Building your own pc

ferjphoto

ferjphoto

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So my lad is 13 and has decided rather than play his xbox he's going to build his own "gaming" pc. I've honestly no idea about building computers and I've told him that with his pocket money it's probably going to take 2 years to get all the bits for it! He does already have a reasonable monitor, keyboard & mouse!

My question are if he buys stuff now, will it be compatible in 2 years time? Also is he going to be paying over the odds for stuff due to Covid & Brexit? Would 2nd hand parts be a really bad idea?

He used all his savings and ordered this case to start with, I've no idea if it's good or not, I just don't want him to waste his money, but applaud him for wanting to learn new skills!

 
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ferjphoto said:
My question are if he buys stuff now, will it be compatible in 2 years time?
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Is he building a Windows PC? If so, be aware that Windows 10 is soon going to be "upgraded" to Windows 11 and certain CPUs (and thus motherboards) will not be compatible with running it. It's possible to "work around" the issue, but it requires a bit more thinking about.

The reason I mention this is that many older/second hand (non compatible) CPUs & their motherboards may suddenly appear to be very reasonably priced.

It's worth reading up on the issue as I don't really know that much about it (other than my fairly high spec 2017 desktop won't run Win 11 without messing about) and CPU naming conventions are very confusing to me. I'm from an era of 286, 386 and 486. (There's a thread here about it)

Things like cases, power supplies, storage drives and graphics cards should be fine second hand although graphics cards were quite hard to get hold of last year. Memory will need to be considered depending on motherboard (which depends on CPU) so those three things can't "just be bought" randomly.

When I built my PC, I used a "PC Builder" site which lets you build your PC and "greys out" incompatible components so you can get the right motherboard/CPU/RAM combination. It also greys out power supplies that don't have enough grunt to run the graphics card/CPU combination you choose. The name of the site completely escapes me at the moment though... (maybe someone else can help, or Google...)

Hope that helps!
 
Instead of having a save/buy/save/buy... policy, I'd advise him to just save, until the money matches his desired system spec cost.
In two years, that spec will change, as new kit is released, prices change, and OS/game requirements alter, and it's depressing to have something drop in price (if you bought it now) when it's just been sitting on a shelf in it's box, unable to be used for months, or not be compatible with stuff that's available now, but wasn't then.
 
At that age he probably just wants to have a go and good for him, there is no way he is going to wait 2 years. The thing with inexperienced builders is all the little things that you don't think of or know about like is this component compatible with that motherboard etc. and you can waste money but it is a good learning experience. I'd encourage him to start with getting something fairly basic/cheap in that case and working and then build up from there. At least then if he gets bored or frustrated and gives up he won't have wasted a lot and if he enjoys it he can upgrade as he gets more money.
 
Tori_T said:
Instead of having a save/buy/save/buy... policy, I'd advise him to just save, until the money matches his desired system spec cost.
In two years, that spec will change, as new kit is released, prices change, and OS/game requirements alter, and it's depressing to have something drop in price (if you bought it now) when it's just been sitting on a shelf in it's box, unable to be used for months, or not be compatible with stuff that's available now, but wasn't then.
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I have suggested this to him, but he's an impatient 13 Yr old! Partly why I asked here to give him some more advice
 
Could be worth having a browse and then dropping a post in here: https://forums.overclockers.co.uk/community/new-to-pc-gaming-upgrade-advice.172/

These guys will keep you right with compatibility, performance requirements etc. plus YouTube has some great build videos. My son wanted a PC (he's a few years younger so I helped him build it) and it definitely gives them a great sense of achievement, he's moved completely off the Xbox onto the PC.
 
IMO and an 'as I perceive it'.....plus following on from all prior answers.

On the surmise that it will indeed be his pocket money/saved money to buy the parts over time, the end result could be more like that old song about the car assembly line guy who built his Cadillac (?) from filched parts...... wonderfully satisfaction but a pig's ear of problems with the end result.

So unless or even with you as "Bank of Dad" he specs & buys it all now as a cohesive whole, he could potentially become frustrated with the process and end result.

One thing that I read about gamers is, a bit like some photographers, they are always seeking the next better/best bit of kit...........in other words a money pit. So whichever route he takes with or without your money support, he will perhaps very quickly want to update with (expensive) upgrades.

Lastly, as others have said I applaud his ambition and thinking ahead but fear that he will put you over barrel ;)
 
Never buy now and build in the future, it all goes old very quickly.

And Gaming PC`s have now gone so stupidly expensive its better to get a console, play the hell out of a game and sell it on before it devalues
 
I was a first time builder about 18 months ago, I watched loads of guides on YouTube and just went for it. I built 2 systems, one for myself for photo editing and one for gaming for my son. Whilst daunting at first it's actually fairly straight forward. Neither machine had the very latest gpu's, cpu's etc but both were plenty fast (and will run Windows 11 without issue) . He still runs the latest games on his everyday without problem, and achieves the frame rates he wants to. He very rarely uses his Xbox now. Never had a moments problem with either machine so far apart from a second hand hard drive dying, which was the only used part I used,!

I do know that prices have rocketed though, so glad I did it when I did.
 
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Harlequin565 said:
Is he building a Windows PC? If so, be aware that Windows 10 is soon going to be "upgraded" to Windows 11 and certain CPUs (and thus motherboards) will not be compatible with running it. It's possible to "work around" the issue, but it requires a bit more thinking about.
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Intel Icore CPU's from 9th generation onwards will be fine with Win 11.
I'm not sure below that but I know the 5th generation in my desktop won't support it.
 
ferjphoto said:
My question are if he buys stuff now, will it be compatible in 2 years time? Also is he going to be paying over the odds for stuff due to Covid & Brexit? Would 2nd hand parts be a really bad idea?

He used all his savings and ordered this case to start with, I've no idea if it's good or not, I just don't want him to waste his money, but applaud him for wanting to learn new skills!

Click to expand...
Coolermaster cases are generally quite good, I've used lots of them over the years and my current desktop is also built with one.
When it comes to power supplies don't waste money on a very cheap one, the ones from about £50 tend to have a much longer warranty period and I've never had a decent power supply fail on me and I've been building PCs since 1996.
Motherboards I would suggest either Asus or Gigabyte as both have been very reliable for me.
CPUs are a whole new world and his choice is either Intel or AMD.
AMD Ryzen CPUs have been out performing Intel for quite some time and they tend to be cheaper.
You need to be careful with Intel Icore, some don't come with the built in graphics but that won't be an issue if he will be using a graphics card.
Storage wise NVME / SSD drives are the norm now but aim to buy a better spec one as the data transfer rates will be better.
Cable management is quite important as he doesn't want to decrease airflow.
You'll find plenty of videos on youtube that will help with the build.
My hat is off to your lad, I really like hearing about youngsters getting into building their own PCs.
 
The site you want is (from memory) pcpartpicker.co.uk

Like the above poster, I've been building from the 90s, and did my last build this summer. As said already, incremental building is bad idea, however cases are the components least likely to change, followed by coolers, power supplies and hard drives (but not SSD units). You should buy motherboard, processor and memory around the same time to ensure compatibility. Graphics cards are stupidly overpriced right now, and a decent card often costs as much or more as the mobo, CPU and ram.

One other site worth checking is hukd.co.uk - they often have news of where the best deals are.
 
I’ve built several pc’s for gaming and the cost can get very high if he wants to play the latest games at high frame rates. I agree with a lot already said such as it’s great to learn how to build a computer and not to buy now to build in a couple of years as in two years what he buys now will be a hell of a lot cheaper then. For games an SSD, quality PSU and a very good graphics card are the main requirements along with a minimum of 16 GB ram. The GPU will carry most of the load gaming. AMD CPU are cheaper than intel equivalent.
 
Most people have commented on what components to buy especially a GPU but no point buying all expensive components and not having the right display, 4k monitors are expensive
 
Having spent most of the day trying (in vain) to source parts for a customer who wants a PC spec'd for Photography and Gaming (for his son) I would IMHO wait for a while and save a bit more. Parts at the moment are in very short supply and very expensive (i3 processors up by 25% in last month) and good graphics card are impossible to source. Add the release of Windows 11 (available today) and it would be in his best interest to wait until things settle. I would suggest that he buys a 2nd user PC locally, rebuilds the OS, even go for Windows 11 and replace some parts like Disks to SSD, add more memory, etc. In this way he will learn and have a better understanding of his desires versus budget, more importantly its fun !
 
Building a PC is not a big deal once you do the reading about all the bits and make a good shopping list.

Holding on to bits for 2 years is a tech insanity. They are nearly all worthless by then. Buy and assemble ASAP. Or buy a laptop and that is that.

Finally, I think you may want to consider 11th gen Intel due out very soon. It will certainly blow all their older stuff out of the water and may even topple AMD as best system.
 
LongLensPhotography said:
Building a PC is not a big deal once you do the reading about all the bits and make a good shopping list.

Holding on to bits for 2 years is a tech insanity. They are nearly all worthless by then. Buy and assemble ASAP. Or buy a laptop and that is that.

Finally, I think you may want to consider 11th gen Intel due out very soon. It will certainly blow all their older stuff out of the water and may even topple AMD as best system.
Click to expand...
11th Gen already available but very expensive:-
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Due to the chip shortage and a bunch of other things, GPUs are running at double their regular price, I’m also seeing RAM up in price from where it normally was. If he can wait until H2 2022 it would make a massive difference, the PC will be far more future proof.
 
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