If laptops might work...we just picked up a new MSI GF63 Thin (9SC-256) gaming laptop for my daughter. I'm adding another 8gb of ram for $35. So ~$900 with tax and 16gb of ram...link below. It's really nice and hard to beat at this price point. You can go with an i5 for $100 less but the i7 helps future-proof it a little.

https://www.microcenter.com/pr...top-computer---black

Just a word of caution regarding gaming laptops:

1) Heat management is actually a thing. My wife's laptop, a Dell XPS, despite having good specs, is continually throttled down due to heat. Can't hit the advertised specs for more than 30 seconds.

2) Bang for buck, a desktop CPU and GPU will outrun a laptop due to not having the same power and heat management constraints

Sadly, expect him to get some brutal and perverse criticisms in the comments. It's the nature of the beast.

Consider an Alienware laptop from the Dell Outlet. Some great deals to be had there, and there are some very high end components to those laptops.

quote:

Originally posted by Jester814:
https://www.logicalincrements.com/

Very cool site! With a HDD and a SSD, is the SSD just being used for swap?

https://pcpartpicker.com/

Excellent Build:
https://pcpartpicker.com/guide...amingstreaming-build

Modest Build:
https://pcpartpicker.com/guide...est-amd-gaming-build

I bought my 12yo niece this one. $750


https://www.amazon.com/CYBERPO...060A8/dp/B07VGJDKZ4/

I would just build one with him. I did that with my 12 year old.

I wouldn't sink a ton into it, you can build a decent rig for around $700 bucks.

Mind you all gaming freaks, this would be for a 9 year old playing Fortnight.

Find a nice case, this is the only thing that will be truly future proof.

I would roll with something like this:

AMD Ryzen Processor
Compatible Motherboard, B450
16GB memory
1 small SSD HD for the OS and Apps
1 large Sata HD for storage
A decent GPU - Spend less than $200 on this, AMD 580 or a 1650 Super will last for awhile
A 500w PSU

Boom you are done. Don't get too hung up on trying to future proof everything, it will bite you in the ass.

And tell him not to worry about RGB, windowed side panels, "gaming" peripherals or motherboards, and overclocking. It's all flash and designed to take more of your money.

I would steer clear of laptops for this kind of thing.

Check out this Alienware PC. It's $939.

https://www.dell.com/en-us/sho...re-aurora-r8-desktop

quote:

Originally posted by rusbro:
Sadly, expect him to get some brutal and perverse criticisms in the comments. It's the nature of the beast.

Yeah probably best for him to have comments disabled on his videos.

quote:

Originally posted by Dallas239:

quote:

Originally posted by x0225095:
Check out YouTube and seek advice from other content creators.

My son follows a few channels and I overwatch content he follows.

The Xclusive Ace, jgod, whosimmortal post pretty clean Modern Warfare content and they seem like pretty nice dudes.....maybe ask them what they use .... and tell them it’s for your kid....I bet they’d offer an opinion.

Some of my concern is that he's currently looking at rigs that are "endorsed" by some of the influencers he follows. But I hadn't thought of trying to contact others directly.

FYI....FWIW, Some of those guys mentioned above actually play on PS4’s ... one of them had a post recently about him trying to play on pc with mouse and he admitted he wasn’t that great with it and preferred PS4....so there’s that.

I think maybe get a nice microphone him and go from there.

Xclusive ace had a whole video of his setup a while back...

Not sure of the relevance to you and it is a bit dated but here it is ....

https://youtu.be/NU0d-rI_PEM

quote:

Originally posted by Dallas239:

quote:

Originally posted by Jester814:
https://www.logicalincrements.com/

Very cool site! With a HDD and a SSD, is the SSD just being used for swap?

You can swap one for the other. Nowadays tho, the "common" option for a lot of people is to use a smaller 500GB-ish SSD for the boot/OS drive and programs and use a standard higher capacity standard HDD for the storage drive. Things like docs, pics, all the games, ect.

The SSD is a lot faster for boot and general use and is also a good way to not loose all your files if Windows gets corrupted or something and you need to do a reinstall

Personally, I just roll with SSDs for both my boot and data drives. Never once have I thought to myself, "Man, I'm so glad I decided to spend that $100 on these extra 4tb of slow, unused hard disc space."

If $100 buys you 500gb of SSD space. That's plenty. By the time he fills it up, another 500gb might only cost $50. No point in buying 4tb of slow HDD space at today's prices, only to leave the vast majority of it empty for most of it's functional life. Buy small and fast, and add more when you need at tomorrow's lower prices.

quote:

Originally posted by Aeteocles:
Personally, I just roll with SSDs for both my boot and data drives. Never once have I thought to myself, "Man, I'm so glad I decided to spend that $100 on these extra 4tb of slow, unused hard disc space."

If $100 buys you 500gb of SSD space. That's plenty. By the time he fills it up, another 500gb might only cost $50. No point in buying 4tb of slow HDD space at today's prices, only to leave the vast majority of it empty for most of it's functional life. Buy small and fast, and add more when you need at tomorrow's lower prices.

Very smart advice, especially if he's only looking to play one or two games.

A 500GB data could be fine depending on how many games he has or plans on getting down the road. My Steam folder alone with 49 games is 967GB. And I also have several Origin games on top of that for 1.34TB for just games. My Blizzard folder alone with one game, COD Modern Warfare, is 172GB

Add in any videos he may want to save and a 4TB drive can start to fill up pretty quick.

quote:

Originally posted by PakRatJR:
A 500GB data could be fine depending on how many games he has or plans on getting down the road. My Steam folder alone with 49 games is 967GB. And I also have several Origin games on top of that for 1.34TB for just games. My Blizzard folder alone with one game, COD Modern Warfare, is 172GB

Add in any videos he may want to save and a 4TB drive can start to fill up pretty quick.

I mean, sure. But I think you are missing the point.

Your games, do they exist on an SSD or HDD?

If you had only $100 to spend on drives, as a gamer, would you rather buy 500gb of SSD (and only keep downloaded the 3-4 games you are playing), or should you have 4TB of 7200 RPM spinning HDD?


Yes, you absolutely can fill 4TB. But data storage isn't free, and people on a budget (not you, I've seen your build list) need to prioritize their spend.

For gaming (and post producing videos), speed over capacity.

Also, download speeds are so fast. Why are you keeping nearly a TB of games stored locally?

Check out DigitalStorm while you’re researching options. They make customized gaming PCs at various price levels. I’m still running an overclocked system I got from them 7 years ago and it does well as long as you’re not trying to push 4K video resolution (old graphic card).

For those posting here with suggestions, what would you say to recommending the young man opt for a last GEN 1080ti Founders Edition card instead of one of the new 2080 cards? Since the video card is a substantial part of the cost of the build, the 1080 card would save some cash and (I think) serve his needs well.

I'm in the "build your own" camp.

If I were starting from scratch, this is what I would do:

Link to Newegg wish list

SSD for applications, large drive for storage. If he's doing videos, he may use a lot of storage space. Video card and processor towards the top of the value curve - not bleeding edge, but not budget either. Lots of RAM.

There are a couple places to compromise; I'm a fan of Intel chips and NVidia graphics cards, and I don't know AMD's offerings as well.

And yes, the case has a window in it. Your son will probably enjoy looking at what he helped put together, and it's not a cost premium.

This build is right at $1500 before tax.

Or......you can tell him to go outside and climb a tree.

You "gamers" worry me.......