Cheap quick computer.

demon8991 · 11 Mar 2011 at 19:41

I want build a cheap fast computer for my Grandad. He gets very impatient when things dont load up straight away and he clicks everything until it does so i was thinking about an SSD drive as he doesnt need much space.

What you guys think of the below spec?

I have an 6 year old Antec Sonata case which i am going to use and a DVD R drive already.

danzhang16 · 11 Mar 2011 at 19:48

You won't need 600w for that, so you could save some money and get the 500w instead, or the beQuiet 530w. Also, does your grandad need a graphics card? As I think the phenom 2 has intergrated graphics, if they're sufficient enough, but I guess theres not much that could go wrong at £30.

Quixote · 11 Mar 2011 at 19:50

The 500w version of that power supply will be more than sufficient :

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-045-OC&groupid=701&catid=123&subcat=1098

Otherwise it looks great.

shadow_boxer · 11 Mar 2011 at 20:00

Your basket
Product Name Qty Price Line Total
OCZ Vertex 2E 60GB 2.5" SATA-II Solid State Hard Drive (OCZSSD2-2VTXE60G) £93.59
(£77.99) £93.59
(£77.99)
AMD Athlon II X3 Tri Core 445 3.10GHz (Socket AM3) - Retail £56.99
(£47.49) £56.99
(£47.49)
Asus M4A78LT-M 760G (Socket AM3) DDR3 Motherboard £49.99
(£41.66) £49.99
(£41.66)
BeQuiet Pure Power L7 530W Power Supply £39.98
(£33.32) £39.98
(£33.32)
OCZ Platinum 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Ultra Low Voltage Dual Channel Kit (OCZ3P1600C9ELV4GK) £29.99
(£24.99) £29.99
(£24.99)
Sub Total : £225.45
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £9.50
VAT is being charged at 20.00% VAT : £46.99
Total : £281.94

Seems like a waste to get a dedicated graphics card when you can used the onboard.

Reaper 392 · 11 Mar 2011 at 20:01

im very surprised to say this, but that bundle is actually not very good value for money atall.

for exactly the same price i managed to get the same processor at the same speed, some faster RAM and a much more modern motherboard.

*edit*
the guy above me has a point, will your grandad even need the graphics card - the on board is resonable, but i have literally no clue how good it is

heres the build without the graphics card
Your basket
Product Name Qty Price Line Total
OCZ Vertex 2E 60GB 2.5" SATA-II Solid State Hard Drive (OCZSSD2-2VTXE60G) £93.59
(£77.99) £93.59
(£77.99)
AMD Phenom II X4 Quad Core 840 "95W Edition" 3.20GHz (Socket AM3) - Retail £79.99
(£66.66) £79.99
(£66.66)
Asus M4A88T-M AMD 880G (Socket AM3) PCI-Express DDR3 Motherboard £53.98
(£44.98) £53.98
(£44.98)
BeQuiet Pure Power L7 530W Power Supply £39.98
(£33.32) £39.98
(£33.32)
OCZ Platinum 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Ultra Low Voltage Dual Channel Kit (OCZ3P1600C9ELV4GK) £29.99
(£24.99) £29.99
(£24.99)
Sub Total : £247.94
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £9.50
VAT is being charged at 20.00% VAT : £51.49
Total : £308.93

i havent quite got the free shipping that you have, so without it this would work out at ~£297

danzhang16 · 11 Mar 2011 at 20:15

^this or the one above it

lttlejoe · 11 Mar 2011 at 20:26

This would be my choice....

OCZ Vertex 2E 60GB 2.5" SATA-II Solid State Hard Drive (OCZSSD2-2VTXE60G) £93.59
(£77.99) £93.59
(£77.99)
AMD Phenom II X4 Quad Core 840 "95W Edition" 3.20GHz (Socket AM3) - Retail £79.99
(£66.66) £79.99
(£66.66)
Gigabyte GA-MA78LMT-US2H 760G (Socket AM3) DDR3 Motherboard £49.99
(£41.66) £49.99
(£41.66)
BeQuiet Pure Power L7 530W Power Supply £39.98
(£33.32) £39.98
(£33.32)
Corsair XMS3 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMX4GX3M2A1600C9) £35.99
(£29.99) £35.99
(£29.99)
Sub Total : £249.62
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £9.50
VAT is being charged at 20.00% VAT : £51.82
Total : £310.94

You even could save a few quid by going for slightly cheaper RAM! Either way it's nice little system. Just noticed, you get free shipping so even cheaper!

Blue160 · 11 Mar 2011 at 20:39

Definitely go for an Athlon II rather than the Phenom II. L3 cache will make no difference for day to day computer use. The X3 is a proper bargain.

demon8991 · 11 Mar 2011 at 20:50

Thanks for all your help guys its much appreicted.

I have no experiance what so ever with SSD drives are they easy to setup?

Reaper 392 · 11 Mar 2011 at 20:50

Blue160 said:
Definitely go for an Athlon II rather than the Phenom II. L3 cache will make no difference for day to day computer use. The X3 is a proper bargain.

the phenom II 840 is actually cheaper than the equivilant athlon, and only £2 more than the cheapest (but slower) athlon

danzhang16 · 11 Mar 2011 at 20:53

demon8991 said:
Thanks for all your help guys its much appreicted.

I have no experiance what so ever with SSD drives are they easy to setup?

Make sure your case has a caddy to hold it in place. Connect the power and then the SATA into whatever drive interface it is. Probably the sata 6gbps ports

demon8991 · 11 Mar 2011 at 20:56

I have read on one of the reviews that it comes with a desktop sized mounting bracket so that shoyld be ok shouldnt it?

Also which SATA connector is the 6gpbs a particular colour? Although i suppose that will be listed in the manual.

danzhang16 · 11 Mar 2011 at 21:13

To the first question, I'm not sure, since all the reviews I've read of cases come with SSD mounts, but maybe check your case? And it shuld probably okay anyway.

To the second question, it depends on your motherboard/ manufacturer, and it will definitely say in the manual

morguk · 11 Mar 2011 at 21:13

Make sure you set it as AHCI. I just got mine, can't wait for other components to arive so I can set it up!

R088ieS86 · 11 Mar 2011 at 21:47

Try and use Window 7 for your SSD otherwise you won't get TRIM support. (SSD garbage disposal)
All the SSD's specced will run off SATA 2 ports and will run at the same speed on a SATA3 (6Gb/ps) port so you don't have to worry about that!

Dave0w · 11 Mar 2011 at 22:41

Your system in OP was fine but no need for as SSD if your not making a super top spec pc then an SSD is just silly. also the PSU my be over kill.

if it's really for your Granddad and he not for gaming or 3D rendering

try this.

Xenon AMD Phenom II X4 840 3.20GHz Bundle - Quad Core
Coolermaster Elite Power 500W Power Supply
Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM
Total : £241.57

the motherboard as onboard GFX

demon8991 · 11 Mar 2011 at 22:50

R088ieS86 said:
Try and use Window 7 for your SSD otherwise you won't get TRIM support. (SSD garbage disposal)
All the SSD's specced will run off SATA 2 ports and will run at the same speed on a SATA3 (6Gb/ps) port so you don't have to worry about that!

I will be using windows 7 ultimate so shouldn't be a problem thanks for the help with the sata question.

Dave0w said:
Your system in OP was fine but no need for as SSD if your not making a super top spec pc then an SSD is just silly. also the PSU my be over kill.

if it's really for your Granddad and he not for gaming or 3D rendering try this.

Xenon AMD Phenom II X4 840 3.20GHz Bundle - Quad Core
Coolermaster Elite Power 500W Power Supply
Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM
Total : £241.57

the motherboard as onboard GFX

Im going to go for an SSD becuase he always complains about load times and gets very impatient when things dont load quickly and he only needs it for surfing and email so doesnt need loads of space.

I have dropped the graphics cards to save £30.

Azuse05 · 11 Mar 2011 at 23:11

Cheap plus ssd does not compute.

Neither does spending 3x the ammount of the gpu on an ssd.

Buy 8gb or ram instead of that. Watch windows caching speed things up. Save money.

demon8991 · 11 Mar 2011 at 23:23

Sorry dont really get your point?

There is no bottle neck there and the bottle neck has only ever lied with HDD's for years now. A fast HDD is going to be much better than a slower one and 8 gb of ram would never get used.