Personal computing discussed
Moderators: renee, JustAnEngineer
kuzzia wrote:Checking e-mails, using Office, web browsing (and YouTube) do not push the CPU much. Therefore, even a Celeron or Pentium dual-core Sandy Bridge CPU would easily suffice as a CPU. You could save quiet some money by going this route.
Also, if your friend doesn't a large hard drive capacity then I would definitely recommend an SSD! They are becoming cheaper for every day and even a light user as your friend can easily benefit from the lightning speed of an SSD. Or you could purchase the HD and buy a caching SSD (such as the Corsair Accelerator, OCZ Synapse, or Crucial Adrenaline). The money would come from the money saved by buying a cheap Pentium dual-core The SSD would make the system much faster than a quicker CPU.
JustAnEngineer wrote:A desktop is cheaper and more upgradeable than a laptop.
superjawes wrote:So email and office? Desktop?
I suppose it kind of makes sense, but I can't shake the feeling that he might get better mileage out of a laptop. $750 would do okay, you can get an external if needed (and external backups are also nice), and he'd have portability to boot. Heck, this one is $100 cheaper, and it has 1 TB and more RAM than the builds you listed. There are obvious flaws for enthusiasts, but it ought to be an improvement for Youtube, Office, and boot times.
travbrad wrote:Yeah, and I would expect anyone using a "desktop replacement" would have those accessories in the desktop environment. Screen resolution is lacking, but if it's just Youtube, I wouldn't worry about not having full HD resolution. And on the backup note, I was just trying to point out that a laptop is more likely to use external storage in general since you can't add another drive inside. You could easily get away with a 250GB drive or smaller if yoy bring external storage with you.You can do external backups on a desktop too. Having double the pixels is a nice benefit also even for simple office apps, and you can actually watch 1080p videos in full resolution. If I was going to be using a laptop for a lot of office apps I'd want to buy a decent full size keyboard too. Cheap laptop keyboards are pretty painful to use, even compared to cheap desktop keyboards.
Yup, but they are cheaper. You might be able to use/exploit customer service, too.In my experience cheap pre-built OEM laptops/desktops are a lot less reliable than building your own PC too. They tend to use the lowest quality components they can get by with (because the profit margins are razor thin). There's a reason they are so cheap.
My rule of thumb is that if you want to do "strong" computing (like playing games, watching lots of hi-def media, running intensive programs), you need a desktop. But if you just need a day-to-day computer for email type stuff, that portability value is pretty high.Of course if you want portability then laptops are king. It's the one big advantage they have over desktops, and it's very important to a lot of people. If you don't need portability though, desktops are superior in every other way.
AMD Damo wrote:He wants a desktop, portability isn't a concern for him. He also requested lots of HDD space, he is going to compare it to entry level PCs from HP etc before he decides.
AMD Damo wrote:The Gigabyte GA-H61MA-D3V costs only $4 more, but it includes USB3.Mobo: ASUS P8H61-M-LX-V3 Motherboard $59
AMD Damo wrote:Could the budget stretch to include a 23" 1920x1080 e-IPS LCD monitor like the Asus VS239H for $30 more?Monitor: Samsung S23B300H 23in Widescreen LED Monitor $149
ludi wrote:A no-GPU office solution like this will almost certainly be cheaper from HP or Dell. And frankly, I would be inclined to direct him that route, unless you really want to be supporting this rig for the next ten years. The one thing you might want to guide him away from is a bundled LCD, as you can probably help him find a much better option somewhere else.
AMD Damo wrote:What has me worried will heavy flash content websites crap out the computer with no decent GPU?
AMD Damo wrote:Yes, your PC3-10600 (DDR3-1333) memory will work fine at PC3-8500 (DDR3-1066) speeds.It doesn't support DDR3 1333mhz RAM, I don't think I can get any slower DDR3 RAM from that supplier, will it still work but just at a slower clock speeD?
AMD Damo wrote:I can't agree with this selection. If you want a discrete GPU for gaming, get at least something in the range of a Radeon HD7750, HD7770 or HD6850 or a GeForce GTX550Ti or GTX460. Otherwise, just stick with the integrated graphics.Graphics: PowerColor Radeon HD6450 1GB
AMD Damo wrote:Dumping the graphics card would free up enough funds to get an e-IPS LCD monitor instead of a TN LCD or it would get you more than half way back to the Core i3-2120 CPU that you originally selected. I would choose the monitor. It's going to last longer than the other parts of the system.Monitor: Samsung S23B300H 23in Widescreen LED Monitor
DPete27 wrote:Yeah, I definetly agree with JAE that you should either stick with integrated graphics (which again sounds like it will be fine for his needs) or the next logical step up would be an AMD 7750.
You might consider getting a 90GB SSD instead of 60GB. I feel like 60GB would be a bit restrictive, whereas 90GB would give a reasonable amount of extra space for future programs. There are 90GB SSDs that go for cheaper than that 60GB Intel drive you selected.
DPete27 wrote: