lol at the people insisting on getting a desktop
I think he's well aware of the advantages of getting one, but you people are just mindlessly demanding him to get one and not even giving two minutes to consider that his mom remains unconvinced.
Besides, he already stated his $1.3k budget, as to which Blockzilla and Toke agreed that a decent one would cost around $1k.
Why not just give him options instead of insisting he get a desktop?