Recommended desktops for 60 yr old

gnolan

Could i get some desktop recommendations for a 60 yr old? Perhaps one for €600 and one for €1000. This budget would have to include monitor, warranty, mouse & keyboard, and the office suite.

The criteria i was given would be that it would mostly be for browsing and the usual day to day uses of the Microsoft Office suite programs - but also a mention of possibly playing games on it. I think he's against an integrated graphics card.

Ideally i'd like the desktop to have a SSD for the OS and some of the programs. Is this overkill do you think?

I'd really appreciate some recommendations, thanks.

riclad

Go to dell com ie ,
get pc 660s cpu core 13,4gig ram,1tb 1000gig drive,
fast grahics card,win 7,
ms office,starter, no outlook,no powerpoint,
519 euro,
599 if you customise ,to get full ms office suite with outlook ,powerpoint .
I think the ssd drive is overkill,not needed .
i got hp pc,in 2011,
win 7 loads in 20 seconds approx.
ssd drives very expensive and you might get 250gig one.Just for comparison.
my hp cost 370 euro ,pc unit, no monitor, just keyboard
mouse,
basic version of office.2gig ram, win 7.
I think the grahics card on hp is maybe 250 meg vram.
i,m NOT sure

i think ssds maybe good for laptops ,save power ,
but very expensive.
eg 250gig ssd cost 270 approx,including vat.

IE you are better off with a 1tb drive ,loadsa space for music or video.
i find win7 64bit very fast ,re my hp pc
i just use it for net acess, i just use chrome browser, watch youtube, play music,
It can burn a dvdr in 7mins approx.

Torqay

How big should the monitor be? 24" you'll get for ~ €150, 27" for ~ €250.

While a solid state disk is nice to have, they're not really a necessity for desktop PCs, they really shine in laptops. Upgrading to SSD is usually cheaper when you do it yourself. 128 GB SSDs can be picked up for ~ €100.

"The Office Suite" is free if you choose LibreOffice/OpenOffice, MS Office Home & Student costs less than €100.

Still leaves you with plenty money to shop for a decent desktop PC, if you want to spend up to a grand. But just for surfing the web and office jobs, you wouldn't need anything fancy, a Core i3 w 4 GB RAM will do just fine. As for the games, it really depends on which games they want to play.

riclad

19 0r 21 inch is fine , monitors are designed for close up viewing,
set resolution to 1024x 768 if your eyesight is not great.
27 inch way too big for an average user.
at 1000 x1200 txt ,icons maybe too small for 60 year old.
on pcs, for most people a 1tb drive is more useful,than a 256gig ssd.
ssds are mostly used in laptops, by professionals, programmers etc.
your budget of 600 euro is fine.
just make sure grahics card is not intregrated, ie it uses a pci-express slot for graphics card.

ED E

riclad wrote: »

19 0r 21 inch is fine , monitors are designed for close up viewing,
set resolution to 1024x 768 if your eyesight is not great.
27 inch way too big for an average user.
at 1000 x1200 txt ,icons maybe too small for 60 year old.

1000x1200? Portrait?


I'd get at least a 24", then turn on ease of access options if your old man has problems reading the text(scales all text, large icons etc).

If gaming was mentioned dont bother with dell, forget the warranty and self build, you'll get twice as much power for your money.

Torqay

riclad wrote: »

on pcs, for most people a 1tb drive is more useful,than a 256gig ssd.

Who says, you can't have both? Plenty space and SATA ports in a dekstop PC.

riclad wrote: »

ssds are mostly used ... by professionals, programmers etc.

Ah, that explains falling prices and widespread availability of solid state drives.

riclad wrote: »

19 0r 21 inch is fine

How do you know the OP's requirements?

riclad wrote: »

set resolution to 1024x 768 if your eyesight is not great.

Good one. I'll keep that in mind.

uncle_sam_ie

Are you up to building it? It's really not as hard as it seems. You'll get more for your money and a better warranty.

gnolan

Thanks for all the replies.

I'll try to answer some of the questions. He has a 17" monitor so i'm thinking of getting him an Acer 24" for €170. I'm wondering whether this might be a bit big considering how close the monitor - perhaps a 21" would suit him better.

Self build isn't an option - he won't be doing it and i have no intention of doing it either; i'm just doing him a favour.

Anytime i've used Dells in the past i found them very unreliable (5-10 years ago). Has that changed in the past few years?

Is there anywhere that i can check if a specific setup will run a specific game?

riclad

i just think 24 is too big ,go for 19 or 21 inch max .
go to pcworld they have pcs setup,look at the monitors there.
i think the largest monitor i,ve seen in a shop ,on display is 21inch.
i would not be comfortable using a 24inch monitor,to browse the web,
its not like a tv ,pcs are designed for close up viewing.
one with speakers is handy, then just use a 3.5 to 3.5mm
to connect monitor to audio out 3.5mm ,green ,audio out port.

Torqay

If you want Full HD, 21" is pretty small, you'll need excellent eye sight (of course, you can always change the resolution to 1024x768, as suggested ), 24" monitors are cheap enough these days.

gnolan wrote: »

Is there anywhere that i can check if a specific setup will run a specific game?

Sure, google the the name of the game followed by 'system requirements'. CPU power is usually not an issue, a Core i5 can run pretty much any game, look for the recommended graphics card and take it from there. Off-the-rails computer with good graphics cards are quite expensive though, when it comes to gaming computers, building the computer yourself will save a lot of money.

gnolan

riclad wrote: »

i just think 24 is too big ,go for 19 or 21 inch max .
go to pcworld they have pcs setup,look at the monitors there.
i think the largest monitor i,ve seen in a shop ,on display is 21inch.
i would not be comfortable using a 24inch monitor,to browse the web,
its not like a tv ,pcs are designed for close up viewing.
one with speakers is handy, then just use a 3.5 to 3.5mm
to connect monitor to audio out 3.5mm ,green ,audio out port.

I might do that, thanks.

Have you got a link to the dell site where i can fully customize my PC? I can only seem to slightly modify their own premade models.

Torqay wrote: »

If you want Full HD, 21" is pretty small, you'll need excellent eye sight (of course, you can always change the resolution to 1024x768, as suggested ), 24" monitors are cheap enough these days.



Sure, google the the name of the game followed by 'system requirements'. CPU power is usually not an issue, a Core i5 can run pretty much any game, look for the recommended graphics card and take it from there. Off-the-rails computer with good graphics cards are quite expensive though, when it comes to gaming computers, building the computer yourself will save a lot of money.

Sure i'll see what he thinks about the monitor size.

As far as the gaming goes, i guess i was wondering if there was a site that would quote minimum benchmark scores that i could work off.

Torqay

gnolan wrote: »

Have you got a link to the dell site where i can fully customize my PC? I can only seem to slightly modify their own premade models.

Forget about Dell, they don't do gaming computers. If you don't want to build yourself, companies like hardwareversand.de (quite popular with the system builders around here) will put the parts together for a small fee (€20, IIRC).

gnolan wrote: »

Sure i'll see what he thinks about the monitor size.

19" and 21" screens are OK for casual users. The monitor is the most important interface between man and computer and gaming sessions can be quite extensive, so I would not settle for anything less than a 24" display.

gnolan wrote: »

As far as the gaming goes, i guess i was wondering if there was a site that would quote minimum benchmark scores that i could work off.

Plenty GPU benchmark databases out there but that's not how game manufacturers specify their system requirements/recommendations. Do you know the games they want to play?

gnolan

Torqay wrote: »

Forget about Dell, they don't do gaming computers. If you don't want to build yourself, companies like hardwareversand.de (quite popular with the system builders around here) will put the parts together for a small fee (€20, IIRC).

I'm a bit worried about building my own. If it even works in the first place the i'm worried about warranties on all the separate components - if anything goes wrong with it i'm the one he'll call.

Torqay

gnolan wrote: »

I'm a bit worried about building my own. If it even works in the first place the i'm worried about warranties on all the separate components - if anything goes wrong with it i'm the one he'll call.

I understand that perfectly well. So try to find out which games he has in mind and take it from there.

Here's a box at komplett for 900 yoyos (without monitor) that will definitely play most games even at the highest resolution, but if he only wants to play Solitaire or Sudoku, well, then an Ivy Bridge Core i7 quad and GTX550Ti is somewhat of an overkill.

riclad

Click on 660s ,click customise ,to add more hardware ram, etc
you can add memory,hardrive, larger monitor, etc
http://www.dell.com/ie/p/inspiron-660s/fs

i dont think its worth building a pc ,
with dell you get 2 years gaurantee,
see add media os, option,
That means you get a windows dvd disc.

http://configure.euro.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?oc=d0066s12&model_id=inspiron-660s&c=ie&l=en&s=dhs&cs=iedhs1

that has nvidia grahics card 1gig video ram.

http://www.dell.com/ie/p/inspiron-660s/fs



click on 660s ,second one ,from the left,with discrete graphics in the description.
You have the option of extended gaurantee, warranty.
ITS a matter of taste ,i,m used to using a widescreen 21inch monitor.
i,m not trying to save you money ,
i think that 24 inch is to big for the average user.
I KNOW people who are using dell pcs, 8 plus years old.
i like buying parts,building pcs , but i would not recommend you start now.
if you build one you,ll have to buy a windows 7 cd,
or install a linux os.

if theres a problem dell have a good customer service
network.

gnolan

riclad wrote: »

that has nvidia grahics card 1gig video ram.

Everything looks pretty good apart from the GPU - it seems to benchmark pretty badly. Is it straightforward to upgrade the GPU - just take the current one out and slot the other in it's place?

EDIT: Actually i might be wrong - the GPU is the NVIDIA® GeForce GT 620 1GB Graphics Card. The benchmark i found came in at 389 here. I have a feeling this might be an older model perhaps. Can anyone confirm?

riclad

IF PC HAS A PCI -E EXPRESS SLOT
you can just put in any pci -e graphics card
see here
http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/charts/2012-vga-gpgpu/03-Unigine-Sanctuary-DirectX-11-A-Entry,Marque_fbrandx876,2937.html
http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/high_end_gpus.html

i cant find a review of that card, you can customise,options, choose a different card.
i notice dell has a 23inch monitor 210euro.

maybe get 1 thats 60 euro more expensive approx than the gt 620.
or get 1 that has good review,
eg check how many fps, frames per sec it can show in crysis 2 or modern warfare 2 or 3.

i would not buy a very expensive card ,as its power maybe never used unless he , s a hardcore gamer.

eg see

http://www.techspot.com/review/464-modern-warfare-3-performance/page4.html
i,d say any card that goes over 48 fps, in link above would be fine.
movies in cinemas are shown at 25 fps .
eg i think mw3 runs at 60 fps on 360 console
at 720p resolution.

Torqay

gnolan wrote: »

Everything looks pretty good apart from the GPU - it seems to benchmark pretty badly. Is it straightforward to upgrade the GPU - just take the current one out and slot the other in it's place?

It is not so straightforward. A 300W PSU is useless for gaming GPUs. Even a mediocre graphics card requires at least 450W or more.

Again, Dell don't do gaming PCs. And there is a reason for that: You want a gaming PC from this crowd? Go and spend big bucks on an Alienware Computer.

Torqay

riclad wrote: »

IF PC HAS A PCI -E EXPRESS SLOT
you can just put in any pci -e graphics card

No, you can't. The Dell Inspiron 660 has a 300 Watts power supply and this limits the choice of graphics cards to "entry-level".

gnolan

Torqay wrote: »

No, you can't. The Dell Inspiron 660 has a 300 Watts power supply and this limits the choice of graphics cards to "entry-level".

The DELL i'm looking at has a 1GB ATI® Radeon™ HD 6670 graphics card. Is the 300W PSU enough to get the full value of this card? According to it's benchmark score it should suit my needs.

How can i tell when/if i have the PC that the limiting factor is the PSU and not some other component? And again, is upgrading the PSU fairly straightforward, slotting in a 450W or 550W instead of the current 300W?

Torqay

gnolan wrote: »

And again, is upgrading the PSU fairly straightforward, slotting in a 450W or 550W instead of the current 300W?

Not with Dell it's not, they use their own PSUs and connectors. So upgrading a Dell with a 3rd party PSU is not an option with most models. Dell have this policy of making overclocking and upgrading as hard as possible. They will, however, happily sell you a new, more powerful computer. Again, if you want a gaming computer, you don't even look at Dell, it's a waste of time.

gnolan

Torqay wrote: »

Not with Dell it's not, they use their own PSUs and connectors. So upgrading a Dell with a 3rd party PSU is not an option with most models. Dell have this policy of making overclocking and upgrading as hard as possible. They will, however, happily sell you a new, more powerful computer. Again, if you want a gaming computer, you don't even look at Dell, it's a waste of time.

Well, thats a bit annoying! I think i've decided i'm not going to self-build - it's not worth the hassle for myself. If i hadn't mentioned gaming this would have been a lot easier

Torqay

gnolan wrote: »

If i hadn't mentioned gaming this would have been a lot easier

We still don't know which games you have in mind...

Here is an Acer Predator for €829 at komplett. Ivy Bridge Core i5, 8 GB RAM and mid-range GPU (the 7670 is a good bit faster then the 6670 you had in mind).

gnolan

Torqay wrote: »

We still don't know which games you have in mind...

Here is an Acer Predator for €829 at komplett. Ivy Bridge Core i5, 8 GB RAM and mid-range GPU (the 7670 is a good bit faster then the 6670 you had in mind).

I don't know either! I don't know what games he has in mind, maybe something along the of a FPS, MW2 perhaps.

Just looking at recommended (not minimum) system requirements for MW2:

E6600 (Score: 2077)
8800 GS (Score: 707)

That Dell i was looking at earlier had the following:

i5-2320 (Score: 6027)
HD 6670 (Score: 1157)

It seems to fit the bill comfortably, unless i'm missing something?

Torqay

gnolan wrote: »

That Dell i was looking at earlier had the following:

i5-2320 (Score: 6027)
HD 6670 (Score: 1157)

It seems to fit the bill comfortably, unless i'm missing something?

Well, for 579 Euro you're getting a CPU and GPU of the previous generation. And with that card you certainly won't get to see all the bells and whistles of Modern Warfare 3 at a decent frame rate. You can't really go by the minimum requirements. But if that suits your needs, why not... although the price is not extraordinary for a stock clearance. And you still have enough money left for a decent monitor and indeed a solid state disk.

gnolan

Torqay wrote: »

Well, for 579 Euro you're getting a CPU and GPU of the previous generation. And with that card you certainly won't get to see all the bells and whistles of Modern Warfare 3 at a decent frame rate. You can't really go by the minimum requirements. But if that suits your needs, why not... although the price is not extraordinary for a stock clearance. And you still have enough money left for a decent monitor and indeed a solid state disk.

I think id like to keep this one around the €700 mark so maybe just the monitor. Thanks for your help so far. I hope you don't mind if i take a look around a bit more and maybe up some more pre-built options...