New comp for Granddad

[watforddude]

The computer he has at the minute is awful and would like me to build him another one

Budget is around 450/500 pounds

He just does the normal like browsing, emailing, banking but also enjoys his picture taking and editing to a enthusiast level, a keyboard and mouse doesn't need to be included but he wants a new monitor (big and good quality)

Oh and I forgot to say it needs to be future proofed (if their is even such a thing these days) but I'm talking a good few years without it causing any issues.

If you guys could come up with the best for the money then I can order it off scan tonight, Thanks

[ed^chigliak]

Scan Super savers
AMD Athlon II X2 250 Combo - £258 (for once scan are offering a cheap build with a decent PSU)
* Xclio Godspeed One Full Black Mid Tower Case with 80mm Side Fan w/o PSU
* 400W Corsair CMPSU-400CXUK Power Series PSU, ATX, PS/2, UK Version 3 year warranty
* AMD Athlon II X2 250, Regor Core, S AM3, 3.0GHz, 512KB x 2 Cache, FSB/HT 2000MHz, 65W, Retail
* Asus M4A78LT-M LE, AMD 760G, S AM3, DDR3 1800(OC), SATA 3Gb/s, SATA RAID, MicroATX, Onboard Graphics
* 2GB (2x1GB) Corsair XMS3, DDR3 PC3-10666 (1333) Non-ECC Unbuffered, CAS 9-9-9-24, 1.50V
* 500 GB Western Digital WD5000AAKS Caviar Blue, SATA 3Gb/s, 7200rpm, 16MB Cache, 8.9 ms
* Sony AD-7240S-0B 24x DVD±R, 12xDVD±DL, DVD+RW x8/-RWx6 ,12xRAM SATA, Black, OEM

Monitors
22" Dell 2209WA E-IPS £222 1680x1050 (silver bezel version is cheapest black +£30)
23" Dell Ultrasharp U2311H 1920x1080 also an IPS panel £267

[kalniel]

Budget is quite tight - you need to maximise monitor, RAM and storage, then scrape everything else together to get it cheap.

Have you considered pre-built? Could get a deal on monitors and you get the help and support for him which will save you a bit of hassle
One option would be something like an Inspiron Zino HD:
http://configure.euro.dell.com/dells...D00ZHD03&s=dhs

and go for the £50 monitor upgrade, which gets everything into £500 total. CPU is a bit weak, but it's plenty for the general tasks - some photo editing options might not be the fastest though.

If you can push up a bit more, this:
http://configure.euro.dell.com/dells...=D005634&s=dhs

is much faster, and you can get a 23" monitor upgrade for £60, taking you up to £530

[Shiva]

Monitor will definitely be where you want to get as big as possible. Pre-built might be easier but won't necessarily give the best bang for the buck. However, they usually throw in a monitor.

What do you mean by future proof though?
Just work fine for a few years?
Be upgradable in 2 years without massive replacements?

[ed^chigliak]

The only IPS monitor upgrade on those Dell deals is the U2410 at +£350

An IPS panel is a big improvement over TN panels when it comes to viewing & working with images. I imagine any PC build will be fast compare to what he is currently using. What good is extra speed if the images don't look good. The photo processing will get done just fine on any modern CPU and AMD motherboards seem to have the best CPU upgrade path.

[kalniel]

The only IPS monitor upgrade on those Dell deals is the U2410 at +£350

An IPS panel is a big improvement over TN panels when it comes to viewing & working with images. I imagine any PC build will be fast compare to what he is currently using. What good is extra speed if the images don't look good. The photo processing will get done just fine on any modern CPU and AMD motherboards seem to have the best CPU upgrade path.

You can't fit an IPS into budget - an IPS monitor and OS alone cost over £300 together, leaving less than £200 for the rest of the system.

[Skulltrail]

Case: Coolermaster Elite 334 Midi-Tower
Motherboard: Asus P5KPL (ATX, 1600MHz FSB, DDR2)
CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad Q8300 2.5GHz, 4MB cache (should OC to 3GHz @ 1600MHz on stock cooler)
RAM: 3x 1GB generic 800MHz CAS5
HDD: 500GB Samsung SpinPoint F3
PSU: 400w Silverpower SP-400P2C
Optical Drive: current
GPU: current (if applicable)

Monitor: 23" Samsung SM2343BW 2048x1152 (300cd/m2, 5ms)

Total devilered inc. VAT: £503.73

That should all handel the photos nicely. Not sure about the monitor as it's still TN but very high pixel density should make photos look lush.

It's all Scan apart from the RAM which is:
http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/p...RAM-802GB.html
+
http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/p...RAM-801GB.html

[kalniel]

Case: Coolermaster Elite 334 Midi-Tower
Motherboard: Asus P5KPL (ATX, 1600MHz FSB, DDR2)
CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad Q8300 2.5GHz, 4MB cache (should OC to 3GHz @ 1600MHz on stock cooler)
RAM: 3x 1GB generic 800MHz CAS5
HDD: 500GB Samsung SpinPoint F3
PSU: 400w Silverpower SP-400P2C
Optical Drive: current
GPU: current (if applicable)

Monitor: 23" Samsung SM2343BW 2048x1152 (300cd/m2, 5ms)

Total devilered inc. VAT: £503.73

That should all handel the photos nicely. Not sure about the monitor as it's still TN but very high pixel density should make photos look lush.

It's all Scan apart from the RAM which is:
http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/p...RAM-802GB.html
+
http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/p...RAM-801GB.html

Is that including OS?

[Skulltrail]

Is that including OS?

No, could be a bit cheeky and re-use the current one presuming its XP or later.

[kalniel]

No, could be a bit cheeky and re-use the current one presuming its XP or later.

I really wouldn't recommend this. First of all if he has an OEM version then transferring it is illegal. Secondly if the computer is old then it's going to be XP at best, which really doesn't fit with the requirement for future proofing/lasting a few years - 32bit is a limitation, lack of future support from MS or future device manufacturers is another limitation, and just in general windows 7 is a really important security consideration.

[Pob255]

XP still has legs and 32bit os is still going to be around for some time, not all copies of win7 are 64bit you know

As to monitor how's his eye sight? we upograded some of the monitors for the girls in the office to 19" 4:3 a while back, they run them at 1024x768, if need to go and sort something out I'll often reset it to 1280x1024 (native) and then they complain that everthing is too small.
I've tried them on larger fonts and icons, but it's not good, it's just too small

I'm saying this as part warning part sugestion, 19" 4:3 1280x1024 or 16x10 1440x900 has the largest dot pitch of any monitor sort of using a big tv or projector.
Ok a 19" 16x9 1366x768 has even higher but 768 vertical is really too small for photo editing.

IPS is nice for photo work but a TN panel is fine for most people, esp if you're not doing it as a living.

Go for as large and as few pixels as you can, ie a 22" 16:10 1680x1050 would probably be better than a 22" 16:9 1920 x 1080.

As far as specs go that scan super saver is a great deal and ideal.

[Skulltrail]

I really wouldn't recommend this. First of all if he has an OEM version then transferring it is illegal. Secondly if the computer is old then it's going to be XP at best, which really doesn't fit with the requirement for future proofing/lasting a few years - 32bit is a limitation, lack of future support from MS or future device manufacturers is another limitation, and just in general windows 7 is a really important security consideration.

Revised as follows to accomodate 7 Home Premium x64

Case: CiT 2002 Black Midi ATX Case Inc 450W PSU
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-G41MT-ES2L (G41, DDR3, ATX)
CPU: Intel Pentium Dual-Core E5200 2.5GHz (OC as high as possible to compensate - try for 4.0GHz @ 1600MHz with a 10x multi)
CPU Cooler: Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro v2
RAM: 3x 1GB Hynix DDRIII PC3-10600 @ 1333MHz CAS7
HDD: 500GB Samsung HD502HJ Spinpoint F3
Optical Drive: existing
GPU: existing (if applicable)
Card Reader: 3.5" Highpoint all-in-one Card Reader with External E-Sata Port

Monitor: 23" Samsung SM2343BW 2048x1152 (300cd/m2, 5ms)

OS: Windows 7 Home Premium x64 OEM

All is from Scan apart from OS from Dabs (http://www.dabs.com/products/microso...-1pk-68YW.html) and card reader from Novatech (http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/p...RH-IN-UES.html)

Total inc. VAT and delivery: £498.91

[kalniel]

That looks like a good self-build alternative - I'd make sure to get the 64bit OS (the link is to the 32bit one) for the added security and future proofing.

In fact, as it's OEM you need to buy it from the same place you buy the hardware from, so get that from Scan along with the other parts.

[ed^chigliak]

That might just be the worst quality PSU scan sell. Do not buy that case/PSU combo.

You could combine a cheap £12 case with a £30-40 PSU like Antec earthwatts. Any less than this and you are just asking for trouble. FSP make reasonable quality power supplies which are not too expensive.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

I would avoid a CiT PSU. One of my friends had a 400W one which cause damaged to his PC. Funnily enough a 5 to 6 year old Globalwin PSU which has replaced it on a temporary basis sorted out the issues.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

This is what I would look at getting:

AMD Athlon II X3 435 ~ £61

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/176043

ASROCK M3A785GMH/128M ~ £59

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/179183

Has the 785G IGP with 128MB of dedicated DDR3.

4GB low latency 1333MHZ DDR3 ~ £90

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/179278

OCZ StealthXStream 400W ~ £33

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/152505

WD Caviar Black 500GB ~ £44

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/150246

Casecom 6788 ~ £30

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/172779

SATA DVD rewriter ~ £15

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/170014

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/145450

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/176026

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/164449

Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit OEM ~ £79

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/173791

Dell 2209WA ~ £223 to £224

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/179089

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/158551

The total comes to around £634 to £635 including free delivery.

It is over budget but TBH if you want a decent screen for image editing,enough RAM and decent processor you will need a bigger budget.