Should I get a computer?

[Hardfishing]

I am 14 years old and I have been watching a lot of videos on building computers. I want to build one myself. However the big question here is should I? I am looking at almost 600 dollars to get an entire setup (computer, monitor, etc). So I figure i'd come on here to ask you and see what you think. I plan on using it for gaming, school work, and eventually if I decide to do it go into cad design. Please help and give me an honest answer. 

[Oshino Shinobu]

We can't really answer that for you. It's really up to you if it's worth the money, and only you know if there's something else you'd rather spend the money on or save it. 

 

We can help you pick parts for a certain budget and use case, but whether you should or not is really up to you. 

[Guest]

If you are interested in learning to build a PC I would highly recommend it. It can be a lot of fun and a good learning experience. 

[Changis]

3 minutes ago, Hardfishing said:

I am 14 years old and I have been watching a lot of videos on building computers. I want to build one myself. However the big question here is should I? I am looking at almost 600 dollars to get an entire setup (computer, monitor, etc). So I figure i'd come on here to ask you and see what you think. I plan on using it for gaming, school work, and eventually if I decide to do it go into cad design. Please help and give me an honest answer. 

if you are getting a computer anyway, and have the interest for it, i say yes.
if you follow instructions closely and don't get too eager to get everything running right away (i know the feeling, but that's usually when you make mistakes  ), go over your build before applying power and in general just have a thumb rule like "install, check, check again" or similar so you are 100% sure you have done things "by the book", you should be golden.

do you know someone in your family that is computer savvy you can ask to help you build and learn?
you might also be able to ask at your local computer repair shop if you can build it there and/or have them check out the build or ask them if there is something you are wondering about.
 

[NumLock21]

Do you currently have computer that's working good? Yes, then save up a bit more to get yourself a better build because $600 is not enough for a whole entire system including monitors, peripherals, and the OS. OS+Monitor+keyboard+Mouse+speakers takes about $250 out of your $600 budget. Leaving you $350 for the build.

 

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 3 1200 3.1GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($108.89 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: ASRock - AB350 Pro4 ATX AM4 Motherboard  ($60.49 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill - Ripjaws V Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2666 Memory  ($69.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Western Digital - Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($46.88 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: Zotac - GeForce GTX 1050 2GB Mini Video Card  ($109.99 @ Amazon)
Case: Cooler Master - MasterBox Lite 5 ATX Mid Tower Case  ($49.99 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: EVGA - 600B 600W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply  ($41.98 @ Newegg)
Operating System: Microsoft - Windows 10 Home OEM 64-bit  ($89.89 @ OutletPC)
Monitor: Asus - VZ239H 23.0" 1920x1080 60Hz Monitor  ($114.99 @ Newegg)
Keyboard: Logitech - MK120 Wired Slim Keyboard w/Optical Mouse  ($13.89 @ OutletPC)
Speakers: Logitech - Z130 5W 2ch Speakers  ($18.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Total: $725.97
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-08-15 12:21 EDT-0400

[rony59turbo]

3 minutes ago, NumLock21 said:

Do you currently have computer that's working good? Yes, then save up a bit more to get yourself a better build because $600 is not enough for a whole entire system including monitors, peripherals, and the OS.

OS+Monitor+keyboard+Mouse+speakers takes about $250 out of your $600 budget. Leaving you $350 for the build.

You could technically make a good PC for that money. Depends if you want all new or used. I built my PC used for $350 with a gtx 750 ti, g3258, 10gb ram, 256gb ssd, and a 500gb hdd, with monitor and keyboard and mouse.

[Aleks NE]

14 minutes ago, Hardfishing said:

I am 14 years old and I have been watching a lot of videos on building computers. I want to build one myself. However the big question here is should I? I am looking at almost 600 dollars to get an entire setup (computer, monitor, etc). So I figure i'd come on here to ask you and see what you think. I plan on using it for gaming, school work, and eventually if I decide to do it go into cad design. Please help and give me an honest answer. 

Yes, a PC will last you a long time. I recommend looking at different sites and you'll see that it is a lot cheaper than you think, second-hand parts are a great choice too. Especially peripherals, a lot of time you'll find amazing condition monitors and keyboard being sold for less than half of RRP. GPU's and CPU's are normally 50-60 pounds cheaper.

[dizmo]

With your budget I'd definitely go used.

[NumLock21]

4 minutes ago, rony59turbo said:

You could technically make a good PC for that money. Depends if you want all new or used. I built my PC used for $350 with a gtx 750 ti, g3258, 10gb ram, 256gb ssd, and a 500gb hdd, with monitor and keyboard and mouse.

By getting used, of course you can get a build for $350, that depends on OP if he wants used parts. You can even get a 10 or 14 core Xeon for that price, when new ones is like over $2,000.

[BazNaz]

14 minutes ago, NumLock21 said:

Do you currently have computer that's working good? Yes, then save up a bit more to get yourself a better build because $600 is not enough for a whole entire system including monitors, peripherals, and the OS. OS+Monitor+keyboard+Mouse+speakers takes about $250 out of your $600 budget. Leaving you $350 for the build.

 

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 3 1200 3.1GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($108.89 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: ASRock - AB350 Pro4 ATX AM4 Motherboard  ($60.49 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill - Ripjaws V Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2666 Memory  ($69.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Western Digital - Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($46.88 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: Zotac - GeForce GTX 1050 2GB Mini Video Card  ($109.99 @ Amazon)
Case: Cooler Master - MasterBox Lite 5 ATX Mid Tower Case  ($49.99 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: EVGA - 600B 600W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply  ($41.98 @ Newegg)
Operating System: Microsoft - Windows 10 Home OEM 64-bit  ($89.89 @ OutletPC)
Monitor: Asus - VZ239H 23.0" 1920x1080 60Hz Monitor  ($114.99 @ Newegg)
Keyboard: Logitech - MK120 Wired Slim Keyboard w/Optical Mouse  ($13.89 @ OutletPC)
Speakers: Logitech - Z130 5W 2ch Speakers  ($18.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Total: $725.97
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-08-15 12:21 EDT-0400

1

You can use windows trial and get a key later?

[NumLock21]

11 minutes ago, BazNaz said:

You can use windows trial and get a key later?

Unless OP can get $100 within 30 days before it expires, he might well just get the OS along with the build. It's 30 days for Home and 90 days for Pro, where you must reset the activation timer, before the 30 days is up. It's allowed up to 2 times, so total is 90 days trial.

[Cyracus]

with a $600 budget for components and peripherals you're going to end up with a basic system. you can get mouse and keyboard on the cheap, Linus did a couple videos on them total of like $50, you can even get the os cheap, or run win10 for free, the monitor will take around $100 out of your budget. then it depends on what deals you can find and if you want to look for used parts. Used parts tend to come with a cost savings but also some degree of risk, I don't recommend used mobos, psu, or ssd/hdds because mobos are one of the more common components to fail (relative to the rest of the system) psu, it's just a much better idea to get a decent new psu for $40-50 and used storage, just don't do it. Cpu, graphics card and ram you can find good deals on, it's a good idea to see proof that they work before you pay though, haven't seen used cases for sale all that often myself, but if you aren't worried about newer things like usb3 then it could be another way to shave costs...granted you might have to buy a fan or two which may negate the savings... Long story short you can build a system with that budget but you're really looking at building a $450 computer

Just now, NumLock21 said:

Unless OP can get $100 within 30 days before it expires, he might well just get the OS along with the build.

It's 30 days for Home and 90 days for Pro, where you must reset the activation timer, before the 30 days is up. It's allowed up to 2 times, so total is 90 days trial.

windows 10 doesn't ever lock you out it can be used free indefinitely, just locks a few customization features and puts a watermark on the bottom right of the screen. 

[strat guy]

Space your parts acquisition out over a period of time if that works and will let you expand your budget to something closer to a 1000$. Begin with a good current gen CPU/MOBO combo and build your system around it, go budget with everything else, psu, ram, storage, gpu (look for good 2nd hand deals for one) as those components can be easily swapped out and replaced with moar and better/higher end stuff later down the road.

[NumLock21]

4 minutes ago, Cyracus said:

windows 10 doesn't ever lock you out it can be used free indefinitely, just locks a few customization features and puts a watermark on the bottom right of the screen. 

So what you're saying is, OP is better off with using a cripple OS.

[DnFx91]

so much true stuff here, i would totally recommend it. Building my first PC set me off on my career man.

 

Build a PC, if you like it, you will become addicted instantly. If you don't really care that much for it, you still have a PC

[Cyracus]

5 minutes ago, NumLock21 said:

So what you're saying is, OP is better off with using a cripple OS.

it's not crippled, it functions exactly like a paid version except you can't change the background from the settings area and a few other essentially meaningless things (that you can totally get around if you're savvy) and you get a watermark encouraging to upgrade. I'm not even suggesting it as a permanent solution, just a cost saving option for right now

[Hardfishing]

Ok so what I am looking at for a system is:

amd ryzen 3 1200 ( might overclock if i feel like it

Motherboard Asus strix b350 f gaming motherboard

graphics is a msi radeon rx 560

1 terribite wd blue hard drive

gskill ripjaw v series ram ( 2 4 gig sticks)

windows 10 home 64 bit

and im going to see if i can get a case and a power supply for cheap from a friend i have that works at a computer repair shop.

That will be the system itself for the components. all of this is around 560. I haven't really looked at other websites other than newegg because I dont know what is trustworthy and what isn't.

 

[Hardfishing]

Also does it matter the ammount of vram i have? because i can get a much better deal on a 2 gig verison rather than a 4 gig. Does preformance change that much?

 

[NumLock21]

15 minutes ago, Cyracus said:

it's not crippled, it functions exactly like a paid version except you can't change the background from the settings area and a few other essentially meaningless things (that you can totally get around if you're savvy) and you get a watermark encouraging to upgrade. I'm not even suggesting it as a permanent solution, just a cost saving option for right now

OP will have to buy the OS sooner or later. So I don't get what point you're trying to make by saying,

52 minutes ago, Cyracus said:

windows 10 doesn't ever lock you out it can be used free indefinitely

,and other nonsense such as doing, a work around, for the locked background on a non-activated OS. Either suggest it the right way like telling OP to save up a bit more before building or don't bother.

 

10 minutes ago, Hardfishing said:

Also does it matter the ammount of vram i have? because i can get a much better deal on a 2 gig verison rather than a 4 gig. Does preformance change that much?

 

vram does not add performance. Games that have more textures, will benefit with more vram.

[Hardfishing]

Ok. So based on what im seeing from everyone here I should do it but probably look at other websites and see if i can get a better deal. Like i said im only 14 and this is alot of money. I will be turning 15 in like 6 months and soon a car will be needed. Do i save this and use the money to help with the car or not. I also want to get a phone. It would just be a cheap tracfone that ive wanted for a while but i have never really decided if i want it or not. Otherwise their isnt alot else i really need a lot of money for. Any more tips for computers and weather i should get one or at least wait till the cryptomining spree dies down a bit. Or cyber monday. 

[Sanctorum]

So much terrible advice in this thread. You don't need $750, or $1000 as some are claiming. $600 can get you a perfectly sufficient system for a first build for a 14 year old.

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel - Pentium G4560 3.5GHz Dual-Core Processor  ($78.87 @ OutletPC) 
Motherboard: MSI - B250M PRO-VDH Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard  ($64.99 @ SuperBiiz) 
Memory: Crucial - 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR4-2133 Memory  ($64.87 @ OutletPC) 
Storage: ADATA - Premier Pro SP600 128GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($55.98 @ Newegg) 
Video Card: EVGA - GeForce GTX 1050 Ti 4GB ACX 2.0 Video Card  ($144.88 @ OutletPC) 
Case: Deepcool - D-Shield ATX Mid Tower Case  ($29.99 @ SuperBiiz) 
Power Supply: EVGA - B3 450W 80+ Bronze Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply  ($49.78 @ OutletPC) 
Monitor: Dell - SE2216H 21.5" 1920x1080 60Hz Monitor  ($89.99 @ Amazon) 
Keyboard: Cooler Master - Devastator II Wired Gaming Keyboard w/Optical Mouse  ($25.49 @ OutletPC) 
Total: $604.84

You even get a somewhat nice looking budget case, a fully modular PSU and an SSD. Nice IPS 1080p monitor and decent budget kb/mouse combo. GTX 1050Ti will be great for 1080p. You could drop the GPU to a GTX 1050 if you wanted to save some money and maybe add an HDD to the system, alongside the SSD. Otherwise, I'd add an HDD later when you have some more money. It might be worth waiting for Coffee Lake to see what you can get from that. 

[Hardfishing]

3 minutes ago, Sanctorum said:

So much terrible advice in this thread. You don't need $750, or $1000 as some are claiming. $600 can get you a perfectly sufficient system for a first build for a 14 year old.

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel - Pentium G4560 3.5GHz Dual-Core Processor  ($78.87 @ OutletPC) 
Motherboard: MSI - B250M PRO-VDH Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard  ($64.99 @ SuperBiiz) 
Memory: Crucial - 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR4-2133 Memory  ($64.87 @ OutletPC) 
Storage: ADATA - Premier Pro SP600 128GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($55.98 @ Newegg) 
Video Card: EVGA - GeForce GTX 1050 Ti 4GB ACX 2.0 Video Card  ($144.88 @ OutletPC) 
Case: Deepcool - D-Shield ATX Mid Tower Case  ($29.99 @ SuperBiiz) 
Power Supply: EVGA - B3 450W 80+ Bronze Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply  ($49.78 @ OutletPC) 
Monitor: Dell - SE2216H 21.5" 1920x1080 60Hz Monitor  ($89.99 @ Amazon) 
Keyboard: Cooler Master - Devastator II Wired Gaming Keyboard w/Optical Mouse  ($25.49 @ OutletPC) 
Total: $604.84

You even get a somewhat nice looking budget case, a fully modular PSU and an SSD. Nice IPS 1080p monitor and decent budget kb/mouse combo. GTX 1050Ti will be great for 1080p. You could drop the GPU to a GTX 1050 if you wanted to save some money and maybe add an HDD to the system, alongside the SSD. Otherwise, I'd add an HDD later when you have some more money. It might be worth waiting for Coffee Lake to see what you can get from that. 

now isnt the pentium a fairly old chip? Even though it can go up to 3.5 ghz will it affect anything later on? I want to play some games that might be a little intensive such as doom or other games with those kind of graphics. Plus like i said I might get into cad design when im older. Will this processor still support what it claims to do in like 4 years or no?

Other wise i was thinking of going with an amd ryzen 3 system because their unlocked so i could overclock if i need more speed( doubt i would but it would be nice to have)

 

[Sanctorum]

No, the Pentium isn't old. Its a 4 thread CPU. Its perfectly good. Its not going to be the greatest CPU obviously but it's $80. It's the best option for your budget for sure. You could upgrade to R3 1200 for $50 more if you wanted. The G4560 is going to perform on par with, or better than the R3 1200 in games. 

[Cyracus]

1 hour ago, Hardfishing said:

now isnt the pentium a fairly old chip

the g4560 launched q1 this year. it's a fine chip for a starter pc,  it's a 2 core 4 thread cpu and it will perform the same now and in 4 years, but it will be slower in comparison to a higher core/thread count cpu in multi-threaded tasks. You could upgrade to a 6th or 7th gen i5 or i7 down the road if you end up wanting more cpu power

[Hardfishing]

3 minutes ago, Cyracus said:

the g4560 launched q1 this year. it's a fine chip for a starter pc,  it's a 2 core 4 thread cpu and it will perform the same now and in 4 years, but it will be slower in comparison to a higher core/thread count cpu in multi-threaded tasks. You could upgrade to a 6th or 7th gen i5 or i7 down the road if you end up wanting more cpu power

Now say the ryzen 3 1200. Since it is unlocked i could over clock it and make it faster. That is 109.00 at newegg. Then as long as  i make sure all the components work with it wouldn't it be a bit better than the pentium?