Mum's Christmas Present

ICanFlyHonest · 11 Dec 2011 at 14:10

Hey there

I've been planning to build a desktop workstation type computer for my Mum for Christmas. I've tried to put together a reasonably priced desktop, (around £500 and under), but am having trouble, with the prices of hard drives being so expensive at the moment. That's partly the reason I've left it quite late; I wanted to see if the prices would fall again. No such luck!

I was going to stick a graphics card in there as opposed to using integrated graphics. What would you recommend for an office/ occasional film watching type computer. Also, on my budget, do you think it would be more worthwhile going for AMD or Intel processors? If all else fails I'll just buy a premade computer, but I prefer building them myself as I know exactly what's going in them.

Thank you

Emma

panyan · 11 Dec 2011 at 14:12

personally i'd go for an SB i3 build, use the integrated graphics and stick one of your old hard drives in there

i build one for my parents and used an old hard drive, dvd drive and RAM with an i3 2100 and it is B-E-A-UTIFUL, i could be more pleased with how it turned out

ICanFlyHonest · 11 Dec 2011 at 14:23

Yeh I think that would be the best way forward for me. Unfortunately my Mum's computer is so old (still uses DDR!!!) that I probably won't be able to salvage much from it. I think If I just get a motherboard with good integrated graphics it'd be fine for what she needs. Yeh I was looking at the i3-2100 in fact. It looks pretty good

. I don't have any hard drives lying around at the moment unfortunately, but hopefully if I save somewhere else I can afford a decent one.

ICanFlyHonest · 11 Dec 2011 at 14:25

Thanks for the reply btw (y)

bedazzled · 11 Dec 2011 at 14:26

What parts have you got which can be reused?

scrlk · 11 Dec 2011 at 14:26

How much data does your Mum have? If she only does word processing, think about a cheap SSD.

ICanFlyHonest · 11 Dec 2011 at 14:36

We have an old computer lying around somewhere that I might actually be able to take the hard drive out of. I'm pretty sure that one uses SATA cables. I've got a DVD drive and some case fans that I'm no longer using. I'm at uni at the mo and the computers are at home you see, so I couldn't say what else I'd be able to reuse. I want to use DDR3 RAM and I know for sure that the old computers are DDR and DDR2.

shadow_boxer · 11 Dec 2011 at 14:48

Your basket
Product Name Qty Price Line Total
Intel Core i3-2120 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail Intel Core i3-2120 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £101.99
(£84.99) £101.99
(£84.99)
OCZ Vertex 2E 60GB 2.5" SATA-II Solid State Hard Drive (OCZSSD2-2VTXE60G) OCZ Vertex 2E 60GB 2.5" SATA-II Solid State Hard Drive (OCZSSD2-2VTXE60G) £63.98
(£53.32) £63.98
(£53.32)
MSI H67MA-E35 Intel H67 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Micro-ATX Motherboard - (Sandybridge) **B3 REVISION** MSI H67MA-E35 Intel H67 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Micro-ATX Motherboard - (Sandybridge) **B3 REVISION** £61.99
(£51.66) £61.99
(£51.66)
BeQuiet Pure Power L7 530W '80 Plus' Power Supply BeQuiet Pure Power L7 530W '80 Plus' Power Supply £39.98
(£33.32) £39.98
(£33.32)
BitFenix Merc Alpha Gaming Case - Black BitFenix Merc Alpha Gaming Case - Black £32.99
(£27.49) £32.99
(£27.49)
G.Skill RipJaw 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-10666C8 1333MHz Dual Channel Kit G.Skill RipJaw 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-10666C8 1333MHz Dual Channel Kit £22.99
(£19.16) £22.99
(£19.16)
Samsung SH-S222AB/BEBE 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM Samsung SH-S222AB/BEBE 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £16.98
(£14.15) £16.98
(£14.15)
Sub Total : £284.09
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £12.50
VAT is being charged at 20.00% VAT : £59.32
Total : £355.91

Integrated graphics (Intel HD2000) is fine for general use/office work. Only worth adding a dedicted GPU if the PC will be used for gaming or watching HD 1080p video/Blu-Ray rips etc.
If you've already got a HDD/optical remove the SSD and DVD-RW and it takes the total to less than £300.

ICanFlyHonest · 11 Dec 2011 at 15:16

Ah that's fantastic, thank you. Yeh hopefully the HDD drive I have at home fits because that'll drop the price down nicely. The case looks pretty good too and would be to my Mum's taste. Yeh I don't think she'll be viewing anything in 1080pi. I'm pretty sure she doesn't even know how to change to that resolution!

Thanks again to all who have commented