Hey,

My step son (he's wants to get his own computer, and has been bugging us a bit. However xmas is just comming up and I'm thinking this would be the ideal time.

He doesn't really game alot, and if he does the most advanced are pop cap games.

I'm looking for recommendations, on something for a kid, but incase he gets into gaming he would be good to go with a basic card upgrade, or even a card in it that will play the games, but they don't have to be the best quality.

I'm kind of looking for a part list, but want to keep the total cost around 700 (full setup).

I'm planning on giving him a bunch of parts and him and I can put it together.

Preferable XP OS is the only real requirement, other then the ability to expand the graphics.

You are going to get varying opinions on what to pick up.

Simply put, cheapest is AMD. a cheap dual core ( the athlon II 250 3Ghz is great @ 88 bucks)

A very simple AM3 board IE: ASUS M2A74-AM ( 72 bucks) and use onboard graphics unless he wants to move up to better performance for games ya gotta install to play. Onboard sound also is fine these days. ( also upgradable to am3 quad later if needed/wanted) also guessing you are sticking with 32 bit winxp.

Ram: you pick its all pretty good right now.

Psu : lean toward one with an active pfc if possible

Case: also your choice here. Add all this up and you should be well withing your budget. If you find you are, then you can maybe step up the board a notch or go with a lower end video card , maybe even a case with see thru side panel. I mean 160 bucks of the 700 and you got the board and cpu.

Use MB shopping cart and start adding things to get a total. If ya go over, clear the cart and try again.

Shopping Cart
Tuesday Oct 6, 2009

* Del
* Qty
* Part #
* Description
* Price
* Ext. Price

*
*
* 15305
* ASUS M2A74-AM 740G+SB700 Radeon2100 AM3 2DDRII,PCIe16x, 4SATAII,DVI/VGA,GbL,HD Audio
* $72.00
* $72.00 +++ Cheap mobo and I doubt he'll need to OC+++


*
*
* 15390
* AMD Athlon II X2 240 2.8GHz 2MB L2 AM3 45nm 65W - Retail
* $74.00
* $74.00 +++ Cheap CPU but a great one for building a pc for your son +++

*
*
* 10630
* OCZ Value 2GB DDR-2 / 800MHz / PC2-6400
* $39.00
* $39.00 +++Ram is Ram..+++

*
*
* 15428
* Sapphire ATI Radeon HD4770 512MB GDDR5 PCI-E VGA/HDMI/DVI (1YR MB Warranty)
* $137.00
* $137.00 +++ for scaling up if he wants to play more graphical games +++

*
*
* 14362
* LG GH22NS40 SATA BLACK DVD±RW (22X+/-) DUAL LAYER w/ SW
* $38.00
* $38.00 +++ cheap+++

*
*
* 15487
* Coolermaster ELITE 360 *NO PS* TOWER or DESKTOP (BLACK)
* $59.00
* $59.00 +++ Cheap and a descent case tbh +++

*
*
* 15427
* Golden Field S628 550 WATT ATX POWER SUPPLY (1YR MB)
* $39.00
* $39.00 +++ wont need anything more than this and cheap +++

*
*
* 13794
* Seagate ST3500418AS 500GB Barracuda 7200.12 SATA-II 16MB (1yr MB Hot Swap/ 3YR MFG)
* $65.00
* $65.00 +++ good space for the buck and allows for a growing porn collection +++


All Prices are listed in Canadian Dollars.
Show Taxes For:
SubTotal523.00
HST67.99
Total$590.99

"Golden Field"

I couldn't have done it better than Topsecret just did. Run with that.

post build photos too for us nerds lol

Yeah some no name PSU.

I can honestly say I had mroe problems with larger brand name PSU's.

If you can pick up some generic PSU from MB for 8.00 i'd just pick that up.

B

if ya did a little research, you would probably find out a 'name brand' actually makes it.

I seen that happen with alot of things that are supposed knock offs.

I have a 3 mo old 460 you can have for 20 bucks. save ya the extra $$ and taxes.

Enough with the bragging; you have a cool step son we get it.

That's awesome Keith! I built my first PC after my father bought me all the parts. He didn't know what to do with them so he just bought them and locked me in a room til it was built.

If he has a real interest in computers you can throw in some curveballs to show the "do's and don't's. Should keep his interest!

I highly suggest you buy a case with a window in it, and throw some cool lights in there for cheap. What boy doesn't like flashing lights and wires and fans and stuff? lol

Don't cheap out and not buy a graphics card though. Get a 4770 like Top said. They'll run damn near everything on the market to his satisfaction, and they're cheap. Even the 4850's are under $100 nowadays.

Remember, with a dedicated graphics card, you take alot of the load off of your ram and cpu, improving overall system performance. You should somewhat future-proof it because he WILL eventually do more gaming, once he realizes he has the power to do so.

Good luck with the build and try to share some pics of the finished product!

Yea I haven't really followed much on hardware lately, why I came for advise on this. Use to follow it, but no time these days.

As per hte one who asked for photos, will do. The wife said she would rather buy one from like Staples, but well.... i dont want one of those POS, I'm hoping to get him interested in this type of thing.

Only thing I'm going to do for him other then help him, is install the processor / hs, and put hte mother board into the case. He can do the rest.

Dedicated card forsure, not going overboard on it right now incase he doesn't use it, but yea, I want somethign that will run games, but does'nt have to be top notch.

I was looking at some of the cases, and I want ot get him a cool case. I may just casually go on and look at them and say hey, which do you think is the coolest one. He won't even think he is getting it because his grandfather is giving him his old pc and it's a pos lol.

Wait and see, I'll be keeping him off the MMO's tho. Those there are too much of a time sink.

I apporeciate you also passing on the info to your youngin and respect your decision to build as well. educating your child in IT early is very important.

Agreed.

A young mind will learn quickly that its frustrating to deal with 'pre-fab' machines.

You always pay for things you really dont want. Then warranty work, delays etc. Just makes owning a pc a bad experience - and thats if thing go as expected.

Showing him the inner workings, how it all ties together like a big puzzle should be very interesting and valuable. Also the time spend as Father-son. Then, in the future, he will save money by doing repairs and troubleshooting himself. In that respect, practice at it makes a good technician. Way to go!

Also take lots of photos of the process for yourself and the 1st build experience. post a couple to the forums so we can give him a pat on the back for a job well done and also make it a very positive experience overall.

Looking forward to seeing the finished product.

Yea I'm looking forward to this. I hope it doesn't just power up when he connects it, he can be very impatient and if things don't work he gets mad sometimes.

This will be good cause chances are if he doesn't connect everything on the board right it won't. Which I can go back with him, and show him how to correct it and where I found the information how to.

May give him some patience by the end lol.

well I would make sure that + goes to + and - to - lol

u dont need things blown after spending money. You can also get some zip ties and show him cable management and why its important.

and also not to yank hardware or install hardware when the machine is on lol

I would show him where things go and how to properly, carefully install but have him do it. Also how to check if its installed correctly before applying power.

You both will do great. It would be a nice feeling when he can look at the finished product and be able to say.."I built that"