Recommend gaming hardware for my kid

Hey everyone, so I have never been an avid gamer myself growing up, neither am I one today. Just so that you know, I am pretty much a Mac fanboy who loves Linux as well, especially for work.

So here’s my situation. My son loves to watch gaming channels and gameplays. His favorite game right now probably (he manages to come up with something new every now and then) is Minecraft. He has some experience with similar games on iphone.

I have a spare original M-series Mac Mini lying around that has 8 gigs of RAM and 256 gigs of SSD. I am 90% sure this machine can run Minecraft, lol. Or am I wrong?

What would you recommend me around $700-800 that I can buy for him to get him started with these kinds of games? It doesn’t have to be anything crazy, he’s just 8 years old.

I just don’t want to buy Minecraft for that Mac to find out it is a horrible experience. That’s why I thought there must be at-least one member in bhw who has tried this lol. @proxygo may be?

I could also just buy a PS5 for him, not a problem. Or maybe assemble a desktop pc. Keep in mind I am in India and import duties are a PITA.

If you recommend me buying a PS5, which edition would it be? Or would you recommend a different gaming console that can play games like Minecraft and Need for Speed?

Cheers and happy weekend!

is he more used to play on desktop or using a joystick?

because i tried to buy a PS3 years ago and I was like a retarded, I realized I wasn't used to play with a joystick, so i was terrible and gave up after a while

that's why I'm sticking with desktop to play games, i'm more used to play with keyboard+mouse

ask him if he would prefer to play with a keyboard, joystick or whatever...although he's 8yo, he has time to get used to both

Venusaur said:

is he more used to play on desktop or using a joystick?

because i tried to buy a PS3 years ago and I was like a retarded, I realized I wasn't used to play with a joystick, so i was terrible and gave up after a while

that's why I'm sticking with desktop to play games, i'm more used to play with keyboard+mouse

ask him if he would prefer to play with a keyboard, joystick or whatever...although he's 8yo, he has time to get used to both

Click to expand...

I’ve also played using a mouse and keyboard my whole life.

@Gogol, I didn’t realize you were that old. Maybe just get a PlayStation instead, building a PC isn’t exactly a cheap option anymore.

Are there any prebuilt PCs you can name us their specs if such exist in your city? RAM prices are so expensive the pricing is kinda messed up at the moment. A budget built for me would be used 5800x3d+3060ti(CPU and GPU), Ryzen 5 5600+RX6600 8GB if you insist on newer pricing, then you should just fit in motherboard(AM4 series, MSI B550M PRO-VDH WiFi), PSU(Corsair), Fans(Artic Fans), Lian Li Casing, Storage(1TB NVME) and 32GB RAM(32gb is overkill for minecraft but it would be nice for him if he wants to multitask in the future) accordingly, this would be slightly overbudget but it can future-proof your son if he wants to diverge into video editing or maybe higher graphics games.

hay GOG MRI results are in. my dog has a syst on her
neck - there keeping her in the vets 10 days and opperating
on her neck on mon...............been up for 2 days straight
as my dog lost the ability to walk on any legs all the
same day

plan is to shrink the syst over 3/4 days then if all goes well
they will opperate to remove it. i cried like a babby at thvets,
i thought they were gona sat its over But im paying 7/8k and
it can go either way BUT -- gotta try no matter cost

Venusaur said:

is he more used to play on desktop or using a joystick?

because i tried to buy a PS3 years ago and I was like a retarded, I realized I wasn't used to play with a joystick, so i was terrible and gave up after a while

that's why I'm sticking with desktop to play games, i'm more used to play with keyboard+mouse

ask him if he would prefer to play with a keyboard, joystick or whatever...although he's 8yo, he has time to get used to both

Click to expand...

He is used to joystick since he plays some games on the android TV. But most of the times he just plays games on the iphone directly. He needs a machine for homework as well, so may be a keyboard and a mouse is better (a joystick can be added to the desktop anyway).

V said:

I’ve also played using a mouse and keyboard my whole life.

@Gogol, I didn’t realize you were that old. Maybe just get a PlayStation instead, building a PC isn’t exactly a cheap option anymore.

Click to expand...

I am not that old am I?
That's what I have been thinking. The RAM and Graphics card prices are just off the roof these days. That said, the graphics card does not have to be a monster one. I am just not sure if let's say a 8gigs graphics card can be used to play Minecraft.

GreenGrass2019 said:

Are there any prebuilt PCs you can name us their specs if such exist in your city? RAM prices are so expensive the pricing is kinda messed up at the moment. A budget built for me would be used 5800x3d+3060ti(CPU and GPU), Ryzen 5 5600+RX6600 8GB if you insist on newer pricing, then you should just fit in motherboard(AM4 series, MSI B550M PRO-VDH WiFi), PSU(Corsair), Fans(Artic Fans), Lian Li Casing, Storage(1TB NVME) and 32GB RAM(32gb is overkill for minecraft but it would be nice for him if he wants to multitask in the future) accordingly, this would be slightly overbudget but it can future-proof your son if he wants to diverge into video editing or maybe higher graphics games.

Click to expand...

I will definitely research these! Thank you for the suggestion.

proxygo said:

hay GOG MRI results are in. my dog has a syst on her
neck - there keeping her in the vets 10 days and opperating
on her neck on mon...............been up for 2 days straight
as my dog lost the ability to walk on any legs all the
same day

plan is to shrink the syst over 3/4 days then if all goes well
they will opperate to remove it. i cried like a babby at thvets,
i thought they were gona sat its over But im paying 7/8k and
it can go either way BUT -- gotta try no matter cost

Click to expand...

Sorry to hear that man. Hopefully she will do better after the treatment. Praying for her.

hope so.

If you are building on a budget, an AMD Ryzen 5 paired with an RTX 4060 is more than enough for most modern 1080p gaming. Make sure to get at least 16GB of RAM and a reliable power supply.