[SOLVED] Build for 8 Y/O

Jun 22, 2021
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As the title says. What would be a good budget build for a child who plays titles like Minecraft, Minecraft Dungeons, Fortnite, and would likely be expanding to other titles like Crash Bandicoot, Spyro, Final Fantasy, Sonic, and emulating older titles from my childhood. I want spmething that'll last a few years without breaking the bank.

I plan to pcpartpicker a list and tweak to desire. I'm just looking for ideaa on CPUs to work around. She doesn't need anything like the 5600X or higher, but I don't want to settle for a 3400G without a dedicated card sort of deal. Just trying to find some sort of middle ground.

Bonus points for blue cases. ITX, Mini ATX, and Mini DTX builds are definitely preferres. Portability is a huge desire for someone her age. She travels between her mother's and my house quote often. As well as going to the office with my current S/O when staying with me.
 
Solution
You could just work with a 5000 series APU considering it just came out and the cost of GPU's are still a little high. You can actually build up off the APU since the rest of your parts in an APU build will have parts that won't need upgrading, perhaps a storage, CPU and GPU upgrade but the ram, storage, PSU, chassis will all be the backbone of your build. Might want to stylize your follow up post with info asked for in this this thread.

Lutfij

Titan
Moderator
You could just work with a 5000 series APU considering it just came out and the cost of GPU's are still a little high. You can actually build up off the APU since the rest of your parts in an APU build will have parts that won't need upgrading, perhaps a storage, CPU and GPU upgrade but the ram, storage, PSU, chassis will all be the backbone of your build. Might want to stylize your follow up post with info asked for in this this thread.
 
Solution
As the title says. What would be a good budget build for a child who plays titles like Minecraft, Minecraft Dungeons, Fortnite, and would likely be expanding to other titles like Crash Bandicoot, Spyro, Final Fantasy, Sonic, and emulating older titles from my childhood. I want spmething that'll last a few years without breaking the bank.

I plan to pcpartpicker a list and tweak to desire. I'm just looking for ideaa on CPUs to work around. She doesn't need anything like the 5600X or higher, but I don't want to settle for a 3400G without a dedicated card sort of deal. Just trying to find some sort of middle ground.

Bonus points for blue cases. ITX, Mini ATX, and Mini DTX builds are definitely preferres. Portability is a huge desire for someone her age. She travels between her mother's and my house quote often. As well as going to the office with my current S/O when staying with me.
if you could look up on ebay or any e-commerce, find these used parts:
Intel Xeon E3 1240 V2
Gigabyte B75 or B75M any model
2x4gb or 2x8gb ddr3
and chug in a good cheap gpu like a used gt 1030 or gtx 1050 :D
and the rest of the specs is up to you. (psu, sata ssd, hdd, etc etc.)

most bang for the buck without breaking bank with pretty decent performance:D
 
Something like this maybe...

PCPartPicker Part List

Type|Item|Price
:----|:----|:----
CPU | Intel Core i5-11400F 2.6 GHz 6-Core Processor | $184.01 @ Adorama
CPU Cooler | Noctua NH-L9i 33.84 CFM CPU Cooler | $44.95 @ Amazon
Motherboard | MSI H510I PRO WIFI Mini ITX LGA1200 Motherboard | $129.99 @ Newegg
Memory | Silicon Power XPOWER Turbine 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory | $67.97 @ Amazon
Storage | Crucial P2 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive | $103.80 @ Amazon
Video Card | MSI GeForce GTX 1650 G6 4 GB D6 VENTUS XS OC Video Card | $389.99 @ Amazon
Case | Silverstone SG13 V2 Mini ITX Tower Case | $51.99 @ Amazon
Power Supply | SeaSonic FOCUS 550 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply | $68.00 @ Newegg
| Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts |
| Total (before mail-in rebates) | $1060.70
| Mail-in rebates | -$20.00
| Total | $1040.70
| Generated by PCPartPicker 2021-08-05 10:47 EDT-0400 |
 

kanewolf

Titan
Moderator
As the title says. What would be a good budget build for a child who plays titles like Minecraft, Minecraft Dungeons, Fortnite, and would likely be expanding to other titles like Crash Bandicoot, Spyro, Final Fantasy, Sonic, and emulating older titles from my childhood. I want spmething that'll last a few years without breaking the bank.

I plan to pcpartpicker a list and tweak to desire. I'm just looking for ideaa on CPUs to work around. She doesn't need anything like the 5600X or higher, but I don't want to settle for a 3400G without a dedicated card sort of deal. Just trying to find some sort of middle ground.

Bonus points for blue cases. ITX, Mini ATX, and Mini DTX builds are definitely preferres. Portability is a huge desire for someone her age. She travels between her mother's and my house quote often. As well as going to the office with my current S/O when staying with me.
I would say a console is a better choice than a PC.
 
I built my kids systems around the 3400G and on B450 (MAX) motherboards. The good thing about B450's, (most but not all) is that they support cpu's up to the 5000 series so upgrade paths are pretty good. My 9yr old daughter still has a 3400G and plays Roblox, minecraft etc and it's a decent little system. My 12yr old boy had a 3400G but now has a 3600X and an RX570 GPU as he plays more demanding games.
 

punkncat

Champion
Ambassador
I mean no offense, but an 8 yo has ZERO business being online at all without 110% FULL PARENTAL supervision. Even something as innocuous as Fortnite plays with chat and text enabled that no child that young should be exposed to.
I am probably way old fashioned, to be fair...but I would lock this possible build down so so tight. A child that young lacks the ability to reason and decide where and what is safe online. It's nearly impossible to keep them away from things because then classmates introduce them to proxies and such.
Once again, I reiterate that a parent should be beside child paying active full attention to every moment this computer is on and online. Make sure the other parent is cool with that responsibility.

Sorry to be a fuddy duddy, but it's dangerous out there.
 

larsv8

Distinguished
Seems like a perfect use case for a 5700g

AMD Ryzen 5700g - $360
Cooler - Stock - Free
GIGABYTE B550I AORUS PRO AX - $189
2 x 8 Crucial Ballistcs 3600 (CAS 16) - $89
Any Budget SSD - $50-100
RAIJINTEK Metis Plus Mini ITX Tower Case - Blue $85

$775

Low settings can run fortnite and minecraft just fine.
 
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Jun 22, 2021
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I am fully aware of online dangers and no, she won't be unsupervised online. Now, I came here for PC build advice, not parenting advice. I've got that completely covered. She is 8, this will be her learning PC to learn how to care for and maintain for a system. A first step to responsibility and she will be building it with me on Christmas.

Kanewolf specifically. Don't go into PC threads telling a parent what they need to do with their child. I've got it covered. She is 8. She doesn't make money as of right now and even if I were being irresponsible, that would be my business. Thank you.
 
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Jmi20

Prominent
Jun 5, 2020
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Something like this would be a good first build:


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

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 3400G 3.7 GHz Quad-Core Processor ($327.00 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: MSI A320M-A PRO Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard ($59.00 @ Amazon)
Memory: Kingston ValueRAM 8 GB (1 x 8 GB) DDR4-2400 CL17 Memory ($57.90 @ Amazon)
Memory: Kingston ValueRAM 8 GB (1 x 8 GB) DDR4-2400 CL17 Memory ($57.90 @ Amazon)
Storage: Kingston A400 240 GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($34.99 @ Amazon)
Total: $536.79
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2021-08-05 13:00 EDT-0400

You could use an A520M motherboard for a bit more future proofing, and an itx build is more expensive so i think matx would be better for you. don’t think theres any need for a gpu at the moment.

this build might be just enough to emulate some older playstation titles too…

if you want portability a laptop would be good too.
 
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punkncat

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Ambassador
I am fully aware of online dangers and no, she won't be unsupervised online. Now, I came here for PC build advice, not parenting advice. I've got that completely covered. She is 8, this will be her learning PC to learn how to care for and maintain for a system. A first step to responsibility and she will be building it with me on Christmas.

Kanewolf specifically. Don't go intp PC threads telling a parent what they need to do with theor child. I've got it covered. She is 8. She doesn't make money as of right now and even if I were being irresponsible, that would be my business. Thank you.


I understand fully why you would be indignant at the advice, and offer apology again. It's simply something that should be said and taken very seriously, whether it hurts your feeling or not. The internet is a swamp of nasty creatures.
 
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punkncat

Champion
Ambassador
By way of helpful advice...

It appears that Fortnite is going to be your toughest game, currently. Even at that would run on a 'potato' build.
As to the emulator aspect those also run on nearly nothing for power. There is a guy on YouTube called ETA Prime that does loads of small form, old repurposed builds and such based on emulation and totally worth a watch.

My own opinion of this would be to attempt to locate a 4th gen Intel build, or something along that line, that someone is selling on the used market. Might even could branch off into office builds if you are willing to do the work on seeing what GPU would fit. I would think that even something as 'lowly' as a 750ti should give decent enough results on (most) everything.

I would be concerned over some of the above suggest build about mobo/cpu/bios playing happy together. Ryzen and some of it's G series offshoots can be a real crap shoot in that regard.

This video (and I would check others) show fair decent results on a 10100 with some scaling done:
View: https://youtu.be/0r3hDQ_zfW0
 

King_V

Illustrious
Ambassador
I think a system based around a 5600g would be a good - similar to what @larsv8 suggested.

If you don't plan to expand this one in the future, and don't plan to go with a discrete video card, and want to limit it to 1920x1080 (or less?), then perhaps putting a build together based on a 5600g or 5700g APU, and the ASRock DeskMini X300, might be the way to go.

That'll keep costs way down.

I did something similar with an older version of it, the A300, though in my case I didn't need the graphics performance of the 5600g/5700g, so I used an Athlon 200GE. See the Micro Machine build in my signature. You'd go with more storage, a more powerful APU, and more RAM (keep in mind that these use laptop RAM), but it might be worth considering.
 
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Rogue Leader

It's a trap!
Moderator
Old hardware should never be a consideration at this point with the AMD 5xxxG APU processors in existence. You can build something for similar costs that will do what she needs now, and support current and future upgrades strongly for a decent period of time.
 
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https://www.newegg.com/petrol-blue-fractal-design-focus-g-atx-mid-tower/p/N82E16811352073
Fractal Design Focus G Computer Case $49.99

Use the fan that comes with this psu for an exhaust fan for that case up above.

https://www.newegg.com/super-flower-leadex-iii-sf-550f14hg-550w/p/1HU-024C-00008
Super Flower Leadex III 550W 80+ Gold Modular Power Supply $69.99
Free Super Flower Computer Case Fan w/ purchase, limited offer By Super Flower

https://www.newegg.com/p/N82E16813119385
ASUS PRIME B560M-A $109.99

https://www.pcnation.com/web/detail...6-core-2-90-ghz-processor-oem-cm8070104290716
Intel Core i5-10400F $144.44

https://www.amazon.com/Vetroo-Cooler-Processor-Universal-Addressable/dp/B08F21X2VP/
Vetroo V5 CPU Air Cooler $29.99

https://www.amazon.com/TEAMGROUP-T-Force-Vulcan-3200MHz-Desktop/dp/B07T637L7T/
TEAMGROUP T-Force Vulcan Z DDR4 3200MHz 16GB (2x8GB) CL16 $73.99

https://www.newegg.com/team-group-1tb-ex2/p/N82E16820331541
Team Group EX2 2.5" 1TB SATA III 3D NAND Internal SSD $81.99

Total: $561

https://www.amazon.com/MSI-GTX-1650-OC-Ventus/dp/B086VR4VHX/
MSI GTX 1650 D6 Ventus XS OC $399.99

A better look at that board.

https://www.asus.com/Motherboards-Components/Motherboards/PRIME/PRIME-B560M-A/

A better look at that case.

https://www.fractal-design.com/products/cases/focus/focus-g/black/

Review of that cpu w/benchmarks.

 
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