My 15 year old has managed to save for a gaming hard drive. He is looking at PB 6057W- 8GB Ram 1TB HD, GTX 960 gaming card. We dont know much about computers. Is this the best he can get for the price?
1) I assume your son has an existing monitor, keyboard and mouse, hence you are looking for just the base unit? 2) What kind of games will be played? 3) Do you need a new Windows license?
As for the system you linked to, overall its good, but the graphic card is a bit weak (its only 128bit). A GTX 970 will give more power but is $240 more. This could be offset a bit by not having to by Windows, which is $150 on its own.
I am sure others will also recommend a SSD rather than a HDD, which offers less space, but far more speed. Again, knowing what games are going to be played will determine how much disk space is needed. You could get away with a 120GB SSD, which is about the same price as the HDD in the system you linked to.
My 15 year old has managed to save for a gaming hard drive. He is looking at PB 6057W- 8GB Ram 1TB HD, GTX 960 gaming card. We dont know much about computers. Is this the best he can get for the price?
I'm probably going to come across as a prick, but your son wants to buy a computer, not just a hard drive.
Anyway, as to the PB 6057W, I note it includes a 1TD hybrid drive - these are OK, but if budget permits, I would go for a solid state drive - you will get lower capacity for the same price, but a significant performance improvement. Even if you just go with a 120GB - 256GB SSD for the OS and key apps, and have a 1TB HDD for larger installs, the cost won't increase dramatically (Samsung 850 EVO 120GB SSD is about $135, the equivalent Intel 530 series is probably $120 odd now).
Also, what sort of monitor will he be using, and what types of games will he expect to play? The GTX960 is a great entry-mid level gaming card, and 90% of stuff it will be absolutely fine for at 1080p or below, but it will struggle with anything over 1080p, and some newer games even at 1080p will need some visual quality settings turned down. That said, any meaningful upgrade to this is going to be at least $200, so is likely the best option for the budget - and as above, it will run most stuff really well.
Wow have I opened a can of worms. Thanks for the replies. I will need to read them a few times to understand. He is apparently playing Armour 3, GTA 5 and Battlefield. He has an existing keyboard and monitor but I notice he has bookmarked a samsung 21.5".
DebP: Wow have I opened a can of worms. Thanks for the replies. I will need to read them a few times to understand. He is apparently playing Armour 3, GTA 5 and Battlefield. He has an existing keyboard and monitor but I notice he has bookmarked a samsung 21.5".
Now I'M going to sound like a prick....you said your son is 15, yes? Can I ask why he's playing games that are restricted to someone of his age? GTA5 is R18, for example and ARMA 3 (I assume that's what you mean) is R16. I don't mean to offend, but you really shouldn't be letting him play games that the law says he can't play. There are serious fines that can be levied in situations like this, to say nothing of the reasons for these games being age restricted in the first place...
EDIT:
I should point out that as far as I'm concerned, it's between you and your son, so if you're ok with him playing these games then I'm not going to be telling anyone. I just wanted to make you aware of it, in case you weren't.
Yes I am aware of the age restrictions of the games he is playing. He'd find a way to play them if I was heavy handed about it. I just keep an eye on his school work and behaviour to moniter him. Is a problem having older siblings.
DebP: Yes I am aware of the age restrictions of the games he is playing. He'd find a way to play them if I was heavy handed about it. I just keep an eye on his school work and behaviour to moniter him. Is a problem having older siblings.
Fair enough...I have a 14 year old son myself, so I know well the lengths they'll go to when trying to get around restrictions we parents put in place!
I think it does fulfill all the requirements in terms of speed (SSD) and the R270 is a decent graphics card (I have it running in my PC as well).
Or even this one would be decent for gaming (bar the SSD)
Also, agree with the sentiment about the rated games. But in the end, it is the parents call. Dont mean any offence.
EDIT: I should mention the only gaming I do is Fifa, Call of Duty and recently, Shadow of Mordor (and some old games like Age of Empires that dont need that much grunt). They all seem to run fine for me (except Fifa but I think thats the game itself rather than the hardware)
Here's a thought, why not change the wifi password regularly and only give it to them once they have done their chores and homework hehe.
If you really want a store bought one, PB tech might not be the best, and a boutique seller would be able to give a better deal with either a cheaper price or much better specs. ( e.g. playtech or Computer lounge)
check this one out too, it has the same price but a better graphics card
Also, a few months ago, I was shopping for a PC too and didn't know much about specs. I stumbled upon this site which helped me check if the PC can run the game and at what resolution, I think this might help your son heaps when shopping, he just needs to enter the specs of the PC he is eyeing and the site will rate the rig for the game he wants
If he wants to save some money and he is reasonably knowledgeable or knows someone who is, then buying second-hand can be a good option. My 14 year old bought a 2 year old computer from a gamer who was upgrading to a newer system. It was a just over half the price of a new computer with equivalent performance. We could also see relevant games running on it before we paid for it.
DebP: Yes I am aware of the age restrictions of the games he is playing. He'd find a way to play them if I was heavy handed about it. I just keep an eye on his school work and behaviour to moniter him. Is a problem having older siblings.
It's not being "heavy-handed" to encourage compliance with the law.
My younger kids had to wait until they were old enough to play the restricted games played by older siblings. The older siblings had to wait until they were old enough to play them in the first place. They were all annoyed and still don't like what we do - I just asked - but they comply because they understand that there will be consequences if they overstep the boundaries. While it is true that they can get around our restrictions - for example, by playing restricted games at their friends' houses - it does take much more effort and/or money on their part. We just focus on making sure that they don't play those games at our house. It helps to be technically capable but even if you're not, there are simple steps to take to follow up with your kids, e.g. checking what is my kid doing right now on the computer.
We don't focus on the restrictions as we have always put considerable effort into getting systems with great games for our kids. Again, buying used saved a lot of money for us and them. We also take the time to explain our reasons why certain games are not positive for anybody and why they will never ever be acceptable in our home.
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