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Thread: Help spec'ing up a low budget system

  1. #1
    A shadowy flight. MSIC's Avatar
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    Help spec'ing up a low budget system

    Talked to my mate at work who wants a new computer for his dad. This guy is in his late 60's, retired, and although has "a computer" it's old and on a dial-up connection. Not that his dad even uses it for surfing, as apparently he goes to the library to use the internet!
    Anyway, my mate is trying to encourage his dad to use it more, particularly now that the grandchildren are going around and wanted to do stuff ("including some basic games").

    This ties up nicely with the fact that i have some old parts to shift, which I have been up front about and my mate is fine with this. He has no exact budget, but under £300 is attractive, the closer to £200 the better.

    I have currently a P4 2.6 ('C', 800fsb) with a Zalman h/s & fan, on an MSI 865PE motherboard. All good and stable, so i have no qualms about passing this on.
    I also have a spare Western Dig 80GB hard drive, however even though it is fully working i will not be giving him this as it's at least 3 years old and been in nearly 24/7 operation, so cannot be sure how much longer it'll hold out.
    They are also keeping the current monitor, keyboard, mouse, speakers and re-using the OS and applications, so what i need, for under £200, are the following:

    Case & PSU; RAM; Graphics Card; Hard Drive; DVD writer.

    I have specced up a system myself of the following, but wonder if anyone can suggest any improvements?
    Scan '3xs' case & 400W. £24.28
    2 x 512 MB Corsair Value Select. £56.27
    Asus Geforce 6200 AGP 128MB £32.54
    Hitachi 80GB SATA Hard Disk £36.66
    NEC 4550A DVD writer £27
    Total = £176.75 inc VAT & free scan delivery

    If i built & installed it all, do you reckon £250 is a fair price (including my old components)?

    Thanks for any help, changes or suggestions in advance.
    Last edited by MSIC; 07-03-2006 at 10:55 AM.
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  2. #2
    Senior Member ExceededGoku's Avatar
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    He's not going to use 1Gb of ram, you could get the 2 x 256 version everything else looks fine though

  3. #3
    A shadowy flight. MSIC's Avatar
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    • MSIC's system
      • Motherboard:
      • ASRock H170M-ITX
      • CPU:
      • Core i5 6500
      • Memory:
      • 2 x 4GB Corsair Veng DDR4 2666
      • Storage:
      • 240GB SSD (boot) +1TB Samsung F3
      • Graphics card(s):
      • ASUS GeForce 750Ti
      • PSU:
      • Silverstone 450W ST455F
      • Case:
      • Silverstone SG06-450
      • Operating System:
      • Win10
      • Monitor(s):
      • Dell S2309W
      • Internet:
      • PlusNet FiberTTC
    Was considering that, and i'd largely agree - just didnt want to be ultra barebones and feel like i was ripping him off at all, given a £20 difference.
    I'm commenting on an internet forum. Your facts hold no sway over me.
    - Another poster, from another forum.

    System as shown, plus: Microsoft Wireless mobile 4000 mouse and Logitech Illuminated keyboard.
    Sennheiser RS160 wireless headphones. Creative Gigaworks T40 SII. My wife.
    My Hexus Trust

  4. #4
    Treasure Hunter extraordinaire herulach's Avatar
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    Buy a dell, seriously. Kids +Old people dont make for a smooth running computer, and when its gets chock full of crapware in about a months time guess who gets rung to fix it? I never build machines for family/friends that are close enough to come off as a knob when you wont fix something theyve broken. Because everytime it goes, your on the phone.

  5. #5
    root Member DanceswithUnix's Avatar
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    I just tried ordering the silver version of the 4550A DVD writer at work, and in the couple of days it took for the paperwork to move around the office the drive obsoleted!

    Just warning you that if for some reason you have your heart set on that drive you might have to move fast.

  6. #6
    A shadowy flight. MSIC's Avatar
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    • MSIC's system
      • Motherboard:
      • ASRock H170M-ITX
      • CPU:
      • Core i5 6500
      • Memory:
      • 2 x 4GB Corsair Veng DDR4 2666
      • Storage:
      • 240GB SSD (boot) +1TB Samsung F3
      • Graphics card(s):
      • ASUS GeForce 750Ti
      • PSU:
      • Silverstone 450W ST455F
      • Case:
      • Silverstone SG06-450
      • Operating System:
      • Win10
      • Monitor(s):
      • Dell S2309W
      • Internet:
      • PlusNet FiberTTC
    Thanks herulach, you do make a good point, but i have 2 objectives - 1) to get this guy a new PC and 2) to offload my old bits without having to go through the hassle of ebay etc (and risk things getting damaged etc).
    It's a toss up between potential hassle of building, vs potential hassle of selling....
    I'm commenting on an internet forum. Your facts hold no sway over me.
    - Another poster, from another forum.

    System as shown, plus: Microsoft Wireless mobile 4000 mouse and Logitech Illuminated keyboard.
    Sennheiser RS160 wireless headphones. Creative Gigaworks T40 SII. My wife.
    My Hexus Trust

  7. #7
    root Member DanceswithUnix's Avatar
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    • DanceswithUnix's system
      • Motherboard:
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    Quote Originally Posted by herulach
    Because everytime it goes, your on the phone.
    I find I'm on the phone anyway
    At least if I built it I know something about it.

  8. #8
    Yeah dude! NightshadowUK's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by herulach
    Buy a dell, seriously. Kids +Old people dont make for a smooth running computer, and when its gets chock full of crapware in about a months time guess who gets rung to fix it? I never build machines for family/friends that are close enough to come off as a knob when you wont fix something theyve broken. Because everytime it goes, your on the phone.
    W3rd, there really isn't anything more annoying than spending more time with a computer that was perfectly fine when it left your hands.

    That said if you get to offload old parts, it'll be worth it.

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