So my Mum has finally decided that her 8 year old Hewett Packard is slightly past its prime, and is willing to fork out for a new one. She had her mind set on a Dell but I convinced I could build a similar speced desktop for a better price. I have experience building gaming rigs, but the requirements for this build are quite different so suggestions would be welcomed. The budget is <£500. The most important aim is silent running so perhaps a soundproof case or ultra quiet fans. Small unimposing cases are preferred, so no Antac 1200s please Gaming is a no-no and I doubt she will be doing anything more taxing than the standard desktop use, word processing, emails, music playing, perhaps a movie or two, and some photo editing. However I hesitate to go for the most basic hardware as I would like some degree of 'Future proofing' Monitor and speakers are not required. But a new keyboard is. I've had a look around various sites and products touting reduced PC noise etc, but I'm finding it difficult to judge what is really effective. I welcome any suggestions
Try the Bit-tech Builders guide and check out the budget option. If she doesnt game then maybe try a passive Sapphire 5550 ( or something!) and house it in a good old Coolermaster elite 330 with maybe a few low noise fans?
I'm just going to repeat what I said in another thread. Future proofing = an AMD build atm. Low noise = Gelid Tranquillo & Fractal R2.
Hey mate, If you want the PC to be quiet then go for a Fractal Design R2. Please have a look at this to start off. http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/buyers-guide/2010/08/09/pc-hardware-buyer-s-guide-august-2010/2 If you don't like AMD then you can look at i3 processors with a mobo that has inbuilt graphics.
I'm really sick of the constant misguided idea that I see on the forums that an AMD system is "futureproofed" because of the fact you can drop in obsolete processors which are 2% faster than the obsolete processor that you had in there in the first place. If you want a system that will hold up well in the future, you would obviously buy an Intel as they are a league ahead of AMD.
If she really wont ever be doing any gaming you could save a bit by getting a GT240 or similar. You could even go on board if need be but I always think discrete is better. EDIT: If you need windows then it's a completely different build but if not, that should be smashing.
Hah. While of course you are correct, AMDs sockets at least offer some degree of future proofing over intel which changes like the wind.
Ok well thanks for the swift replies. Ill get onto checking out what has been suggested so far. With regards to the AMD vs Intel choice that's something i'm gonna have to do a bit more research on as I currently know very little about what CPUs AMD are offering atm. I had a look at the August buyers guide but I got the impression a lot of the components for the affordable all rounder were still above these requirements. I'm liking the Fractal case which was suggested.
How do they offer future proofing? The only reason AMD have NOT changed sockets is because they haven't moved forward with new architectures. Thats the ONLY reason. Intel have moved forward aggressively in that regard and as a result new sockets were needed. I don't like changing mobo because of socket changes but I prefer that over having a slower system.
The AMD Proc in the Affordable all rounder should easily be able to handle the kind of work that PC is doing, so I don't think there is any real need to go the i3 route unless the comp is gonna be used as a light gaming workstation. If the OP wants to go intel I think Bit-tech's recommendation of a Pentium G6950 is prob the next best bet, but is more expensive unfortunately. As far as quiet cooling goes, the Gelid Tranquilo offers great cooling and is quiet. The Fractal is an awesome case but im not sure the OP can fit an £80 case into the <400 budget.
Please put the handbag down. You aren't telling me anything I don't already know. Some perspective: Look at the budget. Look at what the needs of this person are. Look at where it fits in the buyers guide. (At least my case has straight sides)
Or you could keep that build, drop the apparently absolutely useless graphic card (why is it there anyway?) and buy the Windows with the money saved. On the AMD-side of things you'd be looking Athlon X2-X4 and a board with integrated graphics and quite likely USB 3 and S-ATA 3. For the described use it makes no difference which brand she's using and if the old PC has served her eight years, could just PLEASE STOP GOING OFF TOPIC ABOUT SOME NERD STUFF THAT NORMAL PEOPLE JUST DON'T CARE?!
Yeah but the buyers guide has a £160 graphics card in it. I raised this in a thread the other day, the buyers guide is completely useless (well, not useless but when it comes to the main bits it is) for people who aren't interested in/do little gaming so referring to it when discussing a build that needs next to no graphics is pointless.
It's there because it will cope well with what's required and offer light gaming... Which is more than has been asked for. Also, it's Tom's Hardware's reccomendation for the money. Unless you mean drop the GPU and go for onboard and use the money for windows, which I do agree with to a point but as I said, I'd always prefer discrete.
You may well be correct but could you please not try to force your opinion on others so agressively. What do you think of the upcoming 1155 socket which is replacing the 1156?
Its a guide, not a rule book - you can be a bit creative. Take out the GFX card then and spend more on making it silent.
if its just a general PC for yua mum you dont need to spend over £400 really. a cheap AM3 build with a athlon 240 and 2GB/4GB of RAm + 785G or 880G board will do add in a nice case if you need it change the stock cooler if you must but wont make much difference i dont think as its not gunna be doing any hard work ever.
Oh I understand that, but freeing up money on the GPU allows for essentially a completely different system. Whilst that AMD chip will do what's required spending £500 on a PC that doesn't need much of a GPU shouldn't really include that cpu. As Adam said, really you could spend a lot less than £500 and it would be fine.
