Build for the parents!

[holy god of nil]

Had a quick look through some build threads, but most are after gaming etc machines so not necessarily that transferrable.
Going to build the rents a new machine for standard internet/email/office usage when I go home for christmas, thinking about £4/500 for the box (don't need monitor etc). Looking for good quality bits and lots of ability to upgrade in the future, 1TB hard drive and as quiet as possible (they complain about fan noise ).
Haven't been paying much attention to computer stuff since I built my machine, what are people's recommendations?

[nibbler]

Uhh, a nice athlon II triple core for that budget if you ask me. Pair that with say, this motherboard and you have a good base. Use the onboard graphics. For the RAM, I think you can factor in 4gb of DDR3 for that budget. This kit should do the trick. Now, for the case I would suggest a coolermaster uATX job, such as this. If you have the cash perhaps go for an antec P180 mini which I think looks nicer and is nice and quiet (good airflow too). Power supply wise, this allows for some more powerful components in the future and will be quiet and stable. Here's an optical drive. For the storage, a 1TB disk like the samsung f3 1TB is perfect. Which leaves... ermm.... windows 7 if you need it? For a fan definitely don't use the stock AMD fan, it's a terrible HS. Get something aftermarket and cheap like the AC freezer7 which will be quieter and cooler.

[holy god of nil]

How long will am3 be around in comparison to say i5?
Cheers for the recommendations, will knock up something in a bit for people to look over.

[nibbler]

Longer I would have thought but really, that will be a fine pc for ages considering it's ready for a hexacore if needs be.

[Queelis]

No platform available at the moment is future proof. At all. AM3 is basically EOL (changes with Bulldozer), and 1156-1366 are going to end soon as well (Sandy Bridge).

But knowing it's for your parents, why would they need anything more than a quad core (at some 3.4GHz)?

[nibbler]

(or hexa core? )

[holy god of nil]

Indeed just the longer the platform lasts the longer in the future I can pop a new cpu in for them without replacing the mobo.

[nibbler]

Unless they start gaming or video editing it's not something to worry about and the question has no answer!

[Pob255]

Well for a general purpose pc a dual core is still all you need, video editing will not be quite as fast but still doable and not a great annoyance if it's only occasional.

I'd agree on the motherboard nibbler linked.

If you want a low cost case don't go the the CM 342 go for the older 340 http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Coole...X-Case-w-o-PSU it's a much better case, the extra 15mm width makes cableing eaiser and allows for a 120mm fan in the back which is going to make it quieter.
Add a couple of 1000rpm fans to it for air flow and you'll have a near slient case (with a decent cpu cooler)

However the mini-P180 is very nice, tri-cool fans on low will leave you with a very quiet pc and still ample air flow for what you'll be putting in it.
A matched pair of ram really isn't important if you run at stock setting and don't overclock, even when overclocking it's not that big an issue
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/2GB-C...d-CAS-9-9-9-24 so two of thoes or hunt around for some DDR3 PC3-8500 1066 MHz CAS7 (aka CL7) at stock speeds it's actually faster than 1333mhz cas9

As a low cost option you could get away quite happly with just 2gb, try two of these http://www.play.com/PC/PCs/4-/923680...y/Product.html
It's what I'm currently using, 1 stick is a Micron the other is infineon, both are 1066mhz CAS7
The infineon I got actually has an XMP setting for 1333mhz Cas9 @1.6v however the Micron doesn't and I just cannot get this pair up to 1333mhz, I have however got it to 1205mhz cas7 @ 1.55v
So there is still some overclocking potential in 1066mhz, just not a great deal.
And as the motherboard nibbler linked has 4 memory slots There's still room to expand it but just adding extra later.