Help with a spec?

ChristopherP

ChristopherP

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So a family friend wants me to build a computer system for her dad...

I have ordered a case with a 460w PSU, a 19" widescreen TFT and a floppy drive with card reader.

The dad is obviously relatively elderly so will not be playing games and just needs the system for general internet browsing, emails, and watching DVD's...

Could anyone help me with speccing up safe good quality system that doesn't cost the earth? Its been a long time since i have done a budget system and things have changed!!

I'm really looking for a motherboard/CPU/RAM combination and will chuck a cheap but alright graphics card in it.

I was going to put VISTA on it so it is relatively futureproof.

Any help appreciated

Chris :thumb:
 
No idea. late 60's? 70's? Father of the family friend who herself is in her 40's.

What i meant by that is that he isn't a hardcore gamer :nod:

Just looking for a sound setup thats going to run windows and internet quickly :)
 
Why not go for a bundle like HERE
And then buy what extra you need to make it up to the right spec you think will work.
 
Excellent - may well do that :) Thanks

I already have the case, PSU and card reader floppy as well as monitor on order so it wouldnt be too much more.

Oh and a cool bladerunner micro mosquito RC helicopter i found on Aria.co.uk for a tenner hehe
 
christopherpostill said:
Oh and a cool bladerunner micro mosquito RC helicopter i found on Aria.co.uk for a tenner hehe
Click to expand...
Is that for you or the new pc owner!
 
I bought a core system a month or two ago that only cost about £150.00 from Overclockers, was upgrading a machine.

Core components I bought for upgrade were:

Asus M2V Motherboard
Athlon 64 3200 CPU 2Ghz (single core)
1Gb (2 x 512Mb) Kingston PC6400 DDR2 memory
Asus Nvidia 512Mb 7300GS Video card

All that lot came to around £150.00 which I thought was a bit good :)

Only problem I've had with it is that PC LinuxOS 2007 didn't recognise the motherboard's built in LAN and sound card. But Asus did actually supply Linux drivers on the motherboard CD, which I was quite impressed with.

And interestingly, the video card was advertised on OCUK as having 256Mb RAM but actually came with 512MB, which was a nice surprise.

It's a good stable system :)
 
That's not bad at all for £150 Flops, a very solid system there - something like that would be the sort of thing that would do for Chris, but perhaps with a lower graphics card as there's no need for gaming.

It's amazing how cheap a decent system is these days! :)
 
OK

Asus M2V, Athlon 4200+, 2Gb PC2-6400, X800 GT PCI-E

Should i get Vista Home Premium X64 for this machine? or the 32bit one?

Will be used for movies and internet surfing.
 
Cool

For £291 i managed to source:

Asus M2V AM2 Motherboard
Black and silver MIDI tower case with 460w PSU
Athlon AM2 Dual Core 4200+
2Gb Elixir PC2-6400 Memory
Seagate Barracuda 80Gb 8mb SATA-II HDD
Liteon 20x DVD-RW
Mitsumi Black FDD + Card Reader
ATI Radeon X800 GT AIW PCI-E
Rounded FDD Cable
Rounded IDE Cable

So that lot = £291 inc VAT

+

19" Widescreen Hanspree TFT DVI = £102.17
Vista OEM Home Premium = £70.00
Piano Black 2.1 Speaker system = £24.66

So thats what... £487 all in? Doesnt seem too bad.
 
Did you go for Vista 32 bit or 64 bit?

I ask because I was wondering that myself for when I buy Vista for the machine I referred to in an earlier post.

I would assume I may as well go for 64 Bit, but not really sure.
 
I havent ordered yet, will probably go for 64bit as i know that it should be fine for what they need.

At the moment we are having the "But we can get one cheaper from Dell" arguemnt. Well yes you can, and its a grand total of £13 less and you get 512Mb Ram as opposed to the 2Gb im getting you, Home Premium in mine as opposed to Basic with Dell and the CPU isn't as good.

Gah.
 
christopherpostill said:
At the moment we are having the "But we can get one cheaper from Dell" arguemnt. Well yes you can, and its a grand total of £13 less and you get 512Mb Ram as opposed to the 2Gb im getting you, Home Premium in mine as opposed to Basic with Dell and the CPU isn't as good.

Gah.
Click to expand...

You have my permission to smack them about the head with a decomposing trout until they see sense.

People, sometimes, are pillocks..... :rolleyes:
 
Sounds like a top system there Chris for the money your spending and the components they are getting...

Hold the trout and make that a rotting Kipper......:D
 
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