PC build with nephew

[s1962a]

I've been asked to build a PC with my 12 year old nephew, and teach him how to put all of it together and install windows etc. He's into gaming and has saved up £500, and my sister will put in another £500 if need be to get him a decent gaming machine if possible. The important thing here is to teach him as well as get something decent, so could you recommend a good spec to go for? I would usually build a boring PC with a good PSU, basic graphics, and decent RAM/CPU/Motherboard but i'm thinking maybe something RGB and a decent graphics card would be good as well?

Not looking forward to all the installation/compatibility issues with Windows, but the boy has to learn.

Cheers

[Captain_Morgan]

Much easier to head over to https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/ & see what’s already been built/recommended around your budget.

[RizzoTheRat]

Another vote for PC partpicker, I built one a few years back and specced it all on there, it then checks compatibility of components and tells you which of the big name suppliers you can get each component from for the lowest price,

[Griffith4ever]

s1962a said:

I've been asked to build a PC with my 12 year old nephew, and teach him how to put all of it together and install windows etc. He's into gaming and has saved up £500, and my sister will put in another £500 if need be to get him a decent gaming machine if possible. The important thing here is to teach him as well as get something decent, so could you recommend a good spec to go for? I would usually build a boring PC with a good PSU, basic graphics, and decent RAM/CPU/Motherboard but i'm thinking maybe something RGB and a decent graphics card would be good as well?

Not looking forward to all the installation/compatibility issues with Windows, but the boy has to learn.

Cheers

windows is a joy to install now regarding drivers etc. those old horrible days are long past.

YOu can build a good gaming PC for around £1k if you keep it to 2k (res, 1440p) max

[AlexGSi2000]

The easy bit is putting it together.

The most valuable part of it for the young'un will be choosing parts to a budget, researching different technologies, ensuring compatibility between parts.etc

Few tips;
- Ensure the you purchase the correct socket motherboard for the processor
- Ensure the power supply you purchase has enough power for the processor & GPU, with abit of headroom
- Try and go for a PCI-E 4.0 Nvme SSD if the budget stretches, ensure the motherboard supports it. (PCI-e NVME ports are backwards compatible)

[48k]

AlexGSi2000 said:

The easy bit is putting it together.

The most valuable part of it for the young'un will be choosing parts to a budget, researching different technologies, ensuring compatibility between parts.etc

Few tips;
- Ensure the you purchase the correct socket motherboard for the processor
- Ensure the power supply you purchase has enough power for the processor & GPU, with abit of headroom
- Try and go for a PCI-E 4.0 Nvme SSD if the budget stretches, ensure the motherboard supports it. (PCI-e NVME ports are backwards compatible)

Good tips

One from me - if the CPU doesn't come with a cooler kit (fan), make sure you buy one, And if the cooler kit doesn't include thermal paste, make sure you buy that too.

[Dsdans]

Another thumbs up for PC Part a picker. Fantastic tool.

Take him on the spec journey. See what he wants from the machine (will it be using more CPU or GPU intense applications?) and set a budget for those items. From there you can find a compatible motherboard, choose how much RAM you want and then see how much money is left for the fancy cases, RGB fans / cooling systems etc.

https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/cpu-hierarchy...


I did it for the first time during the semi-lockdown, had great fun and made a nice rig - although it mainly catches dust now.

Oh, and if it’s your first gaming PC remember the HDMI / DVI goes in the GPU slot !!