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Build for Office and a few mild games

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My wife works at home using Office. Her current machine is a core2 4400 @ 2Ghz with 2g RAM. We are interested in upgrading the box only. At the moment, I'm considering an i3-2100 with 4g ram. I'm hoping the on board graphics will suffice enough for her games. If not, we can pull the NVidia 8400GS from the old box.

I'm not sure about which mobo to choose. An H67 for price or up it to a Z68. In either case, will I need cooling or will the included Intel fan be sufficient (no OC)?

Obviously, she has wireless keyboard & mouse, and 2 monitors (running off a splitter). I'll probably install the current HD for data purposes but get a faster boot disk. BTW, she is running W7 Home Premium. Can we use the same install disk for the new machine to save a few bucks?

Moneywise, we'd like to keep cost low but are willing to go to an i5 if really necessary.

Case wise, anything that allows good circulation and easy access. I'd really prefer a non hardware case but I don't know if these exist.

Outside of Office, she does casual browsing, light gaming and Skype (or equivalent).

Thanks,
Burt

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ok, Ill get back to you ina moment, BUT YOU DO NOT WANT ON BOARD GRAPHICS, we are talking a desktop with a 2 gh processor, Listen if you try to play a game like crysis, with that on board vid card, You'll get LOWEST 640X400 resolution. 4-10 fps, Now pop an hd 6670 in there, (80$) card. Youll get medium settings native resolution 40-60 fps, Get a 3.0ghz processor youll have native resolution high settings high 20s t 60 fps

thats just to give you an idea on how bad those on boards are.

My reccomendation to You.

1. Upgrade the PSU to a 400w psu

http://www.amazon.com/Corsair-430-Watt-Certified-Compat...
50$


2. Get a nice graphics card, Cheap but nice.

http://www.amazon.com/XFX-Radeon-PCI-Express-Video-HD56...

75$

a new mobo

http://www.amazon.com/GIGABYTE-GA-H61M-DS2-Intel-Micro-...

56$

And last but not least

A new CPU

http://www.amazon.com/Intel-i3-2100-Processor-3-1GHz-LG...

120$

Thats 310$

Your computer will run like a dream, Play any game you throw at it, Native resolution Medium/low settings, YOU WILL BE AMAZED

OH DONT FORGET

new ram

http://www.amazon.com/Corsair-Channel-Memory-Processors...

30$

thats 340$

Ok, Then if your wanting to revamp the whole thing, You can get anice case for about say 40$

http://www.amazon.com/GAMMA-Classic-Interior-Chassis-Bl...


Then Your going to need a hard drive

(if you want a new one of course)

For about 50-100dollars
Depending on what you want.
Tb = 100$

half a tb = 50-90$

Anyway then youll need a diskdrive 20$

also a os (if you dont already own one)

ALSO you said

"Ill just have to get the ol' 8400gs out."

DONT DO THAT.

Your onboard is probably 10% worse... lol So no big improv there.

That card isnt even as good as the hd 6450 that barely qualifies as running dvd's

So dont do that. lol

With those additions,

(just the parts, i mean cpu, gpu, mobo, those not the whole revamp)

You would be able to play BF3 on low/medium settings on native resolution.

That is pretty impressive for 340$

And probably MW3 at medium high, 2x aa, 16x AF and native resolution. So great setup for your wife

Whizzz,
Thanks for all the replies. My wife does not play graphics intensive games. In fact, the majority of the games are flash based so we'll go with the on board for now and upgrade later if needed.

The system she has now suits her to a "T." Otherwise, all the parts look good!

Thanks for all the help!
Burt
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