Affordable machine for my son

Thanks for chiming in....

Requirements:

Cheap as possible, ~500 would be great
Enough horse power to develop/publish Roblox games. Son develops using Lua in Roblox and my machine doesn't have enough HP. My machine is 8 gbs, 2 gb cheap video, OLDSCHOOL i7 process and a SSD HD.

I don't want to give him mine, because I have so much configured and installed it would take forever......

I'm thinking it's going to need a GTX 4 GB video card. I think that's min.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

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thedudeabides

Pick up a used/refurb Dell for $300ish and then put a GTX1050Ti in it.

DatabaseHead

thedudeabides wrote: »

Pick up a used/refurb Dell for $300ish and then put a GTX1050Ti in it.

Good call dood!

mikey88

Desktop or laptop? Haven't seen too many deals in that price range. Here's one I could find:
https://www.costco.com/Dell-Inspiron-15-5000-Series-Gaming-Laptop---Intel-Core-i5--GeForce-GTX-1050---1080p---Free-Marvel-Movie-Ticket-and-Online-Rental.product.100397512.html

DatabaseHead

Either or, but he is fine with a desktop.

PS looked at the laptop, wow nice one!

DatabaseHead

Went to a refurbish shop the cost were insanely high. Optiplex with I7 8 GB ram 530.....

Microcenter has a gaming desktop for 699, has SSD, 4 GB GTX, 16 gb ram with a 7 gen i5 6 cores. This might be the best I can get for the buck.

The power supply is pretty nice..... I could upgrade to the 8gb GTX card in the future....

Just thinking out loud

NetworkNewb

mikey88 wrote: »

Desktop or laptop? Haven't seen too many deals in that price range. Here's one I could find:
https://www.costco.com/Dell-Inspiron-15-5000-Series-Gaming-Laptop---Intel-Core-i5--GeForce-GTX-1050---1080p---Free-Marvel-Movie-Ticket-and-Online-Rental.product.100397512.html

That definitely looks decent for the price. And you get Antman and the Wasp tickets?? I'm sold

thedudeabides

Dell OptiPlex 7010 Desktop Computer Refurbished 737257000336-R - Micro Center

EVGA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti SuperClocked GAMING 4GB GDDR5 Video Card 04G-P4-6253-KR - Micro Center

Just over $500

DatabaseHead

Thanks a lot guys for the suggestions, I was striking out....

nisti2

Hi, You can check https://pcpartpicker.com and Logical Increments.
Depend on your budget.

josephandre

I've got the Inspiron 7000 and got it for around 400 bucks like a year ago. Just check Best Buy's open box most times they're brand new in perfect condition

DatabaseHead

I think I am going with the Optiplex posted above and video card.....

Ertaz

If only I were within driving distance of a Microcenter....

DatabaseHead

Ertaz wrote: »

If only I were within driving distance of a Microcenter....

~15 minutes from my house, it's such a great store! They are open to 9 as well! The boy and I are going together to talk shop and pick up his new rig. He's been texting the crap out of my all day LMAO.

Should be a good time...

Ertaz

DatabaseHead wrote: »

~15 minutes from my house, it's such a great store! They are open to 9 as well! The boy and I are going together to talk shop and pick up his new rig. He's been texting the crap out of my all day LMAO.

Should be a good time...

I go to St Louis a half-dozen times a year for work. I visit that one when I go. It’s neat to see all the stuff in person.

DatabaseHead

Brought the machine home, looking to get the video card next pay period. Hopefully get a 4 GB GTX, that should set him up. The Optiplex comes with a 240 W supply, I'll need to upgrade that as well to a 300 W. Other than that should be good. The 8 GB of Ram works fine.....

BTW That's the one I went too. It's great.

thedudeabides

DatabaseHead wrote: »

Brought the machine home, looking to get the video card next pay period. Hopefully get a 4 GB GTX, that should set him up. The Optiplex comes with a 240 W supply, I'll need to upgrade that as well to a 300 W. Other than that should be good. The 8 GB of Ram works fine.....

BTW That's the one I went too. It's great.

The one I linked is a MT (mini tower), which should use a standard 275W PSU, and will support 75W from the PCI-E slot. The GTX1050Ti will work out of the box without a PSU upgrade as they don't require an extra PCI-E power connection.

So as long as you got the MT style case, you should be fine. If you got some other unit in a different form factor, it may not work at all, even with a PSU upgrade, because the PCI-E slot on those isn't specified at supporting 75W.

http://www.dell.com/downloads/global/products/optix/en/optiplex_7010_technical_guidebook.pdf - page 19, PCIex16 slot (BLUE)

DatabaseHead

Dude I got the mini tower, the exact one you recommended. I'll go ahead and get the card you recommended. Pretty excited about the set up.

DatabaseHead

Bumping this wonderful thread, getting the video card tomorrow!

Ertaz

DatabaseHead wrote: »

Bumping this wonderful thread, getting the video card tomorrow!

Is it installed yet?

DatabaseHead

Ertaz wrote: »

Is it installed yet?

It's getting purchased today. My son has been using the objects to build mini environments, but I want him to create his own objects. He's like Dad that's hard. I said I know it is that's why I want you to learn it.

He has been creating do while loops on the present objects for coloring etc... I'm trying to teach him a counter, but you know Dad is a dictator!

Speaking of which I'll need to face time to make sure he has his editor open coding LUA,

(It's a lightweight C, used to develop in embedded environments).

thedudeabides

Should be a sweet rig with that GPU.

DatabaseHead

thedudeabides wrote: »

Should be a sweet rig with that GPU.

Thanks Dood hope you find a job soon, I've been down that road before, it sucks.....

DatabaseHead

Dude just as you stated, works like a charm. By the way the case is super easy to work with and the installation of the card was super easy, great call out man thanks.

Kid is upstairs in full on geek mode.

Thanks again.

thedudeabides

Awesome! The 1050Ti is a great card, with a heck of a lot of performance for only 75W.