New Build

Peerzy

Peerzy

Peerzy

Soldato
Joined
9 Nov 2008
Posts
7,113
Building a new PC for someone I work with. She's got a 7 year old Dell at the moment. Mostly it'll be used for internet, email, her kids playing the odd Lego game and she does a bit of work with Coral Photo something-or-other to edit photos.

500GB HDD should cover her easily, 4GB RAM as well but I'm useless when it comes to suggesting to best new motherboards, processors and if she would need a graphics card. DVD-+RW obviously and for some reason she has said wireless but I don't think she actually needs that.

Budget is about £300, no OS, monitor, keyboard, mouse etc needed just the actual system itself. Self build with Overclockers components.

Thanks
 
Not sure if the Lego games actually need a dedicated graphics card, but here you go, the card should still be fine if the kids decide to get into some slightly more graphically intensive games. :p

AMD Athlon II X3 Tri Core 445 3.10GHz (Socket AM3) - Retail £56.99
(£47.49) £56.99
(£47.49)
HIS ATI Radeon HD 5570 1024MB GDDR3 SILENT PCI-Express Graphics Card (H557HO1G) £45.59
(£37.99) £45.59
(£37.99)
Asus M4A78LT-M 760G (Socket AM3) DDR3 Motherboard £44.99
(£37.49) £44.99
(£37.49)
Antec 100 One Hundred Ultimate Gaming Case - Black £43.99
(£36.66) £43.99
(£36.66)
BeQuiet Pure Power L7 530W Power Supply £42.98
(£35.82) £42.98
(£35.82)
Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (ST3500418AS) £27.98
(£23.32) £27.98
(£23.32)
OCZ Platinum 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-10666C9 1333MHz Ultra Low Voltage Dual Channel Kit (OCZ3P1333C9ELV4GK) £26.39
(£21.99) £26.39
(£21.99)
Samsung SH-S223C/BEBE 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £13.99
(£11.66) £13.99
(£11.66)

Sub Total : £252.42
Shipping cost based on delivery to paypal address, with:
FREE SHIPPING (DPD Next Day)
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : FREE
VAT is being charged at 20.00% VAT : £50.48
Total : £302.90
 
Thanks Redmint. I've just checked out the game they play - it's Lego Universe which needs a 128mbmb card (256mb recommended) so I think we can scale the graphics card down to a 512mb option.

I'd prefer to use the Coolermaster Elite 342 Case just as I like working with them and have not had any problems. I assume that motherboard will fit the 342 fine?

Bearing in mind going for the cheaper case and cheaper graphics card is there anyway we can improve the CPU/RAM or whatever the slowest component is without going over the £300 budget or is it just better for her to save the extra money?
 
Okay then, quad core Phenom chip and a motherboard with an integrated HD 4250 which should be fine for lego if it runs on 256mb cards:

AMD Phenom II X4 Quad Core 955 Black Edition "125W Edition" 3.20GHz (Socket AM3) - Retail £98.39
(£81.99) £98.39
(£81.99)
Asus M4A88T-M AMD 880G (Socket AM3) PCI-Express DDR3 Motherboard £59.99
(£49.99) £59.99
(£49.99)
BeQuiet Pure Power L7 530W Power Supply £42.98
(£35.82) £42.98
(£35.82)
Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (ST3500418AS) £27.98
(£23.32) £27.98
(£23.32)
OCZ Platinum 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-10666C9 1333MHz Ultra Low Voltage Dual Channel Kit (OCZ3P1333C9ELV4GK) £26.39
(£21.99) £26.39
(£21.99)
Coolermaster Elite 342 Case - Black £24.98
(£20.82) £24.98
(£20.82)
Samsung SH-S223C/BEBE 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £13.99
(£11.66) £13.99
(£11.66)

Sub Total : £245.59
Shipping cost based on delivery to paypal address, with:
FREE SHIPPING (DPD Next Day)
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : FREE
VAT is being charged at 20.00% VAT : £49.12
Total : £294.71
 
Redmint said:
Okay then, quad core Phenom chip and a motherboard with an integrated HD 4250 which should be fine for lego if it runs on 256mb cards:

AMD Phenom II X4 Quad Core 955 Black Edition "125W Edition" 3.20GHz (Socket AM3) - Retail £98.39
(£81.99) £98.39
(£81.99)
Asus M4A88T-M AMD 880G (Socket AM3) PCI-Express DDR3 Motherboard £59.99
(£49.99) £59.99
(£49.99)
BeQuiet Pure Power L7 530W Power Supply £42.98
(£35.82) £42.98
(£35.82)
Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (ST3500418AS) £27.98
(£23.32) £27.98
(£23.32)
OCZ Platinum 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-10666C9 1333MHz Ultra Low Voltage Dual Channel Kit (OCZ3P1333C9ELV4GK) £26.39
(£21.99) £26.39
(£21.99)
Coolermaster Elite 342 Case - Black £24.98
(£20.82) £24.98
(£20.82)
Samsung SH-S223C/BEBE 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £13.99
(£11.66) £13.99
(£11.66)

Sub Total : £245.59
Shipping cost based on delivery to paypal address, with:
FREE SHIPPING (DPD Next Day)
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : FREE
VAT is being charged at 20.00% VAT : £49.12
Total : £294.71
Click to expand...

hmmm. that rig looks awfully familiar. (check my sig)

i would definitely recommend it
 
Spoke to her today, she's got the kids a laptop now so it'll be used just for her work (Sage financial accounts), internet and MS Office work.

So any chance someone could edit one of the above builds slightly. No need for anything more than just a built in graphics card.

Case, DVD Drive, HDD, PSU and RAM are fine (32bit Win XP so no need for more than 4GB) so just thinking keeping the same budget and removing the need for a graphics card can we get a better motherboard/CPU?

Cheers
 
The question is does she really need a better motherboard/CPU? Unless Sage Financial accounts is particularly CPU intensive then the Phenom X4 which I listed before will most likely be overkill. In fact she'd probably be fine with a dual core chip.
 
Good point, however this money has been set aside by the business from the budget to spend on a PC and they will be wanting it to last as long as possible.

How about the following (mixing the two builds together):

AMD Phenom II X4 Quad Core 955 Black Edition "125W Edition" 3.20GHz (Socket AM3) - Retail £98.39
(£81.99) £98.39
(£81.99)
Asus M4A78LT-M 760G (Socket AM3) DDR3 Motherboard £44.99
(£37.49) £44.99
(£37.49)
BeQuiet Pure Power L7 530W Power Supply £42.98
(£35.82) £42.98
(£35.82)
Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (ST3500418AS) £27.98
(£23.32) £27.98
(£23.32)
OCZ Platinum 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-10666C9 1333MHz Ultra Low Voltage Dual Channel Kit (OCZ3P1333C9ELV4GK) £26.39
(£21.99) £26.39
(£21.99)
Coolermaster Elite 342 Case - Black £24.98
(£20.82) £24.98
(£20.82)
Samsung SH-S223C/BEBE 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £13.99
(£11.66) £13.99
(£11.66)
 
Last edited:
As long as the CPU and motherboard are compatable I can't see anything wrong with this build - can anyone else?

Was gonna order today if anyone could pipe up with an opinion!
 
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