Spec my old man a PC

Hicks

Hicks

Hicks

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Joined
25 Apr 2012
Posts
905
Location
West Sussex
Hey guys,

It's been a while and I'm right out of the game at the moment.

My Dad wants me to build him a new PC.

He's after something that will be fast, responsive and mainly used for listening to music, youtube etc.
Bit of office type work
Plenty of space for photos and a bit of ram for maybe some very amateur photo editing.
No gaming.
Size of case doesn't matter but it would be ideal if there are plenty of features at the top / front as it will be under his desk.

He doesn't need:

Monitor
Keyboard and mouse

I'm thinking a reasonable SSD and a decent size HDD,
Reasonable sound card (Breakout box would be fantastic)

Thanks a lot :)
 
Something like this?

YOUR BASKET
1 x Microsoft Windows 10 32/64-Bit - USB Pen Drive - Retail (KW9-00017) £85.99
1 x Toshiba 2TB 7200RPM SATA 6GB/s 64MB Cache HDD - OEM (DT01ACA200) £53.99
1 x Intel Pentium K Anniversary G3258 Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £49.99
1 x Crucial BX100 120GB SSD SATA 6Gbps 7mm Solid State Drive (CT120BX100SSD1) £44.99
1 x Asus H81M-PLUS Intel H81 (Socket 1150) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard £41.99
1 x SuperFlower FX 450W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply - Black £34.99
1 x TeamGroup Elite Black 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (TPKD38G1600HC11DC01) £29.99
1 x Aerocool V2X Black Edition Midi-Tower - Black £19.99
Total : £376.92 (includes shipping : £12.50 Ex.VAT).




The case is the cheapest I've found with more than two USB ports on the front.

450W is overkill but should be quiet because of that and it's on special offer.

Try onboard sound first? It's been improving over the years to the point most people don't bother with sound cards anymore.

Could add a DVD drive if wanted (add one Sata cable to basket if so) and a little aftermarket cooler to make it a neat £400, or save the extra for a sound card if needed.
 
mickeyflinn,

There is no budget at the moment as he wants a rough price from me but I dare say that 4 to 500 is fine.

Danny75,

That's looking pretty good mate thanks.
I've had a look through the cases and I have no idea what's going on as there really isn't a lot of choice it seems...

He would definitely want a DVD drive and he's set on Win 7 at the moment but I'm trying to ease him into 10 :D
You're probably right with the onboard sound to be honest but I was hoping there would be a card similar to my old SB Audigy 2 ZS with the front breakout which was very handy.

Thanks again :)
 
What ports of the breakout do you need? I don't know how out of the loop you are but most modern cases has basic 3.5mm front audio ports.
 
"Old" ??? Mate, graphic card might be old, if used for more than 5 years.
Personally, I wouldn't spend more than 100 pounds for PC used for mentioned tasks. Used, bought @ Ebay, for example, or somewhere else @ clearance sale. Plus that SSD, might be brand new. I fyou like spending 300 pounds, that's fine, I won't complain.

Oh, don't forget to configure system properly as SSD (usually) is C drive, and other programs/data (usually) is D drive, so make some assigns to MyDocuments or/and libraries located @ D drive, and tell to your dad not to install/save anything @ C. Maybe better solution would be SSHD (Solid State Hybrid Drive) instead of 2 drives. For better audio experience you might try to buy some X-Fi Titanium for 20-30 pounds (Ebay as well)... I assume you've got some decent speakers.
 
Last edited:
I daresay how much you spend dictates how long the thing will actually last for.

But here's another idea: what about a laptop? He might like it.
 
Two at £500 ish with 240GB SSD 1.0TB HDD 8GB DDR3 Nice case, Seasonic PSU and Win 10 (Can be made to look as Win 7, I like it).

AMD Option

YOUR BASKET
1 x AMD Kaveri A8-7670K 10 Compute Core APU w/ Radeon R7 Graphics (4 CPU + 6 GPU Compute Cores) - Retail £89.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 10 32/64-Bit - USB Pen Drive - Retail (KW9-00017) £85.99
1 x Samsung 250GB 850 EVO SSD 2.5" SATA 6Gbps 32 Layer 3D V-NAND Solid State Drive (MZ-75E250B/EU) £77.99
1 x Asus A88XM-PLUS AMD A88X (Socket FM2+) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard £56.99
1 x Corsair Vengeance Pro Red 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-19200C11 2400MHz Dual Channel Memory Kit (CMY8GX3M2A2400C11R) £46.99
1 x Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache HDD - OEM (WD10EZEX) £41.99
1 x Fractal Design Core 1300 Micro-ATX Case - Black £38.99
1 x Seasonic Eco Series 430W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £37.99
1 x Samsung SH-224FB/BEBE 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM M disc compatible £14.99
Total : £501.50 (includes shipping : £8.00 Ex.VAT).



Intel Option

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i3-4330 3.50GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £99.95
1 x Microsoft Windows 10 32/64-Bit - USB Pen Drive - Retail (KW9-00017) £85.99
1 x Samsung 250GB 850 EVO SSD 2.5" SATA 6Gbps 32 Layer 3D V-NAND Solid State Drive (MZ-75E250B/EU) £77.99
1 x Corsair Vengeance Pro Red 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-19200C11 2400MHz Dual Channel Memory Kit (CMY8GX3M2A2400C11R) £46.99
1 x Asus H81M-PLUS Intel H81 (Socket 1150) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard £41.99
1 x Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache HDD - OEM (WD10EZEX) £41.99
1 x Fractal Design Core 1300 Micro-ATX Case - Black £38.99
1 x Seasonic Eco Series 430W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £37.99
1 x Samsung SH-224FB/BEBE 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM M disc compatible £14.99
Total : £496.46 (includes shipping : £8.00 Ex.VAT).

 
Thanks all for your reponses.

Nkata, both options look good, thanks. I'll be tempted by the Intel option I think.

sastusbulbas, I'll let him keep some of his pride and just say he's around the 80 mark. He's been using computers as long as me and can't do without one.
His music is his life really but we are only talking about cd's, youtube, Spotify etc. Nothing pro in any way.
Played through headphones which are 'not' Grados or anywhere near ;)
I may donate a pair of my Sennheisers though when I buy my next set.

Most of this will obviously be overkill for his specific needs but he just wants something he can trust and knows that won't struggle with whatever he's doing.

Dreamcat4, he can't deal with laptops, but thanks for the suggestion.

Quartz, they look good but he would be worried about it all the time. He needs something that walks, talks and acts like a PC ;)

Thanks again all :)
 
Thanks again for all your help.

Budget has been raised to £600

Any significant changes to be made with that? I'm guessing we could squeeze an i5 in there?

Any help greatly appreciated.
 
Hicks said:
Hey guys,

It's been a while and I'm right out of the game at the moment.

My Dad wants me to build him a new PC.

He's after something that will be fast, responsive and mainly used for listening to music, youtube etc.
Bit of office type work
Plenty of space for photos and a bit of ram for maybe some very amateur photo editing.
No gaming.
Size of case doesn't matter but it would be ideal if there are plenty of features at the top / front as it will be under his desk.

He doesn't need:

Monitor
Keyboard and mouse

I'm thinking a reasonable SSD and a decent size HDD,
Reasonable sound card (Breakout box would be fantastic)

Thanks a lot :)
Click to expand...

Look

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/tita...9ghz-turbo-quad-core-gaming-pc-fs-095-og.html
 
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