Computer Suggestions Needed

[RJM62]

I'm afraid of my ignorance. I know the basic parts of a computer; case, motherboard, CPU, hard drive, optic drive, power supply, cooling...

But I don't know what specs work with what. I'd be afraid I'd end up with incompatible hardware. Also weak on software. I don't know how to install BIOS, CMOS, and the like, let alone initial install of OS.

With that in mind is it still something you'd recommend?

Start with the processor that he wants. Knowing nothing about your son's needs, I would recommend something in the i5 or i7 lines, depending on your budget; but he may have reasons that he wants something else. (Some gamers, for example, prefer certain processors over others.)

Once you decide on the processor, put that selection aside for a moment and start again with the motherboard. The mobo is the part you should spend the most time agonizing over both because it defines the rest of the system and is the most difficult part to upgrade after the fact. Pore over review sites and forums for recommendations, and then pore over them again once you've narrowed your choices down to a few.

For what it's worth, I've always preferred Intel boards with Intel chipsets for Intel processors; but within that group there are still options to consider such as integrated peripherals, graphics capabilities, expansion slots, RAM capacity, and the like. Make sure the board has the features that your son will need, with some headroom for upgrades later on.

For example, unless you're really short on coin, I can't think of a good reason to buy a mobo for a new build that has less than 32 GB system RAM capacity, even if you're not going to use that much for the initial build. Spending a bit more at the outset can extend the life of the machine. Most computers obsolesce before they "wear out."

I suggest that you sit with the lad and talk about processors first. If you can afford it and he has no special need or preferences, I'd be looking at the i7 series, for both performance reasons and for maximum usable life before obsolescence. But it's your boy's computer (or will be), so talk to him about it. Once the processor is chosen, we can start talking about mobos.

Rich

 

[Henning]

The kid wants a laptop, why are we talking about building computers? Has something changed in the last 2 decades where you can now build out your own laptop without going into the manufacturing industry?

 

[Henning]

BTW, The tech guy I use for doing all sorts of stuff on the boat servers including writing custom control programs and modifying our satellite gear does it all on a $250 Acer mini thing with an Atom processor.

 

[RJM62]

The kid wants a laptop, why are we talking about building computers? Has something changed in the last 2 decades where you can now build out your own laptop without going into the manufacturing industry?

It's just an option, Henning. He may decide that he values the experience of building his own machine more than he does the portability of a laptop. It's certainly a possibility for a kid whose dream is to go to M.I.T.

Rich

 

[Gary F]

It's just an option, Henning. He may decide that he values the experience of building his own machine more than he does the portability of a laptop. It's certainly a possibility for a kid whose dream is to go to M.I.T.

Rich

That's my perspective. My kids are comfortable upgrading and troubleshooting their high performance homebuilt machines. Even if he decides portability is required he can research different CPU and video card options to choose the best laptop for his budget.

 

[PaulS]

newegg.com that's all I have.... I built my own pc about 3 years ago with an intel extreme processor. When windows 7 came out Intel orphaned the cpu I bought. It still runs great though although now windows has orphaned xp.

It's not that hard to do, just make sure what you buy is compatible. Cpu then motherboard worked for me, as others have said you can buy based off the motherboard specs. Many motherboards have the graphics built in now.

Good luck!!!

 

[Henning]

That's my perspective. My kids are comfortable upgrading and troubleshooting their high performance homebuilt machines. Even if he decides portability is required he can research different CPU and video card options to choose the best laptop for his budget.

That would be the other way around, buy a cheap laptop with which to research all the components available to build your own box machine. For learning coding and such, one doesn't need a super machine, however portability to bring to class, the library, a friend's house... especially at an age where you don't drive, is probably the premium.

 

[rbridges]

Yeah, but he probably thinks he needs a Mac, which will shoot the price up into that 4 digit range quickly.

no doubt. try finding one that isn't in the 4 digit range. I splurged and bought my daughter a macbook pro with the quad core processor and graphics card when she left for college. Really slick computer but paying for it hurt my feelings.

btw, the retina screens are very expensive. she damaged it by catching the power cord when she was closing it. cheapest place was $800 to replace.

 

[Gary F]

That would be the other way around, buy a cheap laptop with which to research all the components available to build your own box machine. For learning coding and such, one doesn't need a super machine, however portability to bring to class, the library, a friend's house... especially at an age where you don't drive, is probably the premium.

Laptops have proprietary motherboards so you can't make comparisons easily. Suppliers like Newegg have many CPUs, motherboards, video cards, memory and drive options, cases, power supplies, etc to choose from. There are several online resources that give information on hardware components. They start to understand performance tradeoffs when you set a fixed budget. It was a great experience for all of my kids. I've built about 20 systems from scratch since the late 1980s and will start working on another soon.

 

[Henning]

Back when a 286 powered box cost $2700 and I was running a jack up boat which left the boat crew with tons of free time on hitch, we'd order all the components to build nice machines with big HDs and CD drives for $750 from Midwest Micro and assemble them in the wheelhouse and preload them with porn. We'd then sell them all to the work crews that were on the boat for $2200.

 

[Gary F]

Back when a 286 powered box cost $2700 and I was running a jack up boat which left the boat crew with tons of free time on hitch, we'd order all the components to build nice machines with big HDs and CD drives for $750 from Midwest Micro and assemble them in the wheelhouse and preload them with porn. We'd then sell them all to the work crews that were on the boat for $2200.

Those were the good old days. My first homebuilt was powered by an Intel 8080 or possibly an 8085. Before plug-n-play it was a real challenge to get everything to work.

 

[PaulS]

The thing to watch out for here is that laptops seem to be in with the young 'uns and your son may only be happy with the tower for a short period of time before he turns back to wanting a laptop. Something to consider.

Edit: on the other hand, I've had to replace several laptops for my kids due to the "Pepsi syndrome".........

 

[Gary F]

The thing to watch out for here is that laptops seem to be in with the young 'uns and your son may only be happy with the tower for a short period of time before he turns back to wanting a laptop. Something to consider.

Edit: on the other hand, I've had to replace several laptops for my kids due to the "Pepsi syndrome".........

Easier to lose.

 

[redtail]

It's just an option, Henning. He may decide that he values the experience of building his own machine more than he does the portability of a laptop. It's certainly a possibility for a kid whose dream is to go to M.I.T.

Rich

Yep.
Learning the art of building my own desktop PC's (mostly for flight simulators), over twenty years ago, is one of the most rewarding experiences.

My 24 year old son also builds his own. When he was in 7th or 8th grade, his teacher asked his mom and I if he could come to her house to fix hers.

Watching him go from an exclusive 'gamer' (Quake, Unreal Tornament, etc) to Web designer, coder, builder and Computer Science major, makes us very happy and proud parents!

We used to have to take the computer away from him at night, because he was staying up way too late(gaming) and falling asleep in class. I remember wiring a timer into the power supply and setting it. That didn't last long

 

[jesse]

Watching him go from an exclusive 'gamer' (Quake, Unreal Tornament, etc) to Web designer, coder, builder and Computer Science major, makes us very happy and proud parents!

Seems like an incredibly common path. They love the technology and games when they're young.

Eventually they start to get interested in what makes it work, and the more you can help guide and expose them into wanting to know how things work, the sooner they'll take off on their own to doing productive things with technology.

I still think becoming a software developer is one of the best careers available for young people right now. You instantly get a pretty strong salary, and you can get a job anywhere provided you're at least average at your job, there is nearly an unlimited bucket of great software jobs.

Working conditions for software developers are pretty damn great compared to most jobs provided you avoid the video game companies.

 

[redtail]

Seems like an incredibly common path. They love the technology and games when they're young.

Eventually they start to get interested in what makes it work, and the more you can help guide and expose them into wanting to know how things work, the sooner they'll take off on their own to doing productive things with technology.

I still think becoming a software developer is one of the best careers available for young people right now. You instantly get a pretty strong salary, and you can get a job anywhere provided you're at least average at your job, there is nearly an unlimited bucket of great software jobs.

Working conditions for software developers are pretty damn great compared to most jobs provided you avoid the video game companies.

By the way, I bought your WnBpro app awhile ago and use it whenever I fly with two or more passengers. Nice job!

Maybe he'll be as good as you someday

 

[RJM62]

By the way, I bought your WnBpro app awhile ago and use it whenever I fly with two or more passengers. Nice job!

Maybe he'll be as good as you someday

That would be a tall order. Jesse's one smart dude. The moment I met him, I humbly accepted the fact that this "kid" was so much smarter than I was that he tolerated me mainly out of civility.

Rich

 

[redtail]

That would be a tall order. Jesse's one smart dude. The moment I met him, I humbly accepted the fact that this "kid" was so much smarter than I was that he tolerated me mainly out of civility.

Rich

That's what it's like when I'm around my son. I USED to think I knew a little something

 

[RJM62]

That's what it's like when I'm around my son. I USED to think I knew a little something

It's humbling isn't it? I sometimes have to call people I trained to ask them questions, especially now that I've been out of the loop for a while on the tech support end. But it's also gratifying in a way to think about how some of the clueless kids I hired and trained ten or more years ago have done so well for themselves.

Rich

 

[redtail]

It's humbling isn't it? I sometimes have to call people I trained to ask them questions, especially now that I've been out of the loop for a while on the tech support end. But it's also gratifying in a way to think about how some of the clueless kids I hired and trained ten or more years ago have done so well for themselves.

Rich

Yes it is. Fortunately for me, it's only been a hobby

 

[MadseasoN]

An i7 for a 12 year old?

I just bought a laptop so that I can work while riding the bus to the office. I wanted something light and compact and I won't cry too much if it gets broken or lost.

It's a Lenovo with a Celeron processor. 8GB RAM and Windows 8.1. I run Visual Studio 2013 and SQL Server with no problem except builds take a little longer than on my hot rod production machine. I think I paid $300 for it including tax.

 

[CT4ME]

Building a PC is nothing. There are courses in retirement communities where old ladies build them in a couple of hours. Don't ever let anyone fool you that "building a PC" is something to crow about. If someone says, "Oh my tech friend knows everything about PCs, he even builds his own PCs", run the other way.
Most of my tech buddies, with 30 years of experience each, don't build their own PCs any more (for years). (Special use computers are a different thing). Nowadays, they want a PC built by a reputable company, with a good warranty. They want to know that motherboard A, works well with video card B, hard drive C, and add-in card D.
Build your own PC and you get no specific warranty. Sure, the parts individually are warranted, but not the system. Life is too short. Spend it "using" the computer, not fixing it.

 

[Gary F]

Building a PC is nothing. There are courses in retirement communities where old ladies build them in a couple of hours. Don't ever let anyone fool you that "building a PC" is something to crow about. If someone says, "Oh my tech friend knows everything about PCs, he even builds his own PCs", run the other way.
Most of my tech buddies, with 30 years of experience each, don't build their own PCs any more (for years). (Special use computers are a different thing). Nowadays, they want a PC built by a reputable company, with a good warranty. They want to know that motherboard A, works well with video card B, hard drive C, and add-in card D.
Build your own PC and you get no specific warranty. Sure, the parts individually are warranted, but not the system. Life is too short. Spend it "using" the computer, not fixing it.

It's not plugging the pieces together, it's the selection of the components. It is a great way to teach kids about price/performance and budgeting. My boys developed and understanding of hardware that allows them to modify and troubleshoot better than those who just bought it off the shelf.

 

[RJM62]

It's not plugging the pieces together, it's the selection of the components. It is a great way to teach kids about price/performance and budgeting. My boys developed and understanding of hardware that allows them to modify and troubleshoot better than those who just bought it off the shelf.

I agree.

It also teaches them something else which is harder to define with precision, but has to do with the mastery and confidence that come with understanding. When someone plans, designs, and builds a computer, it's no longer just a mysterious box. It's something that the person understands on a level beyond the bare minimum needed to use it.

It's a little bit like flying, actually. It's possible (although usually undesirable) for someone to learn the rudiments of flight without ever hearing the names Bernoulli or Newton. I suspect most "pinch-hitter" training happens along those lines. But understanding the aerodynamics is one of the things that makes someone a pilot, rather than just someone who can manipulate the controls in a pinch.

It's also possible to learn to drive without knowing anything about momentum or inertia; but decades of experience have shown us that understanding a bit about those concepts makes people better drivers. That's why they're covered in driver education and accident-reduction courses.

Rich

 

[Henning]

I agree.

It also teaches them something else which is harder to define with precision, but has to do with the mastery and confidence that come with understanding. When someone plans, designs, and builds a computer, it's no longer just a mysterious box. It's something that the person understands on a level beyond the bare minimum needed to use it.

It's a little bit like flying, actually. It's possible (although usually undesirable) for someone to learn the rudiments of flight without ever hearing the names Bernoulli or Newton. I suspect most "pinch-hitter" training happens along those lines. But understanding the aerodynamics is one of the things that makes someone a pilot, rather than just someone who can manipulate the controls in a pinch.

It's also possible to learn to drive without knowing anything about momentum or inertia; but decades of experience have shown us that understanding a bit about those concepts makes people better drivers. That's why they're covered in driver education and accident-reduction courses.

Rich

I would say that is a limited effect since the people with 'The Knack' have typically been getting spankings since they were 6 for taking things apart to see how they work/what's inside them, and by the time they are 12 are being called over by mom to fix major appliances.

 

[RJM62]

I would say that is a limited effect since the people with 'The Knack' have typically been getting spankings since they were 6 for taking things apart to see how they work/what's inside them, and by the time they are 12 are being called over by mom to fix major appliances.

You brought back a lot of memories with that one.

Rich

 

[texasag93]

I have built the last 7 or 8 tower computers that I have needed for the office and home.

I spend about $500 for employee computers and about $900 when I build one for my own use. The price difference is the additional memory and better CPU/motherboard combination.

Major benefits:

I know what I am getting.

I do not have to pay for something I do not want (something is always on a prebuilt I do not want)

No add on crap software that gunks up the computer

I do not have to call Apu when something goes wrong

Drawbacks:

I am not able to call Apu

I have to fix it (only had one go tits up in the last 4 years, swapped the motherboard out (I bought the same one that died and powered it back up, no reloading software)

Do it. Your son will enjoy it.

Buy the components, follow the instructions on the motherboard, and you will be fine.

When you install the BIOS, install the software one item at a time or the crap software that I mentioned above will be installed on your computer. The motherboard manufacturers get a fee when you install the marketing software. It takes longer, but the computer is cleaner.

I buy from Fry's, but Microcenter is just as good. Buy locally because a component may have an out of the box failure. Be sure to buy the tower locally, your son will geek out on the options. I buy the cheapest, but a kid would get a kick out of the LED lighted boxes.

 

[Captain]

Not sure about buying locally, I'm not very close to the big city.

Yeah to geeking out on the LED lit tower though...

 

[texasag93]

Not sure about buying locally, I'm not very close to the big city.

Yeah to geeking out on the LED lit tower though...

Hard to tell where you are, NOYB....

 

[redtail]

You brought back a lot of memories with that one.

Rich

YES

I used to take everything apart,lol. Got zapped once with thousands of volts while tinkering inside a TV

 

[Henning]

Not sure about buying locally, I'm not very close to the big city.

Yeah to geeking out on the LED lit tower though...

If your kid wants a laptop and knows what he's doing, a laptop is probably the better thing to get. He likely understands the difference in capabilities. Tiger Direct on US-1 N of Sunrise has a good selection at good prices.

 

[redtail]

That day I found out why they call it a Flyback transformer.

Fortunately, there was no one in the room to get hurt from the screwdriver as my arm flew back!!!

"A flyback transformer and its associated circuitry operate at very high voltages at low currents (<1mA-15mA), far beyond mains voltage. While most flybacks do not supply enough power to kill directly, the voltage they employ can cause violent muscle spasms if touched; and such spasms usually cause injury. A common injury that occurs when one is shocked is actually to be injured not as much by the shock itself, but when the victim's hand or arm is thrown back against other internal components in the display device. Therefore, only trained persons should touch or modify these devices, after first ensuring that the transformer is switched off and any stored energy has been safely discharged. The CRT attached to the flyback has an inherent capacitance which can hold a high voltage charge for more than a week after the power is switched off."

Crazy thing is, I knew there was high voltage in there. Just didn't realize how far the arc would jump to get to my screwdriver!
That was an illuminating experience

 

[Gary F]

I have built the last 7 or 8 tower computers that I have needed for the office and home.

I spend about $500 for employee computers and about $900 when I build one for my own use. The price difference is the additional memory and better CPU/motherboard combination.

Major benefits:

I know what I am getting.

I do not have to pay for something I do not want (something is always on a prebuilt I do not want)

No add on crap software that gunks up the computer

I do not have to call Apu when something goes wrong

Drawbacks:

I am not able to call Apu

I have to fix it (only had one go tits up in the last 4 years, swapped the motherboard out (I bought the same one that died and powered it back up, no reloading software)

Do it. Your son will enjoy it.

Buy the components, follow the instructions on the motherboard, and you will be fine.

When you install the BIOS, install the software one item at a time or the crap software that I mentioned above will be installed on your computer. The motherboard manufacturers get a fee when you install the marketing software. It takes longer, but the computer is cleaner.

I buy from Fry's, but Microcenter is just as good. Buy locally because a component may have an out of the box failure. Be sure to buy the tower locally, your son will geek out on the options. I buy the cheapest, but a kid would get a kick out of the LED lighted boxes.

All of the above. The price difference has been worth it for me. I hate Windows 8 so building my own system allows me to use Windows 7 OEM.

 

[RJM62]

That day I found out why they call it a Flyback transformer.

Fortunately, there was no one in the room to get hurt from the screwdriver as my arm flew back!!!

"A flyback transformer and its associated circuitry operate at very high voltages at low currents (<1mA-15mA), far beyond mains voltage. While most flybacks do not supply enough power to kill directly, the voltage they employ can cause violent muscle spasms if touched; and such spasms usually cause injury. A common injury that occurs when one is shocked is actually to be injured not as much by the shock itself, but when the victim's hand or arm is thrown back against other internal components in the display device. Therefore, only trained persons should touch or modify these devices, after first ensuring that the transformer is switched off and any stored energy has been safely discharged. The CRT attached to the flyback has an inherent capacitance which can hold a high voltage charge for more than a week after the power is switched off."

Crazy thing is, I knew there was high voltage in there. Just didn't realize how far the arc would jump to get to my screwdriver!
That was an illuminating experience

Yeah, I've been zapped quite a few times too, back before they started putting bleeder resisters on the second anode.

My introduction to flyback transformers and second anodes was also a "powerful" experience. When I was little, Nick and Pauline, the older couple next door, used to babysit me. "Uncle Nick" was a retired TV repairman who still did that work out of his home. He'd often sit me on his lap while he was fixing a TV, patiently explaining everything that he was doing, and often letting me "help." I replaced tubes, cleaned tuners, adjusted the convergence on color sets, and so forth.

One day when I was still about six years old, I arrived before Nick had had a chance to ground the anode on the TV that was sitting on the table with its back removed. Nick was in the other room doing something or other, and I sat down at the table and started poking around inside the TV.

"Don't touch anything in there," Nick called out. "Why?" I asked. Just then I touched the flyback transformer and was thrown back against the chair noisily enough that Nick heard it in the other room. "That's why," he answered.

Over the course of a few years, Nick also taught me how to use and interpret multimeters, grid dip meters, and oscilloscopes, all of which were standard diagnostic tools back in the days of vacuum tubes, to diagnose and repair more challenging problems. By the time I was about nine or ten years old, I'd learned enough that the neighbors started hiring me to fix their TVs.

I didn't think much about it at the time, but in retrospect, the neighbors must have thought I was some kind of a genius. But most of the time the problems were very simple things that Nick had taught me how to fix. There were only so many things that could go wrong on a tube set, and almost all of them were easily fixed once you knew how to diagnose them.

Rich

 

[redtail]

Rich, that's awesome that you had a pro teaching you. I was like the kid who jumps into an airplane and got lucky I didn't kill myself
I did get lucky a few times just changing tubes.

Years later I learned that the term 'flyback' actually refers to the electron beam sweeping back and forth across the CRT, due to the magnetic field building and collapsing. A sawtooth wave.

 

[RJM62]

Rich, that's awesome that you had a pro teaching you. I was like the kid who jumps into an airplane and got lucky I didn't kill myself
I did get lucky a few times just changing tubes.

Years later I learned that the term 'flyback' actually refers to the electron beam sweeping back and forth across the CRT, due to the magnetic field building and collapsing. A sawtooth wave.

See? You learn something new every day! I always thought it was because you flew back across the room whenever you touched it!

Seriously, though, I have fond memories of Nick and other neighborhood adults who taught me useful things in such a way that I was also being useful to them. Another who I still think about often was a man named Kieran who was a car mechanic from Jamaica (West Indies, not Queens). He used to do side jobs on afternoons and weekends, right there on the street.

Kieran taught me a lot about cars, starting with, "Hold this" or "Push that" when he needed an extra set of hands, and progressing through actually teaching me how to change plugs, points, oil, and filters; adjust the tach, timing, and dwell; clean and rebuild carburetors; replace lamps and bulbs; and other jobs that a little kid with a knack for things mechanical could handle.

My Uncle Frank was another teacher. He'd been whatever the Navy called electronic technicians during WWII, and he used to build a lot of Heathkit projects. He was younger than Nick so he was still working when I was little, but after Nick and Pauline moved to Staten Island, Uncle Frank would invite me over to help him work on his projects in the evenings.

And my father, of course, taught me woodworking. As a teen-ager, I often worked in his shop when he needed extra hands, and I acquired professional-level skills in all phases of cabinetmaking and many other aspects of carpentry.

Back to the thread's topic, these sorts of experiences can literally last a lifetime. If Captain's son is inclined, I think the two of them building a computer together would be something the boy would remember for the rest of his life. I don't remember what I had for breakfast this morning, but I have warm memories of the adults who taught me useful skills when I wasn't yet ten years of age. That says something.

Rich

 

[Captain]

Update:

My wife was opposed. Her concerns were cost overruns and my son (again, turning 12) not having a physical present on the day. I countered with the budget is half the process. Learning trade offs with price and performance.* And I thought he's old enough to be excited at the prospect of building his own PC to overcome any issue with not having a toy right then and there.

In the end I just asked him. I told him my idea and asked if it was something he'd like to do? He was over the moon and his eyes lit up at the idea of actually building a computer. The thought hadn't even crossed his mind as something that was possible.

So now the project is green lighted. The budget is $700. Widows PC able to run Office and some gaming. CoD and Minecraft are about as crazy as that gets but he does like to make YouTube videos so video editing might happen. That's down the road in the budgeting phase.

*Im planning on throwing up to an extra Benjermin toward LED case effects. Just for the bling!

 

[RJM62]

Update:

My wife was opposed. Her concerns were cost overruns and my son (again, turning 12) not having a physical present on the day. I countered with the budget is half the process. Learning trade offs with price and performance.* And I thought he's old enough to be excited at the prospect of building his own PC to overcome any issue with not having a toy right then and there.

In the end I just asked him. I told him my idea and asked if it was something he'd like to do? He was over the moon and his eyes lit up at the idea of actually building a computer. The thought hadn't even crossed his mind as something that was possible.

So now the project is green lighted. The budget is $700. Widows PC able to run Office and some gaming. CoD and Minecraft are about as crazy as that gets but he does like to make YouTube videos so video editing might happen. That's down the road in the budgeting phase.

*Im planning on throwing up to an extra Benjermin toward LED case effects. Just for the bling!

I think you'll both be glad you did it.

Rich

 

[Gary F]

Update:

My wife was opposed. Her concerns were cost overruns and my son (again, turning 12) not having a physical present on the day. I countered with the budget is half the process. Learning trade offs with price and performance.* And I thought he's old enough to be excited at the prospect of building his own PC to overcome any issue with not having a toy right then and there.

In the end I just asked him. I told him my idea and asked if it was something he'd like to do? He was over the moon and his eyes lit up at the idea of actually building a computer. The thought hadn't even crossed his mind as something that was possible.

So now the project is green lighted. The budget is $700. Widows PC able to run Office and some gaming. CoD and Minecraft are about as crazy as that gets but he does like to make YouTube videos so video editing might happen. That's down the road in the budgeting phase.

*Im planning on throwing up to an extra Benjermin toward LED case effects. Just for the bling!

Go for it. We have used Newegg for parts for years. There's a 74 minute video tutorial on choosing parts and building the system on this page.
http://www.newegg.com/Computer-Hardware/Store

 

[rwellner98]

You've been thinking about this for a while, but here's my two cents.

Building a desktop is fun, but if the kid likes developing get him a platform that "just works". As was pointed out, OSX is unix based and a real development platform. If he wants to develop for Windows then he can run it in a VM (arguably a VM is the *best* place to run windows anyway as you can keep multiple versions around for when things get unstable or virus laden). He'll be able to develop *everything*. Android, IOS, OSX, Linux, Windows. For $1300 get him a macbook air with 8GB of ram and 256GB of SSD. The machine will be ridiculously fast and last him for years.