Budget desktop help - self build or Primo?

whitzend said:
Thanks again hono.

Just done a quick search on OC catalogue for Socket 1155 CPUs and they seem to go right up to i7 territory which looks pretty "futureproof" as an upgrade path.

Obviously, putting an i7 into that system would be a bit of overkill, but am I reading it right? There's nothing (apart from bottlenecks elsewhere in the spec) that techncially prevents me buying the G540 prebuild now and shoving something like this in there in the future (suitably cooled, of course), is there?
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I really don't like the prebuilds. If you want to be on the 1155 socket to upgrade to better CPUs then consider this perhaps.......

YOUR BASKET
1 x Samsung S22B300HS 22" Widescreen LED Monitor - Glossy Black £109.99
1 x Microsoft Office Home and Student 2010 (3 User) - Retail (79G-03237) £91.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-02050) £79.99
1 x Asus P8Z77-V LX2 Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £69.98
1 x Intel Pentium G840 2.80GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £55.99
1 x Toshiba (7K1000.D) 500GB SATA 6GB/s 32MB Cache - OEM (DT01ACA050) HDD £47.99
1 x Corsair Builder Series CX 430W V2 '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply (CP-9020046-UK) £36.98
1 x Xigmatek Asgard Pro Gaming Case - Black £32.99
1 x Crucial Ballistix Sport 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (BLS2CP2G3D1609DS1S00CEU) £25.99
1 x Logitech S-220 2.1 Speaker System - OEM (980-000022) £21.98
1 x OcUK 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £16.99
1 x Gigabyte KM6150 Keyboard and Mouse Set £11.99
Total : £619.37 (includes shipping : £13.75).



You will need a dedicated GPU for gaming though which will put it way over budget. This will allow the i5/i7K to be dropped in later and overclocked if you wanted to......that's a bit OTT for a 10 year old though ;)
 
Buy a cheap pre-built for yourself (it looks like you don't do anything strenuous from the spec), and a new case. Put your old PC in the new case, format the hard drive and he'll never know it isn't a brand new PC. Add in a monitor/keyboard/mouse and job's a good'un.
 
I know you mentioned in your first post not to use open office and you want to use win 8. However, If you dropped those two items and used (open office/win 8 trial) just to start with... that would leave more breathing room for a better spec.

Then, instead of upgrading the hardware at a later date, you could upgrade the software at a later date.

The benefit of this is it would actually be cheaper in the long run, as you wouldn't have to buy a second CPU to upgrade to, you can just start with something that will last. The software you use now wouldn't cost you a penny and when you have more cash you can buy ms office/win7 license.

My 2 cents :p
 
I know you mentioned in your first post not to use open office and you want to use win 8. However, If you dropped those two items and used (open office/win 8 trial) just to start with... that would leave more breathing room for a better spec.

Then, instead of upgrading the hardware at a later date, you could upgrade the software at a later date.

The benefit of this is it would actually be cheaper in the long run, as you wouldn't have to buy a second CPU to upgrade to, you can just start with something that will last. The software you use now wouldn't cost you a penny and when you have more cash you can buy ms office/win7 license.

My 2 cents
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So crazy it almost makes sense!

i would do the above.
 
open office is no good for school work, as in IT in school some of the work will be office based, and when it says office it mean microsoft office, making shortcuts and other stuff which you wont be able to follow on open office and the guides wont match to it so he wouldn't be able to follow.

for us it wouldn't be a problem, for kids it is

won't be that many years before his exams etc, you dont use it as school, its not needed at home, they teach on microsoft windows xp or some now 7 and use office 2007 and above, depending on school and age etc as part of the national Curriculum
 
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Tragically, I have to agree with zakblood on this.

Also, as I said, I'd rather use the saving on MS Office to reduce overall build, rather than push it into higher spec components. So long as I'm not obviously, obviously shooting myself in the foot buying stuff that won't upgrade in the future, it's the route I need to take at this point.

Also, Bromhead, I'm after Win 7, not Win 8!
 
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