PC For Dad - Suggestions Please

[Hkshooter]

My dad is using an oooooolllldddd Gateway desktop that needs to be replaced. He uses it to pay bills, read the news, web cam with relatives and general web surfing etc. He doesnt need a monitor, keyboard or mouse.

He went to Best Buy and was almost talked into a desktop for around $1k, luckily he called me to ask my opinion (which is almost nil in computer terms) and I told him let me do some research. I put together a build that I hope some of you could review and suggest changes if needed. Some of the stuff will be purchased from MicroCenter (CPU/MB since the combo is $219.99 in store) and some from Newegg.

Thanks alot for your help

SAMSUNG CD/DVD Burner Black SATA Model SH-222AB - OEM - $18.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16827151233


Thermaltake V4 Black Edition Gaming Chassis Mid Tower Steel Computer Case Fully Black Powdered Interior VM30001W2Z
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811133179
$49.99 -$10.00 Instant $39.99

Western Digital Caviar Black WD5002AALX 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
Model #:WD5002AALX
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822136795
$149.99 $149.99


EVGA 512-P3-1300-LR GeForce 8400 GS 512MB 32-bit DDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814130592
$34.99 $34.99


CORSAIR Builder Series CX430 V2 430W ATX12V v2.3 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Power Supply
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817139026
$49.99 -$5.00 Instant $44.99


G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Dual Channel Kit
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820231253
$22.99 $22.99


GIGABYTE GA-P67A-D3-B3 LGA 1155 Intel P67 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813128487
$114.99 -$10.00 Instant $104.99


Intel Core i5-2500K Sandy Bridge 3.3GHz (3.7GHz Turbo Boost) LGA 1155 95W Quad-Core
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819115072
$224.99 $224.99


Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 32-bit - OEM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16832116983

 

[fastamdman]

Why such an overkill system for....web browsing?

He could buy a netbook and hook it up to a monitor and have all his needs met. His current pc will be amazing once he formats the hard drive and gets all of the crap out of the OS that is currently in there.

 

[Ken g6]

Give us the specs of the Gateway first. It might or might not need replacing.

For low-end systems today, you'll have a hard time beating the large manufacturers. They locked in their HDD prices before the Thailand flooding, plus they get volume Windows discounts.

If you do intend to replace the old Gateway, this $440 Lenovo looks very good. Though there might be even better deals on Black Friday.

 

[fastamdman]

For any pre-built systems wait for Black Friday for sure! But seriously, unless you plan on gaming on that machine *which the 8400gs would be fail for* I don't recommend spending that much money for him.

Also, the 8400gs is worthless for him, just use the onboard the 2500k provides, more then enough for anything he does and even some light gaming like sc2.

 

[Hkshooter]

Give us the specs of the Gateway first. It might or might not need replacing.

For low-end systems today, you'll have a hard time beating the large manufacturers. They locked in their HDD prices before the Thailand flooding, plus they get volume Windows discounts.

If you do intend to replace the old Gateway, this $440 Lenovo looks very good. Though there might be even better deals on Black Friday.

I know his old Gateway has a 1.2 ghz maybe 1.4 CPU, 40g HD, 513 MB Ram, and a generic video card (onboard maybe)

 

[fastamdman]

Generic video cards are fine for web browsing, just like on board is. It's not a bad idea to upgrade that system though, im sure its showing its age now.

As far as what you posted its 100% over kill. Post a budget though and we will get you setup. If you really wanna spend that much by all means do it though. Drop the 8400gs though its a waste. Either go onboard or a real gpu, nothing half way.

edit: also go to BB or another store to find a good deal on a hard drive. the ones online are WAY over priced. BB just had a deal for 1TB drives for 55 bucks.

edit2: If you can wait tell black friday better deals should be out too.

edit3: Also if your going to buy a 100 dollar board you should get a z68 motherboard. And for the price of ram currently, grab 8gb's, its only 10-15 bucks more for double the memory. Z68 mobo's will allow you to utilize the onboard of the 2500k and will allow you to upgrade to IB later on

 

[DaveSimmons]

My brother and I got mom a new desktop for her birthday, a prebuilt Gateway that's currently $489 at Newegg:

Gateway SX2855-UR21P (PT.GCFP2.002) Desktop PC Intel Core i3 2100(3.10GHz) 6GB DDR3 1.5TB HDD Capacity Intel HD Graphics 2000 Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16883113181

It's tiny and near-silent, but the i3-2100 is very fast for any non-gaming work. The HD2000 graphics are more than good enough for videos, flash sites, anything except modern 3D games like Skyrim.

 

[DominionSeraph]

DellDellDellDellDellDellDellDellDellDellDellDellDellDell

Go to Dell Outlet. XPS 8300. Find one with an i5 2300. (No need to pick one with a 6450).
Should be $469 for a refurbished.

So a Sandy Bridge quad-core instead of Dave's dual-core and it even costs less!

You could even get a $300 machine (a 3.2GHz Pentium dual-core is so much overkill for web browsing that it ain't funny), but each Sandy Bridge core is ~30-40% faster than a Pentium Dual-Core core and you get twice as many, so $470 will have him set for a looooooooooooong time.


E: Actually, it looks like Dell Outlet now has Inspiron 620's with a Sandy Bridge i3 2100 for $340. That's a toss-up. The i3 will almost certainly be sufficient for basic tasks for the next seven or eight years. The i5 from eight to ten. $130 difference in price...
...I'd say go for the Inspiron 620 and throw in a $120 SSD!

e2: Hell, it's only $310 without the wireless card! (I didn't click for the details before, thinking that the $30 difference in price was just Refurbished vs Scratch and Dent.)

 

[ther00kie16]

DellDellDellDellDellDellDellDellDellDellDellDellDellDell

Go to Dell Outlet. XPS 8300. Find one with an i5 2300. (No need to pick one with a 6450).
Should be $469 for a refurbished.

So a Sandy Bridge quad-core instead of Dave's dual-core and it even costs less!

You could even get a $300 machine (a 3.2GHz Pentium dual-core is so much overkill for web browsing that it ain't funny), but each Sandy Bridge core is ~30-40% faster than a Pentium Dual-Core core and you get twice as many, so $470 will have him set for a looooooooooooong time.

He doesn't need an XPS, just get a new Inspiron. $500 deals (not counting cashback) with i5 and monitor. Best deal was i5 2400 + u2211h.

 

[fastamdman]

Best idea is to still wait for the BF deals this friday. Either way though almost ANY rig that is within the price budget thats pre built will do the job just fine. After all he is just checking his email lol.

 

[DominionSeraph]

He doesn't need an XPS, just get a new Inspiron. $500 deals (not counting cashback) with i5 and monitor. Best deal was i5 2400 + u2211h.

Link please?
OP said he doesn't need a monitor so that doesn't sound like it's relevant here, but that does look to be a fantastic deal for anyone needing a basic PC with monitor.

 

[mfenn]

DellDellDellDellDellDellDellDellDellDellDellDellDellDell

Go to Dell Outlet. XPS 8300. Find one with an i5 2300. (No need to pick one with a 6450).
Should be $469 for a refurbished.

So a Sandy Bridge quad-core instead of Dave's dual-core and it even costs less!

You could even get a $300 machine (a 3.2GHz Pentium dual-core is so much overkill for web browsing that it ain't funny), but each Sandy Bridge core is ~30-40% faster than a Pentium Dual-Core core and you get twice as many, so $470 will have him set for a looooooooooooong time.


E: Actually, it looks like Dell Outlet now has Inspiron 620's with a Sandy Bridge i3 2100 for $340. That's a toss-up. The i3 will almost certainly be sufficient for basic tasks for the next seven or eight years. The i5 from eight to ten. $130 difference in price...
...I'd say go for the Inspiron 620 and throw in a $120 SSD!

e2: Hell, it's only $310 without the wireless card! (I didn't click for the details before, thinking that the $30 difference in price was just Refurbished vs Scratch and Dent.)

:thumbsup: for the Inspiron. $340 for a machine that will completely meet his needs is a good deal.

 

[fastamdman]

Ya thats a really good deal considering that HDD alone costs about 140 bucks right now lol

 

[Hkshooter]

Thanks for the all the feedback. I took your advice and ordered him the Dell for $329 with the wireless card and ended up saving quite a bit from the initial build options.

 

[ther00kie16]

Link please?
OP said he doesn't need a monitor so that doesn't sound like it's relevant here, but that does look to be a fantastic deal for anyone needing a basic PC with monitor.

Keyword being was. Best was actually 2311h for same price when they allowed a double dipping savings first couple of days of deal to count to coupon. They always have some $500 deal with monitor. Currently it's only a i3 with some budget 20".

xpbargains, gotapex & slickdeals are good places to check for dell deals.

 

[DominionSeraph]

Keyword being was.

Ah yes. I was actually the one who posted that in Hot Deals way back when. I thought maybe it had popped up again.
I don't consider deals like that to actually set the lower boundary. It's not something that pops up every month so you just can't tell someone to wait for such-and-such a deal, because something like that usually just pops up once and then you'll never see its like again.

People come in here when they're about ready to buy. We could put them on a never-ending conveyor of "wait for the next 'best thing'" and "wait for the absolute lowest price you'll see all year," but that isn't really helpful. If we have no specific reason to think that prices are going to drop significantly in the short-term or new (relevant) hardware is about to drop, it's best to just get people out the door with the best of what's available right now. The standard discount price of a computer is really cheap so there's no harm in having people pay it.

Thanks for the all the feedback. I took your advice and ordered him the Dell for $329 with the wireless card and ended up saving quite a bit from the initial build options.

*looks at old Dimension E521*
You could buy one for me too and still come out over $100 ahead...
Think of the savings!