New PC for my help

Hello,
I would like to know what people would think a good PC build for my son would be. Part ideas and all. I am looking at the $400-$500 for it. He is 9 years old and mainly plays WOW and minecraft. I gave him my old build, but it's has lots of issues, I used a old Dell XPS 720 PC and added some parts here and there. But now it crashes all the time and I want to surprise him with his own PC. I been messing around on newegg, looking for blue parts and cheap parts. If anyone has a list they think will work I would love to see it or hear some ideas. Thank you

I have two different options on PC Part Picker.

AMD

PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/list/qtsfPs

Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/list/qtsfPs/by_merchant/

CPU: AMD A10-7890K 4.1GHz Quad-Core Processor ($148.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: ASRock FM2A78M-ITX+ Mini ITX FM2+ Motherboard ($56.98 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Sniper Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory ($40.88 @ OutletPC)
Storage: PNY CS1311 240GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($69.99 @ B&H)
Case: Apevia X-FIT-100 Mini ITX Tower Case w/250W Power Supply ($69.49 @ Amazon)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Home OEM 64-bit ($88.91 @ OutletPC)
Keyboard: Logitech K400 Wireless Slim Keyboard w/Touchpad ($29.99 @ SuperBiiz)

Total: $505.23


Intel

PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/list/tpJXbj

Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/list/tpJXbj/by_merchant/

CPU: Intel Core i3-4170 3.7GHz Dual-Core Processor ($117.88 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: Asus H87M-E Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($73.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix Sport XT 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($34.88 @ OutletPC)
Storage: A-Data Premier SP550 240GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($59.99 @ NCIX US)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 950 2GB Video Card ($124.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Corsair SPEC-01 RED ATX Mid Tower Case ($49.89 @ NCIX US)
Power Supply: EVGA 500W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($43.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Keyboard: Logitech K400 Wireless Slim Keyboard w/Touchpad ($29.99 @ SuperBiiz)

Total: $535.60 + 40 for Windows = $575

The Intel/Nvidia is good, but the RX 460 is another option if we wanna cut a few bucks, but a 950 is fine too. Should recommend a HDD over a SSD on a tight budget as even without that many games on my SP2, my SSD is almost full. It's easy to get enough storage that way, granted SSDs are so much faster that it's worth.

1 Like

Agreed. A kid won't notice the speed difference as much as she / he will notice the games are too big to fit on the drive. Get a 2 TB HDD instead of or in addition to the SSD.

Or get s small storage SSD for the OS and then a larger HDD for games since it won't really make a difference at all for WoW or Minecraft.

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Part if me says no to the budget options. Here is why ? Get your kid a platform that can be upgraded and expanded as they learn and use pc. Get your kid a modern intel skylake basic platform and grow it with the child. Amd has nothing to offer atm but maybe next year ?

I tried making a haswell and skylake i3 option.
The skylake costed roughly $1 more, after taking into account a discount available for the haswell option of -$15 due to the combination of the motherboard and CPU in it.

PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/list/dQsrr7
Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/list/dQsrr7/by_merchant/

CPU: Intel Core i3-6100 3.7GHz Dual-Core Processor  ($110.99 @ SuperBiiz) 
Motherboard: ASRock H110M-DGS Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard  ($53.99 @ SuperBiiz) 
Memory: G.Skill Aegis 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR4-2133 Memory  ($30.98 @ Newegg) 
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($47.49 @ OutletPC) 
Video Card: MSI Radeon R9 380 4GB Video Card  ($174.99 @ Newegg) 
Case: Fractal Design Core 1100 MicroATX Mini Tower Case  ($28.99 @ Newegg) 
Power Supply: Rosewill 500W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply  ($44.99 @ Newegg) 

Total: $492.42
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-08-17 09:36 EDT-0400

I don't reckon this is the kind of budget that you should try and fit an SSD into, it'd be a great upgrade later perhaps. Even this is $11 over not taking into consideration mail-in rebates.

I've seen 2 different used Dell 4770 systems on my local craigs list for 300. One even included a 27" monitor.
Just get one of those, and add a video card if needed.

Seeing as the video card is pretty much the limiting factor these days, a 4770 used system should be more than adequate for a few years. The only other thing you might want is a SSD, which I've also seen used for like $60. A decent used video card, like a 960, is just over $100. For $460, you son could have a totally have a very good game rig.

1 Like

Thank for all the help. My PC runs a I5 4690k that I love. I am more of a Intel guy then AMD. I like te idea of making some thing that he can work on upgrading as he wants too. This something he will love, he talks about getting his own PC and not a hand me down PC. I am starting to run every thing and will start ordering part by part. Time for OT at work lol. The thing I love the most right now is he loves PC games and playing on it, but it crashes a lot and makes home move over to the console a lot. So a new good PC should keep him on the PC side more. Lol

Have you checked the RAM and hard drive?
memtest86+
crystaldiskinfo

Yes I have replaced the ram and HDD in it.

that's not the same as testing.
I've seen new parts that are bad, and I've seen good parts malfunction because they were installed wrong or misconfigured.

They been tested. I have put them in a side PC and they ran just fine.
The PC is:
Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 / 2.4 GHz
3gb ram ddr2
NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTX
BTX motherboard I do not know any info on it

That's not a test. Unless it is Memtest, it doesn't test the ram.
As for hard drive, unless you look at the SMART info, you are only guessing.

It's not even hard to do a proper test.

@Neogojira

I went looking on Newegg for bare bones PC kits and found a REALLY nice one on sale.
AS Rock M8 designed by BMW for only $169 w/ motherboard.
Your kid would love this!

Subtotal:

        $490.95

Open Box: ASRock M8 Mini ITX Gaming PC 4th Gen Intel Core
i7/i5/i3/Xeon/Pentium/Celeron Intel Socket LGA1150 Intel Z87 1 x HDMI
Barebone
$169.99

Refurbished: HGST/Hitachi Ultrastar A7K2000 HUA722020ALA331 2TB
7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive
$39.99

Intel Core i3-4170 3M Haswell Dual-Core 3.7 GHz LGA 1150 54W BX80646I34170 Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics 4400
$119.99

G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 204-Pin DDR3 SO-DIMM DDR3L 1600 (PC3L 12800) Laptop Memory Model F3-1600C11D-8GRSL
$30.99

GIGABYTE Radeon RX 460 WINDFORCE OC 4GB GV-RX460WF2OC-4GD
$129.99

If only I had the money, had to spend it on books., even then though, idk.

That's a nice case and good parts