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Tom's Hardware > Forum > Systems > New Build > [Solved] New PC Build: Basic Core I3, Advice Needed

[Solved] New PC Build: Basic Core I3, Advice Needed

Forum Systems : New Build [Solved] New PC Build: Basic Core I3, Advice Needed

Best answer from danraies.

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I'm building a new machine for an old lady who stays in a retirement village.
I offered her a choice between a Pentium D E5700 or a Core I3 2100. She chose the latter.

I sincerely doubt she'll be gaming with it, so I kept it as basic as possible to keep costs down:

CPU: Core I3 2100
Mobo: Gigabyte H61M-USB3
Ram: 2GB Apacer DDR3 1333
HDD: 1TB Western Digital Caviar Green SATA 3 5900RPM
DVD: LG 24x DVD-Writer GH24-NS70
Case: Cooler Master Elite 343
PSU: AOpen 350 Watt (Will this be enough?) :??:

The machine will run on onboard VGA and Windows XP.

So my questions are:

1.Will the AOPEN 350watt be enough to power this system?
2. The motherboard has 2x USB 3.0 ports, can you plug USB2.0 devices into those ports?
3. This machine can still run Windows XP right?

I bought this assuming the answer would be yes to all of the above, but I just want to be
100% certain. I'm only getting the parts in a week's time, so it's not too late to change my
order.

Any advice or suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks. :)

Reply to Totempole
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Best answer

1) 350W is enough power with no discrete card, for sure. I've never heard of AOPEN and brand does matter for PSU's, but with that much headroom you probably don't need anything top of the line.
2) Yup, USB is backwards compatible.
3) Yes.

It all looks good on a budget build.

Reply to danraies

Thanks for the info.

Aopen make fairly solid PSU's, I've got a 750-watt in my PC at the moment.

I would say they're on par with Cooler Master or Gigabyte, but nowhere near
the level of Corsair.

Reply to Totempole
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