How hard would it be to build a $500 PC with my son?

I've built three PCs. It's not as hard as you might think. The parts are all standardized -- they snap together like Lego blocks. Well, not quite, but almost. You do have to make sure that the components are compatible with each other. You might look at http://pcpartpicker.com/.

You should absolutely do this. It's not too hard, and it is a good learning experience. I've helped my daughter build several electronics projects, and it's always been a good experience for both of us, even when we've temporarily hit snags. (I think that it's really fairly valuable for a child to see their parents hit a snag or make a mistake in a project and then learn, reason or hack their way around it.) The actual build time is likely to be only a couple of hours at most - it will likely take you longer to make decisions as to what components to buy. Some resources: * http://lifehacker.com/5828747/how-to-build-a-computer-from-scratch-the-complete-guide * http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/budget-gaming-pc,3854.html * http://www.maximumpc.com/build_pc_recommended_builds_july_2014 Some other good resources on building inexpensive gaming boxes are http://www.anandtech.com/tag/guides and http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2013/04/ars-technica-system-guide-gaming-boxes-april-2013/2/. Good luck!

I say go for it. I built a PC recently without really knowing what I was doing, and it wasn't all that hard. Once I got all the components together, it took me maybe two evenings...a couple hours or so each night. I used http://pcpartpicker.com/ to figure out what components to buy and which were compatible. They have a forum too, and I got a question answered there. Beyond that, I used a guide found on Lifehacker, a book from the library, and the instructions from the motherboard I bought.

I've built a few PCs, though not in a couple of years. The thing that takes the most time is researching all the parts to make sure they're going to work together and do what you want. The actual building only takes a couple of hours. Add to that another hour or two to install the OS and then some time tweaking things, which your son can do on his own once it's all working. Don't underestimate the need for a good case. A case that has easy access to the insides and slide-out/snap-in hard drive rails will save you a ton of time and frustration.

http://www.logicalincrements.com/ provides a good list of recommended PC builds and starts out at around US$ 240. It seems to be slightly geared towards gaming and hovering over a part will give a brief description of what kind of performance you can expect.

I hate faffing with technology, I just want it to work and not think about how it works ever. I assembled in an afternoon. My tech loving husband did all the research on parts etc for me & ordered the things though as that is the real time sink. I just assembled. The research could be fun for you and your son to do if you both have that sort of mind, the cost benefit weighing discussions my husband and BIL had over power supplies & graphics cards etc for me kept them in conversation topics for weeks. The assembly really is a lot of tab a into slot b, and there are lots of great YouTube videos if you get stuck. I've assembled ikea furniture that took me longer to work out. *glares at her detolf*

Absolutely worth it. But one wrinkle is that once you're done putting it all together, even before OS installation, it's highly advisable to run diagnostic tools to check that your CPU and memory are error-free. That can take a while (overnight, maybe) and may show errors, which mean returns and rebuilding. It's very likely that you have a spiffy new machine playing tf2 in a few hours, but it might be longer. But for me, I would hope that the detective work to figure out whether something is wrong is a great father son activity and a great way to encourage his investment in the box.

As other have said, it's an afternoon's work. The software install can take as long as the hardware though. Ninite.com can be very handy: it's sort of a Steam for utility programs. Be careful of static when building. Nothing like zapping a hundred-dollar part to kill the mood. Spend $5 on an http://www.amazon.ca/Belkin-Anti-Static-Wrist-Adjustable-Grounding/dp/B00004Z5D1, and clip off to something grounded. Don't build (or handle the parts directly) in a room with carpet. Give yourself plenty of space. A clean desk or dining room table is about right.

n'thing do it! I built my first one this summer and am thrilled with the results. You can 100% fit in the budget with the option to upgrade later. One recommendation - go small! Parts and cases have substantially come down in size, so as long as you're willing to be a little patient with cable routing you can get a powerful PC that can sit on your desk compactly. I used a http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00DRA4F06/metafilter-20/ref=nosim/ case, which was the smallest one I could find that also fits a full graphics card and CD bay. The only reason I can see to go bigger is for overkill things like water cooling or multiple graphics cards.