Gaming pc advice for 11 year old

[DannyE]

Hi everyone,
A complete newbie here after some advice.
I know nothing about computers, I have not had a computer since the 90’s, and now my son is asking for a gaming pc for Christmas. He has been using a Xbox for the last few years. He starts high school this year so I want to get him a pc that he can do school work on and also gaming.
I have used the pc specialist site to try configure a pc but to be honest it’s all over my head 😬
If I had £1,000 to spend, is this a realistic amount to get what we are after??
What are the most important components of a gaming pc that I need to concentrate on??
As my son is only 11 I am not expecting a top pc but just something he will be happy with for a few years, and something can can easily be upgraded later if needed.
Any help is much appreciated
Thanks
Danny

 

[AgentCooper]

Hi Danny. Due to component prices being higher than ever and chip availability being lower than ever it's unfortunately an expensive time to be buying a PC. We're probably looking around £1,300 for a low/medium end 1080p system that would support upgrades and around another £200 for an appropriate monitor.

 

[SpyderTracks]

Unfortunately component prices are set to increase over the coming months as well according to reports.

Its just not a good time to be considering a budget option.

To give some basis, the entry level system currently costing around £1300, we coupd have done the same specs for around £750 last summer before tge shortages hit.

 

[DannyE]

Thanks guys, seems like I have chose the worst time to sort this out 😬
Do you think by next summer things could even back out??
Considering waiting till my sons birthday next summer as prices are high

 

[AgentCooper]

We're certainly hoping so! And the good thing about coming here for some advice is that the experienced forum members will help spec you up a system that can last for around 7-10 years, just needing a couple of GPU updates along the way. So whilst the initial outlay may seem vast the spend will go a long way. Much better than a pre-built system, which tend to be 'throwaway' after a couple of years as they don't support upgrades very well.

Come back to us when you're ready, we'll be happy to help

 

[jamiephillips909]

Thanks guys, seems like I have chose the worst time to sort this out 😬
Do you think by next summer things could even back out??
Considering waiting till my sons birthday next summer as prices are high

its possible but no one knows for sure how the prices are going to go crazy times atm !!!!

 

[Harag]

As the other have said, PC prices are high at the moment. The other thing to consider is what sort of games will your son play, the latest AAA shootem ups with top notch graphics, or the lower end "puzzle" type ones, for the graphical games you're probably looking at 1500-2000+ budget range at the moment I think. Especially if you want something that you can upgrade in a few years.

You said he has XBox for the last few years, so why the change to a PC for gaming? how about buying a new Xbox / PS and then buy a "office" type PC for school work, you can still get a decent monitor and use that for both the xbox and the office pc.

 

[Bigfoot]

One option would be to get a PC with 5600G processor, as this has onboard graphics. You could then add a graphics card later to improve performance.

Case
COOLERMASTER MASTERBOX TD500 MESH ARGB GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 5 5600G Six Core CPU with Radeon™ Graphics (3.9GHz-4.4GHz/19MB CACHE/AM4)
Motherboard
ASUS® TUF GAMING B550-PLUS WiFi (DDR4, USB 3.2, 6Gb/s) - ARGB Ready!
Memory (RAM)
16GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3200MHz (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
NONE, I ALREADY HAVE A GRAPHICS CARD
1st M.2 SSD Drive
512GB INTEL® 670p M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (up to 3000MB/sR | 1600MB/sW)
1st M.2 SSD Drive
1TB INTEL® 670p M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (up to 3500MB/sR | 2500MB/sW)
Power Supply
CORSAIR 750W RMx SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
STANDARD AMD CPU COOLER
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Card
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT
Wireless Network Card
NOT REQUIRED
USB/Thunderbolt Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Operating System
Windows 10 Home 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence [KUK-00001]
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
NO RECOVERY MEDIA REQUIRED
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft 365® (Operating System Required)
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Browser
Microsoft® Edge (Windows 10 Only)
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 14 to 17 working days
Price: £959.00 including VAT and Delivery

Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/amd-am4-gen3-pc/xkYrm3W6by/

 

[Bigfoot]

Onboard graphics wouldn’t give the best gaming experience, so it would be a compromise based on your budget.

 

[KyberKai_]

Hi everyone,
A complete newbie here after some advice.
I know nothing about computers, I have not had a computer since the 90’s, and now my son is asking for a gaming pc for Christmas. He has been using a Xbox for the last few years. He starts high school this year so I want to get him a pc that he can do school work on and also gaming.
I have used the pc specialist site to try configure a pc but to be honest it’s all over my head 😬
If I had £1,000 to spend, is this a realistic amount to get what we are after??
What are the most important components of a gaming pc that I need to concentrate on??
As my son is only 11 I am not expecting a top pc but just something he will be happy with for a few years, and something can can easily be upgraded later if needed.
Any help is much appreciated
Thanks
Danny

Hi Danny,

Just to take a slightly different angle on this, I would double check what your wee boy wants the gaming PC for. At that age, gaming with friends is a great thing but in my experience most of the kids will be on PS5 or Xbox Series X, so they might be more worthy investments in the short term (although difficult to acquire at the moment). As he matures a gaming PC would may be be more appropriate and the price will likely be better in the future.

Alternatively if he has a notion for strategy games (which cannot be played on Console), a second hand gaming PC might be a better solution since those types of gaming aren’t intensive in the same way.

I only mention these things because I’m in a similar boat with my nephews, so I will give them my old PC when my new one arrives and buy them a console when it’s in stock.

 

[DannyE]

Thanks for all replies today, it’s much appreciated.
My son usually plays apex legends, gta, fortnite and minecraft on his current Xbox one S.
I feel him wanting to move to a pc now is him wanting to move onto something that isn’t just limited to games, he can browse the internet, do his school work and various other things etc all on 1 device. He has also mentioned a friend or two have a gaming pc, but at their age they have no idea on specs etc, his friend(s) with a pc most likely have a family pc with a couple of basic games.
I really would like to get him a pc for Christmas but at the same time I don’t want to pay out nearly 2k to find if I waited 6 months it would be half the price. It’s a tough call at he moment

 

[Martinr36]

Thanks for all replies today, it’s much appreciated.
My son usually plays apex legends, gta, fortnite and minecraft on his current Xbox one S.
I feel him wanting to move to a pc now is him wanting to move onto something that isn’t just limited to games, he can browse the internet, do his school work and various other things etc all on 1 device. He has also mentioned a friend or two have a gaming pc, but at their age they have no idea on specs etc, his friend(s) with a pc most likely have a family pc with a couple of basic games.
I really would like to get him a pc for Christmas but at the same time I don’t want to pay out nearly 2k to find if I waited 6 months it would be half the price. It’s a tough call at he moment

@DannyE I don't think prices are going to be coming down anytime soon, we were hoping late last year/early this year that they might come down by june but they've kept going up as there are still global shortages of chips etc