First Build for Brother

[RandomNerd99]

Budget (including currency): Around $650 before tax

Country: USA

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: Minecraft, Genshin Impact, Anno 1800, School

Other details (existing parts lists, whether any peripherals are needed, what you're upgrading from, when you're going to buy, what resolution and refresh rate you want to play at, etc): 1080p 60-75hz

 

This is the first time I've attempted to build a computer and wanted to make sure I'm not forgetting something or making some crucial mistake here. Actually not for myself, but my brother and so having something that doesn't require much tinkering when setup and being like a laptop connected to a monitor essentially is ideal. Already have most of the peripherals with the exception of a webcam, but that's not in the budget. I tried to come up with something in pcpartpicker with the help of an article (https://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/best-500-pc-gaming-build/).

 

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/ntLXwz 

 

I added windows because brother doesn't want a pirated/trial version. Motherboard was also changed to have one with wifi. It's not a ton of storage and if/when it runs out planning to add a hard drive. I also changed the ram a bit to a single stick because it was cheaper, but it's the same otherwise.

 

Other than that it's the same as the article, but the article is a month old and I did change some stuff so just wanted to check in to see if anything's wrong before continuing. I'll continue to look for a better deal on the ram but other than that is everything decent for the price?

[orbitalbuzzsaw]

Not a great time to be building right now, but I would recommend going used

[RandomNerd99]

Just now, orbitalbuzzsaw said:

Not a great time to be building right now, but I would recommend going used

I know gpu's are rough right now but it seems like this older cpu is fine for the most part? The integrated graphics should be good enough I thought at least. Most of the other stuff seemed in stock as well. I know used would probably be good with the budget and stuff but the "client" here wouldn't be happy with that.

[BondiBlue]

23 minutes ago, RandomNerd99 said:

I added windows because brother doesn't want a pirated/trial version. 

Please convince him otherwise. That's a good chunk of your budget that could be put to much better use on physical parts. 

[RandomNerd99]

41 minutes ago, BondiBlue said:

Please convince him otherwise. That's a good chunk of your budget that could be put to much better use on physical parts. 

I'll definitely try. Other than that though the parts seem fine?

[BadBoyHaloCat]

1 hour ago, RandomNerd99 said:

I added windows because brother doesn't want a pirated/trial version.

Linux. It's really not that hard. Steam games work fine through WINE/Proton. Minecraft's official launcher has support. Windows apps work through WINE. There are so many beginner-friendly distros that can be styled like Windows 10.

[RandomNerd99]

5 minutes ago, BadBoyHaloCat said:

Linux. It's really not that hard.

I think he might be younger than you're imagining, more like just entering middle school

[BadBoyHaloCat]

Just now, RandomNerd99 said:

I think he might be younger than you're imagining, more like just entering middle school

I used Linux at that age.

[RandomNerd99]

Just now, BadBoyHaloCat said:

I used Linux at that age.

Well, I'll try but I'm not sure. Plus some of these games/applications might not run right?

[BadBoyHaloCat]

Just now, RandomNerd99 said:

Well, I'll try but I'm not sure. Plus some of these games/applications might not run right?

 

First of all, as they are most likely a Windows user, look for a distro which uses the KDE plasma desktop environment. Probably Kubuntu. You can always use the iso's "Live" ("Try <distro name>") option to get a feel for it before installation.

 

Minecraft: Supported natively

Genshin Impact: May be supported via Lutris or WINE

Anno 1800: Supported via Lutris

All steam games: Supported by Steam Proton

Zoom: Supported natively

Major browsers (chrome, firefox, brave, etc): Supported natively

 

But it's up to you

 

 

[Somerandomtechyboi]

That list is ok other than wasting money on a windows 10 key, if you really want an activated windows badly then you can go to a site like scdkey for cheap windows keys, they are considerably more expesive than the ebay windows keys (3$ ebay vs 10-20$ scdkey) but you are guaranteed to get the lisence you wanted like win 10 pro license whereas on ebay you just get sent a random license so you dont know what you are gonna get.

 

Though i highly suggest just swapping to linux cause windows 10 is really slow due to all the bloat installed by microsoft especially on older or low end systems.

 

I use windows 7 cause i really hate w10, though i still have to use w10 cause i use a laptop, and good god it is slow as hell, even a freaking decade old lga 775 dualcore would crush this thing. I bet if i could install w7 then there would be a pretty big difference in load times esp on low end or systems that use hdds.

 

And i think linux is better than w7 in terms of performance enhancing depending on which distro you have.