Planning a PC for my 6 year old

[Kamikaze420]

This is a build I'm planning for my daughter. Looking for input about compatibility and preformance for games like Minecraft, Roblox, and Fortnite. Case and peripherals I'm looking to choose with her and looking to stay in the price it is currently at.

 

PCPartPicker Part List: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/yj92b8

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 3400G 3.7 GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($147.00 @ Amazon) 
Motherboard: MSI B450M PRO-VDH MAX Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard  ($79.98 @ Amazon) 
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V Series 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 Memory  ($69.99 @ Newegg) 
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V Series 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 Memory  ($69.99 @ Newegg) 
Storage: TCSunBow X3 240 GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($29.99 @ Amazon) 
Power Supply: Corsair CX (2017) 550 W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply  ($59.99 @ Corsair) 
Monitor: Acer SB220Q bi 21.5" 1920x1080 75 Hz Monitor  ($89.99 @ Amazon) 
Total: $546.93
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-01-28 14:37 EST-0500

 

[DailyProcrastinator]

This can all be done on a tablet that a 6-year old can take with them in the car etc. Honestly a dedicated PC makes no sense.

[BigDamn]

Take out that second memory kit and add in a 1tb HDD. No need for 32gb of ram, but 240gb of storage will burn up fast.

[Fasauceome]

4 minutes ago, JM21 said:

This can all be done on a tablet that a 6-year old can take with them in the car etc. Honestly a dedicated PC makes no sense.

on the other hand, it can be used to teach them about computer hardware when it needs an upgrade. Mom and Dad can upgrade their PCs, then maybe a Ryzen 5 4600 gets donated as well as a sweet graphics card.

[GeoHandle]

Not sure about Roblox or Fortnite but i've briefly played Minecraft with a 3200G and got around 80fps going up to the 90s sometimes, and dropping down to 55-65 when loading lots of new chunks, and I know mods like opti-fine etc can improve fps (though opti-fine isn't updated to the newest version of minecraft right now). This was at 1440p. Since your planning for a 3400G at 1080p it'll probably be even better. As the computer is for a young child more storage/faster storage might be good just because children can be impatient and aren't likely to remember to delete stuff they've downloaded when they no longer use it, though you've already chosen an SSD so that should be fast enough anyway, and you can always delete stuff yourself if it looks like the storage is gonna fill up (though i'd still say 240GB is a bit small). Even for hardcore gamers 32GB's of RAM is generally overkill, for games like you mentioned 16GB is plenty (I know minecraft doesn't benefit much from more than 4GB's of RAM dedicated to it, maybe 6GB's if you want to be totally sure your getting the best performance you can, which still leaves 10GB's free). The RAM you picked looks good though. Powersupply looks fine. Don't know much about the motherboard, if you go for an ATX motherboard i'd suggest the tomahawk (max if its the same price to avoid having to update the bios), though I presume you chose the micro ATX for the form factor.

Once you've chosen all the parts you want, use pcpartpicker to check compatibility and maybe the motherboards website to check compatibility there as well. The 3400G supports RAM speeds up to 2933Mhz out of the box, so running at 3200Mz would be overclocking, which I would say is worth it in this case.

[Bartholomew]

1 hour ago, Kamikaze420 said:

This is a build I'm planning for my daughter. Looking for input about compatibility and preformance for games like Minecraft, Roblox, and Fortnite. Case and peripherals I'm looking to choose with her and looking to stay in the price it is currently at.

 

PCPartPicker Part List: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/yj92b8

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 3400G 3.7 GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($147.00 @ Amazon) 
Motherboard: MSI B450M PRO-VDH MAX Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard  ($79.98 @ Amazon) 
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V Series 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 Memory  ($69.99 @ Newegg) 
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V Series 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 Memory  ($69.99 @ Newegg) 
Storage: TCSunBow X3 240 GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($29.99 @ Amazon) 
Power Supply: Corsair CX (2017) 550 W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply  ($59.99 @ Corsair) 
Monitor: Acer SB220Q bi 21.5" 1920x1080 75 Hz Monitor  ($89.99 @ Amazon) 
Total: $546.93
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-01-28 14:37 EST-0500

Few thoughts:

 

For a minor ($50isch) budget expansion you get:

 

6 cores instead of 4 (albeit losing some freq)

27" display (reduce eye strain when reading/viewing frequently, those are some young eyes to take care of)

1tb ssd storage

Dedicated gpu

 

I suspect (milage may vary) this will "last a bit more" and run (due to gpu) a little better

 

Disclaimer, list below was just put together quickly without thorough checking on mobo quality etc. but you get the gist.

Dont take this as gospel; i hope others more specialised in budget fortnite/mc rigs will chime in with their ideas

im pretty sure if you shop around (or go the used route) you can shave off a few $ and maybe even get to 8g gpu.  

 

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 2600 3.4 GHz 6-Core Processor  ($119.99 @ Amazon) 
Motherboard: ASRock B450M-HDV R4.0 Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard  ($59.99 @ Amazon) 
Memory: G.Skill Aegis 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3000 Memory  ($60.99 @ Newegg) 
Storage: Intel 660p Series 1.02 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive  ($119.99 @ Walmart) 
Video Card: ASRock Radeon RX 570 4 GB Phantom Gaming D Video Card  ($109.99 @ Newegg) 
Power Supply: Corsair CX (2017) 450 W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply  ($49.99 @ Corsair) 
Monitor: LG 27MP37HQ-B 27.0" 1920x1080 60 Hz Monitor  ($91.16 @ Amazon) 
Total: $612.10
 

Edit:  by the time i posted better future-upgradability was already suggested by above posters; so on second thought, id go with that

 

[Kamikaze420]

1 hour ago, BigDamn said:

Take out that second memory kit and add in a 1tb HDD. No need for 32gb of ram, but 240gb of storage will burn up fast.

That was done by mistake ment to remove one after a change 

[Kamikaze420]

1 hour ago, GeoHandle said:

Not sure about Roblox or Fortnite but i've briefly played Minecraft with a 3200G and got around 80fps going up to the 90s sometimes, and dropping down to 55-65 when loading lots of new chunks, and I know mods like opti-fine etc can improve fps (though opti-fine isn't updated to the newest version of minecraft right now). This was at 1440p. Since your planning for a 3400G at 1080p it'll probably be even better. As the computer is for a young child more storage/faster storage might be good just because children can be impatient and aren't likely to remember to delete stuff they've downloaded when they no longer use it, though you've already chosen an SSD so that should be fast enough anyway, and you can always delete stuff yourself if it looks like the storage is gonna fill up (though i'd still say 240GB is a bit small). Even for hardcore gamers 32GB's of RAM is generally overkill, for games like you mentioned 16GB is plenty (I know minecraft doesn't benefit much from more than 4GB's of RAM dedicated to it, maybe 6GB's if you want to be totally sure your getting the best performance you can, which still leaves 10GB's free). The RAM you picked looks good though. Powersupply looks fine. Don't know much about the motherboard, if you go for an ATX motherboard I'd suggest the tomahawk (max if its the same price to avoid having to update the bios), though I presume you chose the micro ATX for the form factor.

Once you've chosen all the parts you want, use pcpartpicker to check compatibility and maybe the motherboards website to check compatibility there as well. The 3400G supports RAM speeds up to 2933Mhz out of the box, so running at 3200Mz would be overclocking, which I would say is worth it in this case.

I planned to swap RAM kits out but forgot to remove one. The motherboard was chosen for having an HDMI output not form factor but would have liked to have used a Tomahawk as thats a highly recommended. As for RAM speeds will the 3200 need anything special to work properly or will the processor accept it without issue? As for storage I was considering uping it and am still on the fence about it but also see her filling as a training mechanism for PC maintenance.

[GeoHandle]

5 minutes ago, Kamikaze420 said:

I planned to swap RAM kits out but forgot to remove one. The motherboard was chosen for having an HDMI output not form factor but would have liked to have used a Tomahawk as thats a highly recommended. As for RAM speeds will the 3200 need anything special to work properly or will the processor accept it without issue? As for storage I was considering uping it and am still on the fence about it but also see her filling as a training mechanism for PC maintenance.

You'll have to set the RAM speed in the bios to get it to run at an overclocked speed. Since the 3400G only officially supports RAM speeds up to 2933Mhz you can't guarantee that it'll do any better at all, but I believe overclocking to 3000 and probably 3200Mhz is reasonable enough (though obviously thats just my opinion, it could just not go any faster at all). Right now im using a 3200G until my 3700x arrives (the 3200G is also rated for 2933Mhz) ive had it overclocked to 3433Mhz with timing better than its rated and the same as its rated (the RAM's rated speed it 3733Mhz), but ive failed to boot sometimes at these speeds too. Ive not found the "sweet spot" for where I can stably overclock it too yet, but this does show that even the 3200G can be overclocked reasonably well. You should also check the RAM speeds that your motherboard supports as well.

As for the storage, I would recommend going up to 500GB's. Presuming this PC will be used for at least a few years, 240GB's will fill up quite quickly, and the more storage you have now the longer you can wait before you upgrade it.

[Kamikaze420]

2 hours ago, GeoHandle said:

You'll have to set the RAM speed in the bios to get it to run at an overclocked speed. Since the 3400G only officially supports RAM speeds up to 2933Mhz you can't guarantee that it'll do any better at all, but I believe overclocking to 3000 and probably 3200Mhz is reasonable enough (though obviously thats just my opinion, it could just not go any faster at all). Right now im using a 3200G until my 3700x arrives (the 3200G is also rated for 2933Mhz) ive had it overclocked to 3433Mhz with timing better than its rated and the same as its rated (the RAM's rated speed it 3733Mhz), but ive failed to boot sometimes at these speeds too. Ive not found the "sweet spot" for where I can stably overclock it too yet, but this does show that even the 3200G can be overclocked reasonably well. You should also check the RAM speeds that your motherboard supports as well.

As for the storage, I would recommend going up to 500GB's. Presuming this PC will be used for at least a few years, 240GB's will fill up quite quickly, and the more storage you have now the longer you can wait before you upgrade it.

I will be uping her storage. After I replied I thought about it and realized all the more I have even 1TB for my PS4. I've also upgraded to the MSI B450 TOMAHAWK ATX AM4 after more carefully researching it. Your suggestions have been quite helpful thank you.

[Herman Mcpootis]

you can get much better for the same price:

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 1600 (14nm) 3.2 GHz 6-Core Processor  ($85.00) the AF models on amazon.
Motherboard: MSI B450M PRO-VDH MAX Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard  ($79.98 @ Amazon) 
Memory: OLOy 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 Memory  ($61.99 @ Newegg) 
Storage: Silicon Power A60 512 GB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive  ($62.99 @ Newegg) 
Video Card: ASRock Radeon RX 570 4 GB Phantom Gaming D Video Card  ($109.99 @ Newegg) 
Power Supply: Corsair CX (2017) 550 W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply  ($59.99 @ Corsair) 
Monitor: Acer SB220Q bi 21.5" 1920x1080 75 Hz Monitor  ($89.99 @ Amazon) 
Total: $549.93
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-01-28 21:54 EST-0500