Non-gaming spec for Uni coursework

bbbearrr

bbbearrr

bbbearrr

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Hi all.

A friend has asked me for advice on a desktop she will use for her uni coursework. Not interested in gaming but wants something that is gonna run well and last a few years nice and quick. Minor upgrades can be done down the line but abit of future proofing would be nice.

Budget of around £600-£700 to include monitor and OS.

Thanks.
 
Howdy. Sounds like a nice notebook would fit the bill here?

Plus it is portable, enabling typing in bed, typing in branded coffee shops and at friends houses whilst eating toast, watching tv. Plus you can take it home when plundering parent resources.

Top tips
Make a back up disk(s) of the new laptop as soon as you switch it on and keep those safe should you need to do a fresh install. You will need some blank DVDs to burn.

A quick look on here reveals a Gigabyte lappy which is a fantastic brand, super customer services in the UK.

A 2 year warranty
A high def screen
And 8GB ram
Plus W8

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=LT-023-GI&groupid=959&catid=1828

Currently out of stock but call OC, they are Pro
 
Hey Jpod,

She is doing a nursing course and i believe a lot of it is practical and hands on work with writing up afterwards. She's not a young student and has kids so will be home most the time when not at uni :)
 
For the money I'd go for an HP laptop with carepack (3yr warranty) plus a 24 or 27 inch monitor kb and mouse. Depending upon model £5-550 is easily doable.

With any money left over she might consider getting a cheap laser printer as no doubt there's course work that will need printing.
 
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appreciate the advice guys but its a desktop she wants.

what do you guys think about this ?

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-4440 3.10GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £129.95
1 x BenQ GL2460 24" Widescreen LED Slim Bezel Monitor - Black £119.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 8.1 64-Bit DVD - OEM (WN7-00614) £74.99
1 x Western Digital Caviar Green 2TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (WD20EZRX) HDD £62.98
1 x TeamGroup Elite Black 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (TED38GM1600HC11DC01) £59.99
1 x Asus H81M-PLUS Intel H81 (Socket 1150) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard £40.99
1 x Corsair Builder Series CX 430w Modular '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply (CP-9020058-UK) £35.99
1 x Aerocool Qs-102 Micro-ATX Case - Red £22.99
1 x OcUK 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £19.99
Total : £581.95 (includes shipping : £11.75).

 
If we're going for feeling fast then drop the CPU down a bit (a G3220 is plenty) to free up budget for an SSD.

Also, much faster RAM can be had for the same monies - it'll only make a small difference but as it's for free it's still worth doing.

Assuming that huge HDD is in for a reason you can just migrate the whole set of user folders to the HDD so she won't have to think about where she saves stuff, downloads stuff etc.

Edit: Mentioned a likely CPU, agreeing with below post that this spec is overkill.
 
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If there's no gaming involved, then £600 is overkill.

Better to get some budget Pentium pre-built (Zoostorm or some such), a £50 SSD, and a decent screen.
 
all appreciated advice guys.

Thanks very much.

ive dropped down to a 3220. and added an SSD.

if you don't include the monitor the pc on its own comes in at £400.
 
YOUR BASKET
1 x AOC E2470SWDA 23.6" Widescreen LED Monitor - Black £99.95
1 x Samsung 120GB SSD 840 EVO SATA 6Gb/s Desktop Kit - (MZ-7TE120KW) £77.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 8.1 64-Bit DVD - OEM (WN7-00614) £74.99
1 x Western Digital Caviar Red 2TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache WD20EFRX - OEM HDD £71.99
1 x TeamGroup Elite Black 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (TED38GM1600HC11DC01) £59.99
1 x Intel Pentium K Anniversary G3258 Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £55.99
1 x SuperFlower Golden Green HX 550W "80 Plus Gold" Power Supply - Black £53.99
1 x Asus H81M-A Intel H81 (Socket 1150) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard £42.95
1 x BitFenix Neos ATX Tower Black/Black £29.99
1 x CM Storm Devastator Gaming Bundle - USB Keyboard & Mouse £29.99
Total : £612.80 (includes shipping : £12.50).



one things id suggest with the cheaper cases is adding in one or two more fans as a lot of these are optional and not included so its worth while adding them to keep the pc abit cooler

id add one or two of these (or any fan she likes) http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=FG-012-BX
 
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Changes from scotsdragon's build:
The pentium k is now even worse than earlier in the thread at 33% more expensive than the G3220. Given the workload there is no need for more clock speed anyway, we've no aftermarket cooler either so overclocking is not very likely meaning we'd be paying 33% more for not quite 7% more clockspeed that we don't need anyway.
We can get better RAM for the same money so there is no reason to go for C11 1600MHz stuff. There was some lovely C10 2400MHz stuff at this price but now out of stock :(

Things I didn't change:
I've stuck with the same case as he picked (but an in-stock colour), I guess given the mobo is small we could look at smaller cases but it's the best cheap case I'm aware of.
Stuck with the same mobo as cheaper options lacked HDMI which might be useful.
Kept the same PSU too, made me sad to overspec so massively but couldn't see a lower power PSU I was happy with.
Kept the SSD - has become cheaper since he made his spec so it's worth it, at the price it previously was I'd have gone for a different SSD option.
Same HDD, slightly more than the Green 2TB drive but not spinning down helps avoid the 'clicking' issue some people get irritated by. Don't know why this big a drive has been picked to start with, I'd probably swap to a 1TB drive personally, but I've no idea how much this person likes to hoard large files.

Things I left out:
Screen, mouse, keyboard. Up to you what you like really! Plenty budget left to shop around.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Microsoft Windows 8.1 64-Bit DVD - OEM (WN7-00614) £74.99
1 x Western Digital Caviar Red 2TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache WD20EFRX - OEM HDD £71.99
1 x TeamGroup Xtreem LV "Frost Edition" 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-21300C11 2666MHz Dual Channel Kit £59.99
1 x SuperFlower Golden Green HX 550W "80 Plus Gold" Power Supply - Black £53.99
1 x Samsung 120GB SSD 840 EVO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7TE120BW) £49.99
1 x Asus H81M-A Intel H81 (Socket 1150) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard £42.95
1 x Intel Pentium G3220 3.0GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £41.99
1 x BitFenix Neos ATX Tower Black/Silver £29.99
Total : £425.87.

 
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This thread has been very interesting. Sometimes I like these types of threads more than the massive budget upgrade threads.
 
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