spec my parents

johnny sublime · 19 Aug 2010 at 18:29

im wanting to do a pc for my mum and dad just basic office and internet use no gaming or anything needs to use a little power as possible max spend of 400

cmndr_andi · 19 Aug 2010 at 18:31

Will they be needing an OS, monitor or peripherals?

Also, do they have any interest in HD video?

stulid · 19 Aug 2010 at 18:36

not sure what you need.

Your basket
Product Name Qty Price Line
Total
Intel Core i3 530 2.93GHz (Clarkdale) (Socket
LGA1156) - Retail £84.99
(£72.33)
£84.99
(£72.33)
OCZ Gold 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-10666C9
(1333MHz) Low-Voltage Dual Channel
(OCZ3G1333LV4GK) £66.96
(£56.99)
£66.96
(£56.99)
Gigabyte GA-H55M-S2 Intel H55 (Socket
1156) DDR3 Motherboard £60.99
(£51.91)
£60.99
(£51.91)
Samsung SpinPoint F3 500GB SATA-II 16MB
Cache - OEM (HD502HJ) £34.99
(£29.78)
£34.99
(£29.78)
Corsair CX 400W ATX Power Supply
(CMPSU-400CXUK) £30.54
(£25.99)
£30.54
(£25.99)
Xigmatek Asgard Midi Tower Case - Black £26.99
(£22.97)
£26.99
(£22.97)
Samsung SH-S223L/RSMN 22x DVD±RW SATA
Lightscribe ReWriter (Beige/Black/Silver) -
Retail £12.98
(£11.05)
£12.98
(£11.05)
Sub
Total : £271.02
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland
with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout)
Shipping : £11.25
VAT is being charged at 17.50% VAT : £49.40
Total : £331.67

johnny sublime · 19 Aug 2010 at 19:05

dont need any software or peripherals

stulid · 19 Aug 2010 at 19:17

Your basket
Product Name Qty Price Line
Total
AMD Athlon II X2 Dual Core 250 3.00GHz
(Socket AM3) - Retail £49.34
(£41.99)
£49.34
(£41.99)
Asus M4A78L-M LE AMD 760G (Socket AM3/
AM2+) DDR2 microATX Motherboard £46.99
(£39.99)
£46.99
(£39.99)
Kingston 2GB (1x2GB) DDR2 PC2-6400C6
800MHz Single Channel Memory Module £35.24
(£29.99)
£35.24
(£29.99)
Samsung SpinPoint F3 500GB SATA-II 16MB
Cache - OEM (HD502HJ) £34.99
(£29.78)
£34.99
(£29.78)
Corsair CX 400W ATX Power Supply
(CMPSU-400CXUK) £30.54
(£25.99)
£30.54
(£25.99)
Xigmatek Asgard Midi Tower Case - Black £26.99
(£22.97)
£26.99
(£22.97)
Samsung SH-S223L/RSMN 22x DVD±RW SATA
Lightscribe ReWriter (Beige/Black/Silver) -
Retail £12.98
(£11.05)
£12.98
(£11.05)
Sub
Total : £201.76
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland
with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout)
Shipping : £11.75
VAT is being charged at 17.50% VAT : £37.36
Total : £250.87

cheap, DDR2.

mattjd · 19 Aug 2010 at 20:22

Burty88 said:
You could also knock 30 quid off if you went for a 500GB samsung HDD - just the WD Greens are supposed to be super quiet.

And uber slow

nightmare99 · 19 Aug 2010 at 20:23

Only issue is if you didn't want a PSU shaped hole in the back of your shoebox you'd have to engineer a plate to cover it.

Why not get a cheap ATX PSU?

Burty88 · 19 Aug 2010 at 20:31

mattjd said:
And uber slow

It's for his parents! Alright, you could go WD 640GB Blue if you wanted the extra spinspeed at the cost of rising from 13/14 to 16/19dB at Idle/Load.

ETA: My post disappeared (magic)

This is what it said:

Something shoebox sized and whisper quiet maybe?

ZOTAC NF610I-K-E nForce 610i Socket 775 VGA Out M-ITX Motherboard

Western Digital Caviar Green 1.5TB SATA-II 64MB Cache - OEM (WD15EARS) £64.99

Intel Pentium Dual-Core E5400 LGA775 2.70GHz (800FSB) - Retail £49.34

Lian Li PC-Q07B Mini-ITX Case - Black £41.99

Kingston 2GB (1x2GB) DDR2 PC2-6400C6 800MHz Single Channel Memory Module £35.24

Samsung SH-S223C/BEBE 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £13.99

120W PicoPSU (including PowerBrick)

£300 Total

Only issue is if you didn't want a PSU shaped hole in the back of your shoebox you'd have to engineer a plate to cover it. See here - http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/sho...php?t=18114247

You could also knock 30 quid off if you went for a 500GB samsung HDD - just the WD Greens are supposed to be super quiet.

Burty88 · 19 Aug 2010 at 20:36

nightmare99 said:
Why not get a cheap ATX PSU?

OP states low power, they average about 90% effieciency, it's quieter, cooler. More airflow round the case. Pros outweigh the one or two cons imo (those cons being initial price and the bit about the backplate).

ETA: you could also then put a large heatsink ,in what would be the psu space, with a low rpm fan and get it even quieter. All old people love small quiet things.

stulid · 19 Aug 2010 at 20:40

120w pico psu, no thanks.

rather suggest a ocuk swift.

mattjd · 19 Aug 2010 at 20:41

I would suggest a Corsair 400W 30ish pound.

RJC · 19 Aug 2010 at 20:46

Your basketProduct Name Qty Price Line Total
G.Skill RipJaw 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit £82.24
(£69.99) £82.24
(£69.99)
Asus M4A78LT-M LE AMD 760G (Socket AM3) DDR3 Motherboard £51.99
(£44.25) £51.99
(£44.25)
AMD Athlon II X2 Dual Core 250 3.00GHz (Socket AM3) - Retail £49.34
(£41.99) £49.34
(£41.99)
Samsung SpinPoint F3 500GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (HD502HJ) £34.99
(£29.78) £34.99
(£29.78)
Corsair CX 400W ATX Power Supply (CMPSU-400CXUK) £30.54
(£25.99) £30.54
(£25.99)
Antec VSK 2000 Midi Tower Case - Black £29.99
(£25.52) £29.99
(£25.52)
Samsung SH-S223L/RSMN 22x DVD±RW SATA Lightscribe ReWriter (Beige/Black/Silver) - Retail £12.98
(£11.05) £12.98
(£11.05)
Sub Total : £248.57
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £11.75
VAT is being charged at 17.50% VAT : £45.56
Total : £305.88

stulid · 19 Aug 2010 at 20:55

mattjd said:
I would suggest a Corsair 400W 30ish pound.

exactly, so I did, twice.

Burty88 · 19 Aug 2010 at 21:03

Haven't seen many/any complaints about their performance/reliability anywhere. They seem perfectly fine for low power applications. And provide a more efficient, quieter delivery.

Would be interested to hear/read anything to the contrary.

mame · 19 Aug 2010 at 23:53

You say no software but do you need Windows? I always think for that type of PC and budget, it's best to just buy an off-the-shelf PC with Windows 7. It's amazing what you can get for £300-400 if you look around. Obviously can't post them here. I helped someone buy a pretty good PC like this for £280. This was in march 2008 so over 2 years ago. For £280 we got: Athlon 64 x2 2.8ghz, 2gb RAM, Windows Vista (the latest OS at the time) Smart, quiet case/PSU, card reader and DVD-RW. It does the job just fine and still does. It would not have been worth anyones time in speccing or building anything. At the time, I couldn't have touched that by building anything.

I posted a similar answer to someone a while ago, even linking a system on OcUK. He said that the HDD was too big and the CPU too powerful :rolleyes:

. Apart from that, it was the same PC to the one he was considering building. He went ahead and built a lower spec PC for more money than the one I linked. He just wanted to build and impress.