How to Convince My Parents to Let Me Build a Gaming PC

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AgentLOL

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Nov 16, 2014
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I HAVE THIS QUESTIONS SOLVED, BUT I HAVE LEFT THIS THREAD OPEN IF ANYONE WANTS TO FREELY COMMENT OR TALK ABOUT SOMETHING :):):):):)



So, I'm 13, and its nearing my birthday. Right now I'm using a Mid-2012 Macbook Air to game, really only play Minecraft at 60FPS, and that's the only game cause' my parents think gaming is a huge time buster, leaving me with no console, except for the Wii with Mario games. That's my intro.

So, I first wanted to get a pre-built PC. Seeing how pricy they were, thought of building my own PC. Yearning to actually play other video games (my parents don't approve of violent video games sadly), I put together this really good PC for about $1,400, without peripherals. (Don't ask if they really have the money for that, cause my dad uses a giant iMac). So, I approach them ask my dad (he usually manages everything with electronics). He says that you will only save $50 by building, I won't let you build one, but rather purchase one, as it takes forever. They said that a $800 computer is good enough for school work. I explain that I want these components, and my dad realizes its for gaming.

So that pretty much ended the argument with a NO, and since then, been trying to convince him. I just don't know what's the right time to ask my dad. He owns a office and said that he would grab one from his office that's new, and left to go to the mall. Man, he just won't understand. While everyone else (my friends) sit back and play on their supercomputers and Xbox Ones, I get to sit here playing just Minecraft on my horrible laptop. With that being said, hopefully you read this all and give me a suggestion, and thanks for reading!

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/B4T9yc
 
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Well, problem is, I don't have any money nor any way of gaining it. But hey, my dad came home! I could have a talk with him about some of things you and the other forum repliers have posted (not sure what to call you all).
 
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I've found perfectly good, or mostly good, PC's on the side of the road, literally out for the trash guy.
Hot rod machines? No.
Did they work? Mostly.
 
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He can't, he is underage of 16 so can't get a job, and unless he gets it from a family member well, he has no other source. Doing the old 'lawn and Lemonade' thing won't work as they already many times shown the state Tax Man come after anyone making over $499 (http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2011/08/03/the-inexplicable-war-on-lemonade-stands/).

As he is in a Magnet school, the parents have money but have decided that GRADES mean more then GAMING and absolutely are against violence. The parents made a decision, he is just venting / whining about it. Suck it up for the next 3 years then get your own job at 16, start making your own money and buy a console then (but remember your still in your parent's house so they may say no and well your SoL on that too). 2 years after that move out and with a job, dinky studio, play your heart out gaming; but then mom and dad won't be paying your bills, you will have a cheapo job, have a landlord, taxes to pay, buy your own groceries, have to do your own laundry (no maid service or Mommy doing it for you) etc.

As one wise old man once sung Life's gonna suck when you grow up www.youtube.com/watch?v=kgEsH6Ue3No so you might as well take these couple years and just have fun doing the other stuff than gaming while you can.

Personally I wouldn't bother with the PC route especially in your case, I would suggest instead get the money and just get a PS4 and call it even. There is just NO WAY to buy 'parts' to 'game' on a PC and it not being noticed, as your Dad said, you just need one for school, well that is it, seems your just going to have to wait till you earn your own money
 
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Get a PS4? My dad doesn't want to get a console. Period. Why do you think I'm taking the path of PC? I would've gone console ages ago if it weren't for my parents. Console is like a dream to me, and part of a normal lifestyle to others. And I'm not whining. Just because I'm not old (16+) doesn't mean I'm whining. I'm merely asking for suggestions. Whether I use them or not is another story.
 
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This is an interesting thread buddy.

The best way to convince your parents for you to build PC is be well versed about it. It is like a salesperson selling his/her product.

I agree to the person above who said to be used in coding, i.e. visual basic and AUTOCAD.

Don`t rush in those sales for it will only lead into not favorable decisions, take time to relax and think.

You can also start with 800$ gaming rig as you mentioned.
If you really wants it, you can have it, DOTA 2 champions earns 300k dollars each for a single tournament.
Gaming is not bad, but habit makes it looks bad.

:)
 
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Every 2 weeks, our city has 'bulk trash pickup'. Crap that is too big to fit in the regular trash can. Put it at the curb, and the city picks it up.

Yes...I have seen, and retrieved, several working, or mostly working, PC's. Stuff that other people just threw out.
A couple of them were simply just virused up. Nothing wrong with the hardware, just slightly older and badly maintained.
 
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For a Christmas you could consider an Arduino if you're interested in coding... really neat device and it's cheap too. You could probably buy it yourself. Starter kits go for around $50.

Hopefully you can learn enough by the time you join your robotics team in highschool.
 
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I`m a gamer buddy as well as I`m a full pledge Engineer.
As I said, you must be well versed in what you/will be doing.

I used to play in family computer when I was 6.
There is nothing wrong in playing,i.e. basketball, volleyball etc. as long as you are doing the right things on the right times.

Being 13 years old and wanting to have a PC is a good mentality the next thing is getting in it. Want is good motivation now, set up your plans on how to achieve it. :)

As what he mentioned, 1$ per day for fixing his bed.
1$x365 = 365$ x 3= 1095$ for 3 years. You can have high end rig in 3 years.


Edit:

Here`s a link buddy.

http://www.esportsearnings.com/players
 
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Yeah, waiting 3 years isn't something I can exactly do. That's a long amount of waiting. What is Arduino? Seems like something interesting. And how do gamers exactly earn their money? From sponsors or what? And don't you have to be a really pro player and play the game a lot in order to get those types of paychecks? I feel like the majority who actually games don't actually get that kind of money.
 
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As said above, that's like 2 guys on the entire planet.

To get 'sponsorship' and 'make money' as a gamer...you need several years and a crapload of money/equipment beforehand. And extreme skillz.

For those 2 guys, that is a full time job.
 
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If there's any better way to communicate with my dad, it's through email. My dad prefers talking through email for some reason, probably because face-to-face can get a little out of hand. My dad's description of his office computers isn't very specific, it's "it has everything". It can't have everything, and I highly doubt it has anything really good. I've checked a few mine craft you tubers, most have GTX's 680/780, for the rare exception of the few that have Titans.

And to be such a pro gamer, you have to have years of experience. If I had been gaming like 1-2 hours every day since I was 9, I could probably be a pro gamer. Just maybe. Does anyone know what you can do with Arduino? It seems like something related to robotics. :)

So, I just have to wait and see what my dad says. Space doesn't revolve around you, but instead it revolves around everyone. You can't get everything you want all the time, unless you're superman. But when that moment comes when you get what you want, the feeling that you would get is indescribable.
 
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Honestly, I doubt you could be a pro gamer unless you game day to night 24/7. I wouldn't count on a career in gaming to make you any money.

Starting off with an Arduino would be a much better choice. It's a microcontroller. Here's the definition from there website:

"Arduino is a tool for making computers that can sense and control more of the physical world than your desktop computer. It's an open-source physical computing platform based on a simple microcontroller board, and a development environment for writing software for the board."

You start off small, making a blinking LED or something of the like and from there you can move on to MUCH bigger projects. You can make almost anything you can imagine if you have the right tools and knowledge. Check out the Arduino playground.

I would love to tell you about it in more detail, but I don't have one. My friend does and he makes all sorts of cool projects with it. He was the main person who programmed the robot for my robotics team and without him we wouldn't have a chance in the competitions we took part in. He's now studying electrical engineering in college.
 
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If you install windows on your Mac, you should get slightly better performance to tide you over. Depends on the game though.

As for office computers, their GPU is weak (if anything) as well as the PSU. You might be able to squeeze something like a 750 but that's about it. Anything more will require that extra power cable and cannot be powered just by the Pcie slot
 
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Thanks, I'll think about Arduino, seems interesting. Like electronic legos. I'm not sure if I should leave the thread open or not, it's hard to decide. I haven't found a solution, yet I have. So.... yeah
 
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Not necessarily. On Craigslist, you can often find free PCs that owners just want rid of. Old they are likely to be, but you can learn a lot by working with them.

Large item pickup day (for trash collection) is another means that folks will literally set tech items on the curb, free for the taking.
 
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I would definitely consider it. It can be much more versatile then electronic legos. I've seen projects where people have made everything from a geiger counter to a robotic lawn mower. It can get pretty wild.
 
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Thanks for the suggestions everyone! I'm not sure if I will close this thread yet, probably will when my dad and I come to an agreement. I'll also tell my dad about Arduino and all the crazy stuff you can do with it (and seems a lot cheaper than Lego Mindstorm). I probably won't wait 3 years for a PC, but rather a lot less. I wonder if I could open up this Macbook Air and rip out the CPU and motherboard (would like to see what Apple uses). BTW, my laptop just crashed on me. What's causing all this lag? I guess Safari.
 
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I'm thinking of making an iPhone app for the heck of it, and I have a Mac. I might post a link that can take you all to the new thread, where you can post your knowledge of IOS programming (if you have any).

 
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IF it is solely for none voilent gaming then a " high preformance " HP computer should do it or you could go the other route of saying you want to learn about computers and get a Raspberry Pi Model B+ and download older console games onto that its small, cheap, and can be used for educational propuses if wanted / needed to buy.
 
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