HomeSchool work/Light LAN Gaming (AoE2) for Kiddos

ddiddy

Distinguished
Jul 14, 2010
6
0
18,510
My wife and I homeschool our daughters (5 and 7) and use a Chromebase for a portion of their lessons at the moment. However, they are both becoming very interested in strategy games (currently age of empires 2) and when I mentioned that I used to play LAN games with my friends on it, they are insisting that I do that with them as well.

So, I am wondering if there is a build that I could assemble that a motherboard's integrated graphics might handle a game like AoE2 (hoping to save money on the front end) and then slap some video cards in down the road to handle games with higher requirements.

My budget could vary but I was hoping to keep the set up under $400 as they are really only into web-based schooling/games and AoE2 for the time being while hopefully having decent enough bones to support other future requirements with the assistance of a video card or other upgrades.

Tons of thanks!
 
Solution
G4600 has plenty of power and excellent HD6300 graphics. About $80
A H110 based motherboard is cheap, about $50, but you need to insure that it has the enabling bios update to run a G4600.
Boards made after 12/2016 should be ok.
If in doubt, a B250 based motherboard will be about $10 more.
A 2 x 4gb ddr4 ram kit will run integrated video faster. About $75
$50 should buy you a Seasonic 520w psu that can handle a future graphics upgrade as strong as a GTX1070.

I will never again build without a ssd for the "C" drive. It makes everything you do much quicker.
120gb is minimum, it will hold the os and a handful of games.
But, many things default to the "C" drive.
When a SSD nears full, it will lose performance and endurance.
240gb is...
G4600 has plenty of power and excellent HD6300 graphics. About $80
A H110 based motherboard is cheap, about $50, but you need to insure that it has the enabling bios update to run a G4600.
Boards made after 12/2016 should be ok.
If in doubt, a B250 based motherboard will be about $10 more.
A 2 x 4gb ddr4 ram kit will run integrated video faster. About $75
$50 should buy you a Seasonic 520w psu that can handle a future graphics upgrade as strong as a GTX1070.

I will never again build without a ssd for the "C" drive. It makes everything you do much quicker.
120gb is minimum, it will hold the os and a handful of games.
But, many things default to the "C" drive.
When a SSD nears full, it will lose performance and endurance.
240gb is the recommended minimum.
Seasonic 850 evo or the m.2 format performs better and is more reliable. About $100.

Case is up to you.
Silverstone makes some nice cases.
Here is one for $50.
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811163351

This probably exceeds your budget a bit, but you should expect to pay a bit more to allow for future upgrades without waste.
 
Solution
Just to add 2 more games you may or may not be aware of...

Scribblenauts Unlimited and Scribblenauts Unmasked (a comic book hero version)

These games are amazing for kids. Typing, vocabulary, critical thinking skills, puzzle solving, imagination... They're worth a look.