I am going to be building a new computer for my girlfriend. She is going to primarily use it for Excel, Word, Quickbooks and watching movies as well as general internet use. She is not really a gamer, but it is possible she may play a game or 2 here and there.
Also, I want to try to keep her costs around the 700 to 800 range or less if possible. We're going to pick up mouse, keyboard and monitor locally.
Any and all recommendations are greatly appreciated. She has her own unique style and wants a unique looking computer.
1. Case: She is thinking of this case http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6811144152 Thoughts? 2. CPU- Which do you recommend?
3. Motherboard ?
4. RAM- 1 GB or 2GB?
5. GPU?
6. HD-Probably Western Digital
7. DVD Drive-Plextor or Sony
8. Power Supply- Tier 1 or 2. Preferably Modular like Corsair or Seasonic. 400 to 500 watts?
9. OS- Vista Home Premium
1. Case: That one
2. Athlon X2 2.2GHz (dual core)
3. Motherboard: 780G (with integrated GPU)
4. RAM: 2GB DDR2 800 (for good measure)
5. GPU: The mobo's integrate GPU is brand new and supposedly can play 1080p video. 6. HD: 400GB Western Digital (prob overkill)
7. DVD-RW: Sony Nec
8. Power Supply: 400W Seasonic (calculated that you need only 200W)
9. OS: Vista Home Premium +flash card reader
+fanless (silent) heatsink (lightest on newegg)
Personally, I think this is more than she needs, but it's about $90 below budget
Can Not's list is what I was going to suggest (mostly).
1.)Consider a MicroATX case, this one possibly:
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applica [...] u=ULT33116 2.)If you want super low power, consider the soon to be released X2 4850e for around $90.
3.) Agree completely
4.) $35 dollar DDR2 from a good brand like this:
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applica [...] u=C13-2022 5.) Agree Completely
6.) I personally think 250 is enough, but your choice. I second the brand
7.) Consider the Lite-on, they have always worked for me
8.) would be included with case I suggested
9.)Agree
Just use stock cooler if you use my CPU.
Wow, for what you've explained, I wouldn't even consider newer equipment.
Here's what I would do, and I know she would love it; HUGE SCREEN
Spend the money on the monitor and then build from there.
Nothing is dumber than having a huge powerful gpu and a small screen to show it off. Besides, most women want knee jerk visual appeal (as her case selection has shown) so go with a weak x2 cpu, and build the system for silence.
Integrated gpu motherboard would be recommended or a cheap 8xxx card. If vista, definatly 2GB, if xp, 1GB, for the HD I'd skimp out with a 250GB 7200.10 Seagate and when she needs more, go with an external drive for backups and extra storage.
Power Supply should be either an FSP, Seasonic, or Antec in the 350-400w range. High quality brand, never cheap out here but never buy too much wattage or it's a waste.
With all that said, here's something I put together from newegg:
https://secure.newegg.com/NewVersio [...] ID=7575472
maybe the phenom based 3 cores should be out soon, those should be cheap as they are quads with 1 bad core disabled.
as many are uATX and you are using OBG, maybe with a half height 3450 for hybrid crossfire (not needed for her probably, I hear the OBG OCs to about 900 mh up from 500 pretty easy)
you can get a very small case. look at HTPC cases.
why such a highend PSU? with a low power PSU and OBG, the 200watss is a high estimate. PSUs work less efficiently the more they are over rated. the MoBo and CPU are under $200 total, some case PSU are actualy pretty good, and in the very rare occurance that your whole system is fried by a sparkly PSU failure, you're not realy out that much. Even the good PSUs can fail too. I had to send back my PC P&C, but at least they were very good about it.
2GB min, remember Vista uses lots of memory and OGB uses some too.
why a monitor, use a LCD TV with HDMI input, you mentioned watching movies on it.
maybe a wireless keyboard and mouse too. surf while reclining.
The list I came up with is $840 but that includes the price of a silver Acer 24" LCD that has 1920x1200 resolution. Trust me, they SO don't care about the internals. If it looks good, and does what you said she cares about... then go for the big screen and cheap out on the ram and processor and motherboard and hard drive and get a quiet dvd burner and PSU. That's how to treat her right.
I would not pick that case for several reasons:
1) It has a front door. This makes it fussy to get dvd'd in and out.
2) It is high on "bling" but the lights will be annoying.
I would think normally of a nice micro-atx case. However I came across this deal on a Antec Sonata Designer 500:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6811129036 It is only $89.99 after rebate, and it includes a very good Earthwatts 500w psu. The white color is stunning. I built one with the similar predecessor case and loved it.
The front dvd doors are stealthed.
It is very quiet with insulated panels.
For vista, I would suggest 2gb at a minimum. If you can get a 4gb kit for not much more, then so much better.
For a dvd burner, I can recommend the Samsung SH-203B for $29.99 : http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6827151153 It is virtually silent. My old Plextor was very noisy, particularly at start up. Cost much more too.
Consider adding a TV tuner card. The media center application is really great. It gives you a PVR capability.
