Another Spec. Check Please!

[ssmacc]

Anything wrong with the Spec below? non-gaming PC for a friend.

Product Name Qty Price Line Total
Sony NEC Optiarc AD-5200A 20x DVD±RW IDE Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - OEM £13.99
(£16.44) £13.99
(£16.44)
Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3L Intel P35 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £49.99
(£58.74) £49.99
(£58.74)
Intel Core 2 Duo E7200 LGA775 'Wolfdale' 2.53GHz (1066FSB) - Retail £69.99
(£82.24) £69.99
(£82.24)
GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC2-6400C4 800MHz Ultra Low Latency DDR2 Dual Channel Kit (GX22GB6400UDC) £29.99
(£35.24) £59.98
(£70.48)
Samsung SpinPoint F1 500GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (HD502IJ) £39.99
(£46.99) £39.99
(£46.99)
Antec NSK 4480 Mini Tower Case (Silver) - 380W Earth Watts PSU £44.99
(£52.86) £44.99
(£52.86)
Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 3450 Silence 256MB DDR2 TV-Out/DVI/HDMI (PCI-Express) - Retail (11125-00200R) £21.99
(£25.84) £21.99
(£25.84)
Sub Total : £300.92
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
City Link Parcel Next Day (Delivered Mon-Fri)
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £10.95
VAT is being charged at 17.5% VAT : £54.58
Total : £366.45

 

[Teaf]

If it's for non-gaming and I'd assume via the case type it's also not for a HTPC therefore only for web-browsing / word or excel stuff / below 720p movie playback then why not just get cheaper parts. No need to spend that much on a machine that could be £100 less and do it just as well. Even if he wanted media, he could still save over £100 by going the AMD route as shown in spec 2 which is easily capable of handling HD movies as the onboard video is as good as a HD3450 PCI-E card.

PC #1 - Non Media / Intel
Better finish on the case, doesn't look as tacky, only £2 more
Better/faster DVD Writer
Slower CPU
Worse graphics, but built onto the motherboard
mATX motherboard
Less RAM but I'm not seeing the need for 4GB

Saving: £113


PC #2 - Media / AMD
Better finish on the case, doesn't look as tacky, only £2 more
Better/faster DVD Writer
Slower CPU
Same graphics power, onboard though
mATX motherboard
Less RAM but I'm not seeing the need for 4GB

If he wanted full ATX get the Gigabyte GA-MA78G-DS3H which is the exact same price but since you're not paying a bit of a premium for mATX it's the same price and has extra bits like Raid.

Saving: £104

 

[ssmacc]

Some good suggestions thanks, is it not worth the extra cash for the RAM etc and newer CPU as this PC will need to last a long time...its replacing a Pentium 2! + Vista 64 will be the OS and I’ve read 4GB is a lot better than 2GB?

Cheers

 

[Teaf]

Some good suggestions thanks, is it not worth the extra cash for the RAM etc and newer CPU as this PC will need to last a long time...its replacing a Pentium 2! + Vista 64 will be the OS and I’ve read 4GB is a lot better than 2GB?

4GB is handy for Vista, I would personally feel more comfortable with 4GB in Vista and due to it's current price I'd say you may as well just go for the 4GB. The newer CPU is not worth if it's he's:

Not gaming
Not video editing a lot
Doesn't work with stuff like Maya / Photoshop a lot
Using it for web browser
Uses Microsoft Office applications
E-Mail
Media (music or movies / tv shows in anything up to 1080p)

If that's all he's using it for then either spec will last for a long time (years) since what they are doing now they'll be doing in X years just as well.