My 10 year old son has decided he wants to build a PC. He's been on XBox for a couple of years and I've gently tried to nudge him to go beyond gaming. His birthday was in July so we gave him some options, and he was all over on what he wanted--but now he's ready to build! Really excited about this.
I want to help him build a decent system that will have some legs to last for a while. Upgradeable although I've found over the years that upgrades to even a mid level system aren't really that big of a deal for MOST day to day stuff. I've got a 10 year old desktop that was high mid level when I built it and it still runs everything I need adequately. Could be faster on video compression/editing, photo editing, CAD etc., but it can do the work if you are patient.
So for today's effort, we are looking to build an AMD based system (or should I look at Intel?) The reason for going with AMD is the graphics situation. We won't be buying a graphics card at this time as they are outrageous and the stuff Sam plays today won't require a strong graphics solution to the best of my understanding--Fort Nite, Roblox, things like that.
Here's the basics of what I put together on Newegg:
CASE: Fractal Design Meshify C White - TG FD-CA-MESH-C-WT-TGC White Steel / Tempered Glass ATX Mid Tower High-Airflow Compact Clear Tempered Glass Computer Case
Looks like a nice case with good air flow. I didn't really spend a lot of time on it. He might want something different--you know the kids they are more interested in the LED package. I'll need to get some fans. Haven't looked at those yet.
MOBO: ASRock X570M PRO4 AM4 AMD X570 SATA 6Gb/s Micro ATX AMD Motherboard
I wanted to go with X570 chipset for the most future proof option. My last two builds were my desktop with an ASUS MOBO and a home theater PC with an ASROCK MOBO. I think ASROCK is considered a lesser brand, but I've had zero issues in a pretty crappy case with poor airflow, so that one has been solid for 7 years.
PROC: AMD Ryzen 5 5600G - Ryzen 5 5000 G-Series Cezanne (Zen 3) 6-Core 3.9 GHz Socket AM4 65W AMD Radeon Graphics Desktop Processor - 100-100000252BOX
Because of the graphics card situation and looking at price for performance, I landed on this processor. I think it's Vega 8? From what I saw, AMD is outperforming Intel in the onboard graphics department. I think this chip is supposed to be solid performer on gamer graphics for what on board graphics. I fully expect the first significant upgrade will be a graphics card in ~2 years when hopefully the market has at least settled in to the new normal over price, but less than today. Seems like the processor itself is solid enough to perform for many years.
Memorey: G.SKILL Ripjaws V Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) 288-Pin DDR4 SDRAM DDR4 3200 (PC4 25600) Desktop Memory Model F4-3200C16D-16GVRB
At first I was looking at 32 GB, but then I saw something that said gaming really isn't a big memory hog. I have no problem bumping to 32 GB if it will improve the performance, but 16 GB seems to be a decent sweet spot. For ~$65 I'm not going for less.
SSD: Western Digital WD BLACK SN750 NVMe M.2 2280 1TB PCI-Express 3.0 x4 64-layer 3D NAND Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) WDS100T3X0C
Only using an SSD since you can get a 1 TB solution for ~$130 and these NVME's are considerably faster than the stuff I was installing just a few years ago SATA connected.
Power Supply: Cooler Master MWE Gold 750 V2 Fully Modular, 750W, 80+ Gold Efficiency, Quiet HDB Fan, 2 EPS Connectors, High Temperature Resilience, 5 Year Warranty
I could probably manage with a 650W PS, but wanted a solid performer for when we do add a graphics card. This had good ratings bang for buck from what I could tell.
Here's the link for more detail. I've plugged in a keyboard and monitor, but I may be able to use an existing monitor for the time being. He'll want to pick his own flashy LED keyboard.
I didn't include a separate CPU cooler. We won't be overclocking and I don't think his gaming will be super demanding, so the stock air cooler should be okay I think--open to advice.
I might throw on an optical drive--I'm old school that way, but really, it's not necessary as far as I can tell.
If I'm missing anything significant, please advise and of course if there a better hardware choices. Since he's a student, I think I can get MS Windows for free or low cost for the OS.
Appreciate the feedback!
Forgot the link: https://newegg.io/e72ea97
I want to help him build a decent system that will have some legs to last for a while. Upgradeable although I've found over the years that upgrades to even a mid level system aren't really that big of a deal for MOST day to day stuff. I've got a 10 year old desktop that was high mid level when I built it and it still runs everything I need adequately. Could be faster on video compression/editing, photo editing, CAD etc., but it can do the work if you are patient.
So for today's effort, we are looking to build an AMD based system (or should I look at Intel?) The reason for going with AMD is the graphics situation. We won't be buying a graphics card at this time as they are outrageous and the stuff Sam plays today won't require a strong graphics solution to the best of my understanding--Fort Nite, Roblox, things like that.
Here's the basics of what I put together on Newegg:
CASE: Fractal Design Meshify C White - TG FD-CA-MESH-C-WT-TGC White Steel / Tempered Glass ATX Mid Tower High-Airflow Compact Clear Tempered Glass Computer Case
Looks like a nice case with good air flow. I didn't really spend a lot of time on it. He might want something different--you know the kids they are more interested in the LED package. I'll need to get some fans. Haven't looked at those yet.
MOBO: ASRock X570M PRO4 AM4 AMD X570 SATA 6Gb/s Micro ATX AMD Motherboard
I wanted to go with X570 chipset for the most future proof option. My last two builds were my desktop with an ASUS MOBO and a home theater PC with an ASROCK MOBO. I think ASROCK is considered a lesser brand, but I've had zero issues in a pretty crappy case with poor airflow, so that one has been solid for 7 years.
PROC: AMD Ryzen 5 5600G - Ryzen 5 5000 G-Series Cezanne (Zen 3) 6-Core 3.9 GHz Socket AM4 65W AMD Radeon Graphics Desktop Processor - 100-100000252BOX
Because of the graphics card situation and looking at price for performance, I landed on this processor. I think it's Vega 8? From what I saw, AMD is outperforming Intel in the onboard graphics department. I think this chip is supposed to be solid performer on gamer graphics for what on board graphics. I fully expect the first significant upgrade will be a graphics card in ~2 years when hopefully the market has at least settled in to the new normal over price, but less than today. Seems like the processor itself is solid enough to perform for many years.
Memorey: G.SKILL Ripjaws V Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) 288-Pin DDR4 SDRAM DDR4 3200 (PC4 25600) Desktop Memory Model F4-3200C16D-16GVRB
At first I was looking at 32 GB, but then I saw something that said gaming really isn't a big memory hog. I have no problem bumping to 32 GB if it will improve the performance, but 16 GB seems to be a decent sweet spot. For ~$65 I'm not going for less.
SSD: Western Digital WD BLACK SN750 NVMe M.2 2280 1TB PCI-Express 3.0 x4 64-layer 3D NAND Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) WDS100T3X0C
Only using an SSD since you can get a 1 TB solution for ~$130 and these NVME's are considerably faster than the stuff I was installing just a few years ago SATA connected.
Power Supply: Cooler Master MWE Gold 750 V2 Fully Modular, 750W, 80+ Gold Efficiency, Quiet HDB Fan, 2 EPS Connectors, High Temperature Resilience, 5 Year Warranty
I could probably manage with a 650W PS, but wanted a solid performer for when we do add a graphics card. This had good ratings bang for buck from what I could tell.
Here's the link for more detail. I've plugged in a keyboard and monitor, but I may be able to use an existing monitor for the time being. He'll want to pick his own flashy LED keyboard.
I didn't include a separate CPU cooler. We won't be overclocking and I don't think his gaming will be super demanding, so the stock air cooler should be okay I think--open to advice.
I might throw on an optical drive--I'm old school that way, but really, it's not necessary as far as I can tell.
If I'm missing anything significant, please advise and of course if there a better hardware choices. Since he's a student, I think I can get MS Windows for free or low cost for the OS.
Appreciate the feedback!
Forgot the link: https://newegg.io/e72ea97
Last edited:
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