Gift for 15yo who wants to build a gaming computer

[jesus_wept]

Hello, I'm a newbie, be gentle lol....

So I have the task of purchasing a gift for a 15yo lad who is keen to build a new gaming PC.

My question to the friendly brains trust of LTTF....what would be a cool contribution to this build? This is a secret santa gift but would love to blow his socks off.

Value is $100 but will go over if its an awesome idea!

Books, peripherals, hardware? (hard to do hardware when I dont know the specifics of his build and no spies to ask)

thank you! (from Australia)

[WeTuLo707]

6 minutes ago, jesus_wept said:

Hello, I'm a newbie, be gentle lol....

So I have the task of purchasing a gift for a 15yo lad who is keen to build a new gaming PC.

My question to the friendly brains trust of LTTF....what would be a cool contribution to this build? This is a secret santa gift but would love to blow his socks off.

Value is $100 but will go over if its an awesome idea!

Books, peripherals, hardware? (hard to do hardware when I dont know the specifics of his build and no spies to ask)

thank you! (from Australia)

Either an AIO cooler, RGB ram if that is his thing, or a snazzy case. All 3 are fun, extremely important to a good build, and under $100 if you play your cards right.

 

Just got a nice cooler for my b-day and love it.

[ThousandBlade]

If he's got all of the parts ready and is actively building it, then some fancy fans or RBG lighting would be much appreciated.

one more great idea would be a nice CPU cooler that he can continue using for many many builds later.

 

usually those parts gets skipped when building on tight budget.

[thrasher_565]

well need to no what pc he has or will have then we can suggest things...

 

learning the value of moeny and staring out small can be a good thing. give a reason to go get a job or save from birthdays for parts imo.

 

i got my dads old parts as he upgraded. but i did buy case and fans and modding stuff witch my dad said was a wast of moeny

Edited November 22, 2023 by thrasher_565

[Poinkachu]

32 minutes ago, jesus_wept said:

Hello, I'm a newbie, be gentle lol....

So I have the task of purchasing a gift for a 15yo lad who is keen to build a new gaming PC.

My question to the friendly brains trust of LTTF....what would be a cool contribution to this build? This is a secret santa gift but would love to blow his socks off.

Value is $100 but will go over if its an awesome idea!

Books, peripherals, hardware? (hard to do hardware when I dont know the specifics of his build and no spies to ask)

thank you! (from Australia)

I don't think secret santa thing for pc building is a good idea XD

Especially if there's multiple people buying "secret gift". Getting 3 keyboards gonna be "funny"

 

Just give a coupon to a good tech store IMO.

Or simply print "I will buy you PC stuffs of your choosing up to $100"

So that the kid can buy what he lacks. He can do the research him/herself, or ask you for guidance.

Who knows, maybe s/he been saving up for a new GPU, and only lacks $100.

[WeTuLo707]

The rest of the people here are right on one thing, make sure that you know what he has before you get something new.

 

You definitely do not want repeats.

[Bitter]

Case. A nice case will get used build after build and provide a real nice long term value. ATX standards aren't vanishing anytime too soon.

[DreamCat04]

5 hours ago, WeTuLo707 said:

The rest of the people here are right on one thing, make sure that you know what he has before you get something new.

 

You definitely do not want repeats.

You also don't want to gift him for example a Ryzen 7 7800X3D when someone else gifts him a Z790 board (AMD CPU on an Intel socket, they aren't compatible). I would recommend talking to the other relatives of the kid to avoid conflicts

[JooJoo3857]

I agree with the gift card, although i would say maybe some more storage is alway a good Idea. 
Most modern Motherboards Support more than one NVME M.2 SSD so maybe look for one of those. Currently with the Black Friday going on i bet you can get a 2 TB one for around 100$. Or as mentioned before a gift card, although i would rather say make a diy gift card, because oftentimes you can get way cheaper parts online, than in store, or he might not be buying anything from the store you bought a giftcard from. 

 

[SimplyChunk]

Might seem a bit boring but....Steam vouchers??

 

Think how many games 100 bucks could get during a sale

[Lurking]

Without knowing what the person already has,wants, or needs this will just lead to waste of money 

 

You need to know if they even game or what they use the PC for. What hardware they have and what it is lacking. Maybe they hate RGB, already have enough RAM and rather want a down payment for a GPU. Or they are fine with their PC and rather want to start skateboarding. 

 

I have a hard time finding for myself what I want. Pretty impossible for someone else to find something actually useful. 

 

Ask them what they would want. Or give them cash. 

[Primevison]

Depending on what kind of system he’s currently building ram is currently really cheap (from what I can see) but if you are not sure of what he really needs maybe a Ethernet over power line that way he can get better internet speeds if he is already not wired or doesn’t have great WiFi speeds. A decent eop ( I’m abbreviating since I’m lazy) should not exceed 100$ usd 

[jesus_wept]

On 11/23/2023 at 6:23 AM, Lurking said:

Without knowing what the person already has,wants, or needs this will just lead to waste of money 

 

You need to know if they even game or what they use the PC for. What hardware they have and what it is lacking. Maybe they hate RGB, already have enough RAM and rather want a down payment for a GPU. Or they are fine with their PC and rather want to start skateboarding. 

 

I have a hard time finding for myself what I want. Pretty impossible for someone else to find something actually useful. 

 

Ask them what they would want. Or give them cash. 

Exactly my dilemma, this kid is smart and has a big future, I also have no idea what he wants/has/can work with

I was hoping there was a "Linus Tech Tips Greatest Hits: lets build your first computer for beginners" ultimate book or a reference.....maybe Linus could produce one every year with recommendations on what he has found over that year.

I think gift vouchers would be the go and something else for him to muck around with on the day we get together for xmas.

[Poinkachu]

17 minutes ago, jesus_wept said:

Exactly my dilemma, this kid is smart and has a big future, I also have no idea what he wants/has/can work with

I was hoping there was a "Linus Tech Tips Greatest Hits: lets build your first computer for beginners" ultimate book or a reference.....maybe Linus could produce one every year with recommendations on what he has found over that year.

I think gift vouchers would be the go and something else for him to muck around with on the day we get together for xmas.

Honestly, if he wants to build pc that much.

Spending the budget for a book would be the worst option.

IMO, The money better spent for something he actually want or need. $100 can buy some fancy lookin / useful stuff.

 

I mean.... guides are everywhere , especially youtube. Even LTT made ultimate pc building guide video at some point.

At most that book gonna be read once or twice, not like he builds PC every month.

[Lurking]

8 hours ago, jesus_wept said:

Exactly my dilemma, this kid is smart and has a big future, I also have no idea what he wants/has/can work with

I was hoping there was a "Linus Tech Tips Greatest Hits: lets build your first computer for beginners" ultimate book or a reference.....maybe Linus could produce one every year with recommendations on what he has found over that year.

I think gift vouchers would be the go and something else for him to muck around with on the day we get together for xmas.

There are tons of "presents for gamer" or "10 best" videos. Take them with a huge bag of salt since they are sponsored and not applicable to the individual.

 

Books for PCs are dead. More dead than paper magazines. Things change so quickly and much is more opinion (like Intel vs AMD). 

 

If you do a voucher, do Amazon and not one of those electronic stores like Best buy or Newegg unless you know for sure they like that. 

[AAVVIronAlex]

44 minutes ago, htimsenyawed said:

I’m surprised no one has mentioned a screwdriver from LTTStore.com - now in retro colors only at LTTStore.com 

@LinusTech should hire you for this, lmfao.

[wONKEyeYEs]

1 hour ago, htimsenyawed said:

They won’t. I don’t own an LTT screwdriver but I have a lot of German ones…

Wera you going with that?

 

[Soukamoshirenai]

I would suggest either a Keychron keyboard or a Sennheiser gaming headset and a headset stand.

[CatXice]

On 11/22/2023 at 2:12 AM, jesus_wept said:

Hello, I'm a newbie, be gentle lol....

So I have the task of purchasing a gift for a 15yo lad who is keen to build a new gaming PC.

My question to the friendly brains trust of LTTF....what would be a cool contribution to this build? This is a secret santa gift but would love to blow his socks off.

Value is $100 but will go over if its an awesome idea!

Books, peripherals, hardware? (hard to do hardware when I dont know the specifics of his build and no spies to ask)

thank you! (from Australia)

a 2tb SSD some how 90% of people end up needing about 2tb of storage for games as a minimum  

[Guest]

ps5 controller for comfy gaming