PC for my Grandma

[mfenn]

Well, I've decided to go with the 6600k build. With shipping and whatnot, it comes in at just under $400 in total. I'll likely not put the order in until tomorrow, so feel free to try and sway me if you think you've got a better option. =D

mfenn, yikes good call. Someone just an hour two ago on some forum was telling me that I should "do myself a favor" and change out the PSU to something with a 5 year warranty and linked me to the SeaSonic SSR-360GP 360W. Any thoughts on that one or should I stick to the CX430?

The CX430 isn't on a really good sale right now, so the Seasonic is only $20 more. I don't think the value is there for such a low power system, but the argument is harder to make since we're only talking about $20. I would personally go for the CX430 because it's good enough and I like to save money.

 

[AJtoZB]

I feel ya, CX430 was what I planned on using from the beginning. Thanks for the warning on the EVGA one. =)

 

[Insert_Nickname]

Grandma isn't playing World of Warcraft - she won't see any benefit from going any fancier than DDR3-1600. 😉

That's only true to a certain extent. In the manual for my GA-F2A85XN-WIFI there is actually a notice sticker with regards to HD video playback: "For best performance with HD video, use minimum dual channel DDR3-1333". Better to be on the safe side, then risk shuttering HD video, don't you think...? 😉

She WILL notice loud fans though... another reason to either go new i3 or pentium, but if you go AMD APU, make sure you pick the 65W version, not the 100W version. Fan noise will make grandma grumpy! 😉

Now that we can't have, but the stock FM2 fan/heatsink is not that bad actually. At minimum speed its barely audible. Except if you really push the system it gets a little loud, but really not worse then the Intel LGA-1155/1150 stock cooler. If you need a quieter cooler, from what I can gather the Arctic Cooling Alpine 64 PLUS is quite good and cheap too.

 

[Blue_Max]

I still stand by my idea of the SSHD hybrid hard drive... they finally brought out the desktop variants now!

 

[Zap]

For the OP, how about this?

GIGABYTE GB-XM14-1037

It is the latest Gigabyte BRIX, which is like the Intel NUC. It is a tiny little cube that takes notebook RAM and an mSATA SSD. This one uses a Celeron 1037U, which is a 1.8GHz dual core ultra low voltage Ivy Bridge. The GPU should be like the HD 2500 except no QuickSync. It comes with a tiny power brick. Just add SODIMM RAM and mSATA SSD for a hardware complete system.

GIGABYTE GB-XM14-1037 $170
4GB dual channel DDR3 SODIMM starts at $47 on Newegg
120GB mSATA SSD starts around $96 on Newegg
=$313 plus your existing Windows license

Performance-wise it should be suitable for anything that anyone would do with an Ultrabook. About the only thing it is missing for me is USB 3.0.

I bought a pre-built with a SB G630 Pentium, and Skype had issues. I added a LP NV 430 card, and it was much better.

Skype uses DirectX 9.0c which the Intel IGP should support just fine. My mom's computer is a socket 1156 Pentium (like a G9650 or something) and Skype works fine. Heck, I've even played League of Legends on her rig at the full 1280x1024 of her monitor in medium settings, and it worked! 😱

 

[Insert_Nickname]

The GPU should be like the HD 2500 except no QuickSync.

Unfortunately it also lacks Clear Video HD, so I would not recommend it for anything more then basic playback. That works absolutely fine though.

 

[Zap]

Unfortunately it also lacks Clear Video HD, so I would not recommend it for anything more then basic playback.

I guess I'm the rare person that doesn't obsess over quality? :sneaky: I've been enjoying movies, TV and videos nearly forever without Clear Video HD.