• Some users have recently had their accounts hijacked. It seems that the now defunct EVGA forums might have compromised your password there and seems many are using the same PW here. We would suggest you UPDATE YOUR PASSWORD and TURN ON 2FA for your account here to further secure it. None of the compromised accounts had 2FA turned on.
    Once you have enabled 2FA, your account will be updated soon to show a badge, letting other members know that you use 2FA to protect your account. This should be beneficial for everyone that uses FSFT.

New build for a friend

K

KoolDrew

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Oct 17, 2004
Messages
1,646
A friend recently came to me looking for a new PC. He's not going to be doing very resource intensive things basically web browsing, office stuff, some video... basic tasks. However, he still wanted something that'll last him a while and perform well.

Here is what I came up with.
http://secure.newegg.com/WishList/PublicWishDetail.aspx?WishListNumber=15427272

Look good? Anyway to cut costs without hurting performance too much? I didn't include hard drive only because we'll reuse his old one. It's only an 80GB and IDE, but it'll save $40-$50 and he doesn't need much storage.
 
Last edited:
I personally see no reason to tweak your build. Granted, you only "need" a dual-core for those basic tasks, but the X4 640 gives you some head room for other tasks (like photo or video editing) later on.

If you want some different recommendations, please answer the sticky questions.
 
You might want to spend the $40 to $50 on a fast 500GB SATA hard drive for the following reasons:

1. Some motherboards do not like to boot from (or cannot boot at all from) an IDE (PATA) hard drive.

2. That 80GB IDE hard drive is extremely slow by current standards: The maximum sequential transfer speed is less than half those of the current 7200 RPM 500GB hard drives.

3. Although the mobo you picked has one IDE port, many current motherboards have no IDE port at all.

4. That 80GB IDE drive is likely more than five years old, and is likely well past its maximum usable service life.
 
Last edited:
How the hell did I miss the part about the hard drive? (Damn you, double post.)

Get either the Samsung F3 HD502HJ or the Western Digital WD5000AAKS. You'll see huge performance gains over your 80GB IDE drive.
 
I Wouldn't pay 75 bucks for a MSI board at this point.. & Although the CPU is not a bad choice, Bang for buck its not the best either. This combo will be faster on most things due to the increased clock speed since most apps wont use the 4th core much if at all. Doesn't have quite the future proofing as the 4th core does to start, but the fact that its 60 dollars cheaper shipped & at this point what can be argued as a better motherboard brand. I would start with that combo instead & then change to 8gb ram or a descrete video card.. Either way more perofrmance for the money
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top