New Desktop for Parents.

Xaeon

Limp Gawd
Joined
Feb 11, 2004
Messages
453
My parents' 5 or 6 year old Dell desktop finally conked out, and while they like their Dell notebook and their iPad, they still want to have a desktop in their office. I told them this time I'd build them a system, but I find myself once again in unfamiliar territory trying to build a small form factor, general purpose machine instead of a monstrous, powerful, full tower gaming computer.

They really liked the size of the Dell they had, which I can roughly equate to the size of the Antec Minuet 350, so I thought that was a good place to start. I'm not set on the case, so if anyone has a suggestion of something roughly the same size that is in the same price range, I'm all ears.

1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc

My parents will mostly be using it for Outlook, web browsing, Word, Excel, and the occassional game of Freecell.

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

Budget is around $500. I'll be buying everything locally.

3) Which country do you live in? If the U.S, please tell us the state and city if possible.

I live in Canada.

4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, etc. The word "Everything" is not a valid answer. Please list out all the parts you'll need.

I need a case similar to the aforementioned Antec Minuet 350, a power supply if the case does not include one, a motherboard, processor, RAM, HDD. I'm unsure if I have a useable optical drive or card reader, but those are fairly minor expenses that I don't need included. They don't really need an SSD or enormous amounts of storage space, so any reasonably-sized HDD should suffice. I told them I'd probably end up getting them an Ivy Bridge processor with decent onboard graphics, so that's the direction I'd like to go. I definitely want to stick to Intel.

5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.

I don't think I'll be reusing anything.

6) Will you be overclocking?

No, definitely not.

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

They are using a 1600x1200 monitor right now, but I believe they'll probably bump that up to 1080p fairly soon.

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

Within the week.

9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? USB 3.0? SATA 6Gb/s? eSATA? Onboard video (as a backup or main GPU)? UEFI? etc.

Nothing special, although they are probably going to be investing in an external drive for backing up soon so anything to speed that up would help.

10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If yes, what OS? Is it 32bit or 64bit?

I will need a copy of Windows 7 64-bit. I believe Home Premium is enough for their needs, so that will eat up around $100 of the budget.


Thanks for any help you can provide.
 
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I did a build for my mom not too long ago, very similar to the one I'm posting below. Very similar needs to what you are requesting. Sorry I don't have any links but the part numbers are there with newegg pricing. Very small form factor, nothing special but enough power to do what you are asking.

Case IN WIN BP655.200BL 44.99
Mobo Intel BOXDH61DLB3 74.99
CPU Intel Celeron G530 48.99
OS Windows 7 home 99.99
RAM PNY Optima 8GB 33.99
Optical LITE-ON DVD Burner 17.99
HDD WD10EZEX 1TB 84.99


Total 405.93
 
You're better off just buying a prebuilt PC due to that price point, the fact that you need an OS, and that your parent's usage aren't exactly heavy duty. From the Dell Canada website:
http://configure.dell.com/dellstore...l_id=inspiron-660s&c=ca&l=en&s=dhs&cs=cadhs1&

You really won't be able to build a better system than that for $480 CAD.

For an i3 CPU, the pricing is very good but the case worries me; it seems to me to be quite cramped. Is there enough airflow inside ?
 
You're better off just buying a prebuilt PC due to that price point, the fact that you need an OS

Best reason for a prebuilt under 500 is the os, for sure.

That said, if you intend t build it, unless the parents are particularly fond of downloading media, i'd scale back on everything to make room for a tiny ssd. On pretty much any hardware, it'll blow their minds
 
Most definitely just get a manufactured computer. Pretty sure the desktops at Walmart would suit your parents needs just fine.
 
Thanks for the advice. My mom wants me to price out a computer for them anyways. The reasons for this are twofold. First, they don't want to be immediately investing in old technology, so I'm trying to find something for them with an Ivy Bridge processor for the improved integrated graphics. Second, most pre-built machines with an Ivy Bridge chip are now coming with Windows 8, which is not a good solution for my parents. It would likely lead to my dad throwing the computer through the window.

Anyways, I've gotten most of the way to fully pricing something out, but I need a recommendation for a good, solid, budget-conscious Micro ATX board that is compatible with Ivy Bridge. Thanks again for the help.
 
Anyways, I've gotten most of the way to fully pricing something out, but I need a recommendation for a good, solid, budget-conscious Micro ATX board that is compatible with Ivy Bridge. Thanks again for the help.

This might be a long shot because I am not sure what the difference in price would be in Canada (or if the combo would even available) but someone just turned me on to this board with free RAM. It's mATX. I thought you wanted something in the mini-ITX size though, no?
 
This might be a long shot because I am not sure what the difference in price would be in Canada (or if the combo would even available) but someone just turned me on to this board with free RAM. It's mATX. I thought you wanted something in the mini-ITX size though, no?

Whatever fits in the case and is compatible with an Ivy Bridge chip. I'm not really up on the differences.
 
Whats the rest of build looking like now?
How much is left in the bushy for the motherboard?
 
I'm putting it together on a site that doesn't allow easy linking of carts, so bear with me.

$124.99 - Intel Core™ i3-3220T Processor, 2.8 GHz w/ 3MB Cache
$95.92 - Antec Minuet 350 Piano Black Slimline PC Case w/ 350W Power Supply
$99.99 - Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium x64 (64-bit) SP1 DVD - OEM
$74.99 - WD 1TB Blue 7200rpm SATA III w/ 64MB Cache
$34.99 - Patriot Viper Xtreme Series, Division 2 Edition DDR3 8GB (Not set on this, chose because it's super cheap.)
$19.99 - Asus DRW-24B1ST 24x DVD-RW Drive, SATA, Black, OEM

Total: $450.87 before 5% tax.

Realistically, I could go up to around $525 to $550 all in, so there's a decent amount of room for a motherboard in there.
 
$124.99 - Intel Core™ i3-3220T Processor, 2.8 GHz w/ 3MB Cache
Not a good choice since the idle power of the 3220T is going to be the same as the i3 3220. The only time you'd actually potentially save power with the 3220T is when the CPU is at load. However it may actually end up costing you more power using the 3220T since it's clocked lower than the i3-3220. That means that it's gonna take more time to do a certain task than the higher clock 3220. Depending on how long it takes, that could easily negate the 3220T's 10W savings at full load over the Core i3 3220. Since the idle power is the same and you're getting far higher performance, I highly recommend the Core i3 3225 instead of the Core i3 3220T.

$95.92 - Antec Minuet 350 Piano Black Slimline PC Case w/ 350W Power Supply
Old case and PSU. However since you haven't told us what site you're buying from, I'm gonna have to make a shot in the dark recommendation here:
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811147098
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817151090

Newer PSU and slightly better cooling case.
$34.99 - Patriot Viper Xtreme Series, Division 2 Edition DDR3 8GB (Not set on this, chose because it's super cheap.)
Not a good choice since it's rated at 1.65V. You want RAM rated at 1.5V.

Realistically, I could go up to around $525 to $550 all in, so there's a decent amount of room for a motherboard in there.
MSI H77MA-G43 would get my recommendation.
 
Not a good choice since the idle power of the 3220T is going to be the same as the i3 3220. The only time you'd actually potentially save power with the 3220T is when the CPU is at load. However it may actually end up costing you more power using the 3220T since it's clocked lower than the i3-3220. That means that it's gonna take more time to do a certain task than the higher clock 3220. Depending on how long it takes, that could easily negate the 3220T's 10W savings at full load over the Core i3 3220. Since the idle power is the same and you're getting far higher performance, I highly recommend the Core i3 3225 instead of the Core i3 3220T.

This all makes sense. The 3220T was not a decision I was entirely happy with, but I was trying to work out buying everything locally at memoryexpress.com (which I also should have mentioned, so I apologize for that). Unfortunately, Memory Express does not appear to carry either the 3220 or the 3225, but it seems that I can order the 3225 online from with relatively cheap next day shipping, so that seems like a good option.

Old case and PSU. However since you haven't told us what site you're buying from, I'm gonna have to make a shot in the dark recommendation here:
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811147098
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817151090

Newer PSU and slightly better cooling case.

Does this mean you would not recommend using the PSU that case comes with? Again, I apologize for not mentioning the store I was planning to buy from. Locally, I found this: INWIN BL631 Low Profile Micro ATX Case w/ 300W Power Supply. It's really the only other case I could find at my preferred store that fit the size I'm looking for, but I'm fully aware that you might tell me it's garbage.

Not a good choice since it's rated at 1.65V. You want RAM rated at 1.5V.

Is http://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/MX41975 a better choice?

MSI H77MA-G43 would get my recommendation.

Thanks for the recommendation, doing some reading on this board.
 
This all makes sense. The 3220T was not a decision I was entirely happy with, but I was trying to work out buying everything locally at memoryexpress.com (which I also should have mentioned, so I apologize for that). Unfortunately, Memory Express does not appear to carry either the 3220 or the 3225, but it seems that I can order the 3225 online from with relatively cheap next day shipping, so that seems like a good option.
Unless you have no other option, I really wouldn't bother with the 3225 and would stick with the 3220.

Does this mean you would not recommend using the PSU that case comes with? Again, I apologize for not mentioning the store I was planning to buy from. Locally, I found this: INWIN BL631 Low Profile Micro ATX Case w/ 300W Power Supply. It's really the only other case I could find at my preferred store that fit the size I'm looking for.
Outside of that Antec Minuet350 you listed earlier, barely any of the OEM slim mATX cases come out there with any kind of decent PSU. As for that Inwin, that Inwin is very overpriced considering that you have to replace the really crappy PSU. Hell the included PSU in that Inwin is of significantly lower quality than any current PSU used in a Dell.
That RAM is fine.
 
If he's sticking with integrated graphics, the bump from the HD Graphics 2500 to the 4000 is worth the $15

That was my thinking as well. Be curious to hear Danny's logic.

I don't see how the OP's parents will ever notice the difference between the HD 2500 and HD 4000 with the kind of use the OP has mentioned. If the OP's parent's won't notice a difference, I really don't think it's worth spending an extra $15 considering the OP's tight budget.
 
I don't see how the OP's parents will ever notice the difference between the HD 2500 and HD 4000 with the kind of use the OP has mentioned. If the OP's parent's won't notice a difference, I really don't think it's worth spending an extra $15 considering the OP's tight budget.

I guess, but then the case could be made that he might as well go with Sandy Bridge, no? I don't see any real significant benefits of IB for them and if cost is the main driving factor, last gen i3 would probably be plenty. Not sure about Canadian options or what the price would be but an i3 2125 can be found for around $100 here. And a 2100 for even less I think.
 
I guess, but then the case could be made that he might as well go with Sandy Bridge, no? I don't see any real significant benefits of IB for them and if cost is the main driving factor, last gen i3 would probably be plenty. .

I agree with that assessment. However the OP wanted the latest and the IB are technically the latest.
 
New deals came out and I can get the 3225 for $119.99, so I guess I'll be going with that!
 
To me the whole point of building a computer is not just about getting it cheaper but getting it right and having something that you can upgrade. The reason your parents computer will cost you $500 now instead of $300 is because they bought a dell. Build them one now and in a couple years they can upgrade for half the price since the PSU, Case, and maybe even RAM will all be able to stay with the computer.

I built a desktop for my mom and it worked out great that way in fact it gave me a great item in which I could give here nice low priced christmas gifts for because I could upgrade it. SSD last year, monitor a couple years before that.

Anytime a company bundles something they are planning to short change you on some part. You may accept that as reasonable or not. I also agree with others most cases that come with PSUs come with garbage.
 
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