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Games: Dozer > Core at any price point?
- Thread starter FoxEye
- Start date
Oh ok. So what was the point in the thread again? Do you know him more now than you did when you started it?
I was 13 when i built my PC by myself, this was almost 3 years ago.
Must admit a year will make a difference, I learnt a lot about PC's, BUT ive always been interested and involved with PC's, and taking apart various consoles and fixing different things, so i do know my way around electronics.
However why not let him have a bash? Give him some good tutorials to follow, make sure he watches them all really careful and follows one while he builds? I cant imagine anything more frustrating as a curious child than someone stopping me building my pc. Or doing anything because im not old enough. Like if people on here judge me based on my age, thinking im probably a fat 16 year old nerd because i like computers, atleast thats what i think im viewed as when im literally the opposite haha.
Let the kid build!!
Must admit a year will make a difference, I learnt a lot about PC's, BUT ive always been interested and involved with PC's, and taking apart various consoles and fixing different things, so i do know my way around electronics.
However why not let him have a bash? Give him some good tutorials to follow, make sure he watches them all really careful and follows one while he builds? I cant imagine anything more frustrating as a curious child than someone stopping me building my pc. Or doing anything because im not old enough. Like if people on here judge me based on my age, thinking im probably a fat 16 year old nerd because i like computers, atleast thats what i think im viewed as when im literally the opposite haha.
Let the kid build!!
I was also 13 when I built my first PC, on my bed, with just youtube videos for guidance. Mine turned out fine. I don't think some people in here are giving enough credit to the younger generation!
PC building really isn't difficult. The hard part comes when you go to power it on for the first time and nothing happens..
PC building really isn't difficult. The hard part comes when you go to power it on for the first time and nothing happens..
His mum hadn't made a decision yet and he'd selected an Athlon X4 860 as his processor. I wasn't sure if that was a good idea, and suspected he'd be better off with an i3, or even a Pentium G.
I'm not stopping him from building a PC. If he earns £600 and wants to build a PC that's his business
But atm he's not working, and the money will be coming from his mum. His mum isn't flush with cash, and wants to make sure she isn't wasting her money.
Look, he said he "wanted to build his own PC" without knowing what components go into a PC. It's not been his lifelong passion to build one, it was an idea he had one day and asked his mum if he could do it.
As a young child you have ideas about all sorts of things. Tomorrow he might decide he wants to build his own bike
I said to him "If you're serious about building a PC you need to learn enough that you can tell me what you're going to buy and how it all fits together. Until you can tell me that I'm going to tell your mum you aren't ready."
I thought that was reasonable!
Precisely this. He's never shown any interest about how PCs work until one day he decided he'd like to build one. Because one of his friends said a custom built PC will play Minecraft better.
If you think it'd be a good idea to just give a 12 year old £600 and let him loose on that kind of thing, having had no interest in anything like that beforehand, then you people must have cash to burn!
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This is a good opportunity for some quality uncle+nephew time. I built a Minecraft server with my nephew and everyone was pleased with the results.
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His mum hadn't made a decision yet and he'd selected an Athlon X4 860 as his processor. I wasn't sure if that was a good idea, and suspected he'd be better off with an i3, or even a Pentium G.
I'm not stopping him from building a PC. If he earns £600 and wants to build a PC that's his business
But atm he's not working, and the money will be coming from his mum. His mum isn't flush with cash, and wants to make sure she isn't wasting her money.
Look, he said he "wanted to build his own PC" without knowing what components go into a PC. It's not been his lifelong passion to build one, it was an idea he had one day and asked his mum if he could do it.
As a young child you have ideas about all sorts of things. Tomorrow he might decide he wants to build his own bike
I said to him "If you're serious about building a PC you need to learn enough that you can tell me what you're going to buy and how it all fits together. Until you can tell me that I'm going to tell your mum you aren't ready."
I thought that was reasonable!
Precisely this. He's never shown any interest about how PCs work until one day he decided he'd like to build one. Because one of his friends said a custom built PC will play Minecraft better.
If you think it'd be a good idea to just give a 12 year old £600 and let him loose on that kind of thing, having had no interest in anything like that beforehand, then you people must have cash to burn!
Fair points here! I certainly dont have money to burn, and I can defiantly see where you are coming from! I wanted to build mine for ages before i did, and watched 10000000001 videos on every part, billions of forum posts, everything to make sure i got what i wanted, 2 years later, i want a new one even though this is well over good enough haha.
Say to him, give him a month, if he can come back, still wanting to do it, can tell you whats needed etc and how to do it then suggest a good build. If his mam is tight on cash, suggest a cheaper build, or if he wants a pc that bad, get a prebuilt from OCUK, they arent that badly priced, and come setup for him. Perfect!
That's basically how we left it. He's currently got an i7 laptop which plays Minecraft really well anyhow. And although he talks about playing CoD I'm sure his mum wouldn't let him near it until he's a lot older!
Besides if we wait till next year not only do you have a load of new GFX cards you also have Zen to look forward to. And he'll be a year older and hopefully more clued up.
Maybe see if he still wants one by Christmas and then build it with him on Christmas day.
Seems odd that a child who knows nothing about what components go into a pc suggested an x4 860 as his processor. He's obviously done some research.
Seems odd that a child who knows nothing about what components go into a pc suggested an x4 860 as his processor. He's obviously done some research.
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Also buy him a Rubiks Cube or some other puzzle to pass the hours of updates, assuming Windows 7...not sure how long 8 or 10 take.
I did a xmas build with my son 2 years ago thinking it was going to get him to research parts etc...
2 years on and he knows nothing and I know slightly more than nothing but seem to have taken an interest to add to my many other interests.
I suppose it was a nice idea at the time but all he wants to do play on the PC without any thought to how it actually works - can't blame him really.
Instead of a PC get him a bike.
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As an aside, I hope you post a log of the build here; it'll be great for the less hardcore crowd to see something viable at that price point. More importantly, I absolutely whole-heartedly wish someone/I'd keep a log of my first build, will be a real memory down the line hopefully.
Dont be silly. 12 is the perfect age to learn all this. Look at it this way, If he does successfully build his own machine at 12 he would have achieved a bigger accomplishment that that American kid that 'made' the clock
tbh its pretty easy i would let my boy do it.
after all its a handfull of screws few molex connectors and cpu paste and then just slotting things in. hardly brain surgery.
some places build pcs for as little as £30 now.it takes about a hr.
after all its a handfull of screws few molex connectors and cpu paste and then just slotting things in. hardly brain surgery.
some places build pcs for as little as £30 now.it takes about a hr.
It seems like you made this thread so that you could show his Mum that everyone on the Internet also thinks it's a bad idea.
My Dad sat with me when I was 12 to make sure I didn't do anything wrong when I was building a PC. Just be gentle and it'll be fine.
Picking parts is a lot more complicated than putting it together.
My Dad sat with me when I was 12 to make sure I didn't do anything wrong when I was building a PC. Just be gentle and it'll be fine.
Picking parts is a lot more complicated than putting it together.