Convincing Parents to build PC

[mr.budder1173]

I’m 14 yrs old in 9th Grade. I’m currently trying to convince my dad(tech director in house) to allow me to build my own gaming rig but I’m having no luck at all. He says that I should focus on school and get better grades. I don’t know what to say or do about it as I am striving with all A’s. I’m also getting a job as a referee for soccer which pays enough for my 1100$ build. He knows a lot about pc’s so right when he saw the high end graphics card, he immediately knew it was for gaming. I tried saying that I would build with a low end graphics card but he still says no. Any suggestions or tips on how to convince him?

 

[geofelt]

That is an argument you are going to lose.
If you build a gaming pc, are you going to let it sit idle?? Of course not.

If your grades are good and you get your homework done on time, you may have some free time, whatever that is.
Perhaps you can agree to a time budget for building/playing with a pc.
Perhaps one hour per day.

 

[Eximo]

I assume you want to play games online. Have you considered a trial run with something like a game console or PC without network access? (Is it the Wii Slim that doesn't offer Wifi?) Many parents concerns these days are about exposure to the internet and a fear of 'always on' dependencies. I'm watching my brother go through it with his toddler already and that smartphone sure is a handy tool when something needs to get done...

My only real argument is this. I would rather have my child learn personal responsibility now than later. I know my early college days suffered from too much freedom and a re-evaluation of priorities had to take place. Better to do that when schooling is correctable and with parental oversight than wasting tuition and potentially housing costs. I also note that a lot of social engagement with peers is done online in a contemporary setting. Being the one kid that doesn't play the hot game can actually have negative impacts.

Only other potential argument is if you have any plans on making anything to do with computers your career. Then an argument could be made for using it for more than gaming. (Though really you don't need a gaming PC to do that). But I have run into people that say they learned a lot with Minecraft and others who learned almost all their programming skills from writing game mods.

I got my first second hand PC (486) when I was about 10. Of course this was the mid-90s and the internet really hadn't hit the Midwest yet. I used it almost exclusively to play games, but when it couldn't handle what I wanted, I started upgrading it. OS installation, adding expansion cards, etc. Now back then that was significantly harder, and not having easy access to the internet meant a lot of trial and error. While my career doesn't have much do with computer hardware the logical approach I learned in having a computer to troubleshoot is invaluable to other applications. I now have a career in software asset management for a fortune 500 company. (Started out with upgrade projects from Windows XP to Windows 7, quite the feat for companies with some software being over a decade old)

 

[mr.budder1173]

My parents aren’t very concerned with WiFi radiation but somewhat for the screen as they don’t want me to wear glasses. I play games on a MacBook Air 2011 and it’s terrible. I’ve got into this beta where you access a cloud gaming pc service for free but it’s not the best as there are still many bugs. The cloud service is called Nvidia GeForce Now

 

[Eximo]

My parents aren’t very concerned with WiFi radiation but somewhat for the screen as they don’t want me to wear glasses. I play games on a MacBook Air 2011 and it’s terrible. I’ve got into this beta where you access a cloud gaming pc service for free but it’s not the best as there are still many bugs. The cloud service is called Nvidia GeForce Now

Not sure how WiFi radiation got brought up. If you were referring to my post that is more of a psychological condition. Plenty of people that need constant access to the internet, social media, or games. Not to get into the debate about gaming addictions and their status as a medical condition, but I have seen people that prioritize gaming over all other things.

Myopia is pretty hard to condition. You would have to almost exclusively look at a specific distance for very long periods of time, and not do anything else. Attending classes, going from room to room, being a referee are all different enough to keep your eye from developing it. If you already have trouble seeing at short distances, then glasses are a good solution to prevent eye strain. (Or, see an optometrist)