Budget PC for my stepson - Need Suggestions

[DimitriBrut]

My stepson has been begging me to build him a gaming PC for a few months now and I've been putting it off. He hasn't had the best run with the computers he's come in contact with in life... I've tried to explain malware and how it works, but that's a topic for another thread. It'd be nice to be able to game with the kid though, he's really into games like 7 days to die, Minecraft, Gary's Mod, ect. I've been tossing around various builds in my brain, but I figured I'd reach out to the LTT community to point me in the right direction. I have roughly half a PC that I think I'd like to just finish off to get him going. I had the whole thing pieced together a few years ago, but foolishly gave a few pieces to a friend. Now I'm left with a box of parts I may or may not be able to use.

 

Budget: Roughly $500 US

Location: Southern California

Goal: Light Gaming. Mainly GMod and Minecraft, but I'd like him to be able to play more taxing games in the future. He really wants to give GTA a try, but we're holding off on that until he's older. The graphics don't have to be cranked all the way up, he won't even notice the difference.

 

Parts I Have:

Tower - Coolermaster Sniper (Big case. Fairly old, but does the trick. Great airflow)

PSU - Corsair 860 AX

HDDs - 2 1TB drives

RAM - 16 GB Corsair Vengeance DDR3

GPU - Gigabyte GTX 760 (I believe it's the 2GB version. It's the big Windforce one)

Mouse - Mad Catz R.A.T. 7 M.M.O.

Monitor - Some sort of 24' Asus 1080p LCD

Speakers - Logitech something or rathers

 

Parts I used to have that went in this build, but were given to a friend.

CPU - 4771 (This was way overkill. I should have went with something cheaper)

CPU Cooler - Coolermaster V8

Motherboard - Asus Z87 Sabertooth

 

So obviously, I'm going to need a CPU, CPU cooler, motherboard, keyboard, and Windows. Other things that would be nice to have, but not necessary would be some sort of lighting element. Some RGB lighting for the case and maybe an RGB keyboard. If I can squeeze a 128 or 256GB SSD in there I will definitely do that over the lighting.

 

Questions I have... Should I scrap the 16GB of DDR3 RAM and just go the Ryzen route with some DDR4 to go with it? Or would I be better off going the Intel route and finding something similar to what was already in there? Or perhaps scrap the 760? It was good to me in the past, but I'm open to all suggestions.

 

Thanks in advance folks.

 

 

 

[DocSwag]

Do you want something with an upgrade path for the future or no? If yes it'd be best to go with something with ddr4, if not you could go with something older and reuse the ddr3

[DimitriBrut]

Do you want something with an upgrade path for the future or no? If yes it'd be best to go with something with ddr4, if not you could go with something older and reuse the ddr3

I guess that would depend on the price difference? I'm leaning toward something he can upgrade in a few years when he starts working.

[Jurrunio]

Ryzen 5 1600 (6 core 12 thread) + B350 mobo +16GB 2800 / 3000MHz RAM should cost around $400.

Ryzen 3 1200 (4 core 4 thread) + B350 mobo + 16GB 2800 / 3000MHz RAM should cost around $300.

 

AM4 will get new CPUs up till 2020, so it's better than Intel's current offerings. If you can wait then you can wait for Coffee Lake which will be available in about a month, and see what's what.

[DocSwag]

13 minutes ago, DimitriBrut said:

I guess that would depend on the price difference? I'm leaning toward something he can upgrade in a few years when he starts working.

With a Ryzen 3 you could be looking at something like this.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 3 1200 3.1GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($108.89 @ OutletPC) 
Motherboard: ASRock - AB350 Pro4 ATX AM4 Motherboard  ($73.98 @ Newegg) 
Memory: Patriot - Viper Elite 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2666 Memory  ($69.99 @ Newegg) 
Storage: Samsung - 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($89.99 @ B&H) 
Video Card: Gigabyte - GeForce GTX 760 2GB WINDFORCE Video Card  (Purchased For $0.00) 
Case: Cooler Master - Storm Sniper ATX Mid Tower Case  (Purchased For $0.00) 
Power Supply: EVGA - B3 450W 80+ Bronze Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply  ($31.98 @ Newegg) 
Total: $374.83
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-08-30 22:11 EDT-0400

 

If you're not in a hurry though I'd suggest you wait a month or two as Intel should be releasing their next gen coffee Lake CPUs then. I3s should be quad cores which means compared to Ryzen 3 you'd be paying about the same for a CPU with higher ipc.

[DimitriBrut]

3 minutes ago, DocSwag said:

With a Ryzen 3 you could be looking at something like this.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 3 1200 3.1GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($108.89 @ OutletPC) 
Motherboard: ASRock - AB350 Pro4 ATX AM4 Motherboard  ($73.98 @ Newegg) 
Memory: Patriot - Viper Elite 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2666 Memory  ($69.99 @ Newegg) 
Storage: Samsung - 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($89.99 @ B&H) 
Video Card: Gigabyte - GeForce GTX 760 2GB WINDFORCE Video Card  (Purchased For $0.00) 
Case: Cooler Master - Storm Sniper ATX Mid Tower Case  (Purchased For $0.00) 
Power Supply: EVGA - B3 450W 80+ Bronze Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply  ($31.98 @ Newegg) 
Total: $374.83
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-08-30 22:11 EDT-0400

 

If you're not in a hurry though I'd suggest you wait a month or two as Intel should be releasing their next gen coffee Lake CPUs then. I3s should be quad cores which means compared to Ryzen 3 you'd be paying about the same for a CPU with higher ipc.

Solid information... I appreciate it. Should I pick up the EVGA power supply even though I have a pretty decent one already? I've never had any issues with the Corsair I listed. 

[DimitriBrut]

4 minutes ago, DocSwag said:

Snip

Additionally... is 8 gigs of RAM enough? 

[DocSwag]

14 minutes ago, DimitriBrut said:

Additionally... is 8 gigs of RAM enough? 

For the games it sounds like your stepson is playing, probably.

 

If you wanna get more just because, then sure why not I guess. Just get 2x8gb not 4x4

[DimitriBrut]

Just now, DocSwag said:

For the games it sounds like your stepson is playing, probably.

 

If you wanna get more just because, then sure why not I guess. Just get 2x8gb not 4x4

Sounds great. I'll put this on hold for a month or so and check back in when Coffee Lake releases.

[Guest]

3 hours ago, DimitriBrut said:

and Windows

Just go on ebay or something and pick up a product key for around 5-15 dollars. 

[Guest]

3 hours ago, DimitriBrut said:

He hasn't had the best run with the computers he's come in contact with in life... I've tried to explain malware and how it works, but that's a topic for another thread.

Also with that product key keep it handy and have win10 on a usb so every time that happens you can just wipe the harddrive and clean install windows.  

 

I also recommend installing malwarebytes, it's free!

[DimitriBrut]

On 8/30/2017 at 10:06 PM, iVince said:

Just go on ebay or something and pick up a product key for around 5-15 dollars. 

Can those keys be trusted? Or would I be risking wasting cash on a used key?

On 8/30/2017 at 10:09 PM, iVince said:

Also with that product key keep it handy and have win10 on a usb so every time that happens you can just wipe the harddrive and clean install windows.  

 

I also recommend installing malwarebytes, it's free!

That's the plan... but I'll let him do the reinstalling. Maybe he'd learn if had to put the effort in himself. I was definitely considering malwarebytes and there was a free anti virus I liked too... Very tired right now. Can't remember the name, but I think it started with an "A" or a "V"

 

Thanks for the advice!

[Guest]

13 hours ago, DimitriBrut said:

Can those keys be trusted? Or would I be risking wasting cash on a used key?

That's the plan... but I'll let him do the reinstalling. Maybe he'd learn if had to put the effort in himself. I was definitely considering malwarebytes and there was a free anti virus I liked too... Very tired right now. Can't remember the name, but I think it started with an "A" or a "V"

 

Thanks for the advice!

AVG?

Also if he is using chrome install ghostery, adblock, and advast plugins.

All free and work great.

[Guest]

13 hours ago, DimitriBrut said:

Can those keys be trusted? Or would I be risking wasting cash on a used key?

Well I bought a windows ten pro key off ebay and it's still working fine.

Paid like six dollars for it.

[Nik_]

18 hours ago, DimitriBrut said:

Can those keys be trusted? Or would I be risking wasting cash on a used key?

 

Check out reddit, g2a, kinguin, etc. 

[DimitriBrut]

8 hours ago, iVince said:

AVG?

Also if he is using chrome install ghostery, adblock, and advast plugins.

All free and work great.

AVG! That's it!

I'll check those plugins out for sure.