In Laws Upgrade

littledave · 26 Aug 2015 at 17:47

The in-laws phoned me today and asked if I could check over a PC for them. The system in question was the usual High Street rubbish as far as I could tell. Please help me to persuade them in buying quality. I'm a bit out of the loop so hoping people could recommend a full system.

Just used for web browsing, iTunes & photo storage, maybe a bit of minecraft.

Monitor, Keyboard & Mouse
Upgradable for when the kids get older and want better games.

£500 or thereabouts.

Danny75 · 27 Aug 2015 at 07:41

Hi Dave,

littledave said:
Upgradable for when the kids get older and want better games.

£500 or thereabouts.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Microsoft Windows 10 32/64-Bit - USB Pen Drive - Retail (KW9-00017) £85.99
1 x Iiyama ProLite E2278HD 22" Widescreen LED Monitor - Black £84.95
1 x Crucial BX100 250GB SSD SATA 6Gbps 7mm Solid State Drive (CT250BX100SSD1) £79.99
1 x Gigabyte Z97P-D3 Intel Z97 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £61.99
1 x EVGA Supernova GS 550W '80 Plus Gold' Modular Power Supply £57.95
1 x Intel Pentium K Anniversary G3258 Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £55.99
1 x Kingston HyperX Savage Red 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-19200C11 2400MHz Dual Channel Kit (HX324C11SRK2/8) £44.99
1 x Aerocool V3X Evil Green Edition Midi-Tower - Black/Green £16.99
1 x Sumvision Nemesis Kane Pro Gaming Keyboard & Mouse Set £13.99
Total : £502.84 (includes shipping : Ex.VAT).

Quality PSU so they won't have to upgrade it to handle decent video cards.

Fast SSD to begin with. Can upgrade storage as and when needed by adding more SSDs or cheaper mech drives.

CPU can be upgraded all the way to i7-4790K. Two free memory slots to add more RAM.

No video card. Recommend to frequently enter a search for "B Grade", click Clearance Lines, click Graphics Cards. Usually the best way when it comes to video cards under £100 is to go B Grade. Some great deals there every few days.

If you want OcUK to build components you select, post in Customer Services for example, and ask them for a quote.

Not sure how this compares to what they saw in the shop but I daresay the latter is unlikely to be as up-gradable.

littledave · 30 Aug 2015 at 15:13

Excellent. Thanks all. I've had a but more input from them.

They can now push to £600 all in but a memory card reader is a must for photo storage. Think they have around 60gig of photos at the moment.

Is the above still best for bang for bucks with the slot reader thrown in.

mickyflinn · 30 Aug 2015 at 17:04

If you are not building it yourself you will need aprox £60 for build costs i would get 24" monitor.

YOUR BASKET
1 x AOC E2470SWHE 23.6" Widescreen LED Multimedia Monitor - Black £99.98
1 x Akasa Internal 6-slot Multi Card Reader with Superspeed USB 3.0 port (AK-ICR-07U3) £9.98
Total : £109.97 (includes shipping : Ex.VAT).

chippy08 · 30 Aug 2015 at 17:20

Wouldnt am1 do what you want for a lot less money and use a lot less electricity

AtticusFinch · 30 Aug 2015 at 20:27

Yeah. Would go for an APU option, which will be fine, and you could get off the elf from OCUK. Have a look at the Titan Proton system, then you get the warranty too.

littledave · 30 Aug 2015 at 21:26

Would rather stay with Intel for the cpu. I've never had much luck with AMD

PapaLazaru · 31 Aug 2015 at 11:06

Don't build it yourself, you will forever have to deal with any minor problems and it will all be your fault.

Just tell them where to look for a good pre-built machine.

littledave · 31 Aug 2015 at 13:20

I've no problem building it myself that's the easy part. I'm just not up to speed with the recent development in hardware.

freddie64 · 13 Sep 2015 at 10:42

PapaLazaru said:
Don't build it yourself, you will forever have to deal with any minor problems and it will all be your fault.

Just tell them where to look for a good pre-built machine.

This.

Made the mistake of building a rig for someone before and they seemed to think it came with free IT support 24/7.