Need a spec for a little rig

PapaLazaru

PapaLazaru

PapaLazaru

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Hi chaps.

A lady friend of mine's Dell has packed up. She wants to get a Mac lappy but I am trying to persuade her otherwise. Spanking a grand on what she needs it for is a bit stupid imo.

I have explained can she can have a small form desktop and she has now commited to it. :)

What she needs is quite simple. As small as possible, as quiet as possible and be able to run Win7. All she uses it for is web surfing, itunes and storing photos. I reckon she needs a 500gb HD tops. She does not game or anything. The budget is around £400.00 for the base unit and Win7. Nothing else is needed.

Can anyone give me any advise or spec me a rig? I will be building it myself.

Thanks in advance for any replies. :)
 


more than she would ever need :)

might need to add a molex to sata power adaptor as i think that psu only has 1 sata.

you could pick up something like the zotac g41 itx and a cheaper skt 775 cpu and that would leave you more for your win 7 :)
 
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I'd consider the 1TB hard disk if she likes taking digital photo's.... modern digicams can make some quite large image files (and are only going to get larger as tech improves), and 1tb drives aren't that much more expensive than 500gig ones.
 
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Stickman said:
I'd consider the 1TB hard disk if she likes taking digital photo's.... modern digicams can make some quite large image files (and are only going to get larger as tech improves), and 1tb drives aren't that much more expensive than 500gig ones.
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This may be happening so cheers for the advice. :)

Just a couple of questions -

1. What is the GPU card equivalent of the i3 graphics?
2. can anyone recommend a decent low profile CPU cooler?

Thanks. :)
 
any of the low end amd or nvidia graphics cards are more powerful than the i3 onboard so take your pick from 4350. 4550, 5450, 8400gs, 9400gt, 9500gt, gt210, for the cooler i'd go with the scythe big shuriken :)
 
chipps101 said:
any of the low end amd or nvidia graphics cards are more powerful than the i3 onboard so take your pick from 4350. 4550, 5450, 8400gs, 9400gt, 9500gt, gt210, for the cooler i'd go with the scythe big shuriken :)
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Cheers again chipps, but she should be ok with just the i3?

Photos & browsing is about it really.
 
That PSU feels like real overkill. I'm guessing less than 300 Watts; less heat, less noise etc.
As small as possible, I'd go for a dual core atom with ion, everything sorted, especially if photo editing can make use of the ion gpu. Hit a pico psu on that for <100 Watts, and you'll only hear the hard disk spin up.
 
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How about this

Compucase Mini ITX Case With 120W PSU And Front Panel Usb 2.0 HD Audio And E - SATA £44.78 (very nice little case)

Intel BOXDG41MJ mini ITX Approx £66

Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM £29.99

Kingston 2GB (1x2GB) DDR2 PC2-6400C6 800MHz Single Channel Memory Module £35

Samsung SN-S083C/BEBE 8x DVD±RW SATA Slimline Drive (Black) £17.01

Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 32-Bit - OEM £75.99

APPROX £270
 
Just remember that she is probably not only buying a PC, but she is buying the notion of you supporting that PC. If you're not prepared to do that too, let her spend her grand a mac.
 
tezmo said:
Just remember that she is probably not only buying a PC, but she is buying the notion of you supporting that PC. If you're not prepared to do that too, let her spend her grand a mac.
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Wise advice, be very careful of entering into an unofficial support contract with friends and family. I do this stuff for a living and I can tell you first hand the last thing I want to do is spend my evenings and weekends rebuilding operating systems and removing spyware.

If they buy directly from a vendor then they have at least a year of support built in. Also keep in mind that she is much less likely to fill the Mac with spyware and viruses since most of them won't be compatible with it.

Unless you have the patience of a saint, I would steer clear.
 
BOOM??

buildv.png
 
Why bother going to this level of hassle ? Just buy her a netbook and a 1tb external HD for her photos. She gets the laptop that she wanted and you get far less agravation. Still within the budget that you have specced. Oh and rememeber, in 5 years time that macbook is still going to be perfectly serviceable and looking after her needs, how many desktops will she have been through by then ?

I use a macbook for processing photos from my 40D, I ditched ALL of my other pcs, it looks after all of my needs. Would I spend a grand on it again ? Hell yes and no I am not an apple fanboi (I cannot stand Steve Jobs evangelism). But my MBP C2D runs win7 as well as any laptop.
 
No no no no no do not get involved in this.
I have tried to help so many people but become the person to call when anything goes wrong because I've 'been at' the computer and its my fault.
Stuck with my parents friend ****** old hp computer trying to get it to boot from an xp disc :(

More hastle then its worth.You may save her money,but by god do people hold you responsible for everything.Never going near anyones computer again :(
 
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