Desktop £3-400

[Smudger]

Hi,

I'm looking to renew my parents' PC, which is an old AMD xp3000 with 512mb RAM. They need it for internet, e-mail and webcam with family abroad, so no massive power required. However, the previous on has lasted for about 8 years, so I need enough power to last a similar amount of time...
I thought about the following; if anyone can suggest some better parts, I would be most grateful.

Gigabyte GA-880GA-UD3H, AMD 880G, S AM3, PCI-E 2.0 (x16), DDR3 1866(OC), SATA 6Gb/s, SATA RAID, ATX £67.89 £79.77
500GB Samsung HD502HJ Spinpoint F3, SATA 3Gb/s, 7200rpm, 16MB Cache, 8.9 ms, NCQ, OEM
£25.49 £29.95
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit, Operating System, Single, - OEM £63.07 £74.11
4GB (2x2GB) Corsair DDR3 PC3-10666 (1333) Non-ECC Unbuffered, CAS 9-9-9-24, 1.50V £35.98 £42.28
AMD Athlon II X4 645, Propus, Quad Core, S AM3, 3.1GHz, 2MB Cache, HT 4000MHz, 95W, Retail £73.64 £86.53
450W Akasa AK-P450AG8-SLUK ES PSU, 80+% Eff', 120mm Fan, Efficient and Affordable £32.79 £38.53

[dfour]

In all honesty you could just upgrade the old one to 2gb of ram and put a clean install on and it would be fit for purpose.

What your proposing is totally overkill.

Get a mini atx board, box and a dual core with 2 gig of ram and your 500gb drive at the max needed.

AMD CPU Athlon II 255 Dual Core £47.29 (better than the 250 as it has 2*1mb level 2 cache vs 2*512mg level 2 cache on the 250)
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/amd-a...mhz-65w-retail
Asus M4A88T-M AMD 880G AM3 £63.31
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/asus-...board-graphics
Asus TM-B11 Black Micro ATX Tower Case No PSU £22;36
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/asus-...x-tower-no-psu

Stick with the hard drive/win 7/ram but get a better psu like the corsair 430 £37 ish.
Corsair CX430 430W PSU Quiet Power Supply - CMPSU-430CX
https://www.awd-it.co.uk/scripts/pro...idproduct=9247

[Smudger]

Cheers D4, all those bits you mentioned are in the Today Only section at scan so are even cheaper!
That brings the total under £300...

[Iron Sights]

For an 8 year lasting build might I suggest an athlon x3? Its only a few quid more, plus there is a chance of unlocking an extra core provided you have a suitable mobo

[dfour]

For an 8 year lasting build might I suggest an athlon x3? Its only a few quid more, plus there is a chance of unlocking an extra core provided you have a suitable mobo

Whats the point when they will barely use 2 cores let alone 4??

[GT-R]

I'd avoid the Corsair CX PSU

http://forums.hexus.net/hexus-hardwa...ooks-crap.html

[Smudger]

For an 8 year lasting build might I suggest an athlon x3? Its only a few quid more, plus there is a chance of unlocking an extra core provided you have a suitable mobo

If it were my PC, I probably would look at that, but as it's my parent's I think I'll just run it at stock, plus, as d4 said, they're not likely to hit the limits of a dual core...

[Smudger]

Right, this is what I've gone for...

500GB Samsung HD502HJ Spinpoint F3, SATA 3Gb/s, 7200rpm, 16MB Cache, 8.9 ms, NCQ, OEM £25.49 £29.95
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit, Operating System, Single, - OEM £63.07 £74.11
450W Akasa AK-P450AG8-SLUK ES PSU, 80+% Eff', 120mm Fan, Efficient and Affordable £32.79 £38.53
4GB (2x2GB) Corsair XMS3 Classic, DDR3 PC3-10666 (1333) Non-ECC Unbuffered, CAS 9-9-9-24, 1.50V £33.99 £39.94
AMD Athlon II X2 255, Regor, Dual Core, S AM3, 3.1GHz, 2MB Cache, HT 4000MHz, 65W, Retail £37.99 £44.64
Asus M4A88T-M, AMD 880G, S AM3, PCI-E 2.0 (x16), DDR3 1866(OC), SATA RAID, mATX, On Board Graphics £51.99 £61.09

Total Price £288

Anyone know if that PSU will suffice? I've had an Akasa before and it did the job, but then I upgraded my graphics and got a Corsair...

[GT-R]

Right, this is what I've gone for...

500GB Samsung HD502HJ Spinpoint F3, SATA 3Gb/s, 7200rpm, 16MB Cache, 8.9 ms, NCQ, OEM £25.49 £29.95
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit, Operating System, Single, - OEM £63.07 £74.11
450W Akasa AK-P450AG8-SLUK ES PSU, 80+% Eff', 120mm Fan, Efficient and Affordable £32.79 £38.53
4GB (2x2GB) Corsair XMS3 Classic, DDR3 PC3-10666 (1333) Non-ECC Unbuffered, CAS 9-9-9-24, 1.50V £33.99 £39.94
AMD Athlon II X2 255, Regor, Dual Core, S AM3, 3.1GHz, 2MB Cache, HT 4000MHz, 65W, Retail £37.99 £44.64
Asus M4A88T-M, AMD 880G, S AM3, PCI-E 2.0 (x16), DDR3 1866(OC), SATA RAID, mATX, On Board Graphics £51.99 £61.09

Total Price £288

Anyone know if that PSU will suffice? I've had an Akasa before and it did the job, but then I upgraded my graphics and got a Corsair...

Should be fine, that setup should only use about 70 to 80w idle and maybe upto 130 load. These are estimates but i cant see them being far off.

[dfour]

Should be no problem. A gaming machine I built with a quad phenoM 2 and a 4870 was pulling under 220 watts under furmark so yours will be fine .

[vinnyT]

That psu will be fine, I got an akasa paxmate psu around 6-7 years back for my old pc, when I built a new pc for my parents I reused it and it's still going strong today, I'm very impressed with it.