Help / advice for a slightly poor teenager
Posted by ologuy@reddit | buildapc | View on Reddit | 22 comments
Advice/help
I am a early teenager with no money wanting to play some games my current laptop has 8gb ddr4 3800 and an i5 7560u igpu the games i play on it dont run very well and i want to play more games but i cant even run teamfortress2 :( even worse my dad got me a very nice 1440p monitor that is VERY good for movies but makes my games run worse (im very specific about reseluton) i dont have lots of money (im 14) and my parents dont have tonns of disposable income either but my dads friend is willing to give me his 4080 pc with an i7 4700k 32gb ddr5 but hes only upgrading when nvidia relases the 60 series witch is not comming until late 2027 earliest and doesnt want amd cards. The games i play arent very graphicly intense the most intense thing im gonna probably do is emulation and shooters like tf2 and valorant most intense game being genshin impact but i also wanna play more intense games like ex33 and warhammer the laptop i have now i got for school and i dont wanna be ungrateful,(its a dell inspiron 3535) i wanna know if i should keep with the laptop and wait for my dads friend to give me his pc in a while, or save for a cheaper pc and then get the 4080
Bonus points if you can give me a pcpp list im not against used parts just prefer a used and brand new option
Thanks internet strangers
aragorn18@reddit
You're asking if you should keep using your current laptop or buy a cheap PC? I guess that's up to you. How much money do you think you could spend on a PC?
ologuy@reddit (OP)
Idk my budges im like max 500 if im lucky
aragorn18@reddit
Is that US dollars? You might be able to buy a used PC that budget. It should play games faster than your laptop.
ologuy@reddit (OP)
Pounds
aragorn18@reddit
Yeah, it's pretty easy to put the £ symbol in front of your number.
ologuy@reddit (OP)
Yea im lazy -_-
katzengoldgott@reddit
On an international subreddit you should give at least the right country info so we know what we can suggest to you.
That’s the bare minimum, dude.
Alternative_Exit_333@reddit
Well that 1440p monitor is useless because you don't have enough money for a 9070xt or something like used 3090 and a strong ddr4 setup
StepKitchen2409@reddit
At 14, you’re at the friendly age where people will pay you generously to cut some grass. Invest (you’d likely get a free one if you kept asking) in a petrol powered mower and get door knocking.
If a kid looking to earn some £££ knocked on my door, I would pay generously and I think majority of people would!
At 14 I had a PC that could barely run MS paint, lol. But I did every thing in my power to earn a few quid and eventually I saved enough to get my first proper PC, both used and new parts.
itS4Lcanton1@reddit
There a ton of games you can plaayyy :)
senorjc@reddit
I'd say your best bet is to keep saving then scout craigslist and facebook marketplace for a cheap used gaming pc. In the meantime, make sure to drop the resolution and quality settings in the games you are playing. 720p/1080p @low settings in a game like tf2 should be playable on your laptop's igpu.
CursorTN@reddit
I like the idea of saving. Prices are crazy right now honestly. It’s a bad time to upgrade. Have you considered doing a deep dive into super-old games? I’m talking OG Baldur’s Gate and Xbox/PS2 era? Some fantastic games back there that should run on your current setup.
Another alternative would be to look into cloud gaming. You pay a high monthly fee for that, but it gets you out of having to lay out money for hardware in the short term. But you’ll need a good internet connection.
ologuy@reddit (OP)
Im a bit of a retro collector newest consoles are 3ds and wii u i plsu often but some games i wanna play are pc exlusive (valorant)
CursorTN@reddit
Sorry—I’m not recommending you play Xbox or PS2 games. Rather PC games from that era on your current rig. Or cloud gaming.
Powerful-Ad2869@reddit
Get everything used
Ryzen 5 5600 - 60-70$
Gigabyte B450M K motherboard - Brand new around 60-65$ also look MSI A520 M-A pro, as it might be cheaper
RAM - Corsair Vengeance LPX 3200mhz 8GBx2 (16GB) should be 70-80$ maybe more (used ddr4 rams are kinda cheap where im from so im totalling guessing that one from my experience)
GPU -if u are lucky u can find RX 5700XT for around 100$. If u cant , get a 1660super
PSU 600W PSU - 50-70$ depends on the quality
SSD- 500GB there are good and cheap ssd all over the place they should be cheap. Around 50-60$
Case - any cheap case will do
That should probably costs around 500$
Note : This is just an estimaated price so the real price may or may not be different depending on where u are from. But it should very well be around those price range if not more
There is also a 500$ PC build on Youtube by Jakkuh but he is using a 5500 and also somehow got a 6750XT for a 500$ build which is most of the time sort of impossible considering the fact that 6750XT(used) prices range from 180/190 - 200-220$
LightThunder_11@reddit
going to sound really sketchy here but does your laptop has any m2 slots? maybe you can save for a nice mid range gpu and do an oculink conversion on that m2 slot, slap that gpu with a cheap psu and you get a decent rig to run more games, this is an oculink for m2 slots, search on FB marketplace to grab the gpu and psu used, another option would be going to some goodwills or some Electronic recycling places to scavenge some pc parts, thats how i build my first pc back with an i7 2600!
ologuy@reddit (OP)
That sounds intresting ill look into it :D
LightThunder_11@reddit
hope you succeed buddy!
PixelPete27@reddit
I'm assuming you're putting all the settings onto the lowest possible?
Don't try and game on the 1440p monitor, your iGPU will not handle it. But if you put everything on low, you may be able to game on the lowest possible settings in valorant, on the native 1080p panel of the laptop. or maybe you can set it to 720p and give that a spin.
I remember when I was yung, our PC was so slow when I played age of empires I had a 3 second delay between the time I clicked something and when it was actually highlight/move, and that's not an exaggeration. It's the old age old of not coming from a rich family my friend, but it makes you appreciate shit.
As far as spending 500 pounds to get a PC in the mean time, you could, if you really wanted to. I spent that equivalent when I was a kid buying an Xbox, cause that's what I wanted. But the best bang for your buck will be the used market. So if you don't know a lot about the used market, definitely take some screen shots and post them on some subreddits that will help you out figuring out whether or not the deal is good or not, and if it will meet your needs.
The games you play aren't that intensive to play. Team fortress 2 should run on that laptop, just maybe not well on a 1440p monitor. That being said, both valorant and Genshin can be played on playstation 5. So I don't know if picking up a PS5 is an option for you? And then just play teamfight fortress on your laptop?
You have options, it's just a matter of what you want to do. The play station 5 isn't an awesome investment because the PS6 isn't that far off at this point, so it'll lose value quickly. But if you were able to snag one at a good price from someone, might be worth it just to play valorant and whatnot on.
deleted_by_reddit@reddit
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ThunderKats351@reddit
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