Basic PC for my brother (with SSD)

K

kumquat

Supreme [H]ardness
Joined
Dec 7, 2005
Messages
5,269
My brother is looking for a pretty basic new desktop. I want him to get something with an SSD. Needs are modest.. a regular Pentium with 8GB of RAM should be plenty.

Any suggestions on a good deal?
 
What about something fanless with Bay Trail?

As I type this, the Egg has a Shell Shocker on a Bay Trail box from Lenovo (though it isn't fanless). Price is 269.99.
 
Doesn't had an SSD. He lives across the country and I don't really want to walk him through installing an SSD.
 
kumquat said:
Doesn't had an SSD. He lives across the country and I don't really want to walk him through installing an SSD.
Click to expand...

You could put the SSD in yourself and send the whole thing on to him.

But really, what does he want to do with the PC?
 
Lenovo thinkcentre from their website. Spec it to have an SSD. 1x4GB ram is standard across them all but to upgrade to 8GB with them is way overpriced. Ram upgrades are easy and he could probably manage that himself though if you wanted him to have 8GB (and dual channel). They also have SSHD options if you want a cheaper upgrade / more storage space.

http://shop.lenovo.com/us/en/desktops/thinkcentre/?menu-id=thinkcentre_desktops

Their AMD desktops start in the $300 range for their Towers/SFF desktops, $400 for intel chips. Their "Tiny" computer has an Intel option that starts in the $300 range.

Look around for coupon codes. Found one that knocked $20 off/machine.
 
Last edited:
Its wise to set up your own rig if you are planning to use an SSD. Later your brother can upgrade it according to what he fancies.
 
Do you think a future upgrade (adding video card, etc.) is ever in the cards, or are these proprietary SFF formats acceptable?

If so, I would agree. Cost wise and bang for the buck, it seems difficult to beat that HP Stream device. (too bad it is so ugly! :p )

Personally I would go the Intel NUC route, but that will be more money.
 
He need the monitor and everything too?

http://www.ibuypower.com/Store/Intel-B85-Configurator

Downgrade the CPU to the Pentium.
Alter the primary HDD to a 240GB Kingston (Big enough to actually use as a primary drive without filling too fast).
Add a 1TB Secondary drive.
$752 before tax and shipping for just the box itself with Windows 8, keyboard and mouse.

If you need a monitor, they have a 22" Viewsonic for $164 bringing it up to $916 before tax and shipping.
 
The Zotac CI320 is a great machine, and really the SSD in it is fine - still way better than HDDs, and still boots / loads things very quickly. Too bad the price at newegg hiked up as far as it did, used to be $169 shipped.
 
trugate said:
The Zotac CI320 is a great machine, and really the SSD in it is fine - still way better than HDDs, and still boots / loads things very quickly. Too bad the price at newegg hiked up as far as it did, used to be $169 shipped.
Click to expand...

I just googled it and found a newegg page where it's selling for $129 + 7.87 shipping...

The Celeron in it (N2930) is one of those Atom based Silvermont chips though, not a real desktop CPU, like the Haswell Celeron 29xx (mobile) and G18xx (desktop) chips though.

If I were to get one of these mini computers I think I'd go for the Asus Chromebox and hack it to install Linux (instead of Chrome OS). Not sure if they can run Windows though.
 
trugate said:
The Zotac CI320 is a great machine, and really the SSD in it is fine - still way better than HDDs, and still boots / loads things very quickly. Too bad the price at newegg hiked up as far as it did, used to be $169 shipped.
Click to expand...

Zarathustra[H];1041551432 said:
I just googled it and found a newegg page where it's selling for $129 + 7.87 shipping...

The Celeron in it (N2930) is one of those Atom based Silvermont chips though, not a real desktop CPU, like the Haswell Celeron 29xx (mobile) and G18xx (desktop) chips though.

If I were to get one of these mini computers I think I'd go for the Asus Chromebox and hack it to install Linux (instead of Chrome OS). Not sure if they can run Windows though.
Click to expand...

Search for BI320 instead...Haswell Celeron 2957 at ~$115 shipped. I have one and it works great. I put a 4GB SoDIMM and a 120GB SSD and it's a great little machine for ~$200.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top