How can I convince my parents to let me build a pc?

OK; I'm not sure if this will help you but I'm going to write something you might want to show your parents. Up to you.

First of all, let me tell you a little bit about myself. I am 38 and I work as an IT Consultant, its easily the best job I've ever had, and I've worked in a number of fields. I didn't go to college for IT, I went to college for Pre-Law, then I ended up falling in love with an engineering student, and since she had a couple more years of school to go for, and I didn't want to break up with her, I ended up working in Finance, so we could live together.

-well life happened, and we broke up, I hated finance, but since i didn't have a specific degree I ended up floating along working assorted sales related jobs hating every minute of it~

So what do this have to do with IT? Well I'll tell you. When i was growing up in the late 80's my father was forward thinking a bit. You see he felt the future was computers, and people who knew how to use them would have a lot of advantages. So he bought a brand new apple II in 1986, and did everything he could to encourage me and my brother to use it. Then in 1990 he purchased an IBM 486 pc, because all "work" pcs were IBMs and he wanted us to work on something we'd use in a work environment. He sent us to a couple of computer camps during the summers. He got us into typing classes as well. Well I have to admit, i didn't have a huge interest in computers, but i was familiar with them, what i was more interested in was gaming

So 1993 rolled around, I was 15, and a great game came out on PC called "betrayal at krondor". Well my junker home pc couldn't run it, but i was very eager to play it. So I tried to talk my father into buying a new pc. I told him all sorts of things, most of which i'm sure was BS to convince him to get a new one. He refused to bend because I'm sure he knew I was going to use it to play a game. In the end however, he decided to "capture" my enthusiasm to encourage me to learn more, and make it a life lesson. What he did was he "Rented" his lawnmower to me, as well as his car (he had to drive). and told me to work for it cutting lawns. So I made it a summer job, cutting lawns, paying him for the use of the lawnmower and car, In the end i made a little bit under 1k after 6 weeks of work. He told me he would match my funds under one condition. If i built the whole computer myself.

Now understand, back then there was no youtube, nor were there any online guides for building your own pc. I had to research how to do it at the library and in magazines. It took me almost 3 weeks of research before I was both familiar with HOW to build a pc, AND familiar with the current PC tech so that I could purchase the right "matching" parts.

So summer came to an end, and I had a brand new, top of the line intel Pentium pc; my father worked with me side by side as we built the new pc. He learned from me (as I had researched a lot of things he did not know), and since he worked in tech (He built lasers) he taught me a lot as well about working with circuit boards and safely handling electronics. It was an invaluable experience, and one which would stay with me my whole life. When i was in college, though I can't say my interest in pcs went beyond computer games, I saved up from a part time job and build a PC, which I then overclocked and became the cool nerd on campus with the only "ghz" clocked pc.

It stayed a hobby of mine, which would lead me to joining up with an online gaming group which would then lead me to an online game development group, for whom I would work as a hoby in the mid 2000's learning graphic design, then computer programing in C++ and Javascript. All built around my interest in games. By this point my interest in computers had turned into a passion well beyond "games" and so I left the awful sales jobs behind and joined the IT workforce, with nothing more then a passion for pcs, and some amateur knowledge about programming and pc building.

Now it's my career, and it's a good paying one.

The point of this story, which I hope your parents read, is that I don't think there is anything wrong about fostering and encouraging a passion for technology, because in the end, This is where the future is heading, and you never know how this type of knowledge and experience might help out in the future. If financially you're not in the position to help your kids out, that's ok too. when I was 13 I cut lawns and shoveled snow as well for $$, its not like my family was well off either. And working as a kid to get what you want is a great lesson in and of itself i think.