Question A supportive Mom..

[eganameman621]

So. I have gone the right way and placed myself in this forum for some advise or direction. I do not know anything about Gaming. But, I support my daughter in investing my time in asking a simple question that may already been asked. However, MY question hasn't. So.. here goes...
My daughter asked to have a gaming system. guh~ you know, I am the greatest supporter of all those I love but I am the least knowledgeable of these sort of gaming systems in 2023. I need help! HELP!!! ?
I know that the reason why she asked for a gaming PC system is because apart from her individual studies she's involved in, she wants to have a PC gaming system to let off steam and have leisure time. She is a very intelligent person but not so much in the field of gaming. We could have about 1200.00 dollars in our budget to buy a gaming system but do not know what to buy, where to buy, how to ask for certain components or what we need to do to maintain certain components during how many times throughout the life of the PC gaming system.
Please help us in directing us toward something like a website, other than Best Buy or Amazon, that may assist us in selecting a PC Gaming system that may alow my daughter to use for release and for leisure time to play. Nothing fancy but all necessary components to play such games as the Lora Croft games from its first beginnings. She likes that whole series.
I thank you for any of the responses you give. I am determined to make sound decisions before I buy. I do not want to buy unnecessary items nor do I want to be a dumfounded consumer and mess up by not buying the right things that may damage the system during use.
Thanks so much and be safe.

 

[Shagger]

It is possible to recommend both pre-built and self-built PC's at that kind of budget, but I need you to answer a couple of questions. Don't worry, they're not going to get too technical, I promise.

• Do you have a place set up? For example, do you have a desk and monitor in place you or do you plan to use a TV that you already have? This is important because it would be a shame to gather the parts together for a desktop PC to then have nowhere to put it. This is something you may have to factor into your budget.
• If you do plan to use an existing TV or monitor, it would be helpful to know the specifications of that TV. More specifically it's refresh rate and native resolution. This is important because if it's a 4K TV it might be difficult to find or build a PC that will run games at 4K with your budjet, so you may have to consider working a 1080p monitor into your budget.
• Would you consider a gaming laptop? With that you wouldn't have to worry about whare to put nor need to worry about the aforementioned compatibility issues with a TV, but it would be less capable than a desktop at the the same price.
• What peripherals would you need? Mouse and keyboard (That will be essential), a PC compatible gaming controller, headset and so on. This is something to consider for budget reasons as peripherals can easily add $100-$200 or more to the cost.
• Dose your daughter have any aesthetic requirements? I know this sounds trivial, but one of the advantages of building a PC is that you can have components match to a colour scheme to suit one's personal tastes and/or match the room one plans to use it in. It's unlikely to alter the cost and can make a PC really feel like it's yours.

Please get back to me as soon as you can.

 

[eganameman621]

hello. I lost this website. I found it again. the laptop option was at first a consideration yet I read that the laptop may get too hot. but, in response to the questions; there is a very large table for the PC gaming system. all those aesthetic requirements are very low priority. maybe just a uniform color. Also, we will have to buy the mouse/tv/monitor. does $1500 budget not enough for a simple but powerful gaming system? We have planned this buy for a very long time. thank you for your time and expertise. This system would also be a priority for studies and often times, for gaming.

 

[Shagger]

hello. I lost this website. I found it again. the laptop option was at first a consideration yet I read that the laptop may get too hot. but, in response to the questions; there is a very large table for the PC gaming system. all those aesthetic requirements are very low priority. maybe just a uniform color. Also, we will have to buy the mouse/tv/monitor. does $1500 budget not enough for a simple but powerful gaming system? We have planned this buy for a very long time. thank you for your time and expertise. This system would also be a priority for studies and often times, for gaming.

Welcome back, glad to see you here again.

To business, and the first thing I'd like to point out is that you shouldn't buy into the rumours about how hot gaming laptops get. Yes, they do get hot, but not to the point whare they'll melt themselves, and for $1500 you're not lacking for options there. The laptop I'm presenting here is something I would consider to be around the minimum you should hope for at that budget, so shop around. Still, it is totally decent and should suit just fine.

Legion Pro 5 Gen 8 AMD (16") with RTX™ 4070

Now, for the build-it option. If I do get a little technical here, don't panic, just read on. I'll happily answer any questions I can after. The only stupid question is one that's never asked.

What I wanted to focus on here was building a powerful starter PC that was easily upgradable and easy to actually build. Of course, this is merely a start and you may add/remove/change parts to suit if you so wish. Here is a link to the proposed build on PC Part Picker. A couple of things to note;

• I went for a basic, but large full tower case because in my experience they are are easier to work with, if a little difficult to move around. Please take note of it's dimensions, and if it won't fit in your planned space, feel free to change it.

• The power supply I've chosen is overkill, but I've done so for a reason. With the current parts the PC barley needs half the power it actually supplies, but I'd strongly advise you against swapping it out for something cheaper for upgrade reasons and to ensure there's enough power for external devices you my connect to the computer in the future. It's also what we call fully modular, as in all the cables that come with it can be fully detached. That may not sound like something important, but I wish nobody to feel the pain of trying to work with a power supply whare you can't detach unwanted cables. Trust me, it's hell.
• You will also notice I've added two SSD's (Solid State Drives) for storage;

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• I've done this because I feel it's a good idea to have your boot drive (The drive the system itself uses for essential programmes and the operating system. That will be the drive at top, the Samsung 970 Evo Plus 500GB) to be separate from the drive you will use to store games and personal files (The one at the bottom, the Samsung 870 Evo 2TB). Doing this protects the files stored on you second drive if anything goes wrong with you boot drive, whilst still lending you all the benefits of having an NVME SSD as boot drive (With this as a boot drive, the PC will boot up in seconds, like a mobile phone, for example).
• I also decided not to add additional cooling fans to this build for now as I'm unsure if that will be necessary. Larger cases don't get hot as easily as smaller cases do. It might be a good idea to pick some up anyway, but it's up to you.

I also did mange to work in a monitor, keyboard and a very good mouse (the same one I use) into this build. Please note that you may need to buy thermal paste to coat the CPU in before you attach the CPU cooler. Something like this will do nicely. I'd also recommend buying cable ties to help you attach the cables to the inside of the case in a neat manner. Something like this will do fine. And of course, seek any and all help when it come to building it. There are plenty of very good YouTube channels and guides out there to help with this, but I'll save going too deep into that here just in case you decide to go for a pre-built system or a laptop instead.

Like I said, don't hesitate to ask if you need any further help.

 

[eganameman621]

May you have a long prosperous life ahead of you and your family-- your like a knowledgeable Faith Mountain to us who are blind.. im so impressed by your fluidity of information. wow