Build for my mom

C

criccio

Fully Equipped
Joined
Mar 26, 2008
Messages
14,163
1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
Web browsing/email. Probably the most intensive thing she might eventually want to do is watch a Youtube HD video.​
2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
$450 max shipped would be nice. I was also eyeing a Dell that was in the circulur for $360 and would be roughly $400ish shipped. I thought a build would be more fun. She would have constant tech support by me, I live close by.
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3) Where do you live?
Newtown, PA. (north of Philadelphia)
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4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, etc. Please be very specific.
Case and EVERYTHING that goes inside it. Nothing more.
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5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
Using a 1280x1024 LCD, mouse and keyboard.
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6) Will you be overclocking?
No
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7) What size monitor do you have and/or plan to have?
See #5
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8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
Within a month.
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9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? etc.
None of the above, completely basic.
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10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license?
Windows 7, so I don't need an OS.

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Let me see what you can come up with. I don't care either way over Intel/AMD.
 
AMD system:
$40 AMD Athlon 64 LE-1640 Orleans 2.7GHz 512KB L2 Cache Socket AM2 45W Single-Core Processor
$55 Foxconn A7VMX-K AM2+/AM2 AMD 780V Micro ATX AMD Motherboard (has onboard video)
$23 Kingston 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400)
$42 SeaSonic SS-350ES 350W ATX12V V2.2 80 PLUS Certified
$60Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 ST3500418AS 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive

total not counting shipping: $220 (rounded up)

Shipping: $14.16

grand total: 234.11

i figured id leave the case up to you since its more of a personal preference instead of a performance item in a build like this..

notes:
CPU comes with a heatsink
motherboard has VGA and DVI onboard video
memory might be overkill but theres not much of a price difference between ddr2 800 @ 2x1GB then slower or less memory..
theres only a 5 dollar difference between the 250GB and 500GB hard drive.. so for 5 bucks you get 250 extra gigs of space.. or for 10 dollars more you can go with the WD 640GB drive..
 
Thanks, thats much better then what I could come up with. Although, any suggestion on the cheapest dual-core processor? Would this 4850e be a good choice?

Her current machine is a 733MHz Quicksilver G4 running Leopard, just thought I would throw that out there.
 
sure you could go with the 4400 brisbane.. but the odds of her using multi threaded applications are pretty slim thus the dual core would actually be slower then the single core..
 
I was just worried about Youtube HD video. It hardly puts a dent in my 3GHz Q6600, but I'm not to familiar with lower end processors.
 
well youtubes HD videos arent really HD.. they are just a higher resolution.. the LE processors are just updated versions of the old athlon 64 single core am2 processors that came out back at the start of the am2 socket.. and in my opinion a much better choice then what intel has to offer for the price point and power usage..

but if you want me to check i could try running a youtube HD video on my laptop which has a barton xp 2400+ in it and see if it plays the video..
 
Thanks, you have been very helpful.

FWIW, on the HDBits forum (you're a member aren't you?), a member did actually find a 1280x720 MPEG4 stream in the Youtube HD video.
 
criccio said:
Thanks, you have been very helpful.

FWIW, on the hdb forum (you're a member aren't you?), a member did actually find a 1280x720 MPEG4 stream in the Youtube HD video.
Click to expand...


yeah but take the name out of your post.. not allowed to talk about that stuff here..

yeah sometimes you can get lucky.. but rarely is it that case.. usually its just a tad bit higher resolution.. but i know a couple 1280x720 mpeg4 video's so ill check those..
 
sirmonkey1985 said:
yeah but take the name out of your post.. not allowed to talk about that stuff here..
Click to expand...

Quite a few threads are always popping up in the Free Stuff subforum offering invites to other trackers, they never get shut down. There is an Bit-HDTV one going on right now.

Anyway, thanks again.

lt_shiro said:
Buy a Dell... you should able get PC with 19" to 22" display for $400.
Click to expand...

Even the lowest end Inspiron 530s w/ a 19" LCD is $460. And like I said, she already has an LCD.
 
lol yeah my barton cant play 720p.. but i know my athlon 3200+ socket 754 had no problems playing 720p and the am2 architecture is way better then what it was in s754..
 
also with flash player 10 it allows for hardware acceleration playback.. so the 790v chipset would actually help..
 
sirmonkey1985 said:
lol yeah my barton cant play 720p.. but i know my athlon 3200+ socket 754 had no problems playing 720p and the am2 architecture is way better then what it was in s754..
Click to expand...

What? I'm using a Barton now and I'm able to watch 720p videos fine.
 
Check gotapex.com for dell deals. I bought my aunt a Vostro 220 w/ 20" LCD for $430 shipped (E4300, 2GB RAM, 250GB HDD, DVDRW, Vista Basic). Similar deals come and go, you just have to check the bargain sites.

gotapex.com said:
Dell Vostro 220 Slim Tower with E5200, 2GB DDR2 SDRAM, 160GB Hard Drive, DVD+/-RW and 19" LCD Monitor for $439
Click to expand...

Not as good as the one I mentioned above, but just wait a few weeks. Another option is the dell outlet.

delloutlet said:
F506CM65 - $349.00
Inspiron 530s
Intel Core 2 Duo - 2800
Genuine Windows Vista Home Premium
320 GB SATA Hard Drive (7200 RPM)
3GB
DVD/RW

or

Z2T0HL15 - $319.00
Vostro 200 Mini Tower
Intel Core 2 Duo - 2200
Genuine Windows Vista Home Premium
160 GB SATA Hard Drive (7200RPM)
2GB
DVD/RW;CD/RW DVD Combo
Click to expand...
 
btw if you find she complains that the 4850 is to slow.. you can overclock it to 3ghz with no problems.. :p
 
just hit me up.. in pm here or hdb and ill give ya the numbers needed to overclock it..i have a be-2350 which is the exact same processor as the 4850e
 
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