building system for a workmate

[duthoy]

right,
i'm building a computer for a workmate of mine,
Situation:
- he does a little bit of surfing,
- has 2 kids (6-7 Years old and 2 years old )
- i expect, the oldest kid s going to play runescape :roll: in a few years.
- so this should be a future proof system.
- has a digital photocamera, and takes pictures, no photo editing at this time.
- does office stuff.

this is what i have at the moment:

CPU AMD AM2 Athlon64 X2 3800+ Dual Core Box € 86.00
MOBO Gigabyte AM2 M55S-S3 S5 nVidia550 ATX PCI-E € 82.00
RAM DD2/800Mhz. (1 GB) €100.00
HD SEAGATE 320Gb S-ATA300 7200RPM 16MB €86.00
video XFX GEFORCE PCI-E 8500GT 256Mb 450Mhz €96.50
Sound onboard
drives 1 x DVD-RW €35.00
PSU Techsolo ATX 550W Big Fan Tech Solo Black €60.00
Case Coolermaster Centurion 5 Black €45.00

i can only buy over here:

http://www.geckocomputers.be/?p=shop

so, what do you think?

 

[jeff_2087]

Skip the 8500, I haven't researched it fully but it seems like a waste of money. If Runescape is actually the only game that's going to be played on it you could just use integrated graphics anyway. Unless they've majorly redone the graphics engine of Runescape since the last time I saw it, pretty much any system can play it. Heck, my grandmother's hearing aid could play Runescape.

Regardless if you want decent cheap graphics look at the 7600GT or 7300. Otherwise stick with integrated, I'd say. 690G chipset boards are good integrated graphics boards for AM2.

edit: Nevermind. I just looked at the prices of graphics cards on that site and maybe it's different over in Europe but omg most of them are weirdly priced and expensive. The 8500 is actually okay value compared to a lot of them. So it'll be fine if you want a graphics card but to play Runescape and do daily tasks integrated graphics could save you the money.

 

[g-paw]

I'd get a smaller hdd for the OS and programs and use the 320 for storage, if necessary you could go with a 250GB for the storage given it doesn't appear he'll be saving a lot of video. Having lived with too many kids I'd advise he either give them the old machine and get router and wireless card or get a really cheap machine for the kids, $300 or try to find a cheap used machine. Kids are not only malware magnets, and they will get on the Net, just wreak havoc on computers. It's not that they are inherently bad, it's just that they are kids.

 

[Kukunga]

Unless they've majorly redone the graphics engine of Runescape since the last time I saw it, pretty much any system can play it. Heck, my grandmother's hearing aid could play Runescape.

This is true. I believe some simple TI calculators could run this game 4x over. No worries on any graphics, but if the child is at all interested in computers/technology and you want it future proof, a video card will certainly come into play soon, if not sooner than that =X I am an ex-World of Warcrafter myself and couldn't believe the ages of some of the kids playing that game. Nine years old...wow, I didn't have a computer @ 9 (I'm 23). 8O