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What should I buy for my son's 15 birthday

Last response: in Systems
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My son's 15th birthday is soon and it's time for a new PC. I've built them in the past, but it's been a while. I'm looking for a lower price system, keeping it under $1k. Of course he plays games most of the time and that will probably be the primary use. He already has a good monitor.

He did some research on newegg and came up with this system. Please let me know if you have any suggestions or see any problems with this setup.


Western Digital Caviar Black 500GB 3.5" SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive $69.99

Rosewill Conqueror RPS-01-WB500P Computer Case $99.99

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168... $61.99 (memory)

SAPPHIRE Radeon HD 4850 100245L Video Card $139.99

BIOSTAR TFORCE TA790GX 128M ATX AMD Motherboard
AMD Phenom II X4 810 2.6GHz Socket AM3 95W Quad-Core Processor
$234.99

Grand Total: $715.93

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I would do this:
Optical: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...
HDD: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...
Thermal paste: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...
Ram: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...
OS: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...
Cooler: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...
GPU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168... (depends a lot on the monitor you have though, what size is it?)
CPU and Mobo: http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?Ite...
Case and PSU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?Ite... (this along with the mobo allows for expansion of the GPU to xfire later on if your son so desires)

Total: $906 shipping included, then $40 MIR. That leaves you about $100 left over, so if you wanted to upgrade the CPU to a quad core, then I would do this:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?Ite... which would bring the total to about $979, then $40 MIR.

OR you could get this mobo instead with the 940 BE combo, which is a better motherboard brand, and likely a higher quality part, but it has the same features as the cheaper biostar. If you can afford it, then I think this would be a wise upgrade:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?Ite... <==in combo with 940 BE (quad core CPU)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?Ite... <==in combo with 720 BE (triple core CPU)

I think topic starter did a good job selecting.

Phentom II + HD4850 is one hell of a birthday gift, and its balanced too.

Just make sure your son puts it together himself, much more fun id say.
 
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