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Home-office computer update LONG overdue!

M

matthewwms

Junior Member
Wow, it's been a while since I've been on these forums. I'd say at least a few years since my last system build. I decided to create a new account because it's been so long I've forgot my old username and don't have the linked email anymore. In any case, I'd like to run some specs by all of you who HAVE been keeping up.

So here's the deal: my parents have a home-office and the computer that they've been using is ANCIENT! Their excuse for not upgrading has always been "well it still works," but I think my dad finally realized that the cost will more than make up for the time he spends waiting for programs to load and the screen to refresh after he scrolls.

The primary use is office/internet apps (word, outlook, Firefox, excel, turbo-tax) but they might occasionally use media player or itunes. That's pretty much as extreme as it gets, no gaming or overclocking. I need this to be reliable first and foremost.

The budget is low, looking at around $300 for everything except the case and PSU since I already bought a nice rosewill combo for them. I do most of my shopping at Newegg, so that's where my quotes are from.

I've been looking at AMDs new lineup since they have good budget offerings, but I'm not opposed to Intel if I can get similar performance or better reliability for the same price. I also looked for deals on prebuilt systems since tech support is nice when I'm not doing it, but it's hard to compete with diy prices. I'd like to get this done in the next few weeks if possible.

Here's the current list from newegg:

Western Digital Caviar Blue 250GB 3.5" SATA 6.0Gb/s Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
Item #:N82E16822136771[COLOR=666][/COLOR]

ADATA XPG Gaming Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory
Item #: N82E16820211409

cleardot.gif

GIGABYTE GA-A75M-UD2H Micro ATX AMD Motherboard
Item #: N82E16813128511http://images10.newegg.com/uploadfilesfornewegg/rebate/SH/GIGABYTE18MIRsFeb1Feb2912ll97us.pdf
[COLOR=666][/COLOR]
LITE-ON DVD Burner - Bulk Black SATA Model iHAS124-04
Item #: N82E16827106289

cleardot.gif

AMD A4-3300 2.5GHz Socket FM1 Dual-Core Desktop APU with DirectX 11 Graphic
Item #: N82E16819103957

Grand Total:$264.95 (with combo deals)


I honestly hadn't heard about AMDs new chips till last week, but they seem to be decent for this application. I'm thinking a dual core would be plenty of power for what their doing. The FM1 motherboards however, seem to be hit or miss as far as reviews go. I'm running a Phenom quad core on a gigabyte board and I'm very happy with it, but it doesn't seem to make sense to build an AM3 system when the FM1 systems are pretty much the same price... That is unless there are other hidden issues I'm unaware of.

So what do you all think? Should I go ahead with the build, or are there any important changes I should make, or facts I should know first?

Thanks,
Matt (Anandtech user from waaay back)
 
To give some perspective on how much of an upgrade this is going to be, what is their current system?

PIII? P4? A64? Something single-core? How much RAM?

If they don't have much in the way of data-storage needs, you might consider a 64GB SSD instead of a HD, given how high HD prices are after the flooding in Thailand.

That would probably bump the total up to an even $300, and would provide a nice level of "snappiness" with the new computer. Not that it wouldn't be an improvement over the old, it probably will be.

One thing though, you should get them some sort of external HD for backups, if you do go with an SSD. If you get a good-quality SSD (Intel, Crucial, Samsung), then the likelyhood of it dying is slim, but when SSDs go, they are generally not recoverable like HDs that start to fail, so having backups is a must.

Btw, what about the OS? Did you forget to add in the price of a Win7 64-bit OEM disc?
 
VirtualLarry said:
To give some perspective on how much of an upgrade this is going to be, what is their current system?

PIII? P4? A64? Something single-core? How much RAM?
Click to expand...

Current system is an Athlon XP 2800 (socket A) at about 2Ghz with 3 gigs of plain old ddr ram. The hard drive only needs to be upgraded if going with FM1 since there are no ide ports, but the current drive is only 5400 rpm so a speed bump to 7200 wouldn't be bad. I'll double check how much space they need and see if they'd be interested in an ssd. As fas as the OS is concerned, I was only taking the hardware into account since there's no question I would be getting Win 7 for them.
 
matthewwms said:
Current system is an Athlon XP 2800 (socket A) at about 2Ghz with 3 gigs of plain old ddr ram. The hard drive only needs to be upgraded if going with FM1 since there are no ide ports, but the current drive is only 5400 rpm so a speed bump to 7200 wouldn't be bad. I'll double check how much space they need and see if they'd be interested in an ssd. As fas as the OS is concerned, I was only taking the hardware into account since there's no question I would be getting Win 7 for them.
Click to expand...

That's ancient? Ahahahaha. My parents are still using a 1.6GHz P4 with a whopping 1GB RAM 😛
 
Well, if you consider that Windows 7 is another $100, you are then at $350. You can get some Dell Outlet deals for that price. Otherwise, the parts you have picked out look pretty good to me.
 
Well thanks for all the suggestions. The combo deals I'd get on an AMD system make the celeron option less appealing since it would cost nearly as much.

I checked the dell outlet site again and one of their i3 systems would end up costing about $50 more than the AMD build after taking a new case into consideration (my Dad requested a mini tower) and include a 1 year warranty, new mouse, unnecessary bloatware 🙄... Oh well, it's probably still less hassle.

If it's still in stock when he checks it out tomorrow it might be the winner, otherwise I'll be hammering a few parts together!

Thanks again,
Matt
 
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