Associate
- Joined
- 6 Nov 2011
- Posts
- 112
I'm working on putting together a cheap desktop for my sister for my parents and I to give to her for Christmas. Our target budget is around £300. She's a relatively light user- mainly using her computer for office work, but also the occasional light gaming (Sims 2, Rome Total War- mainly relatively old games, although I'm sure she will play some newer games once she has a machine that can handle it!).
However, I'm also looking for a machine that will last a long time- she's not the kind of person who replaces a computer more often than every 5 years. By this I don't mean the kind of future-proofing that will let her play Crysis 4 in 2016 on a PC that costs £3000 in 2011- just something that will keep being usable for years to come, not break down, and have some potential for upgrades. As such, I am not looking to overclock, simply because I want to maximise the lifetime of the parts. I have also gone for a Fusion APU as while I imagine that the built in graphics will suffice for the time being, it also gives me the option of picking up a cheap Radeon a few years down the line and doing an assym-Crossfire setup if my sister feels she could do with more graphical firepower.
My current parts list looks like this:
CPU/GPU AMD A8-3850
Motherboard MSI A75MA-G55
RAM Corsair CMX4GX3M2A1600C9
Hard Drive Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB
DVD drive LiteOn IHAS124-19
Case & power supply** No Competitor links - Disguised or not **
Wifi TP-Link TL-WN781ND
The hard drive is already on order, so feel free to give me dire warnings about it but its too late.
I wanted to get in and order it fast before the price leapt from £60 to £100, like the hard drive I originally planned to get did.
The single part I'm currently most worried about is the case and PSU. Anyone got experience with this make? I know that a stock PSU is generally frowned upon in these parts, but as you can see I'm building a pretty low powered machine (Llano processor, no discrete GPU, no overclocking), and I am well, well below the purported 500W power budget on that thing. (Not to mention that £20 for the two together is ridiculously bargain basement.) However if anyone has some real horror stories about this brand, or if there's an obvious alternative within a reasonable price bracket (I'm not looking to spend a third of the PC's price on a PSU!) then I'm open to having my mind changed. I'm also planning on relying on the included heatsink and fan with the CPU (no overclocking again), and the case fans.
Thanks a lot for the help!
However, I'm also looking for a machine that will last a long time- she's not the kind of person who replaces a computer more often than every 5 years. By this I don't mean the kind of future-proofing that will let her play Crysis 4 in 2016 on a PC that costs £3000 in 2011- just something that will keep being usable for years to come, not break down, and have some potential for upgrades. As such, I am not looking to overclock, simply because I want to maximise the lifetime of the parts. I have also gone for a Fusion APU as while I imagine that the built in graphics will suffice for the time being, it also gives me the option of picking up a cheap Radeon a few years down the line and doing an assym-Crossfire setup if my sister feels she could do with more graphical firepower.
My current parts list looks like this:
CPU/GPU AMD A8-3850
Motherboard MSI A75MA-G55
RAM Corsair CMX4GX3M2A1600C9
Hard Drive Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB
DVD drive LiteOn IHAS124-19
Case & power supply** No Competitor links - Disguised or not **
Wifi TP-Link TL-WN781ND
The hard drive is already on order, so feel free to give me dire warnings about it but its too late.

The single part I'm currently most worried about is the case and PSU. Anyone got experience with this make? I know that a stock PSU is generally frowned upon in these parts, but as you can see I'm building a pretty low powered machine (Llano processor, no discrete GPU, no overclocking), and I am well, well below the purported 500W power budget on that thing. (Not to mention that £20 for the two together is ridiculously bargain basement.) However if anyone has some real horror stories about this brand, or if there's an obvious alternative within a reasonable price bracket (I'm not looking to spend a third of the PC's price on a PSU!) then I'm open to having my mind changed. I'm also planning on relying on the included heatsink and fan with the CPU (no overclocking again), and the case fans.
Thanks a lot for the help!