We know, we know. It’s that time of year; your teen goes back to school (or off to Uni), and there suddenly seem to be more demands than ever for work to be completed online, use online resources or at the very least for work to be submitted by email.
You thought it had been bad in the holidays, but now fighting for space on the family laptop becomes a daily struggle.
And that’s not even mentioning their downtime leisure computer needs – show me a teen and I’ll show you someone who needs to be on that screen.
(NB – if you know what you’re shopping for, and are here looking for the 10% discount code Chillblast , it’s LITTLESTUFF915 :) )
Most parents I know eventually bite the bullet, and invest in a computer for their child’s own use.
But of course, we’re not all tech-heads, and knowing which one to get is a total minefield. There’s possibly the barrage of requests from your child of course – she’ll no doubt NEEEEEED the i7 processor, the GeForce GTX graphics card, a HUGE screen and a keyboard that does all manner of lighty-up clever stuff.
Or (which is possibly even trickier) your child doesn’t know about computers, and can’t help you at all – they’ll just know when it doesn’t do what they need it to.
After you’ve spent the contents of your bank account on it.
Of course, if you step along to your nearest handy high street computer store, there’ll be all manner of useful advice and persuasion from the resident saleschild… but then naturally you get the feeling you’ll be buying all sorts of things that you have no need of, nor really want.
So if you don’t know this stuff yourself, how do you make a wise and informed buying decision? You want this machine to last for a few years; you don’t want the yelps of frustration at lag when they’re gaming, or fury at the lack of ability for image processing for an art student (if you do want to understand more about what you should be looking for, check our article here which is an Idiots Guide to Buying a PC and explains all the tech bits into easy-to-swallow chunks).
So we stuck our heads together with the entirely awesome and completely trustworthy folks at Chillblast to give you a 1-2-3 guide to their brilliant range of machines designed solely with a student in mind – whether you own a 9yr old who’s a keen Minecrafter, or an A-Level-bound 16yr old obsessed with the beauty of Far Cry 4.
I should let you know that not only am I an ex-IT technician who knows her quad-core from her AMD, I also have four gamer children – and I have personally bought each of them a Chillblast machine. I genuinely trust their advice and their tech implicitly.
Starting Basics – Scholar AMD edition (£499)
This is an absolutely great first PC for younger students. It has as much as possible crammed into the price tag, but no frilly extras. It’s ideal for Microsoft office, basic art and graphic design, and of course it’s perfect for all web browsing and social media.
And in that amazing bundle price you get everything you need as one package – a decent keyboard and mouse, wireless as standard and plenty of storage space for your stuff. It even comes with a “Cortana” webcam for making the most of Windows 10 – which’ll no doubt be double Dutch to you and me, but which will be their second language.
It won’t handle the faster modern games, but it will handle Minecraft (I’m guessing it could be laggy with the resource packs) and a younger child’s every need – as well as their homework.
A Little More Oomph – Scholar Intel Edition (£560)
All the bones of the AMD version – but this system gets a much more powerful processor. Which basically means it’s capable of playing many PC games at low to medium settings, and is much faster for more intensive activities like simple video editing, photo editing and so on. Most importantly, this machine can be easily be upgraded in the future with a graphics card for excellent gaming performance – the power supply has been chosen with this in mind – so as your child’s needs grow (and they will), this machine can grow too; even a top card like a GeForce GTX 970 4GB won’t cause it to fall over in horror.
Teen Gamers this way – Athena (£580) 
For just twenty more of your pounds, you can step up to the Athena – and this baby has been designed around the needs of a teen gamer. It has a fantastic fast quad core 4GHz processor, plus a quick dedicated video card for good gaming performance. It will play even intensive PC games at medium settings with great frame rates – and of course that means it’s also much faster for video editing and design thanks to that powerful CPU and video card.
The Power AND The Pretty – Oracle (£880)
Ooohhhh – this one’s purty, no? Up the budget and obviously you massively increase the power. The i5 quad core chip and GTX 960 video card means this little box will be better at gaming than a PS4 or Xbox One, and the rapid file access of the hybrid hard disk makes all kinds of work a brisk breeze. It will play most PC games at maximum detail at 1080P resolutions. This combines SSD and HDD technologies to give you lots of storage with SSD-like snappy access.
The Real Laptop – Prophet (£830)
Once they hit a certain age, a laptop starts to make a whole heap of sense. And yet, traditionally there’s always been a trade-off; yes you get the convenience and ease of a portable laptop, but the price is always paid in terms of performance and storage.
But not so any longer, my pretties. Because with the Prophet, Chillblast have designed a ‘mobile student powerhouse’. It has a core i5 chip, 8GB of RAM and impossibly, a fast GTX 950 video card for excellent performance in games. It will play most pc games at “high” settings. AND it’ll keep lecture notes handy, and dissertations will be handled like a boss.
Unlike certain other PC brands, every single one of these comes as a package, so you’re getting the machine, the screen, the keyboard and mouse, and sometimes a webcam too. Obviously you can pick and choose and upgrade if you wish, but the bundle is everything it says on the tin, and all you need to plug and play.
And now here’s the bestie best bit. Chillblast have offered all our lovely readers a 10% discount on the entire Student Computers Range.
I KNOW!
Just use the code
LITTLESTUFF915
at the checkout, and you’ll get 10% off any systems in the student range
So – work out with your child exactly what the new PC needs to be able to do to avoid disappointment, and then you can work out the best possible machine. Of course it’s a big decision, so if you are looking for any more information, please visit www.chillblast.com or drop them an email on sales@chillblast.com. The team are also brilliantly helpful on live chat or the telephone (0845 45678 31) – and they’ll always speak in tech words of one syllable, and will never laugh at stupid questions, honest.
