So for Christmas I am planning on building my parents a decent PC as they have never really had anything but hand me down laptops. They only really use the PC for internet, MS Office, and some small personal programs they may need. I am looking to build them something fast but for as cheap as possible. I put my budget at $600 but can go over if necessary. I want to start off with an i3-2100 using the graphics that comes with this CPU as they really don't need anything "great" The 3.1GHz stock speed would be more then enough for them. The only thing I am unsure about here is just how good these graphics would be? Is Youtube and viewing photos going to come in clear or will it look like a bunch of pixels? Note they do not do photo or video editing. To follow the CPU choice, I want an SSD. The SSD is going to be the only drive for this PC. I estimate they will not need anything bigger then 130GB as all the photos and movies they may have can be stored on an external HD. I do however want a Sata 3 SSD. This choice is where I need the most help. I personally have never had the need for an SSD so I have never looked into them much. I am looking for one that will be the most reliable as it is going to be the only drive in this PC. For MoBo I will most likely going with Asus or MSI and something in the $100 range. For RAM I am unsure if I should go with 4gb or 8gb. Everyone seems to say 8gb is the new 4gb. Also will the RAM speed and size really make a difference for what they are doing? For Case and PSU I am really open to peoples opinions here. I just need something that can hold the MoBo(probably going to be a micro ATX) and SSD. Would like it to be quiet though. Just planning on using the stock heatsink that comes with the CPU and possibly 1 exhaust fan. I don't believe I will need anything bigger then a 400W PSU or maybe a 500W if a video card gets added later. Like I said, really open to opinions on this. Windows 7 home 64-bit. I know it looks like I am asking others to build this for me but I am just looking for some help with the questions I had mostly on the CPU and mainly the SSD. I give many thanks to any advice and opinions people have to offer. Thank you.
I'd say just run it off a clean, efficient 500GB HDD, four GIg of ram, Because Eight is overkill for simple Youtube the odd Office Document, and a 300 watt PSU from one of the many reliable makes. A small, low-profile case with effective cooling should so it. The i3's integrated GPU is usually enough for Youtube and the like, although it might stutter a touch on 1080p video. I've got a strange urge to suggest a P180 mini from Antec, but that's just me. EDIT: Just as an example, and rough idea, I threw together this: https://secure.scan.co.uk/aspnet/Shop/SavedBasket/Show.aspx?id=21dfc70e6e524a719e0ce883cd5ca05b
I agree with you on the PSU, 400w might be a little much for what i'm looking for. I do however want to get the SSD. Ran across this newegg deal http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129065 Antec 300 and a 430w PSU for $60. Though I believe it doesn't have a slot for an SSD
Here is what i would suggest (prices from scan.co.uk because thats where i shop, also free delivery if you have 20 posts on bit-tech!) CPU: Intel Pentium G620 - Dont let the Pentium name fool you, this is a dualcore Sandy Bridge chip just without the i3 markings, at 2.6Ghz so not that much slower than a 2100. £64.61 Board: Get the cheapest H61 board you can. The Asus P8H61-M is a bargain at £46.33 RAM: 4GB of DDR3 1333. Whatever is on offer from a reputable company. The Corsair is currently the cheapest at scan, 4GB for just £18.48! PSU: I would go for the Corsair 430CX. Its highly recommended for budget builds like this one, cheaper ones are usually less efficient or prone to fiery deaths. Just £35.32 Optical drive: Any DVDRW drive. It really doesnt make any difference. Samsung have the cheapest writer on scan, so i linked that one. £13.86 Storage: Now you said you want to just have an SSD in there, but to be honest, i dont see the point. Yes windows and office will load quicker, but at the end of the day you are paying a huge premium for that, and it just doesnt match the rest of the system. I suggest a HDD instead. The Samsung F3 500GB (single platter i believe) costs just £30.95, which is about £100 less than a 120GB SSD would set you back. Think its worth having to wait a few more seconds loading MS office for that price. SSD's are great, dont get me wrong but they arent really needed for all systems, and your parents just wouldnt get much of a benefit out of it for the price increase. Case: down to preference. I would suggest not spending more than £30 unless the appearence is important to them. OS: Win7 home premium, as requested. £75.68 I presume you dont need monitor, keyboard, mouse or speakers as you didnt mention them. Overall, this build comes to a very low £315.23.
I think the SSD is a good idea, as it does make the computer feel a lot more responsive, however I don't see why it needs to be the only drive. I'd go with a 64GB Crucial M4 (£74.87) which will easily hold the OS and all their programs, then add in a 1TB Samsung Spinpoint F3 HDD. I know 1TB is overkill but the drive regularly goes for £35.99 on scan, only £5 more than the 500GB version. The total cost of those two drives (£110.86) will still be less than the cost of one 128GB SSD (£133.75 for the 128GB Crucial M4) and you'll have plenty of storage.
An SSD is a computer that is only going online and doing the odd office document? It's your money, I guess, but there aren't going to be any tangible benefits.
I think there much more benefit for that kind of use than gaming machines. Want to check the weather quickly? Flick it on and 20 seconds later your there. With a hard drive its turn it on and then go make a cup of tea or sitting there for 2 minutes waiting. Gaming machine are generally used very regularly so sleep mode solves the startup speed while game installs are so big that putting them on a SSD is very expensive.
I don't mean to sound like a jerkface, but speaking from experience with my parents, they're not going to be sitting at their computers with a stopwatch, seeing how long things take to load. They're more patient than we are, I promise. They are so patient, in fact, that they will wait 10 minutes to tune into their local weather on the 8s. Besides, being that everything on the internet will be running from RAM and the web experience, overall, will be determined by their internet connection, the hard drive (or in this case, SSD) won't be accessed 99.9% of the time. Like I said, though, it's his money. If it were my money, I wouldn't bother.
i3 will rip through YouTube. SSD isn't really worth it, unless you just get a 64gb and nothing else, bit its much better spent than on RAM or CPU
If you're worried about startup time just put the computer to sleep/hibernate when not in use, will be ready to use faster than a full boot up. SSD's are nice, but won't make much difference to start up time - and it's a pain the arse to tell them to stop downloading things onto the C:/ drive when it keeps filling up! If you do want to by an SSD, yes it will be a bit snappier. It's will be quieter and won't produce as much heat as an HDD, which may be an advantage if you want a small box sat in the corner not making any noise.
They have always been using computers that take 5 mins to do anything. I know what I am building even with an HDD will be a giant improvement but I want something that will be all around really fast. I might just get a small SSD for windows only and through in like a samsung f3
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HD-235-SE&groupid=701&catid=14&subcat=1894 I've actually hard good things about this kind of drive. Simpler than confusing them with a two drive setup or limiting them with to a single 60GB SSD but then again for that price you could have proper SSD.
