I want to get my son a pc for Christmas, but I'm on a strict budget?

Question

He particularly wants to be able to play fairly up-to-the-minute games. What specifications should I be looking for? And is it going to be cheaper to buy an inexpensive computer and then get a stronger graphics card, or get one with that already installed?

All advice appreciated.

Hi Fruit-snacks - he already uses mine, but is becoming so adept on the computer that I'd like him to have his own. Also, he'll be able to do homework on it.

Answer 1

Since you're on a budget here's my advice. The best "bang for your buck" PC should be cheap but with solid upgrade potential. I've built alot of computers for people with just your situation so here's what I'd recommend.

AMD Athlon 64 processor. They are excellent processors and very cheap. The 3700 is the best one for a low price right now

512MB of RAM. That is plenty for any basic tasks and enough for simple gaming.

Hard Drive: You should be able to get a cheap computer with a 120-160GB hard drive

Graphics Card: Here's the tough part. A good graphics card can be quite expensive. If you are really tight on money I'd suggest getting a computer with integrated GeForce 6100 or 6150 graphics. It's not great, but it'll get the job done. Do NOT get anything with Intel Graphics, they are terrible. Any graphics card you get should be either ATI or Nvidia(GeForce).
If you want to upgrade the graphics in the future make sure the PC has a PCI Express X16 slot. Most computer salesman won't know this so you may have to research the model.

Avoid Gateways and Emachines. These computers get brought in to me for repairs more than anything else. Don't buy them unless you like paying for repairs.

Answer 2

The up-2-the-minute games your lad wants to play have photo-real effects and incredibly detailed graphics that really demand a lot of power from a computer. It's this software that actually pushes the development of computer technology funilly enough.

The latest dual core processors are about £200, as are the latest Graphics cards which are essential for gaming. That's just 2 components and there's the rest of the PC to go yet. Looking through the PC mags, it's £1000+ computer you'd need, so you can forget budget!

Building it yourself wont save you any money these days because, despite the above costs, computers are relatively cheep. And you need a fair amount of confidence, or blind enthusiasm, to do so.

In my opinion, shared with other people here, you'd be much better of buying a dedicated games machine like an XBOX, or PS2 (PS3 is supposed to be out for X-MAS). They will cost £100-£300, there are thousands of games already out, and the games written for PCs are also written for them.

Oh yeah - DO NOT buy reconditioned. You wont get the spec you want (no one's going to give a great machine away for nothing), you have no idea if it's been nicked, or if any of the components are faulty, and it probably wont have a guarantee, and you'll be lucky to get it repaired or supported. Other people may know better - I'm just using common sense.

Answer 3

Today you will want a Duo Core processor. At least 1 Gig of RAM & a decent 256M video card.

What kind of strict budget are you on? Do you already have a mouse, keyboard & monitor that will satisfy you/him?

If you are just buying a tower you can get alot of computer today for less than $1100.

But your budget will determine what you get. It is probably going to be cheaper to buy a system with everything installed you are looking for.

I would highly encourage you to look at a local computer store that builds custom computers. You might pay a little more, but you will get tech support that speaks english and more likely than not a computer that is less loaded down with software you don't need, which will cause it to run faster.

Answer 4

hi depending on how much you are wanting to pay for a PC, for your son, but i have just found that you can get a PC, from Argos for just under £300, i know that may seem a lot, but at least you will have a guarantee with it, and i know what you mean about your son using the PC or his homework, my children use our PC for their homework, and it helps loads, also its a good way for them too meet new people, in a safe environment, during the winter months whilst its too cold for them to be outside and least you know that he will be safe indoors, i don't understand the technical side of PCs but for children i think all they need for general stuff on a PC is literally a basic PC, i hope this has helped you, also if you look at the dell website, you can package your own PC, and it gives you the costs etc as you go, though its a bit more expensive through dell, they are a very well known name, so depending on your budget, i would choose either Argos for cheapness, or dell for a more advanced, but expensive PC.

Answer 5

taskr36 knows what he is talking about. I assume you are in the UK, as this is the UK Yahoo! answers. I can recommend www.ebuyer.com. They have good prices and superb aftersales with a good tech helpline. If you can find someone trustworthy who can build one for you that is the best way to go. As he wants decent gaming facilities I am sorry to tell you that those machines are the most expensive of all due to the amount of real time number crunching these machines have to do. Avoid crud like PC World and Dell like poison! Yes, Dell is cheap. That is only as they are build down to a price with non standard components and have inadequate aftersales. PC World is expensive and their sales staff do not have a clue! All they know about is retailing, not anything about PC's. I digress, If you cannot find someone to build one for you, get online and go to www.ebuyer.com or www.aria.co.uk. I would offer to build one for you but do not want to put my contact mail onto here where anyone can see it.

Answer 6

First off don't go to Dell any piece of merchandise that you get from them for cheap is crap. And forget about tech support their a bunch of idots that don't know what the hell their talking about. You best bet is to build your own. You'll probably have to set up you're grocery list.

To play most recent games I recommend getting atleast a Nvidia 6800 or better. They can be found on ebay for around 80 bucks or with newegg.com for around 100+.

Next you want a board that has a pci-express slot for that video card. I recommend going with and amd board because ur on a budget but it has the same quality and in most cases better qualitly. Ebay has a combo going on with a good board and processor for about $250 the link is below and it's a dual core processor 2 for the price of one lol.

Next is a good amountt of ram preferable kingston but u can save like 20 bucks if you got to the cheaper brands like GEil or G.Skill. Ebay has a gig on sale for about $90.

Next you'll need a hardrive you can get a 40 or 60 gig hardrive because it doesn't seem he'll be using it for anything to serious but you might want to bulk up if you going to be backing up movies and things like that.

Now you need a drive so you can out ur disk into it i recommend the NEC DVD combo drive where you can burn cds and dvds very fast and you can make exact copies with the dual layer option. Link from newegg below for about $30 but I'm sure they have it on ebay.

Lastly you need a case and you can get those for like 30 to 60 bucks on newegg. I would also recommend going to pricegrabbers.com or tiger direct.

All in all you'll be paying 500 bucks for a very disent computer that will last for a couple of years.

Answer 7

Its ok to buy a recondtioned one however you really need to make sure it has the correct graphics card ect for the up to date games they wanna play, I got one at a recylce shop but its not good for the latest games and has a very low memory its cost me £250 I do feel you could buy a new one and and get a better deal, btw I got mine for very young children to save them using my new one, lol

Answer 8

You definitely want a good video card... they can be put in the PC after you purchase one... they are about $125 or so. go to www.dell.com and you can get a fairly inexpensive PC and then get him the video card later... or off ebay... or check CompUSA.com

Answer 9

this is the site for you they sell used, refurbished, and manufacturer refurbished computers. they have some of the best deals ive seen on the internet. i wouldnt go with refurbished but manufacturer refurbished is ok. all the computers that are marked as manufacturer refurbished come with a one year warranty and you get a great deal for your money. good luck

Answer 10

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