PC for my mother

P_Cash

which one of these would you recommend,

its for surfing the net.

im looking for a freeze free PC as the old one is 10 yrs now, and cant handle anything.

no need for lappy, as shes not interested, and prefers going in to the room, and leaving it there, switching it on etc when need be.

a refurb job is way to go i reckon, no too far away so ill probably pick it up.

option 1
http://www.ebay.ie/itm/Dell-Optiplex-960-Quad-Core-PCs-Free-Delivery-Vat-and-Warranty-inc-/171624550399?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_205&hash=item27f59ecfff

option 2
http://www.ebay.ie/itm/Dell-Optiplex-780-PCs-4Gb-Windows-7-Pro-Free-Delivery-Warranty-and-Vat-Inc-/181685227666?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_205&hash=item2a4d489092

option 3
http://www.ebay.ie/itm/HP-6005-Desktop-Pcs-4GB-250Gb-3-00Ghz-Win-7-Pro-Free-Delivery-Vat-/181627593835?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_205&hash=item2a49d9246b

option 4
http://www.ebay.ie/itm/HP-DC5800-High-Spec-Win-7-Pro-PCs-Core2Duo-3-00Ghz-4GB-Ram-/181430539574?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_205&hash=item2a3e1a5536

option 5
http://www.ebay.ie/itm/Dell-Optiplex-760-High-Spec-Win-7-Pro-PCs-Core2Duo-2-93Ghz-Free-Delivery-ROI-/171251475113?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_205&hash=item27df6222a9

opinions appreciated.

I cant see how else to replace a tower/desktop for less than 200/250 quid

P_Cash

built an I5 last year from scratch, could totaly do it.

but costing in software, / hardware etc, dunno could i do it for 250

Digital Solitude

i3 €110
mb €40
case €30
hdd €50
4gb ram €30
psu €30

Windows for 20 brings to €310 total. Cheaper CPU could also do, drop price to about €260. I'll dig up some links

Digital Solitude

i3 €110
mb €40
case €30
hdd €50
4gb ram €30
psu €30

Windows for 20 brings to €310 total. Cheaper CPU could also do, drop price to about €260. I'll dig up some links

P_Cash

no, current PC is an old dell,

i was thinking of changing the CPU on it,


here is the specs,

win exp home edition
pentium 4 CPU, 1.70 GHz
128 MB of ram

P_Cash

wonder if i changed the CPU and bumped up the ram to 4 or 8G, would it melt it all together.

Digital Solitude

Item|Price
Intel Core i3-4160 3.6 GHz LGA1150 3MB cache Boxed CPU|€€ 115
MSI H81M-P33 mATX, LGA 1150|€€ 42
Seagate Barracuda 7200 1000GB, SATA 6Gb / s|€€ 54
4GB Crucial Ballistix Sport DDR3 PC3-12800 1600 CL9|€€ 30
Zalman T1 Plus Mini Tower - black, without power supply, mATX|€€ 24
be quiet! SYSTEM POWER 300W 7|€€ 32
Intel Pentium G3258 Anniversary Edition Box, 1150|€€ 67
Shipping|€18.99
Total|€NaN

There's my recommendation. i3 is likely to be overkill, so only €250 with the Pentium ive linked. 2 CPUS in my table incase its not obvious.

Digital Solitude

Windows

Never even heard of the chipset for the CPU, must be ancient. New build is likely a better idea, difficulty finding a new CPU, making sure motherboard has enough ram slots, as well as the power supply.

P_Cash

Digital Solitude wrote: »

Item|Price
Intel Core i3-4160 3.6 GHz LGA1150 3MB cache Boxed CPU|€€ 115
MSI H81M-P33 mATX, LGA 1150|€€ 42
Seagate Barracuda 7200 1000GB, SATA 6Gb / s|€€ 54
4GB Crucial Ballistix Sport DDR3 PC3-12800 1600 CL9|€€ 30
Zalman T1 Plus Mini Tower - black, without power supply, mATX|€€ 24
be quiet! SYSTEM POWER 300W 7|€€ 32
Intel Pentium G3258 Anniversary Edition Box, 1150|€€ 67
Shipping|€18.99
Total|€NaN

There's my recommendation. i3 is likely to be overkill, so only €250 with the Pentium ive linked. 2 CPUS in my table incase its not obvious.

cheers,
you know, ive done all this before. and you just got me thinking that yes, a self build would be a better machine.

ive also used these guys before for purchasing.

how do i go about getting windows on this, someone mentioned here a licience, for eur20

do i need need a copy like for €80-100

Digital Solitude

I linked to a license. They're windows dev licenses but with the price they charge they can sod off IMO. Get the Non "N" version (You'll see it on the page) and you can get Windows 10 too if you want

Serephucus

I'd also drop the i3 for a Pentium/Celeron, and throw in a 250GB SSD instead. Night and day.

Skerries

have Intel started to capture the low end of the market compared to AMD these days?

Johnboy1951

If as you say it is for "surfing the net" then maybe something along these lines might suit .....

http://www.dabs.com/category/computing,desktops-and-monitors,barebone-pcs/11253

P_Cash wrote:

which one of these would you recommend,

its for surfing the net.

im looking for a freeze free PC as the old one is 10 yrs now, and cant handle anything.

JDxtra

I would not bother with anything complex here. My advice would be to look for an HP Chromebox (or similar).

Perfect for browsing (and more of course). Plus, it will require little support to keep it running.

http://store.hp.com/UKStore/Merch/Product.aspx?id=L0X58EA&opt=ABU&sel=PCDT

P_Cash

Digital Solitude wrote: »

Windows

Never even heard of the chipset for the CPU, must be ancient. New build is likely a better idea, difficulty finding a new CPU, making sure motherboard has enough ram slots, as well as the power supply.

if this gives me the licence key, where do i get the software from?

can i use the 8.1 disk I have, but get a new key from this lad?

P_Cash

Intel Pentium G3258 Anniversary Edition Box, 1150 70,41 €
ASUS H81M-E, Sockel 1150, mATX 52,49 €
4GB Crucial Ballistix Sport DDR3 PC3-12800 1600, CL9 32,69 €
Zalman T1 Plus Mini Tower - schwarz, ohne Netzteil, mATX 26,11 €
be quiet! SYSTEM POWER 7 300W 34,97 €
Seagate Barracuda 7200 1000GB, SATA 6Gb/s 57,23 €


Total value: 273,90 €

without going through the discount site.

so might get it for 250. what ye think lads. SSD was a bit more pricier pushing it towards 300. this is mum surfing, she turns on the pc, lets it boot while going putting the kettle on, so im thinking SSD, no need.

opinions welcome

P_Cash

hmm, optical drive another 20, or could i rob it from the dell?

Digital Solitude

P_Cash wrote: »

if this gives me the licence key, where do i get the software from?

can i use the 8.1 disk I have, but get a new key from this lad?

Yeah that'll work. Rip open the Dell and make sure it's a SATA, don't know if the motherboard I linked has IDE

P_Cash

cheers lads,

after spending a few hrs, yes my €250 or there abouts gets me a way better machine than forking out on a refurb.

i might even pay hardwareversand the extra 5 to stick it together. im sure ill still get all the leaflets/guides/boxes etc.

tadcan

P_Cash wrote: »

hmm, optical drive another 20, or could i rob it from the dell?

Here is a pic of the MB. It doesn't have an IDE port. A new DVD drive is around €20, so I'd be inclined to just get a new one, since they can fail over time.

Johnboy1951

Is there much requirement for DVD drives these days?

A lot of new PCs omit them .... and I rarely use one and even then only for testing or ripping.

briany

I'd nearly be looking at getting one of those Intel Compute Sticks they have coming out shortly, plus a HDMI monitor if you don't already have one and a little (powered) USB hub for your peripherals. I'd estimate it would still work out a bit cheaper than 250, be well able to handle light browsing and have a very small space footprint, make (almost) no noise, use very little electricity in comparison to any kind of tower you could buy. Ticks all the boxes.

beauf

Skerries wrote: »

have Intel started to capture the low end of the market compared to AMD these days?

I think the issue really is that a low end AMD is a bit of dead end, upgrade wise. With a Low end Intel build like above you've plenty of upgrade options in the future. Most of the time the equivalent Intel build is on a par or faster than the AMD. Only when you need more than 2 cores will the AMD might be slightly faster. So if building a low end gaming rig, or media, encoding rig, the AMD might be better.