My Nephew is being heavily bullied. All he wants for Christmas is a gaming desktop. I want to help him out. Need Guidance....

[Darkwhyt]

My nephew is one the coolest and nicest kids. Unfortunately, he's being targeted by some guys his age who have made his life truly miserable. This has been going on for about a year now. It's crazy....they will make fun of him for the most ridiculous things. He's a bigger kid too but chooses not to defend himself through violence. He's 14 years old now and at one of those sensitive stages where he is struggling to understand why the world is so mean and dark when he's just living his life as a good person. I hate it for him!!! That innocence should be praised, but it's viewed as weakness/weirdness/childish. A huge outlet for him is gaming. He games with online friends (usually those are the best kind because there's no judgment), but unfortunately, now that he's older the games he wants to play are more demanding on the desktop. Minecraft is about all he's able to play but wants to get into Fornite. His family is on a tight budget, so his consoles are older ones for example. 

 

He's been asking me for help with building his own desktop. He told me what he was going to build, and I felt bad for him because he's about to build something that will be slow already by today's standards. I want to build him a desktop, but I'm on a budget as well and the last thing I want to do is gift him a piece of crap "gaming machine" where he's running everything on crummy settings. I need some help. 

 

I don't know if there's a good place to buy a used desktop? My budget is about $500, which is more than I'm spending on anyone in my own family. Don't tell my wife

 

Would love some input from the community. Should I try to ebay something, or start building? The 8700k processors are unrealistic. I know that....   But what about an older 4770k with a strong gpu and 16 gigs of ram? Not sure if it would be a bad idea? I want to really surprise him and make this a memorable Christmas for him, as this will be a tough one for the family due to money.

 

I appreciate any input. 

[iLostMyXbox21]

what is the most impacting game he wants to run?

 

edit: never mind i missed where you said minecraft and fortnite

[monjessenstein]

Maybe look into getting a ryzen 1600 cpu/B350 mobo used? I've heard they go for pretty cheap, so if you bundle that with 8gbs of ram plus a decent enough gpu it'll be a nice pc for gaming, plus you'll have an upgrade path opposed to something like a 4770k system.

[iLostMyXbox21]

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Type	Item	Price
CPU	AMD - Ryzen 3 2200G 3.5 GHz Quad-Core Processor	$95.00 @ Amazon
Motherboard	Gigabyte - B450M DS3H Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard	$54.99 @ Newegg Business
Memory	Team - Vulcan 8 GB (2 x 4 GB) DDR4-3000 Memory	$69.99 @ Newegg
Storage	Western Digital - Caviar Blue 1 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive	$44.85 @ OutletPC
Video Card	EVGA - GeForce GTX 1060 3GB 3 GB SC GAMING Video Card	$159.99 @ Newegg
Power Supply	Corsair - CXM 550 W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply	$29.99 @ Newegg
	Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
	Total (before mail-in rebates)	$499.81
	Mail-in rebates	-$45.00
	Total	$454.81
	Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-11-29 15:55 EST-0500

 

[LukeSavenije]

Well, I would choose a part second hand and a part new. Get a second hand 4770k/4790k, a good z series mobo, overclock it a bit on something like a artic freezer 33 esports one, a nice case, 16 gigs of ddr3 (second hand is possible here too), a new ssd and harddrive and something like a second hand 970 you'll get a solid build for less then your budget. Before I forget, get a brand new psu that's tier 3/c or higher, cxm is pretty cheap rn

Edited November 29, 2018 by LukeSavenije

[Arika]

Before planning anything, check with the parents first. I know there are some people out there who do not like to be upstaged when it comes to gifts for their children. 

 

They also need to be OK with him having such a computer since he's at an age that he could easily become addicted and start falling behind in school 

[AngryBeaver]

10 minutes ago, Darkwhyt said:

My nephew is one the coolest and nicest kids. Unfortunately, he's being targeted by some guys his age who have made his life truly miserable. This has been going on for about a year now. It's crazy....they will make fun of him for the most ridiculous things. He's a bigger kid too but chooses not to defend himself through violence. He's 14 years old now and at one of those sensitive stages where he is struggling to understand why the world is so mean and dark when he's just living his life as a good person. I hate it for him!!! That innocence should be praised, but it's viewed as weakness/weirdness/childish. A huge outlet for him is gaming. He games with online friends (usually those are the best kind because there's no judgment), but unfortunately, now that he's older the games he wants to play are more demanding on the desktop. Minecraft is about all he's able to play but wants to get into Fornite. His family is on a tight budget, so his consoles are older ones for example. 

 

He's been asking me for help with building his own desktop. He told me what he was going to build, and I felt bad for him because he's about to build something that will be slow already by today's standards. I want to build him a desktop, but I'm on a budget as well and the last thing I want to do is gift him a piece of crap "gaming machine" where he's running everything on crummy settings. I need some help. 

 

I don't know if there's a good place to buy a used desktop? My budget is about $500, which is more than I'm spending on anyone in my own family. Don't tell my wife

 

Would love some input from the community. Should I try to ebay something, or start building? The 8700k processors are unrealistic. I know that....   But what about an older 4770k with a strong gpu and 16 gigs of ram? Not sure if it would be a bad idea? I want to really surprise him and make this a memorable Christmas for him, as this will be a tough one for the family due to money.

 

I appreciate any input. 

The best think you can do.. is pick up a non SFF Dell workstation with a 3rd or 4th gen I7.

Something like:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/DELL-Optiplex-7020-Core-i7-4790-3-6GHz-16GB-500GB-DVD-Radeon-R7-250-SFF-Desktop/123516962288?hash=item1cc22f45f0:g:tjMAAOSwmkBb~z7i:rk:13:pf:0

 

You can find these from 100-150 in most cases. For example if you get the one above you wouldn't need to worry about more ram, but you might consider tossing in a 250gb SSD $30 and a 1050ti $120-$150. Now you will want to make sure it has at least 8gb of ram, but 16gb if possible or you can just but another set to toss in it for the 16gb if you wanted.

 

Anyways if you get the system above for say 150 + 30(ssd) + 150(1050ti) that puts your total at 330 for a machine that will game very well. Actually That is a SSF so you would need a LP video card.

[NunoLava1998]

If you want to buy everything new (I wouldn't recommend it as there are some pretty good prices on used parts):

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 3 1200 3.1 GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($89.99 @ Newegg) 
Motherboard: Gigabyte - B450M DS3H Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard  ($54.99 @ Newegg Business) 
Memory: G.Skill - Ripjaws V Series 8 GB (2 x 4 GB) DDR4-2400 Memory  ($74.99 @ Amazon) 
Storage: Kingston - A400 120 GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($25.99 @ Amazon) 
Storage: Western Digital - Caviar Blue 1 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($44.85 @ OutletPC) 
Video Card: PowerColor - Radeon RX 570 4 GB RED DRAGON Video Card  ($139.99 @ Newegg) 
Case: Corsair - 100R ATX Mid Tower Case  ($54.99 @ Corsair) 
Power Supply: Corsair - CXM 550 W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply  ($29.99 @ Newegg) 
Total: $515.78
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-11-29 16:02 EST-0500

[TetraSky]

For the bullying part:

Spoiler

Has he or his family done anything to stop the bullying?
I get not wanting to be the "snitch", but fuck bullies, they don't deserve breathing.

Most decent schools have a zero tolerance policy on bullying, make yourselves heard loud and clear.
If the school refuse to help, you go to whoever is in charge of the school, be it the board of education or others, it's an uphill battle, but at the end of it, it's the bullies who will be losing, not him.
Kids are assholes, but that's no reason to let them keep being assholes or endure their bullshit.
Heck, going further, after you've done everything to try and stop it, you could even sue the parents of the bullies, for failure to properly educate their child and causing emotional (and maybe physical) trauma to your nephew. (but preferably sue the school for failing/refusing to help)
 

But that's just my two cent as a former bullying victim, I didn't have anyone to help me or tell me what I could do to stop the bullying other than just "taking it" and hope for things to stop... Which it did... After I changed school.

 

 

As for the build itself, I understand that you would want him to not have something that's "outdated" already, but do consider that CPU wise, things haven't moved much in the last couple generations. (Other than the higher number of cores, which isn't that important for gaming)

And even if you get a used i5 4000~6000 series system, it wouldn't bottleneck a newer GPU at all and would probably give better performances than a newer Ryzen 3 CPU.

[SupaKomputa]

Ryzen 1600 + 1050ti, still good enough for any games including the new Shadow of Tomb Raiders.

i don't really play games so i don't care for 60+ fps.

But if you really want it to game for a longer time, i guess 1060 is a nice middleground.

[straight_stewie]

16 minutes ago, Darkwhyt said:

The 8700k processors are unrealistic. I know that....   But what about an older 4770k with a strong gpu and 16 gigs of ram?

The 4770k paired with a nice gpu (or even two) is a nice machine, but it's nearing end of life. In fact, that's what I use, an i7-4770k and two gtx 760s. I can play games like gtav on nearly all ultra (except for shadows and no reflection msaa) and be getting 60-70 fps. More optimized games like project cars 2 can be played on all ultra settings with very smooth playable FPS.

But, and here's the biggest but, it's getting hard to find those processors. The only trustable new in box 4770k I could find was nearly $700 and the "like new refurb" units are in the $200 - $300 range. You can probably get a better deal if you're willing to chance it with used stuff off Ebay. This is assuming that you can even find a motherboard. To top that off, ddr3 RAM is still around ~$100 for 16GB of ram (of course, that's new. Much better deals can be had if you're ok with Ebay parts).

6th and 7th generation i7s can be had for nearly the same cost as the i7-4770k. Motherboards are more readily available and cheaper, and they use ddr4 ram. My recommendation would be to target 6th/7th gen GPUs. Of course you could always look at AMD stuff.

Also, it would help alot if someone donated a good case. I have a corsair carbide 200r lying around that I'm never going to use (new in box even. I knew there was a reason I bought that to get free shipping on some thermal paste ).

[NunoLava1998]

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Video Card: Gigabyte - GeForce GTX 1070 Ti 8 GB WINDFORCE Video Card  ($379.99 @ Newegg) 
Power Supply: Corsair - CXM 550 W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply  ($29.99 @ Newegg) 
Other: Dell 7020 ($140.00)
Total: $549.98
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-11-29 16:06 EST-0500

 

This should be better. A used Dell Optiplex 7020 (i7 4770, 16GB RAM, R7 250) should be about 100-150$. With a CX550M (29.99$) and 1070 Ti (379.99$) it becomes about 550$.

[Radium_Angel]

18 minutes ago, Darkwhyt said:

 

I don't know if there's a good place to buy a used desktop?

NewEgg has a ton, and they off financing which is a great way to spread out the cost. Just picked up a Dell Precision with 32GB ram, 256GB SSD and twin 6 core Xeons for under 500$

[YourCrush1234]

Ryzen will be nice because it is pretty cheap, and good bang for the buck. 1050ti-1060 can be pretty nice, maybe even rx 560 or rx 570. And as for bullying, the rare occurrences where I have been bullied or people have tried to bully, I just tell them to piss off and then just ignore them. I don’t know about you but it has always worked for me

[NunoLava1998]

Also, why are people recommending Ryzen? A 1200, 8GB DDR4 and RX 570 is about 500$, while a optiplex 7020 (i7 4770 and 16gb ram) with a 1070 ti and cx550m is literally 550$ (although a 1070 Ti to play Minecraft and Fortnite is completely fucking overkill like holy shit)

[N1NJ4W4RR10R]

Other people are better for specs.

 

I'd advise you ask the kid what his budget was, maybe put it in your own as an extra.

[SupaKomputa]

2 minutes ago, NunoLava1998 said:

Also, why are people recommending Ryzen? A 1200, 8GB DDR4 and RX 570 is about 500$, while a optiplex 7020 (i7 4770 and 16gb ram) with a 1070 ti and cx550m is literally 550$

Ryzen is new vs 4th gen intel cpu.

Look at the kid perspective, he could brag on the new shiny Ryzen pc, instead of a meeh old used dell pc.

No need for 16gb, 8gb is enough for most games.

[NunoLava1998]

Just now, SupaKomputa said:

Ryzen is new vs 4th gen intel cpu.

Look at the kid perspective, he could brag on the new shiny Ryzen pc, instead of a meeh old used dell pc.

No need for 16gb, 8gb is enough for most games.

Makes sense then. I did forget that Ryzen was probably better since he's only playing Fortnite and Minecraft, things that 100% don't need a 1070 Ti

[iLostMyXbox21]

10 minutes ago, NunoLava1998 said:

Also, why are people recommending Ryzen? A 1200, 8GB DDR4 and RX 570 is about 500$, while a optiplex 7020 (i7 4770 and 16gb ram) with a 1070 ti and cx550m is literally 550$

umm i think you answered your own question in your question

 

budget is $500

 

Ryzen is better for budgets

 

plus the 2200g is cheaper and better

[NunoLava1998]

Anyway OP, this is a good 500$ build with a RX 570 and ryzen 3 1200. This will be certainly enough for the poor guy. 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Type	Item	Price
CPU	AMD - Ryzen 3 1200 3.1 GHz Quad-Core Processor	$89.99 @ Newegg
Motherboard	Gigabyte - B450M DS3H Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard	$54.99 @ Newegg Business
Memory	G.Skill - Ripjaws V Series 8 GB (2 x 4 GB) DDR4-2400 Memory	$74.99 @ Amazon
Storage	Kingston - A400 120 GB 2.5" Solid State Drive	$25.99 @ Amazon
Storage	Western Digital - Caviar Blue 1 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive	$44.85 @ OutletPC
Video Card	PowerColor - Radeon RX 570 4 GB RED DRAGON Video Card	$139.99 @ Newegg
Case	Corsair - 100R ATX Mid Tower Case	$54.99 @ Corsair
Power Supply	Corsair - CXM 550 W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply	$29.99 @ Newegg
	Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
	Total (before mail-in rebates)	$540.78
	Mail-in rebates	-$25.00
	Total	$515.78
	Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-11-29 16:20 EST-0500

 

I hope your son doesn't get bullied anymore, that is sad to hear

 

[Crunchy Dragon]

-Moved to New Builds and Planning-

 

Just now, iLostMyXbox21 said:

plus the 2200g is cheaper and better

Not better than a 4th gen Core i7. I personally like the Optiplex route, even though it's a little bit over budget. It shouldn't be hard to come up with $50.

[NunoLava1998]

1 minute ago, iLostMyXbox21 said:

umm i think you answered your own question in your question

 

budget is $500

 

Ryzen is better for budgets

 

plus the 2200g is cheaper and better

Wait the i7-4770 is that bad? I actually thought it would be equivalent to a Ryzen 5 or so

[SupaKomputa]

2 minutes ago, NunoLava1998 said:

Makes sense then. I did forget that Ryzen was probably better since he's only playing Fortnite and Minecraft, things that 100% don't need a 1070 Ti

yeah even a 1200 can hold up to those games. i'm pretty sure he'd love that.

[NunoLava1998]

Just now, Crunchy Dragon said:

-Moved to New Builds and Planning-

 

Not better than a 4th gen Core i7. I personally like the Optiplex route, even though it's a little bit over budget. It shouldn't be hard to come up with $50.

The Ryzen route is better as he's literally only playing Fortnite and Minecraft, things that are easily done on a RX 550

[mikat]

24 minutes ago, iLostMyXbox21 said:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Type	Item	Price
CPU	AMD - Ryzen 3 2200G 3.5 GHz Quad-Core Processor	$95.00 @ Amazon
Motherboard	Gigabyte - B450M DS3H Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard	$54.99 @ Newegg Business
Memory	Team - Vulcan 8 GB (2 x 4 GB) DDR4-3000 Memory	$69.99 @ Newegg
Storage	Western Digital - Caviar Blue 1 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive	$44.85 @ OutletPC
Video Card	EVGA - GeForce GTX 1060 3GB 3 GB SC GAMING Video Card	$159.99 @ Newegg
Power Supply	Corsair - CXM 550 W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply	$29.99 @ Newegg
	Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
	Total (before mail-in rebates)	$499.81
	Mail-in rebates	-$45.00
	Total	$454.81
	Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-11-29 15:55 EST-0500

 

this but with a 250 GB 860 evo SSD, it helps a lot but makes the system $10 over budget

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 3 2200G 3.5 GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($95.00 @ Amazon) 
Motherboard: Gigabyte - B450M DS3H Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard  ($54.99 @ Newegg Business) 
Memory: Team - Vulcan 8 GB (2 x 4 GB) DDR4-3000 Memory  ($69.99 @ Newegg) 
Storage: Samsung - 860 Evo 250 GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($55.99 @ Amazon) 
Storage: Western Digital - Caviar Blue 1 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($44.85 @ OutletPC) 
Video Card: EVGA - GeForce GTX 1060 3GB 3 GB SC GAMING Video Card  ($159.99 @ Newegg) 
Power Supply: Corsair - CXM 550 W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply  ($29.99 @ Newegg) 
Total: $510.80
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-11-29 16:22 EST-0500