Computer for my father $1,000 budget (prebuilt)

[datalink7]

Greetings all,

My dad's computer just died. He had it for quite a while (7ish years) so he is due for a new one anyway.

He has a max budget of $1k. I'm coming here because I always build my own computers and have never really looked at the pre-built market or the sites where you can configure your own, so I'm not sure who has the best deals.

He mostly uses it to browse the web/netflix/etc., but also does like to occasionally game. The games he likes are strategy games (Europa Universalis, etc.), so aren't as graphics intensive as FPS's, so a top end graphics card isn't required. However, he has enjoyed some Total War games, which needs some graphics capability, so if an ok graphics card fits in the budget that wouldn't be bad.

I'm going to give him my old LCD, so he doesn't need a monitor.

I'm thinking an SSD would be nice for him as well, as general speed improvements on boot speed and the like will be nice for what he uses it for.

Thanks for any tips

 

[MongGrel]

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2192841

My bad, but why not just build him one ?

 

[dave_the_nerd]

This is similar to the rig I just built my dad, except his was a Haswell system w/ no video card.

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/NrwQHx

Or am I misunderstanding and you want a prebuilt?

 

[datalink7]

I suppose I should have specified. Looking at going prebuilt. He lives 22 hours driving away from me, so I'd have to ship stuff to me, put it together, and ship it to him. That would both eat into budget and time. Sorry for not saying.

 

[nsafreak]

If you do want a pre-built your best bet is probably something like a Dell Inspiron desktop and then add a SSD & GTX 950 to it. You could also configure something through a company like CyberpowerPC or ibuypower and go with a less flashy case as well. You'll be paying a bit of a premium over assembling it yourself but if your dad is not close to you then having it prebuilt is likely the best bet. Here's an example configuration from ibuypower:

Case 1 x Corsair Carbide Series 100R Gaming Case
Processor 1 x Intel® Core™ i5-6600K Processor (4x 3.50GHz/6MB L3 Cache)-Intel® Core™ i5-6600K
Motherboard 1 x Gigabyte GA-Z170-HD3 w/ USB 3.1(Type c & Type a) PCIE Card -- 1x PCIe x16, 4x USB 3.0, 1x M.2-FREE USB 3.1(Type c & Type a) PCIE Card
Memory 1 x 8 GB [4 GB x2] DDR4-2400 Memory Module-Corsair or Major Brand
Video Card 1 x NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960 - 2GB-Single Card
Power Supply 1 x 500 Watt - Corsair CX500 V2 - 80 PLUS Bronze
Processor Cooling 1 x Asetek 510LC 120mm Liquid CPU Cooler [SOCKET-1150]-Standard 120mm Fan
Primary Hard Drive 1 x 250 GB Samsung 850 EVO SSD -- Read: 550MB/s, Write: 470MB/s-Single Drive
Data Hard Drive 1 x 1 TB Hard Drive -- 32MB Cache, 7200 RPM, 6.0Gb/s-Single Drive
Optical Drive 1 x 24x Dual Format/Double Layer DVD±R/±RW-Black -- Free Upgrade to 14X LG Blu-ray Re-writer
Sound Card 1 x 3D Premium Surround Sound Onboard
Network Card 1 x Onboard LAN Network (Gb or 10/100)
Keyboard 1 x [FREE] Gamdias Ares Essential Keyboard & Ourea Mouse Combo
Operating System 1 x Windows 10 Home + Office 365 Trial [Free 30-Day !!!] 64-bit-*Newest Microsoft Windows*
Warranty 1 x 3 Year Standard Warranty Service
Rush Service 1 x No Rush Service (Usually Ships in 5-10 business Days)
Subtotal $1,062.00

 

[dave_the_nerd]

I suppose I should have specified. Looking at going prebuilt. He lives 22 hours driving away from me, so I'd have to ship stuff to me, put it together, and ship it to him. That would both eat into budget and time. Sorry for not saying.

Sorry, got it.

Can he handle a video card installation? If you're not looking for something upscale and gamer-ey, I'd probably get whatever business-class (less crapware, usually) Dell or HP box is on sale or you can get a coupon for, and then drop a low-powered midrange GPU into it (GTX 750Ti) so you don't stress the PSU too much.

Edit: There's also the issue of aesthetic design. If I gave my dad something with accent lighting, he'd probably disown me! So, again, it would tend to point me at a business-class something-or-other.

If you want a semi-upscale gaming prebuilt, there's always CyberpowerPC. Their basic i5 gaming rig is well within your budget and tics all the right checkboxes. They want way too much for extra RAM and HD/SSD space though.

 

[datalink7]

Thanks for the ideas. I'll take a look at ibuypower and cyberpower pc as well to see.

He also could handle installing a video card. He could probably do a whole computer but he can't be bothered to learn (he's stubborn about learning new things sometimes). But a video card he could do, so dell might be an option with adding in a video card.

 

[maddogchen]

There's this one for $789. Expires today.

http://www.techbargains.com/deal/82433/hp-envy-700-deals

Intel Core i7-4790 3.5GHz (Turbo Boost to 4GHz) Quad-Core Haswell CPU
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960 2GB Dedicated Graphics Card
8GB RAM, 1TB HDD, DVD burner, 802.11n WiFi + gigabit ethernet
Windows 7 Professional operating system
500W power supply, card reader, 1yr HP warranty