Any ideas? He does mostly office oriented work. He spends a great deal of time in LibreOffice Writer and Calc. He watches videos online and tends to have quite a lot of web pages open in Firefox.
He doesn't clean his computer often though and his last PC which is very ancient now is very slow. It took like 10-15 minutes just to install a LibreOffice update yesterday. The download itself was throttled, presumably because of the disks being too slow but possibly due to the dual core, mega old CPU trying to process what was being downloaded. Due to the system being old, I doubt there is a point in upgrading the thing because the mobo is probably over 10 years old. I'll find out the specs of the hardware later today and jot them down here but yesterday was the first time (when I was helping my Grandfather with something) that we both noticed how in need of an upgrade he was.
Although he doesn't do it often, he sometimes pops on Flight Simulator X too - obviously the settings are lower, etc, and he isn't a gamer, but he did have flying lessons years back so he likes to pop on there on the odd occasion. On the old system, I don't even think he played it on there, but instead his more powerful, but still pretty low end second computer, which he uses for backup. Even on there the game runs at low frame rates on low settings. Not expecting MAX settings at 60fps or anything like that, but modest performance at a good frame rate, even though he barely touches the game lol.
Note he also plugs an absolute TON of stuff into USBs... I mean, a ridiculous amount of things! While he has a mains powered HUB, getting as many things running off of the system USBs as possible will be nice, so it'd be grand if his PC for office use wasn't scraping the bar on the power supply (which many office pre-builts do).
He needs a CPU which is capable of a lot of file transfers. He does lots of backups and worries about losing a lot of important files. A slow ass bargain basement CPU is obviously not adequate enough, especially if he is going to transfer lots of files frequently... mega slowness sucks.
Ideally, he needs something that is going to last over 5+ years for predominantly office work, but still have enough oomph for multi-tasking, a light touch of gaming and other various multimedia tasks. This system has to last yet it has to be fairly cheap. It wasn't that long ago that my Grandfather shelled out a lot for a new carpet, painted walls and a new sofa (trust me, he deserved it, my Dad when he was a little boy still remembered the same walls and floors from when he was a boy and it's only just gone - my Dad is nearly 50 lol).
Ideas? I'd be willing to buy pre-built, but if it comes to it and I have to, then I will build it him myself from parts.
The reason I also ask is because I'm not up to speed in regards to price vs performance in when it comes to multimedia hardware and as such, I am confused by the array of lower spec hardware, although I'd imagine an i3 is a good choice, since those would likely obliterate the Semprons, Athlons and Celerons. I know the A series isn't particularly good at the lower end, but how bad, I wouldn't know... however I think the integrated graphics of some of the APU chips are better than Intel's and as such can save cost and the need for a separate card.
Suggestions?
Thanks for any help given. I'll check back.
Peace
He doesn't clean his computer often though and his last PC which is very ancient now is very slow. It took like 10-15 minutes just to install a LibreOffice update yesterday. The download itself was throttled, presumably because of the disks being too slow but possibly due to the dual core, mega old CPU trying to process what was being downloaded. Due to the system being old, I doubt there is a point in upgrading the thing because the mobo is probably over 10 years old. I'll find out the specs of the hardware later today and jot them down here but yesterday was the first time (when I was helping my Grandfather with something) that we both noticed how in need of an upgrade he was.
Although he doesn't do it often, he sometimes pops on Flight Simulator X too - obviously the settings are lower, etc, and he isn't a gamer, but he did have flying lessons years back so he likes to pop on there on the odd occasion. On the old system, I don't even think he played it on there, but instead his more powerful, but still pretty low end second computer, which he uses for backup. Even on there the game runs at low frame rates on low settings. Not expecting MAX settings at 60fps or anything like that, but modest performance at a good frame rate, even though he barely touches the game lol.
Note he also plugs an absolute TON of stuff into USBs... I mean, a ridiculous amount of things! While he has a mains powered HUB, getting as many things running off of the system USBs as possible will be nice, so it'd be grand if his PC for office use wasn't scraping the bar on the power supply (which many office pre-builts do).
He needs a CPU which is capable of a lot of file transfers. He does lots of backups and worries about losing a lot of important files. A slow ass bargain basement CPU is obviously not adequate enough, especially if he is going to transfer lots of files frequently... mega slowness sucks.
Ideally, he needs something that is going to last over 5+ years for predominantly office work, but still have enough oomph for multi-tasking, a light touch of gaming and other various multimedia tasks. This system has to last yet it has to be fairly cheap. It wasn't that long ago that my Grandfather shelled out a lot for a new carpet, painted walls and a new sofa (trust me, he deserved it, my Dad when he was a little boy still remembered the same walls and floors from when he was a boy and it's only just gone - my Dad is nearly 50 lol).
Ideas? I'd be willing to buy pre-built, but if it comes to it and I have to, then I will build it him myself from parts.
The reason I also ask is because I'm not up to speed in regards to price vs performance in when it comes to multimedia hardware and as such, I am confused by the array of lower spec hardware, although I'd imagine an i3 is a good choice, since those would likely obliterate the Semprons, Athlons and Celerons. I know the A series isn't particularly good at the lower end, but how bad, I wouldn't know... however I think the integrated graphics of some of the APU chips are better than Intel's and as such can save cost and the need for a separate card.
Suggestions?
Thanks for any help given. I'll check back.
Peace
