My girlfriend's brother is probably going to buy this £600 supermarket PC unless I can build something better for a similar price. It'll be used for Internet, email, Office and occasional gaming and must run Vista Home Premium and have a 19" monitor. LN17167 Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium 32Bit 1Pk OEM (DVD) £67.49 LN11461 250 Gb Samsung SP2504C SpinPoint P120, SATA300, 7200 rpm, 8MB Cache, 9.0 ms, NCQ £46.68 LN15047 Intel Core 2 Duo E6300, Socket 775, 1.86 GHz, 1066MHz FSB, Allendale Core, 2MB Cache, Retail £118.73 LN17453 19" ACE Black LCD, 1440x900, 8 ms, 700:1, 300 cd/m2, Speakers £126.30 LN16564 LiteOn DW1670-488C Black 16x DVD±RW x12 Ram Dual Layer DVD-Writer OEM £18.19 LN15258 Gigabyte GA 965P-S3 iP965, S775, PCI-E (x16), DDR2 533/667/800, SATA II, SATA RAID, ATX £65.91 LN10408 1GB (2x512MB) CorsairTwinX XMS2, DDR2 PC2-6400 (800), 240 Pins, Non-ECC Unbuffered, CAS 5-5-5-15 £78.30 Geil® Value DDR2 1.0GB PC6400 Dual Channel Kit (2 x 512mb) 800MHz (5-5-5-15) £58.75 LN14797 256Mb XFX 7600GS, PCI-E (x16), Mem 700MHz, GPU 400MHz, 12 Pipes, Dual DVI-I/HDTV £62.26 Total £597.66 inc delivery @ £11.74 I'm missing a case & PSU, but I'm not really sure what wattage to get. Can someone suggest a case & PSU and/or make any other suggestions/improvements? Assume he's already got a keyboard and mouse. I would of gone for PC8500 RAM, but that would blow the budget (£600 +/- £50). I am making a big mistake with PC6400 stuff?
Get slower ram as your not OC'ing also get Geil brand as they are cheaper but just as stable. In terms of getting case and psu is completely up to personal choice. I do kno that Antec have a P-series case that comes with a Psu which would be enough for that rig, other than that just make sure you choose a good psu as its an important bit of kit.
It was the cheapest 512x2 stuff Scan had. How about Geil® Value DDR2 1.0GB PC6400 Dual Channel Kit (2 x 512mb) 800MHz (5-5-5-15) @ £58.75? Trying to find a case & psu on MD, but their search tool is just timing out
listen to this important bit of advice...get slower, but higher quality ram. also, i hope you are comfortable with your friendship, because when you buy oem parts, he is going to look to you if the part breaks and there is no manufacturer warranty. if you cant get retial in at budget, i would let him buy the other one. not worth him getting pissed at you if the part breaks in 4 months just so you can build him a pc. and bbq's advice on power supplies is like donald trump telling you to buy real estate...
lol...ive learned the hard way...a buddy wanted a cheap rig...so i went oem...mobo went bad but he didnt know enough about it...told me too late...we dont talk much...go retail or go to walmart....lol
Only Vista and the dvd burner are oem, everything else* has a 24/36 months warranty. I'll explain to him what is involved with buying individual components online and that he's responsible for the financial cost of replacing any hardware and let him make the choice. After all, he's gone out of his way enough times for us and I already provide tech support for his current desktop and laptop. * - There's no info on the monitor, I'm waiting to here back from Scan about this. Care to suggest an alternative? How about 460W SilverStone Strider? Edit - Retail intel processors still come with a hsf, right?
yes, they do...but some companies here in the states will honor a retail full warranty on oem intel cpu's if you buy a cpu fan at the same time...if they do that there, you might look at that...but if he isn't going to oc, prolly no need. when i said bbq advice on psu's being like donald trump on real estate, that was a compliment...he knows his stuff...i didnt mean to seem like i thought it was bad advice...wasnt sure if you were an american or not...
No oc'ing here so I'll keep things simple and stick with a retail cpu I googled his name and though he was a con man or something (sry, Bbq!) Edit - Do retail TFTs always come with a the video cable?
its a mixed bag...some come with a cable for the analog connector, even though they have a dvi-port...check it carefully...
I feel so loved. The Silverstone Strider 460 should be good. But, it's a pre-order item. The most important thing when building for a friend, is to buy everything Retail, keep all the documentation with the machine (a folder taped on the inside of the right sidepanel works very well), and you should be set.
