Been a while since I was last here! A friend of mine has asked me to help him build a new computer. He only uses it for surfing and word processing, he just wants something nippy and efficient. Here are my rough initial thoughts: MSI A78M-E35 Micro-ATX (£40) AMD A8 5600K (£65) Crucial Ballistix 4GB (£35) Samsung 840 EVO 250GB (£90) Corsair CX430 (£30) Some Micro-ATX case (£50) Windows 8 (£80) Total: £390 I know there's lots of talk about 840 EVOs slowing down almost immediately, hopefully the upcoming patch will sort that. Is it worth getting something else instead? Might also stick an HDD in there if he thinks he'll need the space. Perhaps even downgrade to a 120GB SSD to offset that cost. (120GB 840 EVO + 1TB WD Caviar Blue for about £95). Any thoughts? Any glaring mistakes or omissions? Thoughts on cases? Preferably something subtle and understated. No windows or flashing lights. Thanks in advance for your advice.
Generally seems okay, is the budget waht he wants to spend or a maximum though? If there's definitely no gaming, then you could probably cut back a bit on the CPU/Motherboard combo, depending on how 'spritely' he requires. Definitely the SSD/HDD pairing would increase the feel of speed and offset any memory/CPU limitations for most programmes. You could probably get a simple case for less than the £50 if you want to increase memory or get the SSD you suggested. I don't think he will be unhappy at what you have there though, and I assume he already has a monitor/keyboard/mouse?
Yes he has the peripherals already. Definitely no gaming, though I'll make sure he's sure about that. What would you recommend instead of that CPU/Motherboard pair? The price is roughly what he wants to spend, though not a set limit. He might spend more if required but I can't see what more needs to be spent. I'd be happy to spend less than £50 on a case, just stuck £50 for now without looking into it to make sure it's budgeted in enough. Ideally want something good enough to have USB3 ports on the front and not too ugly!
I stuck in the suggestion of lesser CPU/motherboard in case it was a max spend budget - if it's an 'around' budget then it seems okay to me. I haven't checked prices, but I notice it's a K series, are you going to tweak it after build? Although IIRC the K series are not that much more expensive than normal APUs. I also don't know how AMD boxed coolers are for noise these days, so my only other suggestion would be if they are a bit on the noisey side, you could budget for a quiet cooler.
Good point about the fan, I'll probably build it and see how it feels. I doubt it'll ever be particularly stressed so unless it's terrible it should probably be OK. Wouldn't bother to tweak it, just building something that will still be reasonable spec in a few years for normal use. I suppose I could go for the normal one, if I'm honest I didn't even think about the K, was just throwing together some rough ideas for a price point. I suppose even the 5400K would be good enough, and about half the price too.
I'd recommend the Coolermaster N200 for the case, it's around the £30 mark. I've built a couple of PCs in it and found it much better than the competition at that price point. 2x 120mm fans are included and there's room for another 3 I think.
One way to go would be to drop to the 5400K (or maybe the K series Pentium) and get a mini itx motherboard and use the cooler master Elite 120. Make a nice compact web surfer and it has a usb 3 port on the front. I'd also drop down to a crucial MX100 256gb SSD, £15 cheaper and you'll never notice the difference in the real world.
The N200 isn't too unattractive, will definitely consider that. Any suggestions for a mini-ATX motherboard? The 5400k is definitely worth considering, will suggest it to him. And I'd noticed the MX was a little cheaper, only real difference I can see is slightly slower writing times, not enough of a drop to be an issue. Certainly worth considering! Any known complaints with the MX? The Elite 120 is hideous in my opinion, slightly less offensive in black. Personal preference though, and not my PC so I'll keep it in mind, thanks.
We have the black one which is for my daughters portable pc and personally I find it quite plain and un-offensive but as you say its personal choice.. I only linked to the white one as its cheaper. Lovely and small though
