Starter Gaming computer for a child?/?

Figure this would be the right category for this. I don't want to drop the coin on a Razer for a young gamer (she is 13), but my daughter is going on her soon to be 3rd PC. Any suggestions? She plays SIMS on the machine locally and his on a couple of RPG's/Quest games online. Was almost debating to take my older model "work" MAC and turn into a PC platform. Any suggestions on a starter. Probably another couple of years when she is a little more responsible probably jump into a more professional gaming system.

Thanks in advance.

Sully

 

Just buy a cheap pre-built one from a local store at your place.

Her needs most likely won't need a specifically built "Gaming Rig"

Children don't care if they have 30 fps or 60, they just like the moving pictures on the screen. Lol.

 

I got a relatively cheap one on Amazon that had pretty decent stats. It works well and I can play big titles with only a bit of lag.

http://www.amazon.com/Acer-Aspire-ATC-105-UR11-Desktop-DT-SREAA-003/dp/B00I36GXRC

I chose to ignore the reviews, as the bad ones were cases of DOA.

 

Probably should push to get a desktop vice a laptop

 

I will suggest you go for a desktop instead of a laptop. It is better to let her know that other than gaming, social is kind of important too. For a child, it is not necessary to be a fancy high end gaming rig. There is a lot of pre-build pc at Amazon or maybe Dell you can choose from.

 

I would say go with a pretty standard laptop. I'm not sure what kind of gaming your daughter plans on doing but I don't think you could go wrong with, say, a laptop from best buy or something.

 

You can get her a micro tower with pretty decent specs for say, around $700. It's fairly affordable in the decent gaming spectrum. I'm not a fan of Alienware, but the Alienware X51 is solid and is $699. It's a decent buy. Especially for this week.

 

I loved my Gateway FX gaming Laptop til it passed away , but until she is older and travels on her own, def. push for a desktop. I got my own desktop on IBuyPower and put the pieces together on a limited budget. I know Newegg and other places do that too..... my 2 cents

 

And if she's strictly a Steam gamer, you could buy or build a steambox. You can get one for around $550, but they just do steam stuff. They run on the Steam Big Picture OS.

 

My recommendation, look for an "out of box" Asus ROG at BestBuy. My 10 y/o's about to inherit one as his first computer.

 

My 11 year old son has a desktop PC built from my old spare parts. It does well enough, but it's a core2 duo @ 3.0 on my older Gigabyte motherboard with my old geforce gtx 560 ti graphics card and 6gb of ram -- he plays Skyrim, Scribblenauts, Portal 1 & 2, Castle Crashers, Garry's Mod, Octodad, Spore and when my husband plays with him, TF2. It works out really well, and he's online allowed to do anything online if we're in the room with him.

The option of just picking up a cheap desktop from a mass market store is also a good one, but it can sometimes cost more than building your own. I'm not sure which SIMS she's playing, but those games can be remarkably demanding on your specs, I have both SIMS 3 and SIMS 4, and both of them can stretch even my limitations if I try to go for higher end on the graphics.

Good luck!

 

Defintetly going with a desktop. Just been so long since we've had one since we are moving a couple of years and it was nice to have portability. Thanks for all the recommendations.

 

Not sure what husband had laying around, but after our nephew came over and looked at all the parts we are going to use them and build his own. We where cleaning out the closet and didn't think to build him one. He just turned 13 and all the kids use their mothers pc just to watch you tube and play Minecraft. The best part I think we have everything and just need to put it together and take it. Husband has been letting them use his Minecraft account and has had it since beta. He decided that the kids can have his account.

 

@Sully send me a Pm ill help ya out i have experience with budget builds

 

To be honest. Just pick something up. Teach her to enjoy gaming when she is doing it. But also teach her that there is a whole world out there for her to explore and capture. So yea. Pick her up something, anything really. Best of luck

 

Sounds like her needs aren't extreme. Probably a decent APU in the PC would do fine. Go down to a local retailer, laptops are good if that's what she's into, otherwise a good ITX Desktop is good enough.

One last bit of advice: BUY AN SSD!

 

A low end desktop from a walmart, bestbuy or even amazon. You can still play decent games on steam and gog.com with those types of PC boxes.