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Budget: $650 CAD Country: Canada Usage: Social media, Youtube, Microsoft Word + bit of Excel, video streaming (Netflix & Amazon Video @1080p) Other details: Upgrading from a really slow $200 laptop. Specifically wants a SFF PC. Already have two 27' monitors, keyboard, and mouse. 1080p @60Hz is fine. But if it can run a larger resolution, the better. Here is a PCPartPicker list I quickly made. (case and PSU can be bought from a friend, hence why they are $170 combined) I also would like to get a WiFi dongle, but I don't know which ones are good. I'm wondering though: Should I even build this? Or just buy some SFF prebuilt from BestBuy or whatever and save around $200? Most prebuilts I've checked out have pretty old CPUs (not sure if I should get an older CPU since Windows 11 is coming), and the majority of prebuilts don't use M.2 NVMe SSD's. Thoughts? EDIT: Thank you everyone for the responses. If anyone else is in a similar situation, here is the final build I decided on. Specifically went with this motherboard because the two monitors they have are VGA and HDMI. Also bought a Bluetooth adapter for like $20. Total is around $620 CAD.

How do I convince my study your butt off Asian parents to get me a PC? Please actually say something related.

Hi i want to build a pc for my mother , but i dont know what i should get , she dont use programs that much . i have arleady an mx master for the pc , so you know what type of pc i want for her , something beautiful and modern like a crazy good screen ( semi-budget) and a great case that match the mx master , im going to buy the logitech k780 soon . could you guys tell me a good setup in this category. ( maximum 2500 $ cad) thanks and sorry for my bad english.

I truly want to build my own pc, but I must get approval from my parents before doing something. My dad approves of it, but my mom just doesn't understand. She said that her all-in-one pc was exactly the same to my brother's x99 system he built. I have trouble talking to her when she disagrees with me, so how's an easy way for me to explain to her that building a pc is better than buying a prebuilt. Also, she also said prebuilt pcs are cheaper, and it's sometimes true, but usually without a gpu. She also probably does not understand compnents so I can't just say that "the system that I'm building as this much more ram" or "this graphics card has blank that lets it be better than a prebuilt" so... yeah.

Okay so this is mostly about my parents who are really keeping me back from doing what I want to do which is to build a PC and this is how it goes... So I have been playing counter strike for a while and I'm really into it. I play it on an old laptop on a broken table and a broken chair (it actually is a broken table and a broken chair). I asked my parents for a PC (which is like the only thing that I have asked which is kind of expensive). At first they refused like every other parent and I can understand that so I just kept on insisting to get me one and finally they agreed which was 3 years ago and they told me they will get me one on my birthday so I waited. Still haven't got it but I'm not like getting angry at them I'm holding it back. So I kept insisting and one day my dad showed me a PC which was All-in-one. I told him that it is not mean't for gaming but he refuses to understand that. After a while he shows me a iMac... I told him again that its not mean't for gaming but he still doesn't understand. After a while I saw this budget build video from Austin Evans. It had a 1050ti and a G4560. It was like 400$. I changed it up a bit and added a 1060 into the build and a 144hz monitor it ended up being like a 1200$ build but it shouldn't cost that much if i was living anywhere else other than here. I showed the build to my parents (even though they don't know anything about it). My dad asked me how much was the SIZE of my GPU (he was asking for how much VRAM was there which he thinks is what makes the GPU powerful? i don't know how to explain). I told him it was a 6 GB GPU and he was like astonished by that and he asked me how much VRAM the laptop had and I told him it was like 1.5 GB. He told me to get a 3 GB GPU and I told him that such a GPU wouldn't be able to handle newer games and he refused to understand. After that he asked why the monitor was so costly and I said it was 144hz monitor which he didn't know what it mean't and he didn't bother to know about. Well now about the internet connection in my house... I have 1Mbps internet connection and it doesn't give me 1Mbps which sucks and like I said I love counter strike but I get pings like 150-200 which also sucks. I asked my dad if he would get a better internet connection and he said that 1Mbps is good enough (he doesn't know about the bit/byte thing and he doesn't bother to understand about it). I also told him about the ping issue and that we are wasting our money on this ISP but my dad refuses to understand. So I called the ISP and asked about the ping issue to which they asked me what it was ( I'm not over exaggerating this the guy did ask me what the term ping means) That's about it I just wanted to open up and I hope you guys took your time to read it TL;DR My parents don't understand about technology and they refuse to understand. PEOPLE! before you start talking crap about me that I'm a lazy spoiled brat for the love of god understand the following: My build is cheaper than anything my parents have thought of buying me. The internet is bad like its 2017 and I use a internet which the advertise as 1Mbps to fool people like my parents who don't understand about these stuff...it doesn't even give me a speed of 1Mbps its not even close to that. I LOVE CS and playing it at 200 ping with 10% loss and 50% choke doesn't help me to get better. There are better ISPs with better reliable stable connection for the exact same price that my dad spends for this crap but he doesn't bother to change and wont care to listen to me. This is NOT a rant about how I hate my parents this is about how they don't bother to understand about it and its pretty clear if you read the post unless you are retarded.

Hey guys, does somebody have an idea how i could convince my parents that im allowed to buy a 1070. I mean its my money because i go to work but i still live at my parents home. And no im not in a financial state where i have to sell my kidneys. I would be totally fine financially but my mom wont let me and i dont wanna cause big drama. Thanks for help Bye Nico

My parents are alright with me buying a prebuilt with the money ive been saving for three years for the sole purpose to build a computer. I will try to order the packages spread out by around 3 days to a week. Do you think I can do it? Any tips? Has anyone attempted something similar?

So, my parents have asked me, the tech guru in the family, to build them new computers that they will fully pay for. I've done PC builds before, but not with the use cases my parents have. I was hoping for someone to judge, based on the constraints, how well my current buildout would work for my folks, and where I could more efficiently choose parts for the budget. 1. Budget & Location This would be in the US. Budget for both computers is $2000 USD, however, my dad has hinted that he would like to actually spend < $800 USD per machine if possible. 2. Aim For both: They're looking for computers to last them for about 10 years so they can keep doing what they're currently doing. They're very simple in terms of navigating the OS. They don't want to have to naviage multiple drives, they want everything possible on their desktop because its easily available and they like their current file structure of folders on folders. For this reason, I'm only putting one 1TB M.2 drive in both of them, and I'll be ripping their old WD Blue Caviar drives out to put in so they'll still have their data, but won't need to access it (after extensive cleaning and virus scanning). They don't want a full sized machine like mine (I'm running a Fractal Design Define R4 and they say it's massive), so I'm looking at a micro-ATX mid towers. For Dad: He's the power user of the two. He still needs to be able to run office and use firefox for work, but he's also experimented with playing 4K footage from his drone on his current desktop, but it won't even play because his CPU is too weak. I've also discussed with him if he planned to eventually edit these videos, and he says he doesn't know yet, but would like to keep that option available in the future. So, no graphics card for now, but potential to insert one (equivalent of a 2070 super) around a year down the line. For Mom: She has gone back to school and is in need of something that can run the Microsoft office suite, but she also loves playing games like candy crush and whatever facebook flavor of the month game pops up. She used to do light photo editing, but had to stop since her computer was getting too slow to even open photoshop. She also enjoys opening up a lot of google chrome tabs to be able to stream music/videos, do homework online, and keep track of things like they were actual tabs in a folder. It's her own way to keep organized. 3. Monitors Dad will be using his current monitor, 1080p30. Mom will be getting a new monitor since she's currently still running a 4:3 monitor over VGA. Looking at HDMI connections for now. If y'all have a suggestion for a solid 1080p monitor for video playback (doesn't have to be anything fancy), suggestions are welcome. 4. Peripherals They will be using their current peripherals, which are all USB based. This includes their current wifi dongles, mouse, keyboard. I kinda wanna free up that one USB slot from their old wifi dongles, since they came with their cisco router they got around 8 years ago (that they no longer use). Fairly certain it only supports up to 802.11g. That's why the motherboard I chose has wireless card included. 5. Why are you upgrading? They upgrade computers once around every 10 years. They're still running on old Dell Inspiron towers with an Intel Pentium Dual core CPUs and 4 GB of DDR3 RAM (or even DDR2, can't remember when they got the things or when Dell switched to DDR3). My moms current 1TB HDD is stuffed to the brim and I'm surprised it hasn't failed, but the speed hit has been massive. Opening a small JPG from the desktop takes over 30 seconds. Fairly certain they've also experimented in certain nautical bandit practices, but refuse to admit to it. Needless to say, they need an upgrade, and they're looking for something that they can drive into the ground and replace again in another 10 years (or even longer) without having to do too much surgery. Here is what I have so far as a build for both of them: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/NV7MXv Pressure Points: They were asking about bluetooth compatability as well, I said there's a solid set of Bluetooth USB adapters they can buy, especially considering how I'm not seeing any come with a motherboard. If y'all know of a board or maybe pcie card we can put it, that would be dope. Because we're trying to extend this thing's life for a while, I'm finding it hard to come by features like USB-C on the micro-ATX boards. I've never had to plan a micro-ATX build, so if someone has any micro-ATX mobo/case combos in mind that still allows for some future expand ability, that would be awesome. Heck, even a small ATX case that would fit my use case is welcome. I'll be building the computers, installing windows for them, and doing the initial setup, so I don't mind getting my hands dirty with some slightly difficult cable management. Any and all help is appreciated, especially on the pressure points. Let me know if you have more questions too, a lot of this will have to be felt out as we go

Hello there, I'm planning to build/upgrade a PC for my parents. Currently they are using my old PC which died yesterday. Current build is: CPU: Intel i5-3570k CPU Cooler: Alpenföhn Matterhorn Mainboard: ASRock Z77 Pro3 RAM: 2*4 GB Kingston HyperX blu. 1600Mhz Storage: Samsung 840 Pro 256GB , 1 TB HDD (don't know which) PSU: Thermaltake Hamburg 530W Case: CoolerMaster 690 II ATX They want to use their system only for Office, Internet, Solitair and maybe light photo editing. So, after my father told me that his PC doesnt work anymore I tried a different PSU to start it, but it wouldnt start, so I suppose the mainboard died. Now I'm trying to switch out mainboard, cpu and ram for the system to run again. I know the PSU is overkill but I don't plan on buying a different since I already have this one. Can somebody recommend a new setup (probably AMD) with integrated graphics for this light use? (will be only one 22" monitor @ 1080p. Also a smaller case would be nice Location is Germany and the pricing should be max 300 € I want to keep SSD, HDD and DVD-drive in there aswell Thanks in advance

hi, im a student from hong kong and im getting a problem which i cant persuade my parents to buy a laptop computer. Im now using a laptop which runs on i3 4gb ram and i cant do anything high spec required. Im realli into music, and im planning on studying music and be in the music industry in my future career, but the equipments im using is draging me down. Do u guys have any good reason to persuade parents and adult to buy a laptop? I tried many such as "i can use it on my homework" , or " my current laptop is older than grandma" . Please leave ur suggestion or advice in the comment section. Really appreciate for the advice guys.

https://techcrunch.com/2018/02/07/ps4-update-lets-parents-control-how-long-their-kid-can-play/ So according to the article: So I'm curious how this will work. Some single player games still use safe points so will this notification be in time to reach a safe point? Especially if you don't know where the next one is and you maybe are stuck behind a puzzle or something. On the other hand in online play you also might not know how long the game will last, and if you are playing in a team this could harm the team if you are disconnected. I'm curious what other people think about it. Also I'm kind of interested how long it will take before someone finds a work around like setting the internal clock to another timezone or something like that. And as a last point I kind of wonder why a parent would ever use this function. If you as a parent don't have enough authority over your kid to make sure it doesn't play "to much" then I think you're doing something wrong and this probably wont solve your problem anyways. I would love to hear @LinusTech his opinion on this matter and if he would ever use it for his childeren, as he has stated multiple times already he thinks gaming etc are very usefull things for childeren to learn skills.

Hi. I’m less than 16 and love to play video games. I currently own a PS4 and while my parents aren’t very keen on me playing games, they put up with it. A couple months ago I asked if I could buy myself a PC. They declined because I “wasn’t mature enough”. I get straight As and am physically very fit. I was going for a 1500$ build. I have plenty of money myself, so money wasn’t the problem. The problem was that they just wouldn’t let me. My birthday is coming up so I thought I’d give convincing my parents another try. I would also love if they paid a small amount too, as the pc wouldn’t be used only for gaming Could you give me tips on how to get them to allow me to buy a pc. Thanks

At the moment I have a mid to high end gaming pc with these specs: i5 7400 16gb ram gtx 1060 6gb ASrock H270M pro4 250gb ssd 1tb harddrive but I also have an iPad Air 2 64gb WiFi which I only use for watching Netflix. so I wanted to sell it and buy a cheaper tablet and a laptop for school work. my parents won’t even let me sell the iPad let alone buy a new tablet and laptop. the reason I want the laptop is for school work,since it is not the best to have to continuously boot and turn off a desktop just to google one thing or to type a 2 minute document. I also wanted the laptop for portability so I could do my school homework even when we were on holiday. I’m only 12 but really want to sell my iPad to get the laptop. My parents are the type that will agree if given a reasonable argument but I really don’t know what to say or how to start the conversation. any ideas?

Hello everyone. I’m looking for advice to purchase a budget laptop for my parents this holiday season. Specific model number would be most helpful. My budget is no more than $400 dollars, and it will primarily be used for Office, browsing news and stock tips online, and for viewing pictures sent from their adult kids. No gaming besides card games, so no need for a dedicated GPU. Just looking for the best bang for the buck that will last multiple years. The trackpad doesn’t have to be spectacular, as I assume they’ll be using a mouse. This laptop will live in their home, and seldom be more than 10 feet from a charger. Should I be looking at AMD now? Or does Intel still reign supreme even at the lowest end? Lastly, if anyone has advice between leaving the bloatware on (for the most part) or installing a completely clean version of Windows, I’d appreciate the input. Thanks in advance!

Hey y'all! So, my parents are starting school, and my mom is getting into digital photography classes specifically. They came to me asking if I could help them maybe cut some corners, and my first idea was to also pick some of your guys's brains on here. I don't think anything on this rig would need to be extreme on here obliviously, the only thing that'll be heavy that they will be doing is using photoshop. Other than that, all they do is basic computing: surfing the web, word processing, video watching. No games. They are 46 years old. Now, I deal in extremes. I immediately thought of putting a 1070 in there, and a i7 6700k...which, if I'm thinking correctly, would definitely be overkill already. Parents budget is kind of tight, so tip top of the budget would be $1,000. They already have monitors, while not perfect, do the job. They just bought an Acer monitor that is IPS, so that's not a negative I would think. Like I said, the heaviest thing on there would be Photoshop, and then storage security is also important. I already have that part figured out, but I just need help figuring out which processor, and video card to use. Unless the onboard graphics of a specific processor would do just fine? I'm certainly no expert in this field, so that's why I came to the community on here. Also worth noting, my dad is a huge University of Michigan fan, and I'm going to do something on the side for him as far as customization goes. Maze and blue all the way! If any of you have any ideas about that aspect of what I could do, other than some LED lighting, that'd be great! Again, thanks for taking a peek here.

Hi guys, My parents cam up with the idea that i should build a pc for them since I build my own a year ago. And I need help with deciding parts. The current pc they use is from 2008 and is super slow and freezes often. They want it cheap but good. I know may way around what parts I need and how to build it, but I dont know how low end I should go while still being a good pc. The main purpose of this computer is: -using internet -using word/excel/powerpoint -and some (not demanding) programs like Simple photo software ect. Must haves: -ssd What kind of processor is cheap but still good enough to do these task fast now and in the future. I dont know what processors are overkill for this low end machine. We have and good working gtx 620, but not sure if this is useful in this computer. The build doesnt have real budget, just cheap but good for a low end user. HOW CHEAP CAN I GO? (what generation?) I hope you guys can help me!

I'm looking to build my mom a new computer. Her computer is used every day for working from home. She is very active on the computer but does absolutely no gaming. She is mainly sending emails, pictures, making spreadsheets, browsing the web, moderately watches videos, and must be able to use two monitors. She can't stand a slow computer, because she tries to get as much work done as possible in a little time. The budget for how GPU is $120. It's ok if that price range is a little overkill for what she does, but no shame in telling me if it is too overkill. In conclusion, she just needs a GPU for great productivity but doesn't need to support games. What do you suggest. I will take the most frequent graphics cards suggested and create a poll from that.

I ordered a motherboard with my money on Saturday and it arrived today my mum and dad where furious telling me it's to much money and is not worth it please could you help me purwade them to let me get a gaming PC. Thanks

Hey guys, I really want to go to the midnight launch for Halo 5 at my Microsoft Store. As she says for most things that I want to do, my mom said that I cannot go. I can't seem to get her to understand that we don't do anything at school. It's really completely useless (besides Geometry.) I won't have any tests for a while, as the quarter just ended. She also doesn't know that I go to bed at 2:00 AM every day and I am perfectly fine. Her house, her rules. It's mainly my dad influencing the decision, but he is as stubborn as an ox.

I have a bit of an unusual situation on my hands. I enjoy programming and video editing, but when I have nothing to do, I usually play flash games or Minecraft (from minecraftforfreeonline.com). My parents never really introduced me to gaming, and now that I have a decent rig, I sometimes play even more. I would like to buy actual Minecraft, because I'm interested in mods and have made a few mods (which I coded on another computer with Forge and Eclipse, but I can't get to work on my current PC), but I can't get the mods I want to play without getting an actual Mojang account and paying for it. I am willing to pay for it, but I'm scared my parents won't approve of me gaming and may revoke my computer priveleges, or just be disappointed in me. They shielded me from the gaming world when I was young, but now, I want to get into it (I'm 15). Long story short, I want to play Minecraft honestly without doing it behind their backs, and I need advice on how to convince my parents that I deserve it (I have good grades, and I usually am responsible when it comes to chores), and when I should ask.

So I just got this new x99 stuff 2 weeks ago, almost 3. I've had this case for about 7 months. I just had my birthday party with my friends and I have enough money to buy an Air 540 or new cooler. But of course these Nazis think that just because they were very kind to buy me a new laptop that'll come in a week that they can say that I can't use my own money and that I "need to cool down." I promised my dad that if he got the laptop that I would wait until Pascal for a new graphics card. He decided to alter it so that I can't do jack shit to the PC at all for another YEAR. I can't get a new case with my own money or even add some more RAM to my laptop for $50 for 16GB. Freaking pisses me off to the extent that I don't want to even look at them. My dad expects me to get arthritis or some shit from trying to access my I/O on my narrow AF desk.

Hello, My parents were recently hit with a very bad virus which encrypted/corrupted all of their files, even their backups. The gave the computer to all of the computer stores in the local area however all they could tell us is that the files are encrypted and virus's like this normally place a ransom on your data making you pay to have it unlocked. A week after my Dad got the computer back from the store he found this in his photo's folder. Should my parents (me) follow the instructions or will it lead to more information being stolen? Any help is appreciated. Thanks David

So, my parents computer is failing and I want to build them one as a surprise. My budget is $300, they will mainly use it to just browse the web and other light applications. I will be using my old amd fx 8320 cpu because I am getting a new one, also the monitor/peripherals will not be a problem because I have some spares lying around. S, does anyone have any suggestions for parts?

My grandparents would make me maintain their computer, which would get so much viruses constantly despite malwarebytes pro + avg internet security pro. They're old, and only use the web browser (firefox), and usually browse russian websites so I guess the AV's don't know those viruses yet. I used to re-install windows every 2 weeks or so; but one-day it hit me! They just use the browser! I installed Linux Mint Debian (Closest looking thing to windows), got their bookmarks toolbar with all the links they like, installed their printer, and now they're in heaven; and I won't have to deal with them anymore! I also installed a ton of games from the app-store and they love em! Moral of the story: If a family member that constantly fucks up their PC uses JUST a web-browser, slap on a linux distro (not ubuntu with unity). No viruses, same browser, no fixing, errbody happy!

So, I have tried to talk to my mom about seeing my dad more often, and whenever I do she starts yelling at me about how I just want to go there to use my computer. I genuinely feel like it would be good for me. How can I convince my mom this?