Not Even a Joke...

[thefamouspotato]

 I was literally looking at the forums and looking at my replies until my sister came into the room (9 years old) asked what I was doing. I said looking at pc parts because im bored and she said to me: "can you build me a pc for 500$" and I said what for? and then she said for playing Roblox...

 

so can anyone help me

 

[Moonzy]

will you be building the PC? or it's a theoretical build?

[AMD A10-9600P]

You see your profile picture, one of those would likely suffice for Roblox. My supermarket sells those in a 4 pack for 80p, not a bad deal if you ask me.

[emosun]

For a budget that low you'd be buying an office pc and dropping a low end gpu in it. to my knowledge roblox is simplistic enough that almost any gpu with a gig of vram from the last 7 years should be able to do it.

[AMD A10-9600P]

In all seriousness though, for a 9 year old it is probably better to just get a sub $500 laptop. They likely won't push it that far, and when they do, they'll be old enough to want a new PC anyway.

[Nathanpete]

Ryzen APU, 8GB of 2400 MHz RAM, cheapest motherboard, cheapest case, 400W 80+ (or 80+ bronze), and a used hard drive. 

[emosun]

Just now, AMD A10-9600P said:

for a 9 year old it is probably better to just get a sub $500 laptop.

9 year olds break laptops , get something that can be fixed infinitely

[Nathanpete]

Just now, emosun said:

For a budget that low you'd be buying an office pc and dropping a low end gpu in it. to my knowledge roblox is simplistic enough that almost any gpu with a gig of vram from the last 7 years should be able to do it.

Not true, yes on the VRAM, but many of the top games are now visually demanding enough to require a top tier iGP or APU in order to run at medium render distance. So a GT 710 would probably struggle. Have a GT 750 Ti and it runs a little under 60 FPS at 70% on the render distance (bar goes from 10% to 100%, with 100% being the maximum supported by the engine) at 1080p in the most popular games. 

[AMD A10-9600P]

3 minutes ago, emosun said:

9 year olds break laptops , get something that can be fixed infinitely

I second that, or just something cheap and easy to outright replace when the time comes.

[NekoBubbles]

3 minutes ago, emosun said:

9 year olds break laptops , get something that can be fixed infinitely

Or invest if you got the money to do it in a solid desktop set up if they got the room for it and if they are using a desk near a corner or side of the room. Get a nice heavy solid case if desktops are an option. A lot of HDD's need like a pretty solid hit or get like tossed or smacked with a hammer to have significant damage. Just make it clear once ya make the PC not to go messing around with the parts. 

[emosun]

1 minute ago, NekoBubbles said:

Or invest if you got the money to do it in a solid desktop

why was i quoted there

[emosun]

7 minutes ago, Nathanpete said:

Not true, yes on the VRAM, but many of the top games are now visually demanding enough to require a top tier iGP or APU in order to run at medium render distance. So a GT 710 would probably struggle. Have a GT 750 Ti and it runs a little under 60 FPS at 70% on the render distance (bar goes from 10% to 100%, with 100% being the maximum supported by the engine) at 1080p in the most popular games. 

what year was the 750ti released?

[Nathanpete]

Just now, emosun said:

what year was the 750ti released?

Wow, I actually can't believe it has been 7 years, it feels like 5 years ago. 

[NekoBubbles]

1 minute ago, emosun said:

why was i quoted there

Was adding on to the comment about a laptop. Sometimes even expendable laptops can get to be a pain to replace. Sometimes its nice to just think ahead and get the desktop set it up right once and she won't have to think about it till the parts need an upgrade. Can always make a chair higher with cousins and or books. 

 

[emosun]

Just now, NekoBubbles said:

Was adding on to the comment about a laptop. Sometimes even expendable laptops can get to be a pain to replace. Sometimes its nice to just think ahead and get the desktop set it up right once and she won't have to think about it till the parts need an upgrade. Can always make a chair higher with cousins and or books. 

ah ok , for a second I though you were under the impression that I didnt recommend a desktop and were typing the same thing.

[Nena Trinity]

Actually any PC, Mac or even Android devices can run it.

[NekoBubbles]

Just now, emosun said:

ah ok , for a second I though you were under the impression that I didnt recommend a desktop and were typing the same thing.

Oh no I'm just always thinking about how to try to future proof a build if its of course within the budget or if it takes expanding it a small bit to avoid inconveniences later. 

[Nena Trinity]

my vote goes to a i5-11500 based system,might also be upgradable if smart for future games.

[emosun]

1 minute ago, NekoBubbles said:

Oh no I'm just always thinking about how to try to future proof a build if its of course within the budget or if it takes expanding it a small bit to avoid inconveniences later. 

ah yeah same here , thats why I dont recommend laptops.

[Zando_]

Something like this: 

 

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

CPU: AMD Ryzen 3 3200G 3.6 GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($128.99 @ B&H) 
Motherboard: ASRock B450M PRO4 Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard  ($79.73 @ Amazon) 
Memory: Crucial Ballistix 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory  ($75.65 @ Newegg) 
Storage: Crucial MX500 500 GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($57.99 @ Adorama) 
Case: Cooler Master MasterBox Q300L MicroATX Mini Tower Case  ($48.49 @ Amazon) 
Power Supply: Corsair CX (2017) 450 W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply  ($54.99 @ Corsair) 
Total: $445.84
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2021-04-27 13:02 EDT-0400

A 3400G would be a better option if you can find one at a decent price, but this'll still be a solid PC for super light games like Roblox and such, while being able to take a GPU if the market ever settles down and she decides she wants to play chunkier games.

[Nathanpete]

3 minutes ago, Zando Bob said:

Something like this: 

 

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

CPU: AMD Ryzen 3 3200G 3.6 GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($128.99 @ B&H) 
Motherboard: ASRock B450M PRO4 Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard  ($79.73 @ Amazon) 
Memory: Crucial Ballistix 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory  ($75.65 @ Newegg) 
Storage: Crucial MX500 500 GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($57.99 @ Adorama) 
Case: Cooler Master MasterBox Q300L MicroATX Mini Tower Case  ($48.49 @ Amazon) 
Power Supply: Corsair CX (2017) 450 W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply  ($54.99 @ Corsair) 
Total: $445.84
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2021-04-27 13:02 EDT-0400

A 3400G would be a better option if you can find one at a decent price, but this'll still be a solid PC for super light games like Roblox and such, while being able to take a GPU if the market ever settles down and she decides she wants to play chunkier games.

You can throw most of this away. You could get slower RAM and roblox wouldn't give a shit, get the BX500 SSD instead, and you save the kid some money and lose nothing. Well that is you lose nothing as a 9 y/o, as an adult we see the weaknesses, but this is roblox we are talking about. 

[Zando_]

Just now, Nathanpete said:

You can throw most of this away. You could get slower RAM and roblox wouldn't give a shit, get the BX500 SSD instead, and you save the kid some money and lose nothing. Well that is you lose nothing as a 9 y/o, as an adult we see the weaknesses, but this is roblox we are talking about. 

It's a computer. They're very versatile devices that also last for years. Her tastes will change in that time so why would you kneecap the rig when it remains in the expected budget.

[Nathanpete]

Just now, Zando Bob said:

It's a computer. They're very versatile devices that also last for years. Her tastes will change in that time so why would you kneecap the rig when it remains in the expected budget.

By kneecap you must mean a slight bump downwards. Clearly on a budget, and even if both of our builds are within said budget, I would hope that OP would choose to save a buck and lose close to nothing. Neither of my proposed changes would adversely affect the lifetime of the hardware. The BX500 and the MX500 have the same TBW, and slower RAM should actually last longer, at least that is normally true. 

[Zando_]

1 minute ago, Nathanpete said:

By kneecap you must mean a slight bump downwards.

...

 

It is an APU. A Zen+ APU. Zen as an architecture benefits greatly from faster RAM (3200Mhz would actually be good, but I left it at 3000 as that's more likely to run + if they go for a Zen based 2000 series it'll still be fine, as those can handle 2933-3000MHz RAM). It being an APU makes decent RAM even more important, as the onboard GPU uses system RAM as VRAM, so the faster it is, the better the GPU can perform. This is also the reason I recommended a 16GB kit, as the APU reserves 1-2GB of RAM for itself.

 

4 minutes ago, Nathanpete said:

The BX500 and the MX500 have the same TBW

BX500 has no DRAM cache from my reading, making it pretty shite as an OS drive.

6 minutes ago, Nathanpete said:

and slower RAM should actually last longer, at least that is normally true. 

I have never heard that from any reliable source ever. Running horrifically high voltages through your RAM could kill it, more likely going to kill the CPU IMC first. Running the RAM at the manufacturer guaranteed XMP/DOCP profile or close to that (if you have to manually key in speed/timings) will have 0 effect on longevity. 

[Nathanpete]

Just now, Zando Bob said:

It is an APU. A Zen+ APU. Zen as an architecture benefits greatly from faster RAM (3200Mhz would actually be good, but I left it at 3000 as that's more likely to run + if they go for a Zen based 2000 series it'll still be fine, as those can handle 2933-3000MHz RAM). It being an APU makes decent RAM even more important, as the onboard GPU uses system RAM as VRAM, so the faster it is, the better the GPU can perform. This is also the reason I recommended a 16GB kit, as the APU reserves 1-2GB of RAM for itself.

 

BX500 has no DRAM cache from my reading, making it pretty shite as an OS drive.

I can't confirm if what I said about RAM is true either, but I know I heard that somewhere. 

 

And yes, as an adult and PC enthusiast, we all know this and can all agree. Now try explaining to your parents or sister that you need an extra $50 to get 1% better RAM performance and +10% SSD performance. If the 9 y/o is used to HDD boot times, even the BX500 will blow her away.