My dad thinks I'll fail at building a PC, and it makes me worry

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jessy
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Joined: Fri Jul 10, 2020 8:28 am

My dad thinks I'll fail at building a PC, and it makes me worry

Post by jessy » Fri Jul 10, 2020 8:30 am

So I'm turning 17 on July 20th, and I asked for a PC, since my old one was a business laptop that my dad gifted me in 2014. It has been running really slow lately, which made it almost impossible to work on, so I asked for a new one.

Now, my dad is very strict, and back in 2014 he told me that the laptop he bought will be the last computer that he'll buy for me with his own money, hinting that he won't ever buy me another PC. It's really hard to explain to him that a 6 year old PC with an i3 and 6GB of DDR3 memory won't last for too long, since he's kind of stubborn.

He has a friend who has a diploma in radio engineering, and my dad thought that he'd help, but when I talked to him, his words didn't make sense to me. He was essentially saying the same thing, that I'd fail at it, and that it's impossible to build a PC on your own without help of professionals, and that you need a $20k tech to set it up (?). My dad believed him, and now he's saying that I'll fail at building a PC, and that $550 dollars is a big amount of money to throw away (meaning that I will fail and the parts will be useless afterwards). It made me really sad, I feel like he doesn't trust me. He says that buying an used Macbook Air 13" from like 2013-2015 would be a better deal, and after I finish 11th grade he'll take it away from me to use in travels and such.

This will be my first time building a PC (if it's ever going to happen lol) My specs will be:

Ryzen 5 1600 AF RX 5500 XT 4GB Crucial Ballistix 2666@16 8*2 Gigabyte B450M S2H Crucial MX500 250GB Cooler Master Q300L Be Quiet! System Power 9 500W

I need a little check since I'm not sure if it's going to run together. Thanks in advance!

CA_Steve
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Re: My dad thinks I'll fail at building a PC, and it makes me worry

Post by CA_Steve » Fri Jul 10, 2020 2:57 pm

Welcome to SPCR.
There are probably lots of "how to build a PC" youtube videos out there that you can watch and learn from.

My first suggestion would be to list the things you want to use the PC for: apps, gaming, video editing, etc...and what are the priorities (if budget limited)?

That'll determine whether your proposed build is balanced/tuned for what you want to do. Is $550 your budget limit?

Second: Ryzen CPUs really like faster RAM than 2666...look for 3200...and every motherboard will have a qualified memory list on the vendor's website. You are better off picking something from there. and yikes, that's a 1st gen Ryzen listed. Current is 3xxx...with 4xxx coming in the fall.

Third: Take a look at pcpartpicker.com. You can use the site to build out your list, and it can inform you of any known component conflicts as well as point you toward lower costs etailers.

Building your own PC isn't necessarily cheaper than buying pre-built. The primary benefit is you are selecting the components tuned for your needs. Here, we focus on building quieter stuff than you can get at a Best Buy.

CA_Steve
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Joined: Thu Oct 06, 2005 4:36 am
Location: St. Louis, MO

Re: My dad thinks I'll fail at building a PC, and it makes me worry

Post by CA_Steve » Fri Jul 10, 2020 3:01 pm

Also, that's a 1st gen Ryzen...current is 3xxx with 4xxx out this fall

Olle P
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Re: My dad thinks I'll fail at building a PC, and it makes me worry

Post by Olle P » Tue Jul 14, 2020 12:39 am

CA_Steve wrote:
Fri Jul 10, 2020 2:57 pm
Building your own PC isn't necessarily cheaper than buying pre-built. The primary benefit is you are selecting the components tuned for your needs. ...
I agree, but add that building yourself is usually the cheaper option for meeting your needs.

If there's a list of minimum requirements and you look for a pre-built that meet all of them it will have one or more parts way above the requirement, and charge a hefty price for that. By picking parts that just meet (all of) your needs it will be cheaper/better.

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