Help! My son wants to build his own gaming PC

Truly, the hardest part is picking the parts.
Last Christmas, I taught my 11 year old grandson to build one. I chose and bought the parts, he constructed.

However, I would pause at $2,000 for a very first build for a young teen.
"Top of the line" today = "medium" in 12 months.

Start small, then make a really good one. For $2k, you can build a small starter to get his feet wet, and then a good $1,400 PC that does everything the theoretical $2,000 one does.

James Mason explained everything pretty well and linked a solid build, but I agree with USAFRet on not throwing down that much money for his first computer. I built my first when I was 15 for just under $800 and it ran every game at the time really well, I put dozens of hours into researching the best parts and making small tweaks before buying everything.

But people on this forum will be more than happy to put an amazing parts list together for you and save a lot of time, but if he wants to put his own parts list together (which will really teach him a ton about computers) then here is some important stuff he should use/read:
https://pcpartpicker.com/ - Great site for assembling a parts list: checks for compatibility and finds the lowest price from all reputable sellers
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/id-2547993/psu-tier-list.html - Ranked list of the best power supplies (high quality is extremely important, choose from only tier 1 and 2)
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-cpu-review-overclock,3106.html - Best gaming CPUs for the money (not updated with latest CPUs). Can tell you right away any i5 is the best gaming CPU for the money in any budget
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-graphics-card-review,3107.html - Best GPUs for the money (most important component for gaming)

He should obviously do a lot more research on his own, but those are the vitals. If he chooses his own parts, make sure to run the final parts list by the forum before purchasing everything.

Fyoung,

The key is to first ask what your son wishes to do with the pc he intends to build.
Have a talk with him on what he wishes to do with the Pc.

From surfing the internet of course, to playing games, that goes without saying.
To any interests on things like making his own music with the pc, or producing picture or art work, 3d model or rendering.

$2000 is a very good budget, you will be able to get a very high specification of a pc with the amount of money you have stated to put towards all the components needed for a fully functioning pc computer.

But you don`t have to spend all of that $2000 saved up to get a decent pc.
It all depends on what your son wants to use the pc for mainly, and how long in mind once built depending on the parts for it chosen how many years it will last without having to add more money to it.

Pc technology moves very quickly in this day and age, about every six months for example you can expect a new bit of hardware that appears, and is faster or better than what you initially bought to start with when you buy parts to build a pc.

So it helps to sit and think what your intentions are and what you would like to do with the Pc.
Or you can get carried away. So it is an important question to ask, what you require from a Pc when building it.
what it will be used for most of all, Other than just for playing games on.

Here is a link below of building guide lines depending on what you wish to get out of the pc you intend to build.
There are also parts picker websites where you can select the hardware for your pc build, it will also tell you if there are any parts of the pc components you pick in your build and flag up any potential problems with mixing of the hardware or parts to make sure they all work together, without any problems when building the PC if it concerns you a lot to help you make the right choices.

Click on the link bellow.

http://pcpartpicker.com/

I hope it help you in some way.

This would be plenty for 1080P gaming. No need to spend 2K. I'll leave choice of keyboard/mouse/headphones to you.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-6500 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor ($197.99 @ NCIX US)
Motherboard: Asus H170-PRO ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($108.99 @ B&H)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2133 Memory ($56.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($84.89 @ OutletPC)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($52.33 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 970 4GB STRIX Video Card ($324.99 @ Amazon)
Case: Phanteks Enthoo Pro ATX Full Tower Case ($98.99 @ NCIX US)
Power Supply: XFX XTR 550W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($79.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Optical Drive: Asus DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS DVD/CD Writer ($17.89 @ OutletPC)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 OEM (64-bit) ($92.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Wireless Network Adapter: Gigabyte GC-WB867D-I 802.11a/b/g/n/ac PCI-Express x1 Wi-Fi Adapter ($29.89 @ OutletPC)
Monitor: Asus VG248QE 144Hz 24.0" Monitor ($249.99 @ Amazon)
Total: $1395.92
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-10-23 00:46 EDT-0400

Building isn't that hard... at 14 years old, I'm sure he has friends who would give him advice. I won't try to give you a list of parts like some others have done... the best part of building a computer is selecting YOUR OWN PARTS... but I would recommend that your son order online since online prices are much, much cheaper than the stores.

Another word of advice... if any of those parts come with rebates... DO NOT... I repeat... do not send for the rebate right away... wait until the last minute.. because they always require you to mail in the UPC from the box... and once you cut that off... the product is no longer eligible for a return to the store if it's defective or the wrong part.

Also, check the return policy. Most online stores have a 15 day return window.. that sometimes starts the day they ship it to you... so by the time you receive it.. it could be even less than 15 days to return.

Here is what I would do with that $2,000:

Spec out, with assistance here, a $600 PC, including OS ($100) and monitor ($125)
Build it. Gain experience.

Once done, either sell the PC (keep the monitor), with the OS, on craigslist for $350, or give it to a cousin, or whatever.
With the remaining $1,400+ and the experience, build a good PC.

Starting off with spending $2,000 for a very first build with no 'experienced on scene guiding hand' may lead to tears, from multiple people.


That's what I would do, anyway.

I built my first computer at the age of 6, I think, under supervision and before the age of 10, unsupervised. Then again, I had a lot of parts to work with thanks to my dad. Not all of us are blessed with such a silver spoon, but the best advice I can give is to start small. Back in the days, there weren't as many parts to choose from, making it a lot easier. As I grew up, so too did the complexity of technology. Back then, for instance, we didn't have 1 kg heatsinks or CPU fans. In fact, many of the CPUs could be passively cooled. It wasn't until later that I became obsessed with the Peltier cooler. Hot damn, those were awesome. Damn, now I want one!

If there is one advice that I can give you, adn that you should give your son is to take it VERY slow.
The only way to screw up a computer is to try to do it fast.
I made 3 PCs in my life and each time I took more time doing it, not because I needed it, but because I liked doing it.

So, I would suggest to: Once you have all the components (others did a great job already with advice's on components), pick a weekend you have free and start building up the PC EARLY MORNING.
That will decrease pressure to do it fast (before going to sleep).

Second Advice: Read the manuals! First time I build my own PC I was 15. Manuals were enough to do it correctly.
Third Advice: Google. Find 5-8 Articles about "how to build your own pc" and read all of them to get a good feel of what you should REALLY pay attention to.

Before throwing money into this build can you ask your son to provide you with some basic information as to what his expectations are? Like the games he wants to play, the resolution he wants to play at and frame rate per second (FPS) performance?

Better yet, you can have him tell us directly since the minimum age to participate in this forum is 13 years old.

$2,000 is a lot of money to spend on a PC. He can definitely put together a high performance PC with that budget, but shaving off some money here are to for a little less performance, but still meeting expectations will mean more money left over to do other things like buying games.

James Mason recommended at liquid CPU cooler. While they are generally pretty good, it adds a little bit of complication into the build and there is always the danger of a leak occurring as a result of improper installation or a failed seal. Water and electronics generally do not work well together and I certainly would not recommend a water cooler for a first time builder especially if he is going to have a hard time saving up money for replacement parts just in case something goes wrong. A standard heatsink and fan cooler like a Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO should be fine.


On a side note... you should do a bit of research before allowing your son to buy a particular game. Games have ESRB (Entertainment Software Rating Board) ratings them to give people a basic understanding what type of contents are in a game. It is kind of like a movie's rating system. For example, some parents would probably not want their young kids to watch rated R movies especially by themselves. Below is a link to the ESRB.

http://www.esrb.org/ratings/ratings_guide.aspx


Some parents are fine with their kids playing mature rated games though. There was one parent in this forum who was going to buy Grand Theft Auto 5 (GTA 5) for is young son even though it is a mature game because his son wanted to play it. He had no issues with the game's strong language, sexual situations or the fact that you basically go around killing people and stealing cars. It was all part of the fun. However, he changed his mind when I told him there is one mission in the game where you must torture another character for information to progress the game. That segment of the mission is only a couple of minutes, but it was enough to deter him from buying the game for his son.

Youtube is a great tool to search for game reviews. Not only can you listen to the review while you are doing other things you can also see some of the actual gameplay rather than just pictures in a written review. But written reviews can have links to videos.