor.

great idea... my 10year old surprisingly enjoyed learning about building PCs and watercooling

Quartz · 23 Oct 2020 at 21:50

Toxile said:
The plan is for me to have him over the Christmas period so he can build it with my supervision.

Excellent.

Toxile said:
and i do think the ex wife

A word to the wise: an ITX build ("It's so small and cute!") will greatly increase the chances of maternal approval.

Chaos666 · 23 Oct 2020 at 21:58

Quartz said:
"It's so small and cute!"

it just asks for "that what she said" joke ;]

Grimley · 24 Oct 2020 at 17:12

I'd get a AMD Wraith prism cooler. Does the job & RGB which a lot of lads would like in a PC build these days.

Chaos666 · 24 Oct 2020 at 19:53

Grimley said:
I'd get a AMD Wraith prism cooler. Does the job & RGB which a lot of lads would like in a PC build these days.

depends what you like .. but wraith prism rgb is nothing special any other cooler with a 120 rgb fan will look better

Grimley · 24 Oct 2020 at 19:57

/\/\/\ Well you & I may not think its special, but for a 12 year old it may be the best thing since sliced bread.

Chaos666 · 24 Oct 2020 at 20:40

fair point.. but then think about a "massive" 120 fan full of colours

that's even better