Dad wants £500

[Glassback83]

Ds is 16 this month and we wanted to treat him. We decided to get him a PC and my dad said he could build one (he’s been building them for years), so we agreed. We spent £400 on some hard drives and another £250 on a monitor. Initially, Dad said he had bits lying around he could use but said to give him a couple of hundred pounds for other bits. The PC would be from us and my parents. Got a message from Dad yesterday and he’s asking for £500. He’s explained that he’d added everything up that he’s put in it and divided the cost between us, even though some of the parts were laying around in the back of a cupboard. Says he’s had to buy a couple of things, o e of which I know is less than £10. Too late to change our minds now as it’s already built. AIBU to be really pi**ed off? Feel like I’ve been conned by my own parents.

So he wants £1150 altogether? Has he forgot that you've already given him money? What will the PC be worth once it's made?

You did to discuss it with your Dad there's so many questions.

So your dad is building it but paying for nothing? Just tell him your budget has been reached already.

I’m so confused wouldn’t it have been cheaper to just buy a computer with insurance and packages like Microsoft office on it rather than home make one?

You could’ve bought a really nice computer for that. What parts has he contributed- it sounds like you’ve paid for the lot!!!

Graphics card prices are a bit nuts at the moment, but even with that, it seems a ridiculous price. Ask him for details of exactly what he has bought. I know someone that build computers, I'm sure I can ask him for his opinion of the cost.

That's going to be quite a flashy pc for a 16yo, I think. Ds (then aged 16) built his as a lockdown project & it cost about £800.

Graphics cards are stupidly expensive and processors. Did he just have them laying around or did he have to buy them?

It’s hard to say if it’s unreasonable or not as it depends on the PC components that have been bought? If he’s made a top of the line Gaming PC then that’s certainly not unreasonable. I’d ask to see the list of the components and prices he paid. The most expensive bits will be the motherboard and graphics card(s)- which you haven’t listed in your OP as already paid for. I do think he should have to donate 100% the bits he already had in a cupboard btw as it’s not clear that he agreed to do so from the outset, just that he already had some bits in so that would make it faster/easier to build the PC, not necessarily cheaper.

At £1125 that's a very expensive computer. Our new one 6 months ago cost £900 - all singing, all dancing.

I'd go back to him and ask if he's factored in the money you've already given him as it sounds very expensive. Ask how at £1125 it's better than top range HP

Does sound at minimum like he's got carried away on the spec, but even so. Actually it's more than £1125 if he's divided the cost, there's his £500 to include so £1625 !! Really - he must have forgotten about the money you've already given him

I bought £400 worth of hard drives and a £250 monitor. He contributed the rest either with spare parts he already had or some that he has bought. Originally, we were going to buy one from a shop but he said he could do it cheaper. We bought what I mentioned above and he said to give him a couple of hundred. Now he’s added everything up (minus what I’ve bought) as of it were all brand new and split the cost.

This is what he sent me and doesn’t include what I bought. 4 x 8gb 3000mhz ram

59.47
1 x Gigabyte 1080ti GPU

• 359.69 Coolermaster HAF XB Case
• 203.00 Corsair Hydro H100 CPU Cooler - 80.00 Asus TUF Z270 Motherboard
• 165.00 Intel Core i7-6700K CPU

61.00 900W Power Supply

50.00 PCI-E to USB 3 5Port Card

18.00 Windows 10 PRO

5.89
Sandisk 32Gb Windows10Pro ISO -
8.00

Total

• 1010.05

Split cost between us

= Total each
£505.25
That will be our contribution.

You have been conned by your parents tbh. You can get a good quality monitor/hard drives for far cheaper than that. Have you seen receipts for anything? I’d be telling him you already exceeded your budget and can’t afford anymore. I don’t know why you’ve not just gone and bought one

Again, cannot say if it’s unreasonably expensive or cheaper than a shop without the specs of the components he bought. You haven’t even said what the PC is for!

Ask him to go through the numbers with you. Is he going halves on the whole thing or just the bits that he bought/owned. Has he really spent 1k on top of what you already paid?

I think you’ve got the right to get angry here. I think you could go in with the fake assumption (thanks to ChubbyCatterpillar) “No that can’t be right - we’ve already given you £650”. If DF then says he knows but he needs another £500 I think you should gently hit the fucking roof. £650 + £500 = £1150, and if DF is contributing half then surely that’s a £2300 PC?
You have the right to be angry over that, I think.
Were prices discussed at the outset?

I've just had a look on a random web-site, and the majority of PC listed are under £500.

People who build gaming PCs can no doubt spec one that would cost thousands, so the price alone convey nothing about whether it's reasonable.

What you can say is that you only budgeted the "couple of hundred" he said it would cost, let him contribute the rest.

(£400 for drives sounds insane. I'm struggling to believe that was necessary, but if it's true, then maybe the rest of the parts are as insanely excessive as well.)

If building a high-spec PC, it's likely that substantially all-new parts would have to be used. The only old parts lying around that might be useful would be a power supply, case and an old drive that could be used as a secondary drive for backups.

Did you originally agree to split the cost equally?

If so surely you half the entire cost. So the£650 you spent + the £1010 your dad spent.

Total = £1660
Half of that is £830

Less the £650 you've spent.
You owe your dad £180

Could have bought one cheaper op.

So he's used nothing he had lying round the house then?

I know he had the case, GPU and motherboard. The discussion to start with that we’d buy the hard drives and monitor and he wanted a couple of hundred for the rest. The idea being that the present would be from us and my parents.

Why is he putting in such an old graphics card? You can get a way newer one for that price even with the current price of PV parts. If he's going to use it for gaming, he'll want a better card.

Just saw your list. I guess the problem was in communication and agreeing a budget with your dad thinking you can just stump up whatever.

On the other hand it does look like your dad has paid £500 towards your teens present which is a lot for a grandparent for a birthday.

Ah I see he already had the card. They are like £250 new on eBay so £350 for family is a bit steep!

Gigabyte 1080ti GPU is the GEForce graphics card and £359.69 is a good price as these go for £450-£500 each.

Coolermaster HAF XB Case - £203.00 good deal as these retail at £289

Asus TUF Z270 Motherboard- £165.00 is about right, hard to tell as you’re missing part of the spec

Rest looks about right.

Tell him sadly it's out of budget now so he can sell it and give you what you've already paid him for it and you'll source one from elsewhere.

I doubt the card is an ancient 1 GB card as they weren’t even 1080s then. The OP wrote it as 1x Gigabyte…as in 1 of the Gigabyte 1080ti cards which are usually 11 GB.