spec me a browsing machine.

[ck88]

Folks,

Trying to spec a pc for a friend but not really sure on the low end of the tech.

All I've been told is is HAS to have a quad core (no idea why? lol). The most demanding thing the machine will have to run will be facebook and msn messenger, with maybe a little bit of football manager on the side.

No budget as of yet. Just needs to be nippy with a big harddrive, was going to suggest to him investing in a ssd but when he sees it's only 64gb and cost £100+ I don't think he'll be terribly happy.

Cheaper the better obviously. I've no clue about the onboard graphics side of the game, but presume this will be the way to go.

thanks.

 

[FoxEye]

core i7 920 for browsing, no doubt about it

(p.s. sarcasm present in this post!)

a more useful reply would be that any machine from 1990 onwards will browse the net, and any dual core will make it smooth as a baby's bottom. quad core is quite ridiculous for your/his needs.

 

[ck88]

maybe something like this, is it a bit too much?

 

[ck88]

core i7 920 for browsing, no doubt about it

(p.s. sarcasm present in this post!)

truly helpful, thankyou!!!

 

[jellybeard999]

Being honest, I'd look at net tops or mitx atom/ion boards and maybe add another hard drive if required.

 

[ck88]

has to be a desktop, he wants it to last him a few years hence the decent tech. his current pc is ~6yrs old. I think it's one of the crummy medion jobbys with it's glorious 256mb ram

 

[pkryder]

Quad core seems completely pointless to me for a browsing PC, if he wants up to date tech get an i3 they are dual core but hyperthreaded, he wont know the difference. You could spec something up with dedicated graphics, 4GB Ram for about £450 excluding an O/S

 

[ViperZS]

for just browsing why would he need 4GB ram?

especially if trying to keep costs down

 

[FoxEye]

has to be a desktop, he wants it to last him a few years hence the decent tech. his current pc is ~6yrs old. I think it's one of the crummy medion jobbys with it's glorious 256mb ram

well if he gets a dual core, he might use up to 25% of its power if he's playing a flash game or something.

if he gets a quad, he might use up to 15% doing the same thing

either will "last a few years" if his requirements don't change. is he likely to start doing 3d modelling/rendering, folding, encoding, etc, if he's never been interested in it before?

 

[craptakular]

AMD 245 cpu

4 gb ram

785G mainboard

profit!!!

 

[FoxEye]

everyone knows you can't have profit without underpants.

 

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

This is what I would look at getting:

AMD Athlon II X4 620 ~ £82

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CP-258-AM

Asus M4A785D-M Pro ~ £61

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-357-AS&groupid=701&catid=5&subcat=1482

4GB 1066MHZ DDR2 ~ £71

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-192-CS&groupid=701&catid=8&subcat=817

Corsair CX 400W ~ £37

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-017-CS

Samsung SpinPoint F3 500GB ~ £41

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HD-081-SA

SATA DVD rewriter ~ £16

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CD-099-SA&groupid=701&catid=10&subcat=

Coolermaster Elite 334 ~ £28

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-184-CM

HD4670 512MB GDDR3 ~ £56

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-184-SP

Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit ~ £76

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=SW-127-MS

Logitech Deluxe USB Keyboard ~ £7

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=KB-088-LG&groupid=702&catid=23&subcat=

Logitech U96 USB ~ £7

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=KB-088-LG&groupid=702&catid=23&subcat=

BenQ G2222HDL 21.5" Widescreen LED Monitor ~ £125

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MO-034-BQ&groupid=17&catid=949&subcat=

This build is totally over-specified for the intended purpose and will cost around £607 excluding postage.

The HD4670 and even the HD4200 IGP in the Asus M4A785D-M Pro motherboard will offload HD video decoding off the CPU. Even HD flash can be now decoded by an HD4200 or HD4670.

If normal web browsing under Windows needs better hardware than this in two to three years time I think I will start using Linux instead!!

 

[a1ex2001]

Quad core seems completely pointless to me for a browsing PC, if he wants up to date tech get an i3 they are dual core but hyperthreaded, he wont know the difference. You could spec something up with dedicated graphics, 4GB Ram for about £450 excluding an O/S

You missed the bit about playing football manager which has always been a CPU and disk killer.