Spec me a PC for Dad

Roverno

Roverno

Roverno

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Joined
24 May 2011
Posts
1,790
Location
West Sussex
Hi all,

Just looking at getting a new pc for my dad.

He is currently running a Q6600 in a dell machine with 3GB ram. however he loves to have a bunch of browsing tabs etc and constantly runs out of ram.

Usage is mainly internet and word/excel but he is fairly impatient so speed is important. Reliability is most important for this build as i need it to not need regular maintenance or fixinf due to faulty bits. (no asrock spec please:p) Gaming on that pc is next to nothing but it would be nice to be able to run minecraft/GW2 or something on basic settings if my brother or i get bored as we live elsewhere most of the time.

He also has a large collection of photos which he holds very dearly and wants to keep on the pc. around 150GB i believe. i have windows backup working for him and due to setup an offsite backup soon. (are there better backup tools than this? i use WHS2011 backup but thats not available for him.)

I would normally spec a pair of 500GB hard drive in Raid1 for his photos but i dont want to add complexity to his everyday usage by having multiple hard drives.

This is current spec i have come up with. Budget of about 700 MAX, ideally under. can transfer windows 7 licence so no OS needed unless W8 will help with the storage simplicity?

No monitor or KB needed. Wireless mouse maybe if you can recommend something reliable and with a basic shape. (left handed user)

YOUR BASKET
1 x Samsung 250GB SSD 840 SATA 6Gb/s Desktop and Notebook Kit - (MZ-7TD250KW) £169.99
1 x AMD A10-5800K Black Edition 3.80GHz (Socket FM2) APU Trinity Quad Core Processor **FREE SIMCITY PC GAME** (AD580KWOHJBOX) £99.95
1 x TeamGroup Xtreem LV 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-21300C11 2666MHz Dual Channel Kit (TXD38G2666HC11CDC01) £65.99
1 x Gigabyte F2A85XM-D3H AMD A85X Chipset (Socket FM2) DDR3 micro ATX Motherboard £61.99
1 x Corsair Builder Series CX 430w Modular '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply (CP-9020058-UK) £43.99
1 x Alpenföhn Matterhorn Pure Edition CPU Cooler (Socket 775 / 1150 / 1155 / 1156 / 1366 / AM2 / AM2+ / AM3 / FM1 / FM2) £29.99
1 x OcUK 20x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £16.99
Total : £500.89 (includes shipping : £10.00).



Thanks in advance :)

Improved to:

YOUR BASKET
1 x Samsung 250GB SSD 840 SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7TD250BW) £137.99
1 x Asus F2A85-M PRO AMD A85X Chipset (Socket FM2) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard £109.99
1 x AMD A10-5800K Black Edition 3.80GHz (Socket FM2) APU Trinity Quad Core Processor **FREE SIMCITY PC GAME** (AD580KWOHJBOX) £91.99
1 x Corsair Obsidian 350D Micro ATX Case - Black £84.95
1 x TeamGroup Xtreem LV 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-21300C11 2666MHz Dual Channel Kit (TXD38G2666HC11CDC01) £65.99
1 x Corsair Builder Series CX 430w Modular '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply (CP-9020058-UK) £39.95
1 x Alpenföhn Matterhorn Pure Edition CPU Cooler (Socket 775 / 1150 / 1155 / 1156 / 1366 / AM2 / AM2+ / AM3 / FM1 / FM2) £29.99
1 x OcUK 20x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £12.95
Total : £587.89 (includes shipping : £11.75).

 
Last edited:
mattdunnapoo said:
maybe a case and a 1-3 tb harddrive

i assume he doesnt play games and needs a dedicated gpu ?
Click to expand...

Wanted to avoid 2 hard drives to prevent complication, might be able to sort something out though. Bit of testing required maybe.

Fire_fly said:
Could you not just upgrade the RAM and if the Motherboard is SATA add an SSD. It would be much cheaper and the Q6600 is still powerful enough for everyday tasks, while adding the SSD would make a big difference, even if the SATA ports are only SATA II.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/sata-6gbps-performance-sata-3gbps,3110.html
Click to expand...

In theory, yes i could do that, but at the same time i'm going to turn the old PC into a server probably. (media stream and backup)
 
In that case then that Trinity build looks good.

I would tweak a few things personallly;

Unless you are planning one OCing the processor I would change the CPU to this one. The Matterhorn will be overkill for you needs, while this one is cheaper and will still be a big improvement over the stock cooler, while being considerably cheaper and less likely to conflict with the tall RAM you have chosen.

I would also get this version of the SSD, and then buy a mounting adapter, it is considerably cheaper.
YOUR BASKET
1 x Samsung 250GB SSD 840 SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7TD250BW) £137.99
1 x OcUK Professional 2.5" to 3.5" SSD Adaptor Plate - Black £3.95
Total : £151.54 (includes shipping : £8.00).



What case will you be using?
 
Will probably go for the 350D or something similar. I want Matx size with good quality.

I will certainly overclock but not toa great extent. Cooler is overkill a little, but not that expensive and will result in being very quiet.

I want the pro version for the increased performance and better NAND flash with a longer life, not for the adapter :p

Sorry, didnt mean to just slash all your comments.
 
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