Need help downgrading my little brothers setup

[droshe]

I'm downgrading my little brothers gaming PC so he can focus better in school but I need a GPU that is can hardly run games but is compatible with his setup. He currently runs an i7 + 2060 dual 144hz monitor setup, but as he spends too much time on games which has been seriously affecting his schoolwork, I have decided to temporarily fit a cheap pentium in his system. But I need help choosing a cheap graphics card that cant even run Roblox smoothly but can still support two 144hz monitors. Downgrading his system is the only way toprevent him from playing games to much, I have struggled trying to control him with software as he has became very tech savvy so he always found a way to ovveride it. Taking away the PC is not an option as he still needs it to do homework.

 

[Lutfij]

Welcome to the forums, newcomer!

We're going to need a little more information. Please state your brother's specs like so:
CPU:
Motherboard:
Ram:
SSD/HDD:
GPU:
PSU:
Chassis:
OS:

You could sabotage the PC and make it seem like it need looking after, which can be done after he finishes his exams...? Diabolical, I know, but I've had to do that with one of my cousins.

 

[droshe]

He has an i7 6700k, ASUS gaming maximus motherboard 16gb ram, 1tb ssd and hdd, rtx 2060, Corsair 500w bronze, nzxt case, windows 10.

I have already changed the cpu to a pentium, but it still runs pretty good, so I need to make it much slower

might I ask what you did to your cousins setup

 

[Lutfij]

Generically listing your specs doesn't help, sorry. What I did on my cousins system was specific to that build(crippling his system with the wrong drivers, older non SP version and that was on Windows 7 which didn't update the drivers on it's own), now if you will, can you please parse specs to his build? If you can use CPU-Z to tell you what the innards, except the PSU and storage options are.

If your brother is smarter than you, then he'll figure out anything you do to it...which leaves you just short of confiscating the system or leaving the power cable out of reach of your brother.

 

[Brian Boru]

can still support two 144hz monitors

What homework requires that?

Remove the graphics card & let it use the integrated on the Pentium. That should kill any modern games.

Alternatively, sell the PC and buy him a Chromebook or similar.

 

[MrShadow]

droshe, if you have the skills to do this, you can transfer his windows 10 set up as an image to an external hard drive-pw protect it but obviously make sure its not made up of single words in the dictionary otherwise he coud brute force attack it, and install a basic 256GB internal hard drive (no SSD),install freeBSD,you shoud be able to boot it off a USB stick: https://www.freebsd.org/ or use another *BSD based OS, the reason i am not mentioning linux is it is quite easy to get steam and other game services,games etc working, and some games are multi format, *BSD will allow your brother to carry out his education, just not the gaming he wants,unless its changed since i last used it (which i admit was a while ago).

 

[droshe]

droshe, if you have the skills to do this, you can transfer his windows 10 set up as an image to an external hard drive-pw protect it but obviously make sure its not made up of single words in the dictionary otherwise he coud brute force attack it, and install a basic 256GB internal hard drive (no SSD),install freeBSD,you shoud be able to boot it off a USB stick: https://www.freebsd.org/ or use another *BSD based OS, the reason i am not mentioning linux is it is quite easy to get steam and other game services,games etc working, and some games are multi format, *BSD will allow your brother to carry out his education, just not the gaming he wants,unless its changed since i last used it (which i admit was a while ago).

This would be a great solution if wasn't as good with computers. Because he studies computer science, him and his friends would definietely overide this quite easily. I think the only solution is to just make the PC physically unable to run the games

 

[droshe]

What homework requires that?

Remove the graphics card & let it use the integrated on the Pentium. That should kill any modern games.

Alternatively, sell the PC and buy him a Chromebook or similar.

He plays a lot of Roblox which uses more of the CPU than the GPU, and even then Roblox can run on a potato. I haven't tested it yet but it still might be able to play Roblox at a playable frame rate. Also good point regarding the monitor, he will just have to have one of them connected

 

[MrShadow]

This would be a great solution if wasn't as good with computers. Because he studies computer science, him and his friends would definietely overide this quite easily. I think the only solution is to just make the PC physically unable to run the games

i still have another possible solution lol, if you were to put everything into an image file,then onto a hardd drive,you can partition it (something like gparted will do it) then encrypt it using one you woud have in mind or a very reliable free one-vera crypt for example (i was going to say true crypt as i know the computer science folks in the police were not able crack through true crypt back when i had read about it, but true crypt no longer exists ,though it was modernised and changed into vera crypt).
you coud keep the encryption key in a key locked paper notebook, in a hiding place your brother cant acess like,a trusted relatives house who wants the same quality education for him as you do,or in a password protected open office/libre office file.

 

[droshe]

i still have another possible solution lol, if you were to put everything into an image file,then onto a hardd drive,you can partition it (something like gparted will do it) then encrypt it using one you woud have in mind or a very reliable free one-vera crypt for example (i was going to say true crypt as i know the computer science folks in the police were not able crack through true crypt back when i had read about it, but true crypt no longer exists ,though it was modernised and changed into vera crypt).
you coud keep the encryption key in a key locked paper notebook, in a hiding place your brother cant acess like,a trusted relatives house who wants the same quality education for him as you do,or in a password protected open office/libre office file.

Damnnnnn it feels like I’m hiding military secrets or something haha. This is not a bad idea and is worth a try since I have already tried every paid software out there. It will take some time to do as most of his things are on a hdd instead of the ssd, but I think that’s what im definitely going to do. And I’ll put the encryption key in my house as I don’t live with him.
Thanks for this.

 

[MrShadow]

Damnnnnn it feels like I’m hiding military secrets or something haha. This is not a bad idea and is worth a try since I have already tried every paid software out there. It will take some time to do as most of his things are on a hdd instead of the ssd, but I think that’s what im definitely going to do. And I’ll put the encryption key in my house as I don’t live with him.
Thanks for this.

no problem! i do hope it helps as it is so easy to get deeply absorbed into gaming-my 10 yr old niece is getting towards being obsessed with roblox as well, all she wants is robucks for christmas,birthdays etc.
though with his skills in computer science already, he will be able to get a good job at some point,even if it means starting at entry level.

 

[coreycoates]

Very funny situation, but any cheap graphics card on Amazon which has the same socket as the current one will do.