build your own computer

mksysb

Cisco001 wrote: »

For PC with £500 or under, it is not worth self-build route as it is hard to beat the price (mainly due to expensive MS OS)

Well that's a good reason to build your own, you aren't forced to use, and pay for, Windows.

iscamaid

Thank you - brilliant video suggestion, exactly what I was looking for, will sit down with him and a notebook and take down suggestions.

QUOTE=fuzzything;75318211]That’s fine as CPU’s go, but there is no integrated graphics (not even windows will work without an additional graphics card with this processor).

But AMD do APU’s and these include integrated graphics e.g. Ryzen 2400G - which can be got as a bundle with motherboard and fan

£229.99

https://www.awd-it.co.uk/amd-ryzen-5-2400g-quad-core-3.9ghz-vega-graphics-asus-b450-plus-motherboard-cpu-bundle.html

I would recommend the youtube channel Paul’s Hardware, where the guy goes through the process of choosing parts to suit different budgets (including $500 builds) through to filming the whole build process

https://www.youtube.com/user/paulshardware[/QUOTE]

Cornucopia

I agree with the Raspberry Pi recommendation, although there is an even smaller/cheaper class of computing device: Arduino.

If the interest is programming and electronics construction, this might be a smaller, simpler base to start on.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Mini-USB-Nano-V3-0-ATmega328P-CH340-5V-16MHz-SOLDERED-HEADS-Arduino-UK/

For such a small/cheap device, there's a vast amount of computing there - it has its own processor, Flash RAM, EEPROM, USB interface and a bunch of interface pins - some digital and some analog. Behind the scenes there is C++ programming with a huge number of libraries for using different add-on devices, interrupts, assembly language, 2 hardware networking standards (SPI & I2C), etc. etc.

iscamaid

Huge thank you for all the suggestions - you have all be incredibly helpful.

onomatopoeia99

Cornucopia wrote: »

I agree with the Raspberry Pi recommendation, although there is an even smaller/cheaper class of computing device: Arduino.

The arduino is a rather different animal to the Pi and needs you to have a computer to write and compile the code on to upload to the arduino. At least, that's how I had to do some of the dev work on a project I get roped into from time to time, ran a IDE on a PC and punted the built program across the the arduino via USB to run.


The Pi will accept keyboard, mouse and HDMI connections as well as a memory card as its permanent storage, so is a complete self contained computer. It's horses for courses, naturally, but I'd say the Pi is easier to get started with if you don't already have a computer.

that

if your son is really interested in computing (rather than just a gaming machine), get him to look at the comptia a+ course and pay for the exams (many people pass the exams after 4 days 'training'), so in say about six months time he may have an industry recognised qualification which if he does not go to uni will put him on a starting about 22k a year in London. Also he will have a better idea what route he wants to take.

A large portion of systems and programming can be learnt at home. In two years time he could very had passed a Microsoft exam suite too.
https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-30054140

I currently have a friend installing Azure (MS cloud) into companies and he is on £650 a day and his current contract is for 9 months. No, he does not have a degree.

S0litaire

If he want's something a bit cheaper look at the
"AMD A-series" of chips, they are older than ryzen but have integrated graphics and a heck of a lot cheaper.

They use older motherboards so you can usually pick up a motherboard/CPU/Memory deal for the same price as a Ryzen chip alone.

Quick example from amazon (Not suggesting you buy this but its a good guide to see what you can get on a tight budget):
Starting at £119
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Components4All-A320M-K-Motherboard-2133Mhz-Pre-Built/dp/B0778RHSD9

It won't win any speed awards! but depending on what he wants to do with it it is a good starting point.

Just add a case and a SSD & Hard drive and off you go, then upgrade to a dedicated graphics card and/ or extra RAM and put the rest to a good monitor at a future point.

d0nkeyk0ng

that wrote: »

the days where it took technical ability to work out the memory address space, irq, board conficts of all the slot in boards, configuring the bios with the correct disk parameters and setting up bad track tables and adding drivers to config.sys are long gone.

Oh God! I remember those days and I was a pimply faced youth back then. Nightmare. These days it's more akin to "plug'n'play".

Stoke

What kind of programming does he want to learn? This is quite an important question that everyone else here has missed.

John_Gray

Stoke wrote: »

What kind of programming does he want to learn? This is quite an important question that everyone else here has missed.

It takes a person of your skill and perspicacity to spot that! :T :mad: