1st build for kids

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It's been over 20 years since I last built a PC, wowsers. My 11 and 8 year old have been begging for something that can run Fortnite, the old iMacs can't handle it. Need a little better than a entry PC but they can upgrade in the future. The 11 year old will put it together. Would prefer to spend around $600 and all parts from Microcenter below. So far thinking the below.. Have a 512Gb SSD from another and use the on board video for now. Thoughts?

Thermaltake V100 ATX Mid-Tower Computer Case - Black -$49.99

Gigabyte H310M A 2.0 LGA 1151 mATX Intel Motherboard - $66.00 or Gigabyte B365 for $74 .. has four DIMM slots vs 2

Intel Core i5-9400 6 Core Coffee Lake 2.9GHz LGA 1151 Boxed Processor (Intel 300 Series chipset) - $169.99

G.Skill Ripjaws V 16GB 2 x 8GB DDR4-2666 - $62.99 OR
Crucial Ballistix Sport LT 16GB DDR4-3200 PC4-25600 4 - $83.99 x2 for 32Gb

PowerSpec 650 Watt 80 -$59.99
 
Why not a PS4 or Xbox One? They are super cheap right now since the next generation of consoles are dropping next year.

I do both console gaming and PC gaming. I'd way prefer console gaming. The amount of cheaters on PC is ridiculous.
 
For $10 more, I would go with the i5 - 9600K, much higher base clock speed.
https://www.microcenter.com/product...fee-lake-37-ghz-lga-1151-boxed-processor

Go with an ATX motherboard, mATX is just too confining a form factor in a mid-tower.

16GB ram is fine, G.Skill is good in my experience.

A separate video card is something to seriously consider. Look for a GeForce 4GB card.

What are you planning for a monitor?

PS looks fine.
 
My first PC was a kit with a 386 processor, 16M of RAM and a 212MB disk drive. Cost over $2000. But I learned a lot.

Now I have laptops that I do not do much with the guts.

I liked to play the real pinball games in the 1970s but never got into video games.
 
An AMD Ryzen 5 3400G is both cheaper, $134.99 when I looked at Microcenter, and has significantly better integrated graphics than the Core i5-9400. The Ryzen's iGPU more than makes up for it's slightly lower speed when it comes to gaming on integrated graphics.

Originally Posted by FordBroncoVWJeta
Why not a PS4 or Xbox One? They are super cheap right now since the next generation of consoles are dropping next year.

I do both console gaming and PC gaming. I'd way prefer console gaming. The amount of cheaters on PC is ridiculous.


There's something to be said about building something with your kids and seeing the pride in their eyes when the thing they built with their own hands is up and running.
 
Swap the Intel for an AMD Ryzen 5 3400G and an ATX motherboard and you'll be good to go. Better CPU and Graphics unit than Intel. The stock cooler it comes with is better too. Can't think of any reason to buy Intel at this time. Poor performing CPUS and less secure.

Pair a Ryzen with a MB like these and you'll have a fast ans stable system:
https://www.microcenter.com/product/509729/asrock-b450-pro4-am4-atx-amd-motherboard
https://www.microcenter.com/product/509728/asrock-fatal1ty-b450-gaming-k4-am4-atx-amd-motherboard
https://www.microcenter.com/product/510207/gigabyte-b450-aorus-m-am4-matx-amd-motherboard

I'm partial to the Crucial memory. They have excellent warranty service and I use that RAM in my Ryzen 7 and it's been good for the last 2 years of 24/7 operation.
 
Originally Posted by itguy08
Swap the Intel for an AMD Ryzen 5 3400G and an ATX motherboard and you'll be good to go.


+1

If you're not going to be buying a standalone graphics card, the AMD on-chip graphics are superior.

that said

Some poster above said something about PS4/XBox. There were $149 Black Friday specials on the XBox and $199 on PS4. Another strategy might be to get one of those to play games and keep the iMacs. It would be more cost effective.
 
I would suggest you buy a cheap amd machine with good graphics and add some ram and call it a day.
I would get an xbox also along with a cheap pc. then you guys can play fortnite on the same team (2 players)
 
I say go for the build. The experience and fun of building a computer for the kids will be more than worth the extra cost when compared to getting a console.

The build itself I will echo those suggesting to go AMD instead of intel.
Also, a 650w psu is too big. A 500w unit should be more than enough, even if a budget/mid range graphic card is added later on. CPUs and GPUs aren't as power hungry as they once were.
 
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I would highly recommend something with a Ryzen 1600 instead and to go ahead and purchase a graphics card such as an rx 570. The integrated GPU on intel's current lineup does not make for a pleasant experience on games such as fortnite. If you don't want to buy the GPU right now, one of the ryzen processors with an integrated GPU would probably still make a much better gaming experience for less money. A ryzen 3400g or 2400g would be a good option.
 
not to start an argument, I bought a HP off wallys, it came with 1 TB drive and I believe intel i5 and 8 gig ram.
I added 2nd ssd 128 gb, and I switch the temp drives and cache to this drive.

I added another 8 gb of ram

I can play fortnite fine with the onboard graphics and ram, Adding the extra ram improved the performance a bunch.

Don't forget if you build, windows lic will cost you extra.
 
I built a AMD based system years ago and regretted it. Long term how is the Ryzen holding up? Fairly comparable in price processor wise..

AMD Ryzen 7 2700X 3.7GHz 8 Core AM4 Boxed Processor with Wraith Prism Cooler .. $159

Good catch on the mini ATX .. this motherboard looks a little better.
Gigabyte B450 Gaming X AM4 ATX AMD Motheboard .. $99

I'll have two 27 inch Samsung Monitors. If a 500 watt would be good enough probably go with this one.. Cooler Master MasterWatt Lite 500 Watt $39.99 .. Back when I built the last one all the cases came with a power supply LOL. A video card might be coming later for a birthday or similar. They already have a XBox and Nintendo switch along with a multitude of iPads, just the Mac's are shot.
 
Originally Posted by Eric Smith
I built a AMD based system years ago and regretted it. Long term how is the Ryzen holding up? Fairly comparable in price processor wise..

AMD Ryzen 7 2700X 3.7GHz 8 Core AM4 Boxed Processor with Wraith Prism Cooler .. $159

Good catch on the mini ATX .. this motherboard looks a little better.
Gigabyte B450 Gaming X AM4 ATX AMD Motheboard .. $99

I'll have two 27 inch Samsung Monitors. If a 500 watt would be good enough probably go with this one.. Cooler Master MasterWatt Lite 500 Watt $39.99 .. Back when I built the last one all the cases came with a power supply LOL. A video card might be coming later for a birthday or similar. They already have a XBox and Nintendo switch along with a multitude of iPads, just the Mac's are shot.


Currently Ryzen>Intel for most things. Also, Ryzen 7 2700X doesn't have integrated graphics, you MUST use a dedicated GPU with that cpu.
 
Originally Posted by Eric Smith
I built a AMD based system years ago and regretted it. Long term how is the Ryzen holding up? Fairly comparable in price processor wise..


Before I got into Apple I never owned an Intel box. Always AMD. K5, K6-2, Athlon, Duron and never issues that were the CPU's fault. Most was Windows which at the time - 98, ME, was garbage. Once I went Linux on the last machine before the Apple switch it ran for months at a time.

My current Ryzen 7 box was built in Nov 2017. It's on 24/7 and does server, photo and video editing duties. I run a few VMs in Hyper-V too. Outside of an old SSD that got a little funky and a bad RAM stick (that Crucial happily replaced) it's been rock solid. It runs for a month, updates, reboots and goes again. Never any issues.

Don't go super cheap and you won't have issues.

Only reason I own any Intels now is because you couldn't get thin and light in AMD 3 years ago. Next one will be a Ryzen laptop.
 
Originally Posted by Skippy722
Currently Ryzen>Intel for most things. Also, Ryzen 7 2700X doesn't have integrated graphics, you MUST use a dedicated GPU with that cpu.


Yeah caught that after the fact.. AMD Ryzen 5 3400G 3.7GHz 4 Core AM4 Boxed Processor with Wraith Spire Cooler - $134.99 has the GPU

Originally Posted by itguy08

Before I got into Apple I never owned an Intel box. Always AMD. K5, K6-2, Athlon, Duron and never issues that were the CPU's fault. Most was Windows which at the time - 98, ME, was garbage. Once I went Linux on the last machine before the Apple switch it ran for months at a time.

My current Ryzen 7 box was built in Nov 2017. It's on 24/7 and does server, photo and video editing duties. I run a few VMs in Hyper-V too. Outside of an old SSD that got a little funky and a bad RAM stick (that Crucial happily replaced) it's been rock solid. It runs for a month, updates, reboots and goes again. Never any issues.

Don't go super cheap and you won't have issues.

Only reason I own any Intels now is because you couldn't get thin and light in AMD 3 years ago. Next one will be a Ryzen laptop.


I had a Athlon and I think a Duron for a short time. The Athlon would just reboot at random. Never could figure it out. It seemed that Intel's were better at the time, maybe it was just my build. I have i5 8th gen in my Lenovo Chromebook and it does pretty good. It seems it's pretty unanimous than Ryzen is the way to go. Actually now that I think about it my wife's HP laptop is a AMD.. ten years and still kicking (barely!!!).
 
Originally Posted by Donald
My first PC was a kit with a 386 processor, 16M of RAM and a 212MB disk drive. Cost over $2000. But I learned a lot.

Now I have laptops that I do not do much with the guts.

I liked to play the real pinball games in the 1970s but never got into video games.


The good old days.
 
Originally Posted by pandus13
[off-topic]
RE: shot Macs
user bunnspecial is a Mac collector.
Maybe he can help you get them up and running.


Nothing wrong with the iMac's just outdated and slow.. 06 and 07's.
 
Originally Posted by Eric Smith
I had a Athlon and I think a Duron for a short time. The Athlon would just reboot at random. Never could figure it out. It seemed that Intel's were better at the time, maybe it was just my build. I have i5 8th gen in my Lenovo Chromebook and it does pretty good. It seems it's pretty unanimous than Ryzen is the way to go. Actually now that I think about it my wife's HP laptop is a AMD.. ten years and still kicking (barely!!!).


I remember those days well. The chipsets, drivers, and Windows didn't like to play nice together sometimes. I remember my Duron not being that great with 98 and ME. It's what sent me to Macs. But the funny thing was I put Linux on it and it would run for weeks/months at a time without issues.

Anyway have fun with the build - I'm sure the kids will have fun with it.
 
Originally Posted by Eric Smith


I had a Athlon and I think a Duron for a short time. The Athlon would just reboot at random. Never could figure it out. It seemed that Intel's were better at the time, maybe it was just my build. I have i5 8th gen in my Lenovo Chromebook and it does pretty good. It seems it's pretty unanimous than Ryzen is the way to go. Actually now that I think about it my wife's HP laptop is a AMD.. ten years and still kicking (barely!!!).


Most chipsets for AMD CPU's back in the day were utter garbage. The last full desktop chipset AMD made prior to a significant hiatus was the 760. I had a 750 with a Slot A Athlon 800, and it was a solid rig, AMD provided excellent drivers for their own North/South bridges. Server chipsets followed not long after and it was entirely 3rd party at that point, and they were REALLY hit and miss.

SiS, ALI, VIA, NVidia and even ATI did the AMD chipset game with awful or non-existent drivers, often forcing the use of generic Microsoft drivers like "Standard ATA Controller" that lacked the performance tweaks that dedicated drivers, like what were offered for every single one of Intel's chipsets, provided at the time. The boards that these chipsets were often mounted to were also junk, so it was a pretty bad combo.

I had an old Acer Aspire T180 on the bench last night actually. Has an NVidia Nforce 430 chipset, AMD Athlon 64 CPU. Put Windows 10 on it, but had to do a workaround for the OOBE, because there wasn't sufficient CPU to run it properly. Apparently OOBE expects at least two cores and it just continuously crashes if the CPU isn't up to snuff. I've put 10 on a Core2Duo rig without issue....
21.gif
The NForce chipset drivers are basically just for the southbridge, everything else is just generic Microsoft drivers. This is in stark contrast to anything with an Intel chipset where you get a driver for basically every component. It was a stroll through memory lane for sure.

There was a period where I wouldn't even buy/sell an AMD-based laptop because the battery life was utter garbage, they'd run the fan like crazy and get wickedly hot, didn't matter who made it. They've gotten a lot better in recent years, as itguy08 alluded to. That said, my personal preference is still Intel and I doubt that'll ever change.
 
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