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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If building the PC yourself is his main problem, why not just ask for a built to spec PC? You can get one built to your exact specifications for about £60 more than a build-it-yourself system (I'm in the UK, have no idea what that is in $)
Also building your PC yourself teaches basically nothing, it's just like legos for adults (insert object a into slot b) it's just following a set of instructions really.
That PC is ridiculous for what you want it for, you don't need thermal paste, you don't need a SSD, you don't need the latest gpu... you certainly don't need a 750w psu. So do some homework and ask for what you actually need, it looks more like you are JUST after something shiny to show to your friends.
Then actually sit down with your parents and agree a schedule with them, how much time you will spend working, playing games, doing chores, on the internet etc. THEN STICK TO IT
You won't be able to buy games without their approval most of the time anyway if you are 13, so point out to them that they can stop you from buying anything "too violent"
Point out all the creative things you can do on a decent PC as well (graphics. programming and similar) you have to try and make it sound like an attractive proposition to them
 
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I helped my son built his current pc last Christmas. We normally would pass our 5+ years old PCs to our kids to use and they've learn to live within the context of what they have. (I know many people including adults who would kill to have your MB Air). It is very hard for your parents to understand why a $500 Dell which works very well in their business environment and producing revenues for them and you want a $1400 machine just to "waste" time on game playing. That's a non-starter to many parents. But each parent is different and you'll need to work with their principles and yours hand-in-hand. Had my son been less patient with our old PCs, then my wife and I would not have suggested to build his own (yes - we were the one who brought the idea to him). It took over a year before he realized potentially how good of a deal we made him.

Here's my rational at the time and feel to adopt them in your discussions with your parents:
1) Kids nowadays are all about software but don't know what to do if the computer does not respond to their expectation.

2) I want my son to learn to solve problems starting with something as broad as how do I build a computer?

3) I want my son to learn to find answers to his problems. I want him to learn to find resources like books,Youtube, vendors (newegg have good tutorials), forum ( I gve him the link to here), etc.

4) I want my son to learn to budget (a skill he will need for the rest of his life).

5) I want my son to learn patience as he waits for the right price to buy the right components to fit within my budget.

6) I want my son to learn to prioritize. More money for a better processor or more RAM?

7) I want my son to learn to be flexible with the choices in components. Availabiity of items come and go and manufacturers end production evey now and then

Whenever I see a sale, I woud buy the item for myself. So throught the year that he was not interested, I got a 1TB WD Enterpise HD (also used in our NAS) and an OCZ 480GB SSD when it first sold for less thn $300. So the budget I gave my son is $600 all in but I will throw in the above HD and SSD and they don't count toward the budget.

So my son spent a year looking, reading,researching and debating between nice to have versus need to have for gaming. i5vs i7. 8GB RAM vs 6GB RAM.

In the end I was also lucky enough to get an Intel i7-4770K for $199 before tax exactly a year ago today that allowed him to free up $100+ (that he would have use to buy an i5) in the budget to upgrade other components. With Rebates and sales from Thanksgiving Weekend, he ended with the following build:

CORE I7-4770K LGA1150 3.5 $200.05
ASUS HD7870-DC2-2GD5-V2 HD7870 VGA 139.99
CORSAIR| CX600 600W RT PSU 29.99
MSI Z87-G41 PC MATE Z87 1150 RT MB 74.99
RAZER | DEATHSTALKER EXPERT R KB 49.99
LG 24X SATA Super-Multi DVD Internal 22.41
G.SKILL Sniper 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3 SDRAM 49.99
Rosewill RS RTL Case 59.99
=======
Total: $627.40

As agreed, I supplied the HD, SSD, MS W7 Prof OS, MS Office outside of his budget. He lost a rebate for the LG DVD unit because he threw the box out before saving the UPC (he'll learn)
 
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Sorry for the long post above .... but it was lagging so bad I decided to beak it up for fear of losing everything.

My son ended up paying for $27.40 out of his own pocket and using an old 19" Dell until his sister gave her 21" screen to him after I got her a new HP Laptop to use until she goes to college 5 years from now.

He also paid for a new Perixx MX-3000R, Programmable Gaming Laser Mouse for $34.99 out of his own pocket in January.

Good luck working with your parents and you might want to agree to limit your gaming time to weekends only and allow your dad to control and restrict the hours via a software or router.
 
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Hats off to you Sir!
If only all parents were as interested in teaching their children to learn and acquire knowledge on their own.
 
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Acquiring knowledge <> a $1500 gaming PC.

Be careful of the message being sent to the OP. The OP has a "desirement" for a high end gaming system. The parents have a "requirement" to focus on grades. A requirement trumps a desirement any day.

Suggestions and alternatives have been made. I am not sure what else we have to offer to the OP.
 
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Well, I haven't looked at this post in a while. I've made a few modifications, went to Frys, bought everything INCLUDING the monitor, keyboard, mice, and headset (our family is a complete all Mac user, we don't use anything else for computers/tablets/smartphones). Man, never knew a good keyboard that'll last a good amount of time costs $80, a monitor for $200 (to utilize the power of the GPU, which is the same), $40 headset, $40 mice. Grand total: $1,600. That's not bad. I did change the case, PSU, and some other stuff. The Nvidia Choose your Path wasn't available, but a free copy of Far Cry 4 was bundled with the SSD. I'm not sure how to close this topic, I think the moderator has the ability to do that.

I'm now on the hunt for a table, and does anyone know whether putting your PC on the top/bottom of the table affects airflow very much? And if anyone has a link for a good, not too big (5ftx5ft of surface area max) under $100, and is available at retailers other than Amazon/online retailers.

I really wanted that GPU, as I have to keep this for about a good 3-4 years before I get a new PC. Sadly, wasn't able to build this rig by myself, Frys had an amazing deal that they would build it all for $40 extra (usually $80). Though I'll be building my next one in 3-4 years (depending on game/frames/resolution/lag). Probably won't be getting multi monitors because I would want to bring this to college (don't have a console, this is the closest to one).

I still have this Far Cry 4 Code that needs parental convincing to be able to play it, anyone know if it downloads the game onto your system right away if you type in the code, and is it steam activated? Thank you everyone for participating in this thread (Still using my MBA until I get the PC set up).
 
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It will be a steam or uplay code, when you enter the code the game will add to the account you are using, then you will get the option to download it. It's not automatic
I personally never put a PC on the floor, they are dust traps, so pop it in a desk that will allow it plenty of room to breathe (I have mine just behind my monitor with my setup) you will need to clean it out more often, or clean the filters more often, if it is on or near the floor
 
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How did you manage to convince you parents you get you, a 13 year old child, a $1,600 PC?
At your age, I had a Pentium 4, and right now, at 20, I'm still running a core 2 quad that I had to beg for, despite it 'only" being $200.
 
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Comment deleted for attacking/insulting a fellow member. Please refrain from making these types of comments in the future. This is an official warning.
 
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The specs aren't exactly exact, but i'll say it to the best of my knowledge. And to answer MrJak, I personally don't know how. They randomly said yes. Parents are weird sometimes. They think 2 different things. Thanks for telling me where to put my PC, was about to put it on the floor :). As for the table, I'm not sure what I'm getting, but it's lower than $100, and I don't think it's IKEA, but some other brand. As for specs...

Motherboard: Gigabyte X97 Durable (Not sure which durable one)
GPU: Asus Strix GTX 970
PSU: Antec 550W
CPU: i5 4690 (Guy told me overlocking is complicated for CPU and not really needed)
RAM: 2x4 8GB RAM (Not sure of brand)
Storage: Samsung 250GB SSD (With Far Cry 4) and 1 TB HDD (Not sure what brand)
CPU Cooler: Stock cooler (Guy told me that is good enough if you're not overlocking, I was a little skeptical)
Case: Antec (Don't know which one, maybe 4500?)

Now for peripherals (Did I forget anything?):
Keyboard: Razer BlackWidow (Regular one with no color)
Mouse: Roccat Kone Pure (LOVE the smoothness of it, I now know what it's like to have a gaming mouse :) ITS A DREAM!
Headset: Creative SB (Soundblaster) If anyone has used this, can they tell me their experiences with it?
Monitor: Some Asus 24" 1080p display with a 2ms refresh rate, possible either 120HZ or 144HZ, on sale for $100 :)
I think that sums it up to about $1,600. I find it weird they allow this and not a $500 Console (I'm referring to the Xbox 1)

Now, as a racer guy, trying to find a free roam similar to Forza Horizon 2, and can't find a decent one. There's been mixed reviews on the Crew. What exactly did RandomAdam say that's bad? Good thing to know they give a steam code, cause I haven't set up my PC yet, haven't got the table.

Is ever gaming mouse smooth? Cause they should be. I just can't get over the feel of it, 100x better than my "what feels like plastic" mouse now. It's served me well, but we all move on, don't we? Also, how long should this setup last? 3 years? 4 years?
 
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Well, if you're 20, doesn't it really matter on what you use your money for? I don't know why my parents randomly said yes.
 
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You got a motherboard designed for overclocking, and a locked i5. That was a bit foolish I suppose, but the rest of the build looks fine.

The Crew is a terrible game. Don;t waste the money on it. It runs like crap and drives VERY arcade-y. Not fun at all.

I have my PC on the floor with no issues at all. It is sitting on a plank of wood to keep it off the carpet. No dust problems at all. It should still run games well at 1080p in 2-3 years, but it will be around time for a GPU upgrade by then for sure.

There is no way to say how long this will last because stuff changes so quickly.
 
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I didn't choose the motherboard some parts, such as Case or PSU, were chosen by the guy helping me. I forgot I had carpet, gonna need to put that on something. We don't have any solid piece of something like wood, so the top of the desk it is! I probably will change the PC altogether, I'm not sure getting a new GPU in 3 years won't result in bottlenecking an i5 4690. Overclockable boards to my knowledge have better hardware and last longer than normal motherboards because of the fact that they're made for overlocking. Manual overlocking I think for CPU is not that harmful and the best way, software ruins it I think.

What racing games do you suggest then? TDU2? GTA V seems like a nice all-rounder, but maybe a little too far in the violence for my parents...
 
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An i5 2500k is 3 years old and it won't bottleneck a gtx980. You should have no bottleneck issues at all.

I don't play any racing games really besides Forza 5 on the Xbox, and a free body physics game called BeamNG Drive on PC. I race 250cc Sodi race karts in a sanctioned league in real life and autocross my car in order to fulfill my racing needs. :lol:

 
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Wait, you do real life racing? Whoa. I heard that Forza 5 gets boring after a while, because you pretty much play the same track. I'm more of a free roam guy, but not too free roam with too arcadey controls. I wonder what it's like playing a game with 3 monitors, not sure if I can get 60FPS Ultra on 3 1080p monitors.

I also like the looks of cube world, but since it's in Alpha with not many things, I want to see what else is similar to it and more developed. I've heard FC4 has lots of bugs and horrible gameplay.
 
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Well, this has been solved, and needs no further discussion. I don't think I have the ability to close this thread, so I think you do tiny voices, because you're moderator.

But seriously, nice! I've always wanted to sit in something and go really fast and not die :)
 
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I'll keep it opened, but where exactly should I indicate that I have solved this and need no real help? I though closing it would be the best way, but there are always more than 1 way.
 
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Unfortunately, it seems rather hard to get a job where I am, and every time I get any money, my mother is "borrowing" it, so I have no real money to myself... I do, however, have almost $300 in I.O.U.'s

Hope you enjoy that PC for many years.

Also, suggestion: look into Bitcoin/cryptocurrency mining.
Make use of that PC to pay back your parents for buying you that beast of a computer.
 
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CSS:


No offense man, but no one can give you an answer on how to get what you want. If your parents say no. It's no. Believe me, there is not much you can do. And going on a forum about it is not going to help....
 
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