My wife and I recently upgraded our PCs and we had some old desktops collecting dust.

It's not the newest, but it works well. It will be used to learn how to use a keyboard/mouse and YouTube kids.

Parts /total cost:

CPU/Mobo: i5 2500k + Gigabyte Mobo - $0, from wife's old PC

GPU: RTX 3070 -$0, from my old PC

PSU: Cooler Master 850w Gold non-modular - $0, from my Microcenter Powerspec G757 I pulled to upgrade to a Lian Li edge 1000

RAM: 16gb DDR3, $0, from my wife's old PC

Case: Vertoo AL800, $40, used/open box from Facebook Marketplace

Cooler: Vertoo V240 AIO, $30, used/open box from Facebook Marketplace

Sensor Panel: Thermal right Trofeo Vision, $30, new online

Toys: from the toy bin, $0

Added some before and after photos. You can tell our old desktops were OLD from our cases, lol

I think this will be an ok build until the kiddos start gaming in a few years after RAMageddon is done. 😂

  • Why a 4yo need a computer?

    parent

    Because it's a better alternative than a phone or tablet. It is fixed inside the house and can only be used at home and cannot be taken to a park or restaurant.

    It's a great introduction to evidence based early education learning like PBS' Sesame Street whose value is minimal at less than 3, but increase after 3 years old.

    parent root

    plus, phones/tablets abstract too much of computing away, using a computer from an early age forces them to actually learn how stuff works

    parent root

    Start em early. My staff is 16-21 and none of them know how to use a computer aside from the mouse.

    I’ve watched grown adults turn off and on monitors thinking they were restarting the computer. I’ve watched grown adults restart their office PCs by quickly unplugging them from the wall. I’ve seen all ages try to jab, poke, pinch to zoom and dig into LCD displays and ruin them before my very eyes.

    Start em young.

    parent root

    A lot of people don’t realize this. Kids today are used to touch screens and a ton of them have never even used a real keyboard. My nephew was one of those kids before I built him a PC for his 10th bday a few years ago. Now he insists on playing games with mouse and keyboard only. lol.

    parent root

    My younger sister (16y.o) has never touched a PC, only mom's notebook a couple times. Touchscreen generation basically.

    I outplayed her numerous times in Minecraft (classic sword PvP, no spears/maces/shields/potions as this shit is basically impossible on 7" touchscreen and I wanted it to be at least a bit fair).

    Then she invited me to play Genshin with her (she has hundreds of hours in it and maxed out many characters) hoping to have the high ground due to game knowledge and better squad. We didn't want PvP but decided to beat some dungeon boss and whoever takes the least amount of damage wins. Little did she know I have beaten Skyrim with only a wooden sword. I have mastered the art of side-jumping and sprint-dodging enemy attacks. I won using only two chars from my squad and took exactly 0 damage.

    She's getting a pc for birthday now. I can't stand level of skill this low in my family and my father agrees with me on that.

    parent root

    That’s surprising because at high school I see plenty of kids playing unblocked games on their laptops and quickly alt tabbing when the teacher comes along. At least in my case pretty much much everyone can use a keyboard and mouse/trackpad!

    parent root

    on what though, a chromebook? Students need to be taught windows to prepare them for the job they will have.

    parent root

    Many are actually surprisingly on windows. I doubt they know much about the inner intricacies of it but it’s a start at least ¯_(ツ)_/¯  

    parent root

    I was playing racing games when I was 3. I was awful at them, but it gave me experience with installing and troubleshooting the janky 3D graphics divers of the time.

    parent root

    My daughter played all the way through super Mario odyssey at 5 and cried when the credits rolled. Proud dad moment. She thought she could never see Mario again when it was over.

    parent root

    Mine plays Paw Patrol games and looks at Digimon pictures, but when she does that, I can't use my own PC. I don't see an issue with children having access to technology, it's when they're given unrestricted, unsupervised access where the problems arise. 

    I just wish there was support for the old TLC games. I still can't figure out how to get Reader Rabbit running, and I'd rather not need an old piece of shit just for a couple games she'll outgrow in a couple years. 

    parent root

    TLC Games Designed to run on modern windows systems&text=My%20games%20are%20genuine%2C%20install,unconditional%20guarantee%20for%20three%20years.&text=This%20listing%20includes%20the%20original,both%2032%20and%2064%20bit.&text=One%20step:%20Insert%20my%20CD,Zero%20hassle.&text=Rapid%20response%20technical%20support%20for,mail%20or%20phone%20call%20away.)

    Reader Rabbit

    parent root

    Ayy, thanks for that. I'll give it a check in the morning, the ones I was finding kept giving me install errors. 

    parent root

  • A 3070 with a 2500k and ddr3😂 what kind of FRAKENSTEIN build u got going on there, bud! It's almost as if a 4 yr old built it! (Sarcastically because your kid is 4😂)

    parent

    Haha! For sure!

    The donor PC from the wife had a GTX 1660. My PC had a 8th Gen i7 and rtx 3070.

    I was going to use the i7 for a different project, but didn't need the video card. 😆

    I was thinking of updating the cpu/ram/Mobo when RAMageddon is done in 2027 and still use the 3070 🫣

    It'll work for YouTube kids for now.

    Everything else is a prime example of CPU bottleneck LOL

    parent root

    Not gonna lie I haven't heard of anyone talk about DDR3 lately 😂😂😂 That reminds me of my dads old pc from the early 00s shit it might've even had DDR2 lol with the old pentium cpus

    parent root

    I dont think it's going to be done by 2027 Many countries are invested in ai so it's going to take a very long time for the prices to be stable I'd suggest you to upgrade now as the prices are not going to decrease

    parent root

    That's a shame! I did upgrade on time and got a 9800x3d/5080 build with 32gb of 6000mhz ram for sub 2k!

    At this rate, my kid's PC will continue to be a Frankenstein from used parts 😭

    parent root

    No, it’s a bubble, none of these Ai companies can make a profit, and they don’t offer a product anyone actually wants or enjoys.

    It’s Enron 2.0 with all the circular accounting and dealing between OpenAI, nvidia, amd, etc.

    parent root

    what a ripper the 2500k is tho to this day. You can overclock the snot out of it when gaming becomes more of a thing. It's ok while they still play roblox lol but the older ones will pick up game recommendations from school and then you're screwed.

    There are going to be used am5 motherboard + cpu + ram bundle deals in a few years, you'd be set for years with that 3070, even a ryzen 7600 is comparable to the best of am4.

    parent root

    Almost everything from around then was pure gold. I still keep my old 4790K alive as a Minecraft server.

    parent root

    well, was. Or rather maybe the "most popular OS" is difficult to run. You wont have a good time on one trying to daily windows today. Any flavor of linux with something like xfce would be a different story tho.

    Of course you can also very successfully run servers on such hardware but they're not especially efficient compared to modern chips. A ryzen 5600 does the same work for 3x less power. Heck you could run a small server on an n150 mini pc pulling less than 20w from the outlet.

    Not a lot of people give a shit but if you're running something 24/7 in some places you might notice it on your power bill.

    parent root

    Oh, I totally agree. It's not practical or efficient at all. I do it casually because I have the hardware laying around and don't want to do it on my main machine.

    The CPU only uses about 8W at idle, but I'm sure the draw from the wall is closer to 30W, and that's without any spinning rust or a GPU. It's on W10 IoT Enterprise right now, mostly because the dumb old motherboard didn't want to boot from any of my Linux USB drives and I was running out of patience.

    I plan on doing this the right way at some point. I've got my eyes on some mini PCs with Ryzen laptop APUs for a general media/game server.

    parent root

    hold on... your wife has a 1660 and your four year old has a 3070?

    parent root

    Wait is this build literally Frankenstein I can't tell because you didn't put a sarcasm warning

    parent root

  • And they say my setup is a bottleneck.

    Jokes aside, great work

    parent

    I don’t think that’s a bottle neck lol

    parent root

    It's not, everything runs as intended. I've even seen a guy pair a 3090 with my CPU and he didn't complain too lol.

    Though some people think if you pair a new card with older CPU it's an instant bottleneck.

    parent root

    I saw a whole bunch of stuff saying a 9700k would bottleneck most modern cards but I’ve been super happy with my 9060XT and usually my CPU has no issue keeping up in demanding games.

    parent root

    People say lots of nonsense. Buying a new motherboard for new chip only to gain few % more it's a waste of money.

    parent root

    I had my i9 9900x bottleneck a 2080 super but I was playing borderlands 4 on 1440

    parent root

    Is BL4 super cpu heavy?

    parent root

    Not really anymore but it was super unoptimized on launch

    parent root

    it only is if you’re going for consistently high fps

    parent root

    I had a 3080, I've certainly had a bottleneck with my 3100 when playing some VR games.

    The 2500k is a bottleneck for the 3070.

    Will the kid notice? no.

    Will the kid care? nope.

    parent root

    on intel arc it is lol

    parent root

  • Great build!

    As a early childhood educator. Careful of the screen time for a 4 year old.

    And it's not the "it rots your brain" stuff. Screen time can make it harder to get to sleep. And as you know 4 yo need all the sleep.

    Screen time can decrease attention span, and it's not like 4yo have that great of an attention span in the first place.

    Screen time messes with your reward center processing (it's why I've been playing factorio non stop for years).

    The really good thing about this is the shared interest. And any time spent with parents doing stuff is always good.

    Anyway... Give it some thought, you guys are obviously caring parents... So in the end it will probably all work out. But no need to make it harder on the kiddo from the start.

    parent

    Thanks! As a doctor (albeit my background is Oncology, so I can't claim to have expertise in childhood development), I have read the research and we are aware of the current evidence.

    This is the reason we are doing a PC vs. A tablet or phone. The PC is a fixed appliance in the house and can only be used when at home. It cannot be taken to the park or restaurants or other outside activities.

    Also, he is at the age when shows that cater to learning have more value (Sesame Street or Numberblocks) vs. Younger (less than 3).

    I agree with the shared interest - time spent is time spent together - cleaning, playing, or building!

    parent root

    I agree! A PC is waaaay better than a tablet. Tablets can follow them everywhere

    parent root

  • Nice work.

    parent

    Thank you!!

    parent root

  • Why the fuck are you giving a PC to a 4 year old???

    parent

    I had a PC when I was 4 and that was 30 something years ago. Learning how to use DOS and play games on floppy disks was what lead me to go on to become an engineer! I think if more young girls were introduced to tech at that age, we’d have a few more female engineers and programmers!

    parent root

    A 4 yo knows how to use a PC. To code, probably not. But there’s educational software they can use that’s age-appropriate.

    parent root

  • Reusing old hardware is a great thing!

    Ram could be on the low side if you're running W11 (you can run W10 LTSC, though), and the GPU is obviously an overkill.

    Maybe sell the GPU and get something weaker if it's only for YT? Unless you need it as a backup, because It will depreciate over time and it's pretty good by today's standards meaning you could get something for it in the second hand market.. you could get another GPU later on when it's actually needed.

    parent

  • Thats a beautiful build for a 4 y/o

    parent

  • I wish they had places to buy old electronics and computers near me.

    parent

  • $0? You still paid for everything, just earlier. So no this was not $100.

    parent

  • Alternate title: i sold my 4 yr old for a $100 PC

    parent

  • That PC cost me 2200 to make 2 years ago.

    Just because you had the parts laying around doesn't mean it only cost $100.

    parent

  • What's the white case in the 3rd Pic, its an interesting one.

    parent

    It's an old In Win Dragon Rider case from around 2011/2012!

    I think I first used it from an old AMD Phenom X6 build and just kept reusing it 😆

    parent root

    Ill have to look it up, my stryker is currently in its 7th rendition lol. So know that feeling.

    parent root

  • Had my own PC at 4 years too :) hope little fella will have tons of fun using it and learning new stuff

    parent

  • allat just to be used for youtube kids and the occasional education website

    parent

  • A 4 year old got a better PC than me, I gotta pack it up man

    parent

  • Damn. That 4 year old gots a better setup than me. I wish i was a kid again

    parent

  • anti sag backet is needed!

    parent

    There is one! Just behind Peppa Pig! 😅

    parent root

    didn see it. my bad.

    parent root

  • Give them Factorio and you have a future software engineer.

    parent

  • 2500k?

    Overclock the piss out of it.

    4.4-4.6 ghz should be no trouble for it.

    Although the heatsink-less VRMs on that board might not let you.

    parent