Computer For Dad

alphaomega16

alphaomega16

alphaomega16

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4 Jul 2006
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Dad wants a new computer he has £350 to spend but I could add another £100 to that to make it £450.

He only needs
Case
Motherboard (Must have multiple jacks for his 5.1 speaker system as it requires leads for Front, Center and Rear)
Power Supply
Memory
CPU
250 SSD (Want to get him a Samsung 850 Evo)

He has no need for a Graphics Card (He doesnt play games) he mainly watches stuff off network and browses internet and does the odd Facebook game.

Is it possible to pick up a decent system for £350-£450, is there much performance difference between Dual + Quad Core ?

He does do the odd encoding every now and then.

Edit
He wont be doing any overclocking.
 
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Here's a Haswell spec and (newer) Skylake spec.


My basket at Overclockers UK:

Total: £316.65
(includes shipping: £11.70)
​


​

Mobo has 6 audio jacks.

5 year warranty on PSU.

For just the odd encoding an i3 should be more than fine. The extra two threads will help some, too.


My basket at Overclockers UK:

Total: £334.61
(includes shipping: £11.70)
​


​

Mobo with 6 audio jacks too.
 
Thank you very much for the help.

He is still running an old 2.4 Core2Duo processor atm with mechanical drive so this should make him quite happy.
 
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joedeath332 said:
He will be thinking he is driving a Porsche now.
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subbytna said:
The difference between C2D adn new i3 is like night and day lol
Click to expand...

Indeed, I think the processor he is using is the Core2Duo E6600 at the moment so he is long overdue for an upgrade.

Considering all he really does is watch stuff over network and some web browsing / facebook games he doesnt really need a graphics card as the onboard should be more the sufficient.

I did give him my old Samsung 830 SSD but the only reason I replaced that was that it was acting up so I dont want to risk getting him a new machine and just letting him try the 830 I may as well make sure he is going to have an SSD that works.

He tried plugging it into his machine and despite the age of the motherboard and the fact that it doesnt have an AHCI mode in the bios only IDE it booted up into windows as it was currently installed on it and he is even unable to boot from USB as there is no option for it when USB is inserted.

He managed to start up and shut down in the time it took his current computer to be half way through the logo displaying on the screen and I told him he would regret it as he couldnt keep it in his machine but he didnt listen lol.
 
All in one system would be your best bet, for that money should be able to get a decent APU for that better performance over the intels and 19-23" screen would be ideal.
 
ExoMale said:
All in one system would be your best bet, for that money should be able to get a decent APU for that better performance over the intels and 19-23" screen would be ideal.
Click to expand...

Wouldnt he void the warranty by putting his current mechanical drive in as storage doing that, also there is the crap specs and bloatware on the machine as well.
 
the fractal & psu is a good deal.. just be aware that the build quality is quite crap for fractal
 
alphaomega16 said:
Wouldnt he void the warranty by putting his current mechanical drive in as storage doing that, also there is the crap specs and bloatware on the machine as well.
Click to expand...


if he needs to put his own drive in then possible, i nearly had an all in one, but i game so i needed something more, but the intel powered ones tend to have a pentium quad for most part J800 or something, would be plenty for your dad and they have 500gb-1tb unless theres options, but the APU ones either have an A6/A8/10 depending on model and price and they will have better graphics than intel.

can always get an enclosure for his hard drive so he can access it, but not as an OS.



either way an APU is cheaper and would be better for the budget if no dedicated gpu
 
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