Looking at gaming PCs for my 19-year old who is an avid gamer, but tech-savvy I am not. I have been trying to research options, but I don’t really trust myself to make a decent choice and I don’t want to waste money on something that isn’t really going to work well for what he plays. Final Fantasy XIII, Borderlands 3, Terraria, Dragon Quest XI are some of the examples he gave me of games he would play that might need more… processing power? I’d like to stay below $1,200-$1,300, as much as possible. Pics are some of the PCs at my local Costco that I’ve been looking at, but I’ve also been looking on Amazon and at Best Buy and am not committed to any of those retailers. I would be so appreciative of any suggestions any of you are willing to share!
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All are overpriced especially the first two, but if you need to get one of them, go for the $999. I’d say build one yourself as you’d get the best bang for your buck but I understand that building a PC can seem pretty daunting.
Do you live near a Microcenter by any chance?
Fellow gamer and gen z’er here.. Well based on all 3 pics I would personally go with the more expensive $1599 one duhh come on mom lol. Kidding aside they are all great but for long term investment and overall performance the $1599 one is the best bet,Plus he’d be very shocked with mom’s great choice. Wish you both a happy Christmas season.
A few $1300 online prebuilds that come with a more powerful video card (RTX 4070):
* [Skytech Azure](https://www.newegg.com/skytech-st-azure2-0801-b-ne/p/3D5-000Z-00161) – $1300 – i5-13400F, RTX 4070, 1TB NVME SSD, 32GB DDR5 RAM RGB, 750W GOLD PSU, Windows 11 Home
* [Skytech Chronos](https://www.newegg.com/skytech-st-chronos2-0924-b-ne/p/3D5-000Z-00195) – $1300 – i5-13400F, RTX 4070, 1TB NVME SSD, 32GB DDR5 RAM RGB, 750W GOLD PSU, Windows 11 Home
* [Lenovo legion](https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/p/desktops/legion-desktops/legion-t-series-towers/legion-tower-5-gen-8-(26l,-amd)/90ux000bus) – $1321 – Ryzen 7 7700, RTX 4070, Gen4 1 TB NVME SSD, only 16 GB DDR5-5200, 500W PSU, Windows 11 Home
[Benchmarks](https://www.techpowerup.com/review/amd-radeon-rx-7800-xt/31.html) to compare a RTX 4070 to RTX 4060. Summary: a RTX 4070 is much better. 🙂
Any chance a microcenter is in the area ? They usually carry decent quality prebuilds
dont get any of those, I’d suggest watching a yt video then buildings one yourself
Decent specs/computers, but grossly overpriced.
I’d set the $1200 aside or so and let them pick out their parts if they’re tech savvy and know about building. Picking your parts and building is part of the fun plus you can get more for your money that way. Especially with the holiday sales that will probably carry on into early January.
Otherwise you can look at online prebuilts like origin of it something that have better price to performance ranges.
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Save some money and go with this. Can add some ram to it and still be way under that price shown.
https://www.bestbuy.com/site/cyberpowerpc-gamer-master-gaming-desktop-amd-ryzen-7-5700-16gb-memory-nvidia-geforce-rtx-4060-ti-8gb-2tb-ssd-black/6553003.p?skuId=6553003
Tell this sub your budget, and your general locality (country, state, city) and the people on this sub will give you top notch completed lists of purchase items.
BestBuy is selling the GPU – RTX 4060 for $300. A CPU will cost you $150-250. All other components another $150-$250. You can buy all the parts and let your son build one under $1k easily. Best part is he’ll learn about PC’s and know what to upgrade in the future.
The PC’s that your are showing are medium-high end computers that can run pretty much any AAA game. Your son can do with a medium end PC with the games that he’s currently playing so if you can find a PC with mid range GPU like the RTX 2060 you can save even more money.
It’s always the 4060/Ti that’s getting slapped in these prebuilts it’s hilarious
That’s a hell of a present. I wouldn’t spend that on my daughter when she needed a pc for college.
I love you Mom.
I’ve seen some solid PCs at Costco, and this is not one of them. The RTX 4060 Ti graphics card in this PC, which usually determines how well a game runs, is very underpowered for the price.
I’d aim for something with a RTX 4070, RTX 4070 Ti, RX 7800 XT, or RX 7900 XT for this price.
If you’re child is tech-savvy, it might be fun to just give them a budget, $1000 usd is plenty for what they’re playing, and let them build they’re own computer. I know I’d prefer that over getting a pre-built. Though, I don’t know them, so maybe talk to them about it?
OP Costco will be discounting the MSI Aegis for Black Friday. Should also apply online but you can order it discounted now on Newegg, it is backlogged but should arrive by early December and has a Black Friday price match if the price goes lower before Nov 25
As everyone else has stated, there are better bang for your buck choices out there, but if you are speaking strictly from those three choices I’d go for option 3
Dear Mrs. Mom,
Can your child do the assembly if I tell you what to buy?
If it has to be a prebuilt system, the cheapest of the three. Even thought the most expensive is a bit better, it is not worth the price. If money is not a problem then hey, get the most expensive.
The 4060 isn’t a great card. Get the cheapest one, sell the 4060 card and get at 4070. They are about $550-600.
Otherwise, these are all decent.
Also, will you be my mom for Xmas? 🤣
Jesus 19 year old getting $1200 gift is a blessing. You’re a great mom but JEESH
If the monitor is higher resolution then consider a 70 series card. With a 60 series and a mid tier cpu like a i7 or i5 you should expect to see prices around 1200 to 1500 for a tower. This time of year is to take unsold hardware off the market. 2 months later you should expect the latest stuff for the same price. The deals are just not that good at all this time around.
Mom, it’s great.
Not perfect, but great.
You might see some comments that make you second-guess.
But your son will be thrilled.
decent entry level gaming pc but the price is awful. this is about 500 over what the system would cost if you built it yourself.
Honestly the best part of getting my pc was building it, really makes you feel like it’s yours and not just an immobile laptop
I can’t blame you for feeling out of touch. Hell I AM the gamer (albeit on the older end at 37) but theres just so much out there anymore I have to defer constantly. Sometimes a 60 is better than a 70 but if its got a ti then its pretty much an 80, but don’t look at 90 because there’s an 80ti too, but you shouldn’t bottleneck it with a slower cpu etc etc etc, it makes me dizzy trying to learn. Don’t feel bad about it, the fact you not only are hooking your kid up with a killer pc but got pics and came here to get backup? Mom of the year award.
He’s 19 just pay for the parts and he can learn to build it
Best buy has a pretty decent starter gaming pc for $900