thebuilder, are you able to ask your nephew if he would prefer a laptop or a desktop?
From what I've seen laptops tend to be more expensive & have issues with battery life. You can't customize them quite as much as you can a desktop.
There are other options in between though-- All-in-One computers, but you want to make sure they can be upgraded. He'll want something with a mainboard that has an M2 slot for an SSD hard drive (faster than standard hard drives & more stable), a good cooling system, fast processor & good amount of RAM. Not sure what the options are for the All-in-ones but they tend to be pricey.
There are the workstation thingies (not sure exactly what they are called) that are basically like tablets but can work like laptops. Pros: small, lightweight, portable, touch-screen, better battery life than laptops etc-- cons: expensive, can't be customized much, & tend to have lower ram & processor speed & video card.
CyberpowerPC actually builds custom PCs w/ good stats. I've had a few built from them. I used the specs for their computers as a guideline to pick parts to build a desktop computer for my mother recently. Mice got into her old one & ruined everything but the power supply.
Speaking of power supply, if he goes w/ a desktop, he'll want at least 600w (800 or higher gold plus certified would be good).
I digressed... Desktops come in different sizes and there are some cases that even have handles on them so they can be carried. They have full towers, mid-towers, cubes, & other types. With the smaller ones it's important to have good cooling.
Base computer should have 3GHz 6-core or higher processor, 1Tb hard drive (game files take up a lot of space), USB 3.0 or higher, 2Gb or higher video card, 16Gb RAM, & probably a DVD or Blue-ray drive (if the case even has a slot for it). Case should have good ventilation. Mainboard should have at least 4 RAM slots.
My mother's computer has:
RAM:
Patriot Viper 4 16GB Kit (2 X 8GB) 3400 MHz (PC4-27200) DDR4
CPU:
AMD Ryzen 7 2700 Processor with Wraith Spire LED Cooler
Heatsink:
ARCTIC MX-4 2019 Edition
Motherboard:
ASUS ROG Strix B450
SSD:
Crucial P1 1TB 3D NAND NVMe PCIe M.2 SSD
It's working well for her thus far. I'm not sure what the video card is bc my friend gave it to us. I have a Radeon RX480 4Gb video card in mine.
Been having a headache & feeling bleh. Did some more cleaning, been cooking, & re-filled all the pet waterers. My brother bought me all 3 seasons of the Syfy series Defiance on DVD so I binge-watched it. I can't stream movies or TV shows bc of bandwidth restrictions. We have about 4Gb left of our monthly allowance (which resets on the 12th). If we go over they can cancel our plan or we can pay $10 for every 1Gb over the limit.
I never watched the Godfather movies. My father was in federal law enforcement & felt the films glorified criminals so he didn't want us to watch them when we were little & I never made an effort to watch them when I got older.
Meanwhile, I've been compiling a list of things I need to buy for the house repairs & renovations. The back door has gotten a lot worse. We bought some awnings to put up over the back door & the sliding glass door but it's going to be fun getting them installed. I will need to get the weeds & a tree cut. We've cut the tree down about 5 times but it keeps growing back. It grew its roots under the stairs at the sliding glass door. Eventually we need to replace the sliding glass door.
I was planning to install our new door & put in a cat door after replacing the floor in the back area but with the current door being in such bad shape & the cat door having completely fallen apart, I might just have to put it in & do the floor after. I can always adjust the threshold and such later. I think I'll stick with Neal's suggestion for a header (having it at the ceiling instead of just above the door) so I won't have to move the electrical for the exterior light. I also want to add internal braces to anchor the awnings.
Yesterday evening (before the sun set) I went for a walk out in the yard. I need to do that more often but can't be out in the heat or direct sunlight so I have to go out when it's cloudy or the sun isn't in full force.