Office Computer for Grandfather.

The last time he played on Flight Sim X was years ago haha, but it'd be a disappointment if he ever tried it and it chugged along on low settings at 1440x900 at 20fps or something stupid.

Yeah £350-400 is good. Might look at some pre-builts, but if I really have to then I will build it myself.

I'll look into it a bit later as it is quite late... although at the moment my sleep pattern is super broken so I'll probably have a scout about 3 in the morning :D.

Thanks for all the builds and suggestions guys. Will weigh a few of them up real soon. However for now I am wanted on Guild Wars 2 and I have a big desire to get Blackguards on Steam for just over a tenner :O!

:D Will return...
 
Thinking of the Primo Gold iX instead.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=FS-378-OK&groupid=43&catid=2476

Only changing the CPU to the i3-4330 at 3.5Ghz. Also picking Windows 7 instead... my Grandad likes that, he's a tad unsure about Windows 8 and I don't blame him.

I'd say in the long run, having the SuperFlower Gold PSU would be a better bet. May even bump the RAM up to 8GB, just for the sake of doing so and I'll cover that minor expense for him.

Since the cheaper Primo Plus has a lower wattage, less efficient PSU and says "Optional" optical drive... I imagine since there is no drop down on the Primo Gold iX that one is included? I ask this because it lists an optical DVD RW / Blu-Ray in the specs but doesn't say optional and as I've already pointed out, there is no drop down menu to add one on the Primo Gold iX configuration page - hence I'd imagine one were included?

Plus if I were to build this myself, I'd only be saving around 50 odd quid, right?
 
Was thinking of the Micro Pro Xi. Before that I was thinking the Primo Xi Gold, but instead of picking a pre-built, I went to the system configurator and went for the following:

OcUK Micro Pro Xi - Intel Haswell Workstation PC
(£382.69) Inc VAT: £459.23

Options applied to the above product:
- Standard Build Systems - Dispatched within 7 working days
- No Security Software
- OcUK Value AT/ATX "Kettle Plug" 2 Meter Mains Cable
- No Headset Option (Zero Cost)
- Speakers Not Selected
- Monitor Not Selected
- Mouse Not Selected
- Keyboard Not Selected
- Networking Not Selected
- Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-02733)
- Corsair Builder Series CX 430W V2 '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply (CP-9020046-UK)
- OcUK 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM
- No Second Hard Drive Option (ZERO Cost)
- Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) HDD
- TeamGroup Elite Black 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (TPKD38G1600HC11DC01)
- No Upgrade - Intel Stock Cooler (None overclocked systems)
- Asus H81M-PLUS Intel H81 (Socket 1150) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard
- Intel Core i3-4330 3.50GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail
- Raijintek Arcadia Mid Tower USB 3.0 Case - Black

Changed the processor to the 4330 and the motherboard from the Asus H81M-K to the H81M-Plus. For the plus you get extra USB headers and even though not needed, output for HDMI at a higher resolution. Plus you have USB 3.0 headers.

Changed the case to less of an airy type, because frankly, the one with the open side grill will just eat dust and I doubt my Grandfather will be bending down hoovering out the vents... like ever.

No choice on RAM though... has to be 8GB and the speed is a slow, but in the off chance my grandfather does go on Flight Sim X, hopefully it won't be too limiting.

I'll give him £50 for going over the £400 mark lol, because I'm nice like that. If I'm honest, I don't fancy building one myself but again, if I have to, I will lol.

This is not far off the Primo Xi Gold... the only differences being, double the RAM (thus approximately £38 added), plus a few quid for the H81M-Plus varient of the motherboard, instead of the K. Processor on both, I set to the i3-4330.

Thoughts?
 
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Okay change of plan. After talking to my Grandfather this morning, I tried to explain to him how Intel i series CPUs are great for file copying, extracting, zipping files, blah blah blah, but the integrated graphics aren't as good. Then I said to him about how AMD APUs have somewhat decent integrated graphics (depending on which one you pick of course) but their cores aren't as efficient or as speedy as the i series when it comes to both single-threaded and multi-threaded work.

I said because of the price bracket, it was difficult to not make a compromise. He said to me that he'd rather it be done properly and could perhaps extend the budget an extra £100. He said he wouldn't want to get somewhere down the line, try to do play a such as Flight Simulator X with a bit of eye candy on, and find that he wished he'd picked something a bit better.

So basically... Need a good CPU. A modest, but punchy graphic card that will be plenty enough to play FSX with some nice settings and good frames (at 1440x900). The likelihood of him touching FSX is minimal, but I don't want to be the one responsible if he chugs along relying on integrated graphics that rely on RAM which is simply too few or too slow to aid it.

Max budget now I'd say is £500. Absolute max. I'll give my G £80 towards it for driving his budget up lol.

The chances of him playing Flight Sim X is small, but I want him to have something good and at least gives him options. He isn't a gamer lol.

Rgh, too many choices!! SO many. xD
 
Intel Core i5-4440 3.10GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail Intel Core i5-4440 3.10GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £137.99
(£114.99) £137.99
(£114.99)
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-02733) Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-02733) £77.99
(£64.99) £77.99
(£64.99)
Sapphire Radeon R7 250 Boost 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Card Sapphire Radeon R7 250 Boost 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Card £59.99
(£49.99) £59.99
(£49.99)
Corsair XMS3 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMX4GX3M2A1600C9) Corsair XMS3 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMX4GX3M2A1600C9) £41.99
(£34.99) £41.99
(£34.99)
Asus H81M-PLUS Intel H81 (Socket 1150) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard Asus H81M-PLUS Intel H81 (Socket 1150) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard £40.99
(£34.16) £40.99
(£34.16)
Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM (ST500DM002) HDD Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM (ST500DM002) HDD £36.95
(£30.79) £36.95
(£30.79)
Corsair Builder Series CX 430W V2 '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply (CP-9020046-UK) Corsair Builder Series CX 430W V2 '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply (CP-9020046-UK) £34.99
(£29.16) £34.99
(£29.16)
BitFenix Comrade Midi-Tower - Black BitFenix Comrade Midi-Tower - Black £29.99
(£24.99) £29.99
(£24.99)
LG GH24NSB0 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM LG GH24NSB0 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £13.99
(£11.66) £13.99
(£11.66)
Raijintek Rhea Heatpipe CPU Cooler - PWM - 92mm Raijintek Rhea Heatpipe CPU Cooler - PWM - 92mm £12.95
(£10.79) £12.95
(£10.79)
Submit Sub Total : £406.51
Shipping cost based on delivery to Home Address, EN1 3JJ with:
FREE SHIPPING (DPD Next Day)
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping :
VAT is being charged at 20.00% VAT : £81.30
Total : £487.81

Come up with that. I got the price down from £560. I changed the card from a R7 260X to a 250 OC. Only 128bit bus but should be enough. I also changed the motherboard from an Asrock H97 Pro4 to a Asus H81M-Plus. Is there any significant downsides to using the 81M over the H97 chipset? Anyway that saved a bit.

I have the OCUK shopping basket extension but it doesn't work on the latest version of Chrome... at least not for me.

I kept the i5-4440. However if it isn't going to be a problem on the RARE chance my Grandad does pop on FSX and is plenty fast enough to last the next 5+ years, then I could drop down to an i3-4330 and save another £40.

Opinions?

Edit: Thinking with the i3-4330 (assuming it's nippy enough for HD videos, multi-tasking, file transfers and the odd occasion of FSX) that because it runs at a max of 54TDP, then the CPU cooler is unnecessary and the one that comes with it would be fine? I have an old lot of Arctic MX-4 in the fridge (been there for 2 years lol), perhaps I could use that on the stock cooler and it be adequate enough? Don't want Summer to be a problem, but it shouldn't, right?
 
Last edited:
It works.

Just seems odd you've gone from trying to keep it under £400 to going closer to £500.
 
Looks OK, though again I'd change for a similarly priced nvidia gpu as it should be similarly powerful but work better with fsx should it ever crop up
Also you could save the money on an i3 and spend £15 more and get 8gb ram
 
I doubt he'd play FSX but he did say he would at some point, but wouldn't a 250 be reasonable for it anyway? I'm not keen on Nvidia. I was under the impression their cards eat more power.

Another thing... not sure if it's a good idea or not, I'm a tad uncertain, but I might drop the processor to a i3-4330, but I'm not too sure about how that'll do 5 years down the line; especially if he could have had a i5-4440 Quad in there instead. However it is 40+ more... but even still, some money is saved by removing the aftermarket CPU cooler.

Anyone wanna tell me why the hell this OCUK basket extension isn't working? Or does it just not like Chrome but loves Firefox instead? I think it was last updated in 2012... probably why it's playing up.

I doubt my Grandad is going to ever use 8GB. I rarely use 6.5GB when gaming, so 2GB is going to be sitting in his system unused. Also, the Nvidia thing... based on what? Since I was under the impression and judging from posts made on forums past, that FSX is mostly CPU bound and likes higher clock speeds. So how is a similarly priced Nvidia GPU going to be of noticeable benefit? Is the R7 250 Boost not enough?

Perhaps I should keep the i5-4440, or is that Dual Core, i3-4330 going to be an issue down the line? Also, how is that PSU? Should be okay? Remember my G plugs tons of **** into his computer.
 
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Can you edit out the "f" please:)

It does work in chrome as that is what I use.

Di you know that Kaveri APU is equal to the R7 250 gfx card?
 
stulid said:
It works.

Just seems odd you've gone from trying to keep it under £400 to going closer to £500.
Click to expand...

Further up I tried to discuss to him about the negatives of AMD APUs processor power, but better integrated graphics vs Intels much better CPU bound capability at the cost of inferior integrated graphics. Then I spoke of how they use internal memory and prefer faster system memory too. I said it was hard to pick between the two and make a compromise. So he said he'd pay up to 500, but I'm still trying to keep it to £450 or under because I don't want him spending too much (as he's recently spent a lot on other things), but at the same time I don't want anything in the system just sitting wasted. So a discrete or mid-range video card for any potential FSX I figured would be a better idea.

Also, with the extra money allowed, it meant I could shuffle things around and pick a few different things. I may even go back to the i5-4440, instead of the i3-4330 and yet stick with a stock cooler and that 430w bronze PSU.
 
stulid said:
Can you edit out the "f" please:)

It does work in chrome as that is what I use.

Di you know that Kaveri APU is equal to the R7 250 gfx card?
Click to expand...

I didn't know. I'm not used to AMD stuff these past couple of years because the route they've taken. However the negative to the APU would be the fact that even with general tasks, the i3 and i5 would annihilate it when it comes down to every day stuff. Isn't this just going to end up being a problem.

So it's either i3-4330 & dedicated card. i5-4440 (if the i3 is a concern for future use several years down the line) or it's an AMD APU that eats 2GB of system RAM but the RAM has to be as fast as possible.

Now I'm unsure again. RAHH!
 
But when you compare APU to what he has now, it will be light years faster.

You could even add a SSD to an APU build and that will just make everything seem like it happened yesterday.
 
stulid said:
But when you compare APU to what he has now, it will be light years faster.

You could even add a SSD to an APU build and that will just make everything seem like it happened yesterday.
Click to expand...

This is true. Anything would seem lightning fast in comparison, but remember future use is an important thing as well, like 5+ years for general use and his very very occasional trip onto FSX.

So many options... this is why it's confusing. So many options, yet I want to get the best bang for buck, without spending more than I need, or buying things that won't be fairly well utilised (obviously not maxed lol).

I've been up all night doing this crap lol, I need a lie down xD.
 
YOUR BASKET
1 x AMD Kaveri 7700K 10 Compute Core APU w/ Radeon R7 Graphics (4 CPU + 6 GPU Compute Cores) - Retail £99.95
1 x Microsoft Windows 8.1 64-Bit DVD - OEM (WN7-00614) £77.99
1 x Kingston 240GB SSDNow V300 Drive SATA 6Gb/s 3 2.5" (7mm height) Solid State Hard Drive - (SV300S37A/240G) £64.98
1 x TeamGroup Xtreem LV "Frost Edition" 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-21300C11 2666MHz Dual Channel Kit £59.99
1 x Gigabyte F2A88XM-DS2 AMD A88X (Socket FM2+) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard £39.95
1 x BeQuiet Pure Power L8 400W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply - With 120mm Silent Wing Fan Built in £39.95
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) HDD £39.95
1 x Raijintek Arcadia Mid Tower USB 3.0 Case - Black £24.95
1 x LG GH24NSB0 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £13.99
Total : £471.29 (includes shipping : £8.00).




£461 with free delivery.
 
stulid said:
YOUR BASKET
1 x AMD Kaveri 7700K 10 Compute Core APU w/ Radeon R7 Graphics (4 CPU + 6 GPU Compute Cores) - Retail £99.95
1 x Microsoft Windows 8.1 64-Bit DVD - OEM (WN7-00614) £77.99
1 x Kingston 240GB SSDNow V300 Drive SATA 6Gb/s 3 2.5" (7mm height) Solid State Hard Drive - (SV300S37A/240G) £64.98
1 x TeamGroup Xtreem LV "Frost Edition" 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-21300C11 2666MHz Dual Channel Kit £59.99
1 x Gigabyte F2A88XM-DS2 AMD A88X (Socket FM2+) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard £39.95
1 x BeQuiet Pure Power L8 400W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply - With 120mm Silent Wing Fan Built in £39.95
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) HDD £39.95
1 x Raijintek Arcadia Mid Tower USB 3.0 Case - Black £24.95
1 x LG GH24NSB0 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £13.99
Total : £471.29 (includes shipping : £8.00).




£461 with free delivery.
Click to expand...

Done! I'll get that then. Thanks dude! (Except I'll swap the OS for Windows 7 :P)

I saw that RAM earlier and thought, WHAT THE... lol 8GB yet any cheaper than that and there are only 2x2GB lots or 1x4GB ones. I have TeamGroup Elite 1600Mhz, only I've had these in for over 2 years now. Those do look sweet as... as tempting as it is to get some for myself, I doubt I'd see any difference. Plus I've 2GB of dedicated video mem on my 7870 IceQ X.

When I did see that RAM earlier though, when I was messing around with potential builds in the basket, I did have a concern in regards to RAM height and CPU cooler. :| I imagine the stock one will be adequate enough when the CPU is under load (and in summer), but what about the clearance?

I'll talk to my G about this build later, and I do appreciate everyone's help, but I need a lie down lol, sooo tireddd!

Thanks! :p

Edit: Those offers are going to expire mega soon... oh dear. In a bit of a rush.
 
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The stock cooler looks like this,

IMG_4486_zpscda66fc8.jpg~original
IMG_4485_zps9834ad39.jpg~original


No issues with tall ram at all.

The chips dont get hot so dont come with a big cooler.

Any weekly deals end on Wednesday 12th.
 
Oh for crying out loud. SCREW YOU LLOYDS!!!!!

I click pay now and it goes, oooh transaction could not be completed because of a suspicious spend. Then I get a text from Lloyds asking me whether it was me using the card and it was legit, so I text the reply Yes or No as per its request.

Now what? Do I order again, or did the original order happen? I'm not accidentally risking myself going overdrawn by accidentally ordering the same thing twice.

Rgh. Damn you bank!
 
Sorted. Fraud protection from Lloyds. The order was therefore declined. I sent a text back to Lloyds to confirm that it was no suspicious activity, with a simple "Yes" reply, and checked my orders page on the store page. No orders were listed, so I waited 10 minutes as instructed and resubmitted the purchase. Order has gone through successfully.

That build is nice. I'd be happy to have it myself if it were for me. Plenty fast enough for the G and the luxury of the SSD will be excellent for my Grandfather - he'll be dead pleased when it boots up mega quick. Some of the parts, makes me feel a bit jelly, tbh lol ;).

£461 with the OS as well. Pleased with that. I have MX-4 already, lint free cloths, TIM cleaner, etc, so all there is is assembly.

Thank you again for helping out guys and thanks stulid for the final build that was decided on.
 
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