The original post: /r/buildapc by /u/boscoru on 2024-12-11 16:19:43.

Hey All,

My son’s (13 years old) top request for Christmas this year is a gaming PC. He specifically mentioned that he’d love to build one with me. I love the idea. I think he’ll learn a lot from it.

I’ve built a PC in the past so I have SOME experience. I’m really not tuned into what is recommended for a gaming-specific build, though.

Money is somewhat tight this year (as it is for a lot right now). I don’t want to go too cheap, though, to the point where he’ll need to be upgrading HW fairly quickly. His main desire is to play games on Steam. He’s specifically mentioned the new Subnautica that is scheduled for 2025.

He and I did some research together. We came up with a build. We have an old monitor lying around the house that should be sufficient for now. I’ll get him a mouse/keyboard.

I’d love if some of the great minds here would be willing to look at what we put together for the computer and provide comments. I just don’t quite have the experience here to be fully confident.

Here’s the build: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/XQxYgn

Thanks in advance for any advice. I really appreciate it. Hope you all have a great holiday season.

Thanks!

  • ratman250English
    1·
    3 months ago

    Hi there! I made an account just to help you out. I have over 10+ years of PC building experience and work in tech currently.

    Okay so first off, got a solid basis for the build but I’d maybe suggest a few things: 1 the coolermaster 212 is absolutely crap. If you want a tower cooler at a similar price maybe look at this

    2 Honestly the Ryzen 7 is brutal overkill for gaming and I normally would recommend a Ryzen 5 instead, this is a personal preference and totally up to you.

    3 In a similar note to 3 if you’re looking to save money you may want to take a look at AM4 rather than AM5, there’s nothing about AM4 that can’t handle any game you may want to play, again personal preference.

    4 I cannot in good faith recommend ANY western digital drive. I’ve had too many of them fail without warning in my IT environment. I’d instead recommend this which is a far more reliable drive and should be faster as well.

    5 I would really recommend you take a look at this before paying for Windows…Especially Win11 also please get Win11 PRO not Home because you’ll regret it later if you buy Home instead.

    Please ask questions :)