Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We got this one for my 9-yr old who just had a bday. My 12-yr old got an Acer at 9 as well that’s still going strong after a ridiculous amount of gaming. They are high powered enough for what elementary age kids want to do and they want the portability for when they go on play dates/hangouts. Yes, older DC now has monitor, keyboard and mouse, but those were gifts that came later, like for Xmas or other bdays.

Acer Nitro 5 AN515-58-525P Gaming Laptop |Core i5-12500H | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Laptop GPU | 15.6" FHD 144Hz IPS Display | 8GB DDR4 | 512GB PCIe Gen 4 SSD | Killer Wi-Fi 6 | Backlit Keyboard https://a.co/d/87x2e7D

Really weird that this is what playdates amount to now

Do you have a 9-10yr old boy? This is what they like to do even together. You didn’t go to your friend’s houses as okay Nintendo as a kid?

DP. One boy and two girls in the 6-10 age range. This is so lame. Who the f* are my daughters supposed to marry? Get him into sports, chess, music. Anything real.

OP here--my son does all of that AND he likes gaming. he plays soccer, golf, tennis, basketball, piano and chess, for the record. you are just assuming from a post that just bc a 9 year old boy wants a gaming computer he's a lame person stuck in his parents' basement. really weird.

Sure he does

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We got this one for my 9-yr old who just had a bday. My 12-yr old got an Acer at 9 as well that’s still going strong after a ridiculous amount of gaming. They are high powered enough for what elementary age kids want to do and they want the portability for when they go on play dates/hangouts. Yes, older DC now has monitor, keyboard and mouse, but those were gifts that came later, like for Xmas or other bdays.

Acer Nitro 5 AN515-58-525P Gaming Laptop |Core i5-12500H | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Laptop GPU | 15.6" FHD 144Hz IPS Display | 8GB DDR4 | 512GB PCIe Gen 4 SSD | Killer Wi-Fi 6 | Backlit Keyboard https://a.co/d/87x2e7D

Really weird that this is what playdates amount to now

Do you have a 9-10yr old boy? This is what they like to do even together. You didn’t go to your friend’s houses as okay Nintendo as a kid?

DP. One boy and two girls in the 6-10 age range. This is so lame. Who the f* are my daughters supposed to marry? Get him into sports, chess, music. Anything real.

OP here--my son does all of that AND he likes gaming. he plays soccer, golf, tennis, basketball, piano and chess, for the record. you are just assuming from a post that just bc a 9 year old boy wants a gaming computer he's a lame person stuck in his parents' basement. really weird.

Anonymous wrote:Damn what happened to riding bikes, playing b ball, or a game of foosball.

My twins are very active 12 year olds and they do all of that, and they also love tablets and gaming.

We also got Acer Nitros. I looked it up. This is what they got for Christmas when they were 10
Acer Nitro i5-7300HQ 16GB DDR4 Ram 2TB HDD Nvidia GTX 1050Ti 15.5" Gaming Laptop

We chose a laptop because they regularly go between multiple places and having gaming laptops that were mobile and that they could take when they were spending time elsewhere was important. Now that it's a couple of years later, it's worked out. They have a few friends who got gaming desktops and they like to play things in the same room. The desktops can't go anywhere, but our kids can bring their laptops to their friends' homes to play. Although one of the friend's gaming desktop is more powerful, my kids like theirs because they like the mobility of being able to take them places to use.

Anonymous wrote:Damn what happened to riding bikes, playing b ball, or a game of foosball.

They’d get run over, kidnapped or shot at.

*3000

We run kerbel space on a dell Inspiron 30000 laptop. It’s memory intensive because it simulates rocket science.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We got this one for my 9-yr old who just had a bday. My 12-yr old got an Acer at 9 as well that’s still going strong after a ridiculous amount of gaming. They are high powered enough for what elementary age kids want to do and they want the portability for when they go on play dates/hangouts. Yes, older DC now has monitor, keyboard and mouse, but those were gifts that came later, like for Xmas or other bdays.

Acer Nitro 5 AN515-58-525P Gaming Laptop |Core i5-12500H | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Laptop GPU | 15.6" FHD 144Hz IPS Display | 8GB DDR4 | 512GB PCIe Gen 4 SSD | Killer Wi-Fi 6 | Backlit Keyboard https://a.co/d/87x2e7D

Really weird that this is what playdates amount to now

Do you have a 9-10yr old boy? This is what they like to do even together. You didn’t go to your friend’s houses as okay Nintendo as a kid?

DP. One boy and two girls in the 6-10 age range. This is so lame. Who the f* are my daughters supposed to marry? Get him into sports, chess, music. Anything real.

Damn what happened to riding bikes, playing b ball, or a game of foosball.

Anonymous wrote:We got this one for my 9-yr old who just had a bday. My 12-yr old got an Acer at 9 as well that’s still going strong after a ridiculous amount of gaming. They are high powered enough for what elementary age kids want to do and they want the portability for when they go on play dates/hangouts. Yes, older DC now has monitor, keyboard and mouse, but those were gifts that came later, like for Xmas or other bdays.

Acer Nitro 5 AN515-58-525P Gaming Laptop |Core i5-12500H | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Laptop GPU | 15.6" FHD 144Hz IPS Display | 8GB DDR4 | 512GB PCIe Gen 4 SSD | Killer Wi-Fi 6 | Backlit Keyboard https://a.co/d/87x2e7D

+1. My kid started on an Acer nitro too, and it was a great first gaming laptop. Has a Lenovo legion now which is better but was a lot more expensive.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We got this one for my 9-yr old who just had a bday. My 12-yr old got an Acer at 9 as well that’s still going strong after a ridiculous amount of gaming. They are high powered enough for what elementary age kids want to do and they want the portability for when they go on play dates/hangouts. Yes, older DC now has monitor, keyboard and mouse, but those were gifts that came later, like for Xmas or other bdays.

Acer Nitro 5 AN515-58-525P Gaming Laptop |Core i5-12500H | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Laptop GPU | 15.6" FHD 144Hz IPS Display | 8GB DDR4 | 512GB PCIe Gen 4 SSD | Killer Wi-Fi 6 | Backlit Keyboard https://a.co/d/87x2e7D

Really weird that this is what playdates amount to now

Do you have a 9-10yr old boy? This is what they like to do even together. You didn’t go to your friend’s houses as okay Nintendo as a kid?

We got this one for my 9-yr old who just had a bday. My 12-yr old got an Acer at 9 as well that’s still going strong after a ridiculous amount of gaming. They are high powered enough for what elementary age kids want to do and they want the portability for when they go on play dates/hangouts. Yes, older DC now has monitor, keyboard and mouse, but those were gifts that came later, like for Xmas or other bdays.

Acer Nitro 5 AN515-58-525P Gaming Laptop |Core i5-12500H | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Laptop GPU | 15.6" FHD 144Hz IPS Display | 8GB DDR4 | 512GB PCIe Gen 4 SSD | Killer Wi-Fi 6 | Backlit Keyboard https://a.co/d/87x2e7D

Does he actually need portabilitdy? Gaming laptops are generally pretty compromised on performance (heat = reduced performance, and laptops are generally not well cooled) and you pay extra for the miniaturization. They also tend to make bad laptops (the are large, heavy, and have poor battery life).

A $500 desktop will have better performance and be more upgradable over time. Obviously, you still need the monitor, keyboard, mouse, etc., but those can be found cheaply and upgraded as needed. The big thing with desktops is the ability to upgrade RAM and the graphics card in the future. Some laptops have upgradable RAM, but that is becoming increasingly rare.

Personally, I would suggest making this an educational experience. Have your kid pick out new or used parts and build a machine, within a budget that you give him. Yes, a 9-year-old can do this. No, it is not difficult. If you live near a Micro Center (or another retailer that sells computer parts), I suggest starting there.

All of that said, if you need portability, then, yes, a laptop is your only choice (though he will probably still want an external monitor, keyboard, and mouse). MSI has historically had weak hinges. I would suggest looking at Asus instead, which has some models in your price range. Also, consider refurbished or open-box models, which can give you more bang for your buck.

Good luck!

Laptops aren’t as good as desktop

Eww

My 9 yr old has been asking for a gaming laptop so he can play games with more sophisticated graphics than our iPad can handle. If your kid has one, is there a certain brand you’d recommend? Trying to keep this under $1k. Have been looking at an MSI brand but not sure of others.