Spec for me dad

HungryHippos · 4 Feb 2006 at 20:43

hey guys, been looking at building a machine for my dad to replace his ageing lappy with celeron processor and no RAM.

so far drawn up this as a basic spec, but i'd like to reduce the cost a bit without sacrificing performance for what he wants to use it for. His needs for the machine are minimal really, just needs to be quick and responsive for office applications, the net, and some very basic photo/video manip software.

AMD (Venice) Athlon 64Bit 3200+ Socket 939pin
£113.18
ASUS A8N-E Ultra
£65.95
Geil Value 1GB (2x512)
£61.65
WD 250GB SATA2 HDD
£62.96
NEC 4551 DVD-RW
£33.48
Antec SLK case (NO PSU)
£32.39
Acer AL1716S 17" 12ms 500:1 (1280x1024)
£140.99
480W Hiper Type-R PSU
£43.12
Logitech MX 510 mouse w/Steelpad S&S
£29.32
Saitek Eclipse keyboard
£29.32
Logitech budget speakers
£8.17
PNY Verto GeForce FX 5500 128MB DDR PCI TV-Out Retail
£34.00

total : £654.23

All above prices are inc VAT

erm basically i'd like to get the cost to roughly £600 is possible. I'm not sure how this would be achieved but I guess that's why i'm posting here. I also need to get it into my dads head that buying a machine from some competitor (such as the indian food or the purple shirt people) would just disappoint him after a while and would need replacing again.

I guess the price could be reduced by perhaps looking at a mobo which provides onboard graphics as the system won't be playing games at all besides maybe sollitaire or something like that.

thanks for your time all,

Chris.

Chris19 · 4 Feb 2006 at 21:05

If he doesnt really mind about the pooerer sound/visual go for an onboard sound/graphics as said and look at an monitor with speakers built in

Larok · 4 Feb 2006 at 21:20

and or get a cae with the psu in the deal, like one of the antecs

james_earl · 4 Feb 2006 at 22:00

ive just built one of these and you are making it a lot more powerful than necessary. the budget intels are amazing for the price and as above onboard sound and graphics are fine if games arent used

HungryHippos · 5 Feb 2006 at 00:48

perhaps, but my dad has this thing where every machine he gets just becomes really underpowered after a while and he wants to change it and can't live with it. My idea is to get him something which is perhaps more powerful than what he needs right now but will probably last him for a good 3 or 4 years as opposed to the current 1 or 2 year rotation system he's using.

thoughts?

also i'd prefer to stick to AMD I think, whats the semprons like?

pmdelany · 5 Feb 2006 at 10:12

Keyboards, monitors and mice are down to individual preferences, not sure why you would want gaming type keyboards and mice for an office PC, money could be saved there.

pmdelany · 5 Feb 2006 at 10:22

DOn't know if a floopy is included in the case, but how about this.

REFERENCE DESCRIPTION QUANTITY PRICE COST REMOVE
CA-002-OP Optronix Midi Tower Case - (Silver) 400w PSU (CA-002-OP)
£22.50 £22.50
MB-119-AS Asus A8N-VM CSM Micro ATX (Socket 939) PCI Express Motherboard (MB-119-AS)
£54.95 £54.95
MY-004-OK OcUK Value 1GB (2x512MB) PC3200 184pin DDR Memory Dual Channel Kit (MY-004-OK)
£44.95 £44.95
HD-017-SA Samsung SpinPoint P SP2004C 200GB SATA-II 8MB Cache - OEM (HD-017-SA)
£57.95 £57.95
CD-027-NE NEC ND4551 16x16 DVD±RW Dual Layer ReWriter (Beige) - OEM (CD-027-NE)
£29.95 £29.95
CP-119-AM AMD Athlon 64 3500+ Venice 90nm (Socket 939) - Retail (ADA3500BPBOX) (CP-119-AM)
£123.95 £123.95
SP-024-LG Logitech S100 10W RMS Speakers Beige - OEM (SP-024-LG)
£6.95 £6.95
KB-058-LG Logitech Cordless Optical Desktop Rechargeable Black/Silver - OEM (KB-058-LG)
£29.95 £29.95
Subtotal £371.15
VAT £64.96
Total £436.11

This leave around £164 for the monitor and delivery.

pcoltrane · 5 Feb 2006 at 11:38

I built a similar machine for my parents recently, if thet're anything like mine that spec is overkill.

The sempron will more than handle anything he throws at it and the biostar is an excellent board with on board nvidia 6200 level gfx. The antec aria is a tidy and stylish little case too.

I built:

Motherboard: Biostar 6100 £42
CPU: Sempron 3100+ £70
Ram: 2 x 512 Geil Value £65
HD: Samsung spinpoint 160gb £60
Case/PSU: Antec Aria £70
DVDRW: BenQ 1640 £30

The above will only set you back £340, leaving plenty of money for what are probably the most important bits for him - a good screen (perhaps the Hyundai B90a 19" tft ~£220), keyboard mouse and speakers.

Marc

HungryHippos · 5 Feb 2006 at 13:12

OK new spec

Asus A8N-VM S939 NVC51G/MCP51G Matx - Vga Sound Lan USB2 Fsb1000 Sata
£49.13
AMD (Venice) Athlon 64 3200+ (ADA3200DAA4BW) OEM Skt 939
£108.92
Geil Value 1GB (2x512)
£61.65
Western Digital WD800JD Caviar SE 80GB 7200RPM SATA/150 8MB Cache - OEM
£35.34
NEC 4551 DVD-RW
£33.48
Antec Sonata II Piano Black Quiet Midi Tower - With 450W SmartPower2.0 PSU
£76.94
Acer AL1716S 17" 12ms 500:1 (1280x1024)
£140.99
Logitech MX 510 mouse w/Steelpad S&S
£29.32
Saitek Eclipse keyboard
£29.32
Logitech budget speakers
£8.17

All prices inc VAT
total : £573.26

seems like quite a good spec for the cash. The semprons looked pretty good but required a socket 754 mobo which i'd like to avoid doing as it would just need replacing next upgrade, whereas for this board the CPU could probably just be upgraded easily enough.

I know people might think of the keyboard and mouse as gaming equipment, but in my opinion they're excellent value for money for desktop browsing too, and i'm most happy with them, as are all the people i've spoken to.

replace mobo with the non CSM version of the A8N-VM, i'm not sure i'd need to get the CSM version as it seems most of the extra features aren't required. Opted for the OEM version of the 3200 venice on the proviso that my old 3800 x2 cooler will fit the processor, because I still have it sitting in the box. Otherwise the retail cpu is about £5 more expensive so not much in it.

more thoughts?