I want to get my 3 young kids 3 set ups so they can play Minecraft and Roblox.
I can build, but a premade, or even laptop might be more cost efficient for our needs.

Looking for thoughts on something that won’t break the bank, I need to do 3x setups. Not sure if $500/each (including monitor/mouse) is feasible but that’s where my head is at.

I can wait for deals, this is a Christmas idea. I live near a micro center.

A laptop would be better for studying and portability. A $500 laptop though, is not good for anything other than browsing, movies, and writing academic papers.

If it's just for a setup in their room, consider this 22 cm tall ITX case. you'd need a 17x17 cm ITX motherboard (~$30-60), and a 1U PSU ($40-50 450 W for GTX1660).

After all the other parts (cpu, motherboard, psu, monitor, keyboard, mouse), whatever budget you have remaining goes towards the GPU (limited to 18 cm length for that case). I recommend the short GTX1660 (~$150). If you get a GTX1660, you could play almost anything at about 60-90 fps (modest graphic settings).

A desktop is completely fine, the oldest kid is only 9, so I was planning to give everyone a wall in the same room.

Forgive my ignorance, while I am capable of building, I am so far removed from the specific components details… could you make your suggestion build on pc part picker?

On PCPartPicker, I chose an intel 7700, the cheapest motherboard, and the cheapest 1660, then already hit $500. That's not gonna work. Also, they are missing many parts that I was able to find on Aliexpress.

I don't have specific component recommendations. I just recommend an itx build. I'll highlight the disadvantages:

1. itx motherboard is slightly more expensive
2. bad airflow. heatsink won't fit. if you buy too small of a heatsink, MineCraft will burn up your CPU (minimum heatsink should be 6 cm tall, aluminum fins with a copper base. make sure it fits, it'll be enough)
3. full-size GPU won't fit

And some advantages:

1. saves space
2. easier to move around. you could easily put one in a backpack
3. case cost can be cheaper than a full tower
4. since budget motherboards do not support quad-channel RAM, two RAM slots is perfect for a 16 GB/32 GB build



Anyways, you've got a tough budget, so don't get set on specific parts/brands. Whatever savings you can make on one part is multiplied by 3. You could even go with a GTX1050 gpu which would be sufficient for MineCraft, but GTX1660 usually packs a lot more punch for the price.

Gotcha. I understand. Thank you for your input and help! I’ll see if maybe the grandparents want to chip in some money for this as their Christmas present

Integrated graphics will do fine, buy a cheap mini pc and cheap 1080p monitor/basic mouse and keyboard.

Something like this.
https://www.amazon.com/Computers-Windows-Display-Desktop-Bluetooth/dp/B0BQHBWPYX/ref=sr_1_6?crid=23V4BXSFO2KH&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.qnMymH9NN6zx9GrzYhpWizFmvfLqxL0b5vpi-xGlnEVVh4d---l3RDRz2NjxRbEKFdZ-vLEls3KnlqwjWpJofIRpflwaylrDV7MVWJGMZ1y3pda1fAQ48wpQTxOiZBctWDn_NaNVgka8A0vOuc4D-JgfGxH8XYePdbYmqme8m53VbghTfQ7L-U3PmQMGqjRuVpNPqv96n2h1_KcjpbDQytaL14e06M07SGZsNEKO8VA.gEb3N2MNYQrUFyf9EVJoOi4IDowIQFp_e-ME1W0xdFU&dib_tag=se&keywords=prebuilt%2Bgaming%2Bpc&qid=1729442045&refinements=p_36%3A-51000&rnid=2421879011&sprefix=prebuilt%2Caps%2C195&sr=8-6&th=1

I did a little bit of research and pulled the trigger to buy one of these. Gets delivered on Thursday. Going to set it up and test it out before buying the others.