Yet another "I need a PC" help thread.

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weelzSA

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I know it has been asked countless times already but here goes.

My parents asked me to get them a new PC. At first they wanted one of those All-In-One touch screen PC's but I have kind of changed there mind and lean more to me building a PC for them and then purchasing a 24 - 27 inch monitor.

So what would you recommend? They don't need anything spectacular (as in they won't be wanting to play Battle Field on Hi-Res). They will mainly use it for browsing, photo viewing, music, video and the occasional gaming (they enjoy playing Sims and those types of games so will need a dedicated graphics card aswell). Looking for something that will last them a while too.

So please any recommendations will be great.
 
Hi weelzSA

What are your parents budget? Also for help on how to put together a PC and general prices on what it costs to build a PC check out the thread in my sig.
 
I would go the i3 route with something along the lines of a GTX550 (possibly either smaller or older, pay R1000 - 1500). Then get a small fast system harddrive and a slow big external/internal green drive for the rest. Mid-range mo-bo should do R500-R1000.

If you have more money to splash around, up the memory to 8gig maybe even 16... and if even more, up the CPU to a i5.

Memory in my opinion is the biggest reason a "parent" pc goes the route of the dino's, so depending on how long their definition of a while is, get cheap but a almost rediculous amount of ram. It WILL be a waste now, but not in 5-10 years.

But thats my opinion and I could be wrong and then it's a horrible tragedy...
G'Luck!
 
Yet another "I need a PC" help thread.

Hi thanks for the replies so far. The budget will be around R6k, that's excluding a monitor and I already have windows 7 ect so it's just the actual PC hardware I need. I was thinking something along the line of an i3 or i5 and 4-8 gig ram and the rest not too sure about???
 
Yet another "I need a PC" help thread.

Oh and they both have a galaxy tab and a laptop (that is busy dying) but they say they would prefer to go desktop route with a big monitor for some reason so ya.
 
So I have decided on maybe getting the Core i5 system they have for R3799 (http://www.zones.co.za/). Do you think that is a good buy, or would I be better off buying the products separately and building it myself (I have a very good knowledge of putting PC's together)? The other problem is that I live in Cape Town and can't see that Zones has a store in Cape Town.

If anyone could advise that would be great.

Thanks.
 
So after looking through Esquire Price list, I have come up with this configuration:

Foxconn H61MXL-Intel H61 Chipset • LGA 1155 - R399
Intel Core i5 3450 Processor - 3.10GHz 6MB Cache Socket 1155 - R1599
Kingston 4.0GB DDR3 1333MHZ X2 = 8gig - R398
Seagate Barracuda 2.0 TB-7200RPM-Serial ATA III (SATA3) Plus - Serial ATA 600 (6Gbps) With 64MB Cache - R949
LG DVD Writer 24X - R139
Microsoft Wireless Desktop 800 Keyboard and Mouse combo - R239
UniQue Midi Tower 450W PSU Black & Silver - R199

Still haven't decided on a graphics card, looking at either the Nvidia GT520 (R399), GT440 (R599), HD5450 (R579) - I think I am leaning towards the HD5450 but if you could recommend another one similar in price maybe?

What do you think of the build? Is it worth it? I know it should last them for a while but if you have any recommendations, please tell.
 
I did think that too as the new Intel 4000 graphics are quiet powerful, I just dont want it to be a case of them wanting to play some games and it not coping. Like I mentioned they play games like Sims ect (I am not sure what the new Sims system requirements are). What do you think?
 
A quick look for System Requirements specifically for the latest version of Sims:

Recommended System Requirements
* OS: Windows XP, Vista or Windows 7
* CPU: Intel Core 2 DUO @ 2.5 GHz / AMD Athlon 64 X2 5000+
* RAM: 2 GB
* HDD: 7 GB free disk space
* Graphics: 896 MB Graphics Memory
* Sound Card: DirectX 9 Compatible
* DirectX: Version 9

Supported Graphics Cards:

Minimum – nVidia GeForce FX 5900 / ATI Radeon 9500

Recommended – nVidia GeForce GTX 260 / ATI Radeon HD 4850

I'm not saying the PC will only be used for that, it was an example. They will mainly use it for light gaming, browsing, pictures, movie s ect.
 
weelzSA said:
So after looking through Esquire Price list, I have come up with this configuration:

Foxconn H61MXL-Intel H61 Chipset • LGA 1155 - R399
Intel Core i5 3450 Processor - 3.10GHz 6MB Cache Socket 1155 - R1599
Kingston 4.0GB DDR3 1333MHZ X2 = 8gig - R398
Seagate Barracuda 2.0 TB-7200RPM-Serial ATA III (SATA3) Plus - Serial ATA 600 (6Gbps) With 64MB Cache - R949
LG DVD Writer 24X - R139
Microsoft Wireless Desktop 800 Keyboard and Mouse combo - R239
UniQue Midi Tower 450W PSU Black & Silver - R199

Still haven't decided on a graphics card, looking at either the Nvidia GT520 (R399), GT440 (R599), HD5450 (R579) - I think I am leaning towards the HD5450 but if you could recommend another one similar in price maybe?

What do you think of the build? Is it worth it? I know it should last them for a while but if you have any recommendations, please tell.
Click to expand...

Do you currently have a case, as I don't see one in you build? Also stay far, far away from UniQue power supplies.
Here's a quote for what you should be looking for R6000, I've tried to list most of the components where possible from Esquire. If you can, it would be better to get a Western Digital HDD as Seagate now only have a 1 year warranty. The Motherboard I listed will be able to support Ivy Bridge processors but it will need a BIOS update.

CPU: i5 3450 @R1823 (incl VAT) From Esquire
Motherboard: ASUS P8H61-M LX @R569 (incl VAT) From Esquire
GPU: KFA GTX 560 @R1767
HDD: Seagate Barracuda 1TB @R797 (incl VAT) From Esquire
PSU: Corsair CX500 @R641
Case: Cooler Master Elite 240 @R254
Optical Drive : Asus DVD-RW 24X @R150

Total : R6001

________________________________________________
Hope this helps, if you have any questions just ask or refer to "The PC Build Thread" in my sig for further information on how to choose components/general pricing ;)
 
weelzSA said:
I did think that too as the new Intel 4000 graphics are quiet powerful
Click to expand...
When considering above take a note that none of CPU proposed have HD4000 graphics you mentioned. Unless anything changed there are only I3 3225, I5 3475S or 3570K.
Also H61 chipset do not support SATA 6Gbps. USB 3.0 is not present, you need it for faster backup. Additional cost for USB3.0 card. or wait for affordable Ivy Bridge mobos to come.
 
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Here's what I'd build:

Intel Core i3-2120 @ R1209
GIGABYTE B75M-D3H @ R822
Transcend JetRAM DDR3-1333 4GB @ R210
MSI Radeon HD6770 1GB DDR5 @ R1156
Seagate Barracuda 1TB @ R917
LG GH24NS90 @ R162
Cooler Master GX400w @ R499
Cooler Master Elite 311 @ R321
Vantec UGT-CR905 @ R84
Logitech Wireless Combo MK260 @ R283
Samsung S23B370H @ R2122

Total: R7603

A PC for the parents doesn't need to be expensive, really. That should be enough for them, their media and their games for a good few years. If SSDs weren't so daftly expensive I would have put one of those in rather, but this should be perfectly fine.
 
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