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New Computer For The Parents

nukemdukem

nukemdukem

nukemdukem

Associate
Joined
25 Dec 2008
Posts
187
Hi All,
I'm looking to upgrade my parents computer which is sooo old!! Its about 5 years old, which means a completely new base unit.

Now they dont play computer games, so graphics card is not important. What i cant figure is what CPU to go for. This base unit will probably need to last atleast 3 yrs. There are some good deals on quad core q8300, for emails, web and videos do you think this would be ok? Its either get a cheap q8300 base unit (ie cpu, 4gb ram, 1tb hdd for £399) or go for an i5 650 for £650/700.

Budget is important so cant go blowing more than £700 max, prefer to be around the £500 range.

Thanks
 
An i5 for emails, web and video?

Personally Id just get them something like what im using now. Dell Optiplex 780, maybe get a RAM upgrade from 2gb > 4gb. E5300 @ 2.6ghz and 2gb easily copes with everything I do at work. Outlook, Office, web and general use. Its tiny in size and makes no noise at all
 
will it be powerful enough to cope with the latest anti-virus software? at the moment nortons is crushing thier computer. think they have an intel pentium (single core) around 2ghz.
 
q8300 is overkill for general use and norton hogs too much resourses and dosnt catch most viruses as these free anti-virus softwares like AVG free and avast or nod32 etc.

just get a cheap AMD set up.

Geil Value 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-10666C9 1333MHz Dual Channel £88.99
LG CH08LS10 8x Blu-Ray Reader/16x DVD±RW - Black (OEM) £69.99
Asus M4A785TD-M Evo AMD 785G (Socket AM3) DDR3 microATX Motherboard £69.99
AMD Athlon II X2 Dual Core 250 3.00GHz (Socket AM3) - Retail £54.99
Corsair CX 400W ATX Power Supply (CMPSU-400CXUK) £39.99
Coolermaster Elite 360 Mini Tower Case - Black £24.99
Sub Total : £296.98
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £10.00
VAT is being charged at 17.50% VAT : £53.72
Total : £360.70

and if you need a monitor you can have alook at the lg 22" which is very cheap for full 1080 HD
 
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Personally i wouldnt bother messing around building a machine. Buy a business Dell ultra small form factor box and stick Nod32 on it.

Norton should be ran on no PC. Ever. My grandads old celeron machine with 256mb ram fires up Windows XP and Nod32 fast enough.

edit - Phatzy, nod32 is not free. Its worth buying though
 
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Guest2 said:
Personally i wouldnt bother messing around building a machine. Buy a business Dell ultra small form factor box and stick Nod32 on it.

Norton should be ran on no PC. Ever. My grandads old celeron machine with 256mb ram fires up Windows XP and Nod32 fast enough.

edit - Phatzy, nod32 is not free. Its worth buying though
Click to expand...

+1 on this
 
Also, at least if you buy a machine like dell you can get warrenty so if something breaks you are not the call out repair crew for it
 
I agree - quad-core is unnecessary for general web and office use. Pretty much any dual-core with 2GB RAM and Win7 would be fine (Pentium-D aside!). Especially if you don't use Norton.
 
personally i wouldnt go the dell route, as you only get 1 year warranty and if you want 2 years you have to pay £98.99 for the 2 year warranty.

while you can build a computer, the warranty on some parts are more than 1 or 2 years.
 
Guest2 said:
Also, at least if you buy a machine like dell you can get warrenty so if something breaks you are not the call out repair crew for it
Click to expand...

This is true. They also include a diagnostic program on their pcs now as well which gives you a direct link to automatically update drivers on the PC, plus a handy launch bar thing for word and stuff.
 
You know, it makes sense to recommend lower specd systems at first. But typically, people such as the ones he wants the PC for will keep a PC for years more than us lot would. So i would say it is worth putting a bit more extra money into for a better processor, like an i3 or maybe an i5, with a fast hard drive.

Much of the complaints from people less computer literate about their computer being slow is mostly down to the extremely rubbish HDD's these manufacturers build in to their pre-built PCs.
 
The Dell Optiplex I currently have at work is fine. Some people still have Optiplex GX620s. When they are wiped and reinstalled with Office and our other standard programs they are fine. They are probably 5 or 6 years old now and still cope with internet, videos and general software.

If you told my parents they need a £700 i5 rig to go on the net and use excel they would laugh. Dads PC is about 6 years old now, he uses it for ebay and general websites, excel and a couple of other programs. I think theres even steam and dod source on there.
It runs perfect with nod32 on
 
I would look into Athlon X4 or Intel i3. 4GB ram and a good hard disk with the eventual upgrade to SSD once it becomes cheap enough. They will probably feel like its a new PC.
 
Just do what we used to do where I used to work. Replace the monitor, keyboard and mouse and format and reinstall. Most people though they got a new pc! Was much quicker without all the rubbish on too.
 
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