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New build for parents..

D

dodonpachi

n00b
Joined
Aug 7, 2012
Messages
61
Got lots of useful help here before for my PC, could use some advice again...

1) What will you be doing with this PC?

Fairly heavy MS office/email type work

2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?

max £900, hopefully less.

3) Which country do you live in?

UK (England)

4) What exact parts do you need for that budget?

Everything including monitor

5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing?

Nothing except Kingston Trackball

6) Will you be overclocking?

no

7) What is the max resolution of your monitor? What size is it?

monitor will likely be 1080 or 1200

8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?

now

9) What features do you need in a motherboard?

Nothing specialist

10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license?

No, I want to use win 7 as it will be mostly used for office type work and will be easier for me to support.



My mothers 17" mac has died and I want to build her a suitable desktop replacement as:

i. I will be able to choose good quality, long life components (with your help)

ii. It will only be used at a desk, she is getting older and slightly arthritic and I worry about the ergonomics of a laptop. She does a lot of typing and I would like things to be set up "correctly" in this regard.

iii. She has no particular affinity for OS X and seems to find a lot of it counter intuitive (as do I).

iv. I want to focus on the components that will make most difference to her specifically: Good quality display, probably a cheaper Dell IPS. Good quality keyboard, possibly Filco mechanical or similar, Smallish, quiet MATX case.

I think an i3 will suffice for her needs, possibly i5 to future proof a bit. Parts I am considering so far are:

Filco keyboard - £100 or so

Dell Ultrasharp U2312HM 23 inch IPS LED Monitor - £160

Cooler Master Hyper 212+ HSF - probably not vital but I'd like things to be as quiet as possible within budget. - £25

Fractal Design Define Mini Case - £80

So that's around £365 of the budget spent. Plus i need to factor in win 7 x64.


Will be buying from scan.co.uk, ebuyer.com, amazon.co.uk

I would appreciate help with the rest of the build, also whether the above are suitable. I realise that a pre-built Dell would probably meet all the requirements but I would like to build something with better components if possible.
 
iv. I want to focus on the components that will make most difference to her specifically: Good quality display, probably a cheaper Dell IPS. Good quality keyboard, possibly Filco mechanical or similar, Smallish, quiet MATX case.
Click to expand...

Just a suggestion but I would think, no matter which processor and motherboard and such that you end up going with, that an SSD should also probably be one of those focus components. It will make a big difference in her user experience. Over here, across the pond, the consensus seems to be that the Crucial M4 or Samsung 830 SSD models are the way to go.
 
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Totally agree, I forgot to add I'd use a Crucial/Samsung SSD system drive and 2nd HDD for storage. Thanks!
 
I think an i3 will suffice for her needs, possibly i5 to future proof a bit.
Click to expand...

I am not that familiar with the workings of office productivity software. As such, my next question would be: Will the sftware she will be using take advantage of more than 2 cores? Really more than "4 threads" because I am pretty sure that most, if not all, of the i3 CPUs have hyperthreading. So, will she really be able to benefit from a true quad-core or not? If not, then I would think an i3 would definitely be the way to go.

Edit to add: I just tried Amazon.uk to check out prices and, jeebus, you guys get the shaft when it comes to computer component prices. Isn't a pound sterling worth at least 2 dollars U.S.? That makes an i3-3225 approximately $230! What a rip-off.
 
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An i3 would be plenty for web browsing, word processing, email, etc. There's really no reason to spring for an i5. Also, there's not really a need for an aftermarket cooler on an office build, the Intel stock HSF is fine.

I'd just go with an i3-3220, an Asus / Gigabyte board, 8GB value RAM, and most definitely a SSD. Should be sufficient.
 
Depending on pricing a Pentium 850 (especiallyif it is discounted like here, $70) might be all required.
1 British pound = $1.6 US $1 US = .623 British pound

That said an I3 3220 os a solid performance build.
Depending on budget an I3 3225 is HD4000 graphics instead of HD2500. $15 US more?
 
Yeah our prices are crappy compared to the US, and the days of the pound being worth 2 dollars are long gone :(

Could someone suggest good specific matx motherboard (preferably Asus or Gigabyte) and memory combos for i3 3225 if that's the one to go for.

Thanks
 
$75 - Gigabyte GA-B75M-D3H Intel B75 mATX Motherboard

As for RAM, any RAM rated at 1.5V will do fine.
 
Thanks - that's the mobo I ended up getting for my PC. What would be a suitable PSU? Would the Corsair Memory XMS3 DDR3 you recommended before be good for this build? Do you like the Fractal Design Define Mini as a case?
 
Xonim said:
An i3 would be plenty for web browsing, word processing, email, etc. There's really no reason to spring for an i5. Also, there's not really a need for an aftermarket cooler on an office build, the Intel stock HSF is fine.

I'd just go with an i3-3220, an Asus / Gigabyte board, 8GB value RAM, and most definitely a SSD. Should be sufficient.
Click to expand...

My machine has more or less this config, plus a Radeon VGA. I put it together for gaming. Haven't been let down so far. For office work it's totally overkill.

I couldn't go any higher because Intel gear is already very expensive in Brazil, so I did all I could to get a decent computer. And I have to tell I'm very satisfied with my rig. So if UK prices are weird like they are around here, an i3 is more than your parents could ask for. If you can couple it with a SSD I'm sure they'll not complain about lack of performance for years to come.
 
dodonpachi said:
hmm.. you don't sound overly impressed, what would you suggest for something good quality, quiet and non intrusive?
Click to expand...
To be fair, mATX cases in general don't impress me ;).

Anyway, AFAIK, that Fractal is probably your best bet for a quiet mATX case. However there are better quality mATX cases IMO like the Silverstone PS07 and Silverstone TJ08B-E
 
I was late checking this thread and the Fractal has been ordered, oh well - good to know for future reference.

Maybe idiotic but I got a 212 also. I understand it's pointless from a cooling point of view (for this build) - but I couldn't face the horrors of installing the stock cooler, bending the motherboard trying to get the plastic pegs to fit.
 
Good luck then.

Though I never hard any trouble with the stock Intel install.
 
Pentium G850-60
H61 motherboard or lowest-priced p67/z68 (if you want RAM bandwidth)
8 GB Samsung RAM
Crucial m4 or Samsung 830 ssd
maybe an hdd
cheap video card..6570 maybe...maybe gddr5 lowest tier if you're feeling adventurous.
Rosewill green 530w PSU

Should be plenty enough to do what you're doing.
 
Final list ended up being:

i3 3225

Hyper 212 evo :/

Gigabyte GA-B75M-D3H

Corsair Memory XMS3 8GB DDR3 1333 Mhz

Samsung 830 128GB

Fractal Design Define Mini

Corsair CX430 V2 430w

DVD writer

Dell U2312HM 23.0"

Filco Majestouch-2, Tenkeyless - brown switches

Win 7 x86 Pro
 
Thanks again for all the help, the build went pretty smoothly, still prefer my mini P180 over the Fractal Define even if its design is a bit dated.

lrTR9.jpg


X7vka.jpg
 
Good to see the build went fine for you!

Thanks for the pics!
 
Nice, I like pics. I really like that case. If I ever get another mATX case I think that is going to be the one. What speaker set is that?
 
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