Build for my Dad - £500 Budget.

Frammo

Frammo

Frammo

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Joined
4 Mar 2014
Posts
14
Location
Beverley, Yorkshire, UK
Hi All.

I am in the process of building a desktop for my Dad. I would appreciate some feedback from you guys.

The build must meet the following requirements:

  • Very fast to load and open programs
  • Can run everyday tasks quickly
  • Support for v.low end games (Onboard Intel graphics will suffice)

A few things that I am particularly unsure of:

YOUR BASKET

1 x Intel Core i5-4690 3.50GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £151.99
1 x Anidees AI4 Micro ATX Tower Case Silenced - Black £79.90
1 x Crucial MX100 256GB SATA 2.5” 7mm SSD + 9.5mm Adapter (CT256MX100SSD1) £74.99
1 x Asus H97M-E Intel H97 (Socket 1150) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard £67.99
1 x GeIL Black Dragon 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-10666C9 1333MHz Dual Channel Kit (GD38GB1333C9DC) £61.99
1 x Corsair CS450M 450W Semi-Modular 80+ GOLD Certified Power Supply (CP-9020075-UK) £56.99
1 x Asus 24x DVD±RW DRW-24F1ST SATA ReWriter - Black (Retail) £17.99
Total : £511.84 (includes shipping : ).




Thanks in advance guys.
 
Last edited:
Perfect choice of SSD, I have just got one of those.

What sort of stuff will he be using it for?

If just office tasks, wouldn't a Pentium do, leaving budget for a better graphics solution?
 
Just browsing the internet, emails, some simple photo editing in Picasa, a bit of word processing maybe. My dad hardly ever plays games. When he does they are very low end (mainly Civilization 2 and Mafia Wars) so he definitely doesn't need a dedicated GPU.
 
Last edited:
Poor choice of PSU :( Minor photo editing should be fine on an i5, will keep the system "going for longer" as well, but an i3 would also be excellent :)
YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-4460 3.20GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £134.99
1 x Crucial MX100 256GB SATA 2.5” 7mm SSD + 9.5mm Adapter (CT256MX100SSD1) £74.99
1 x NZXT Phantom 240 Midi-Tower - White £65.99
1 x TeamGroup Vulcan ORANGE 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-17100C11 2133MHz Dual Channel Kit (TLAD38G2133HC11ADC01) £65.99
1 x Gigabyte Z97P-D3 Intel Z97 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £65.99
1 x SuperFlower Golden Green HX 550W "80 Plus Gold" Power Supply - Black £49.99
1 x Raijintek Themis Direct Contact CPU Cooler £19.99
1 x Asus 24x DVD±RW DRW-24F1ST SATA ReWriter - Black (Retail) £17.99
Total : £495.91 (includes shipping : ).

 
Intel Core i5-4440 3.10GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £125.99
Anidees AI4 Micro ATX Tower Case Silenced - Black £79.90
Crucial MX100 256GB SATA 2.5” 7mm SSD + 9.5mm Adapter (CT256MX100SSD1) £74.99
Gigabyte Z97P-D3 Intel Z97 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £65.99
Avexir Venom Series 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-17200C11 2133MHz Dual Channel Memory Kit (AVD3U21331104G-2CIG) - Green Light £65.99
SuperFlower Golden Green HX 550W "80 Plus Gold" Power Supply - Black £49.99
Asus 24x DVD±RW DRW-24F1ST SATA ReWriter - Black (Retail) £17.99

Total : £480.83
 
Frammo said:
Ideally, I would like a modular/semi-modular PSU though. If you can recommend me a decent one ~£50 I'd be very happy :)
Click to expand...

What difference would it make in the case you have picked?
in your price range the better psu's are non-modular, would you like a lesser psu that is modular?
 
All ridiculously overpowered for what is needed here. This would be my suggestion.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Anidees AI4 Micro ATX Tower Case Silenced - Black £79.90
1 x Crucial MX100 256GB SATA 2.5” 7mm SSD + 9.5mm Adapter (CT256MX100SSD1) £74.99
1 x TeamGroup Elite Black 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (TED38GM1600HC11DC01) £55.99
1 x Intel Pentium G3220 3.0GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £41.99
1 x Asus H81M-PLUS Intel H81 (Socket 1150) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard £40.99
1 x SuperFlower Amazon 300W "80 Plus Bronze" Power Supply £29.99
1 x Asus 24x DVD±RW DRW-24F1ST SATA ReWriter - Black (Retail) £17.99
Total : £341.83 (includes shipping : ).



Dual core Haswell, 8 G memory (although I am almost certain 4 G would be enough), mobo has DVI and HDMI, same case/SSD/optical drive because they're personal choice. I built a similar system for a parent and it flies along nicely.

A smaller SSD (50-100 G) + a cheap HDD might make more sense depending on how many photos he wants to store.
 
joeyjojo said:
All ridiculously overpowered for what is needed here. This would be my suggestion.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Anidees AI4 Micro ATX Tower Case Silenced - Black £79.90
1 x Crucial MX100 256GB SATA 2.5” 7mm SSD + 9.5mm Adapter (CT256MX100SSD1) £74.99
1 x TeamGroup Elite Black 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (TED38GM1600HC11DC01) £55.99
1 x Intel Pentium G3220 3.0GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £41.99
1 x Asus H81M-PLUS Intel H81 (Socket 1150) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard £40.99
1 x SuperFlower Amazon 300W "80 Plus Bronze" Power Supply £29.99
1 x Asus 24x DVD±RW DRW-24F1ST SATA ReWriter - Black (Retail) £17.99
Total : £341.83 (includes shipping : ).



Dual core Haswell, 8 G memory (although I am almost certain 4 G would be enough), mobo has DVI and HDMI, same case/SSD/optical drive because they're personal choice. I built a similar system for a parent and it flies along nicely.

A smaller SSD (50-100 G) + a cheap HDD might make more sense depending on how many photos he wants to store.
Click to expand...

Thanks for your feedback. I agree I was a bit too eager to buy stuff that was too powerful :rolleyes:

I should have added though that my Dad's current PC has lasted him 10 years, and I think he is hoping that this one would do the same. Do you think the Pentium will still up to the challenge in 5-10 years. I don't know v. much about the Pentium range :(
 
Frammo said:
Thanks for your feedback. I agree I was a bit too eager to buy stuff that was too powerful :rolleyes:

I should have added though that my Dad's current PC has lasted him 10 years, and I think he is hoping that this one would do the same. Do you think the Pentium will still up to the challenge in 5-10 years. I don't know v. much about the Pentium range :(
Click to expand...

No problem, they're just dual core versions of the i5. (The i3 sits in the middle being dual core with hyperthreading, but the hyperthreading doesn't usually add much.) Day to day usage they're absolutely fine, and for simple image tasks like cropping, changing levels etc. there'll be zero difference between them. If money's not an issue though the i5 obviously gives you twice the cores!

Definitely get the smallest PSU you can though, the 300 W bronze I linked earlier or the 350 W gold version for better energy efficiency are both way more than are needed.
 
joeyjojo said:
No problem, they're just dual core versions of the i5. (The i3 sits in the middle being dual core with hyperthreading, but the hyperthreading doesn't usually add much.) Day to day usage they're absolutely fine, and for simple image tasks like cropping, changing levels etc. there'll be zero difference between them. If money's not an issue though the i5 obviously gives you twice the cores!

Definitely get the smallest PSU you can though, the 300 W bronze I linked earlier or the 350 W gold version for better energy efficiency are both way more than are needed.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the help :) You saved me my Dad quite a bit of £££.
 
P4Clock said:
have you looked into AMD
Click to expand...

I am not very knowledgeable about AMD. I know about the Piledriver range, but they do not have the onboard graphics, am I right?

I was looking at some of the APUs but decided I'd play it safe because I don't know that much about AMD.
 
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