build your own computer

onomatopoeia99

Stoke wrote: »

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

Unless it's assembly language, the hardware it runs on is close to irrelevant. Yes, I was teaching myself Z80 and 6502 assembler at age 14, but that was due to the limited power of home computers in the early 1980s. Nowadays it shouldn't be necessary.

Open source, platform independent compilers are available for most programming languages. It's only when you get into narrow, platform specific stuff like VB.NET that the hardware choice becomes important, but a teenager learning programming shouldn't go down that route initially.

flapjackboy

Here's a quick build I whipped up in PC Partpicker:



https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/wzPsFt


It's a good starter build with a good upgrade path later on down the line, as AMD are going to be supporting the AM4 socket for a good few generations of CPUs.

fred246

Computers are so easy to put together now. The risk is that you buy all the parts and can't get it working. If you have no family or friends that can help I bet a computer place might charge a small fortune. I remember when you had 7 days to return items I bought a whole system off ebuyer. My plan was if it didn't work I would return it. Everything arrived but the motherboard came 10 days later. I always wondered whether they had done that on purpose. It worked fine though.

iscamaid

Stoke wrote: »

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

He is keen to learn Python at the moment, though he has understanding of other programming languages.