Laptop: 1st laptop for 12yr old: budget R5000: recommendations?

[xtoff47]

It will be his first laptop. No specific uses. Problem is that the budget is definitely only R5000. What would you recommend? Which online shop? I am living out in the Western Cape bundus, but delivery will not be a problem.
Tx in advance for any answer ...

 

[DominionZA]

I got my boy a laptop when he was 7. Did not take long and he was a gamer. At 10 he now he has an i7 desktop which is much easier to upgrade as he advances.
Graphics cards have already hit the birthday wish list.

He has played around with a bit of coding too. Mainly scripts and stuff, but still makes me proud.

Maybe consider a desktop unless he needs to be mobile. These little guys catch on so quickly and you'll be upgrading in no time.

 

[xtoff47]

Thanks for replying - much appreciated. OK, now I have to consider desktop too but it makes sense.
He reads a lot on his mom's Apple, no games yet, but the interest is there. Coding: I have given him Python for Kids but thus far no interest. I hope to nudge him gently into more than just games, movies and entertainment.

I got my boy a laptop when he was 7. Did not take long and he was a gamer. At 10 he now he has an i7 desktop which is much easier to upgrade as he advances.
Graphics cards have already hit the birthday wish list.

He has played around with a bit of coding too. Mainly scripts and stuff, but still makes me proud.

Maybe consider a desktop unless he needs to be mobile. These little guys catch on so quickly and you'll be upgrading in no time.

 

[TEXTILE GUY]

It will be his first laptop. No specific uses. Problem is that the budget is definitely only R5000. What would you recommend? Which online shop? I am living out in the Western Cape bundus, but delivery will not be a problem.
Tx in advance for any answer ...

Take a look here http://www.laptopdirect.co.za/ - online shopping with delivery.

For R5000 you wont get a fantastic gaming laptop. Ideally you need a graphics card and i5 ori7 and as much RAM as you can get.
HDD space means squat, externals can take that role.

Personally suggest you save a bit more and trade up ... kids are mambas on computers - Or, desktop i7 and get an Nvidia graphics card later (around R1000 for a starter graphics card).

If you buy down now, you are literally throwing money away as old low spec laptops are worthless.

Hope you come right.

 

[DominionZA]

Thanks for replying - much appreciated. OK, now I have to consider desktop too but it makes sense.
He reads a lot on his mom's Apple, no games yet, but the interest is there. Coding: I have given him Python for Kids but thus far no interest. I hope to nudge him gently into more than just games, movies and entertainment.

I got each of my 3 kids laptops when they were small. 2 out of the 3 had this nasty habit of breaking keys which really got my blood boiling.
They all ended up on desktops with my 2 girls back on laptops now - but they are now 16 and 17 and a lot more responsible.

Just another thought. Yours at 12 may be over the need to destroy precious gadgets though

 

[KleinBoontjie]

For R5000 you'll probably get an i3/AMD without an screen. I'd suggest an second hand one, or look on Bid or Buy, I saw a few cheap i5's on there.
My Daughter is 9 now and she's been playing on a PC since age 3. Mashed together a PC out of old parts back then, had to upgrade as the years went by. She's now on my old AMD Phenom. I had to change OS's for her on demand now a few times. Last week I had to move her back to Windows 7 dual boot with Linux mint.
Saw her the other day creating an bunny like character in Blender.

Todays kids are spoiled, when I was her age, I had a ZX Spectrum and when that broke a Commodore 64. Loading games via tape took ages. No double click.

 

[nelis]

I think R5000K is a bit low you will have to get something like i3 or even pentium CPU like G3440 with low end gaming graphics card. look at some of the amd cards cause they good budget cards. something like the r7-260x.

You can have a look at wootware they sell graphics cards for dirt cheap. Example this card

http://www.wootware.co.za/powercolo...rd-includes-2-free-games-amd-silver-tier.html

and you get 2 free games with it

I've been looking now and it's nearly impossible to get a brand new pc if you want to game aswell for R5K. only way you can do it somewhat is to go with amd APU or lowest end intel pentium CPU.