Recommendations for a system build

[spdfreak]

A friend wants me to build a gaming system for his son for Christmas. I build a lot of systems for businesses but haven't been in the gaming stuff for quite a few years. The boy is 11 and mostly plays Minecraft but he wants to be able to play on 3 monitors. I don't even know if the game supports something like eyefinity...
He will obviously get older and want to play more ambitious games so it needs to be up-gradable for the future. From the way he was talking, I don't think money is a big issue so it doesn't need to be a low end system. Maybe suggestions for a mid-range AMD system and then something more powerful like an i5 system?

 

[MadOver]

What would be the budget? And does he need monitors as well?

 

[whm1974]

Until Zen is released I wouldn't be looking at an AMD system right now. At the moment Intel has better performance and uses less power.

 

[monkeydelmagico]

If he is anything like my son he won't play minecraft in eyefinity. He will use all the landscape as additional desktop and have all sorts of other windows open.

Sounds like you realize that you will be product service and support forever but it bears mentioning. I usually try to steer friends and family to online builders like Puget or Origin. Very few get boxes I build. They fully understand my phone is not to ring in the middle of the night because you got an error message.


Having built for young gamers before I would advise a fairly robust box. Take Kens mid range here: http://www.portvapes.co.uk/?id=Latest-exam-1Z0-876-Dumps&exid=threads/attention-low-end-midrange-gaming-system-builders.2389797/
and consider adding an second SSD for the OS mirror.

Building it with a mirror already installed so "factory" reset is as simple as changing the boot sequence in bios keeps the drama to a minimum. Pre-install all the malware/spyware/virus systems and set them up to work without intervention helps too.

 

[spdfreak]

I may just point him towards a pre-built since I really don't want to have to do tech support on Christmas morning... which I know is going to happen! I doubt he has time to get something from Puget in time for Christmas. Any recommendations on something available from BB or Microcenter?

 

[monkeydelmagico]

If you/they live near a microcenter consider yourselves lucky. They have a build service.

They also have several off the shelf builds that would probably do the trick. This looks pretty good to me:
http://www.microcenter.com/product/467635/G313_Desktop_Computer

If bestbuy is the go to spot they also have a couple nice name brand builds

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/asus-de...-hard-drive-iron-gray/5640500.p?skuId=5640500

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/msi-aeg...-1tb-hard-drive-black/5622442.p?skuId=5622442

I'd be pretty stoked as a youngster to receive any of those.

 

[spdfreak]

If you/they live near a microcenter consider yourselves lucky. They have a build service.

They also have several off the shelf builds that would probably do the trick. This looks pretty good to me:
http://www.microcenter.com/product/467635/G313_Desktop_Computer

If bestbuy is the go to spot they also have a couple nice name brand builds

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/asus-de...-hard-drive-iron-gray/5640500.p?skuId=5640500

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/msi-aeg...-1tb-hard-drive-black/5622442.p?skuId=5622442

I'd be pretty stoked as a youngster to receive any of those.

Thanks! The system at MC will be perfect, I think. I buy lots of stuff at MC for the business and vid surveillance systems I build. Love the place- we have 2 here in ATL.