new build Q for mom

[CarlJohnson]

My mother in law has been clunking around on a Dell P3 600 for forever and it's showing it's age. I suggested building a new PC and she gave me a budget of $250-300. She has a nice monitor, keyboard and mouse, DVD burner that I will reuse. I have picked out these:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.215542 CASE AND PS $62
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820146526 RAM $25
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136218 640GB HD $70

I'm trying to decide between these cpus and mb:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116072 E5200 $66
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128357 MB $53

or
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103687 Athlon X2 245 $68
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128342 AMD MB $55

She uses the PC for surfing, e-mail, work from home, DVD burning, ITunes, stuff like that. She doesn't game at all and will prob use this PC for 5-7 years at least. Which platform will be faster?

 

[ChanceCoats123]

Well, the 245 should be a bit better for multitasking if that is all she wants to do. And the stock 800mhz front side bus of the e5200 is a real bottleneck.

 

[CGR]

I would just get her another Dell or HP. Its a much better alternative than building for family members. Cheaper too most of the time.

 

[just dan]

i would go with the amd since same wattage and more speed, bet you could pre overclock it to 3ghz just on stock and above me ^^ why get a dell or an hp when you can get one without bloatware?

 

[CarlJohnson]

So that's 2 for AMD and 0 Intel. I was leaning towards the 245 but wanted an experts opinion that's why I asked here.

 

[Trap05]

I'd go the AMD route with a smaller drive and a better motherboard

 

[A-Dub]

+1 for amd, I don't know about that psu, especially since you want this build to last 5+ years. I'd go for a smaller hard drive and try to fit a better psu into the budget.

This is only $40 AR, add in a cheap case and you're only looking at ~$10 more than the case/psu you linked.

Corsair 400 watt:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139008

Maybe this case/psu if you can fit it into the budget, though it eats up a big chunk of it.
Antec 300 case/430 watt psu:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129065

 

[CarlJohnson]

I'm not too sure of the HEC PSU either but it has quite a lot of reviews and most of them are 4 or 5 eggs. I found this http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.215519 combo for $15 cheaper it is the same PSU and different case. I also changed the HD to this http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136098 . So now the total comes to be $246 plus shipping.

 

[Trap05]

What can you get from Dell for that kind of money?

 

[A-Dub]

What can you get from Dell for that kind of money?

Not much, but remember that the dell system inclued the OS:

$249
Dell Inspiron 531
AMD Athlon™ 2650e (1.6GHz, 512K)

Operating System
Genuine Windows XP® Home Edition, SP3

Optical Drive
16x DVD+/-RW Drive

Memory
1GB2 Single Channel DDR2 SDRAM3 at 800MHz- 1DIMMs

Hard Drives
160GB4 Serial ATA Hard Drive (7200RPM) w/DataBurst Cache™

Video Cards
NVIDIA GeForce 6150 SE Integrated Graphics GPU

 

[CarlJohnson]

Ok I found a better board for $10 more http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131376 . I told her about a cheap Dell but she doesn't want one. She is all about bang for the buck. She also has the OS covered. Now my total is $256 plus shipping.

 

[Trap05]

Now just spend a touch more for a decent power supply. That's your weakest link as it stands.

 

[CarlJohnson]

How about this one? http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817171028 with this case http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811147126 for $55?

 

[Trap05]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817153023 Better choice for power supply

 

[CarlJohnson]

Ha I'm actually using that TT ps in my C2D rig and it hasn't given me any trouble. Forgot all about it to tell the truth. That's the main reason why I haven't tried overclocking the e7200. Thanks for the suggestion. So the current list is:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103687 X2 245 $68
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131376 ASUS 760G $65
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820146599 Mushkin 2GB $25
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136098 320 GB blue $50
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817153023 TT 430W $36
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811147126 mATX case $20
for a grand total of $264 plus shipping. Thanks for all of your suggestions. If I can improve anything else let me know.

 

[Trap05]

How about some faster ram for the same price? http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820146599

 

[CarlJohnson]

Thanks. Any other suggestions?

 

[Trap05]

You could move up to a slightly better board. It has the HD3200 graphics instead of HD3000 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131324
Or an nvidia board that's similar http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131354 I believe the geforce 8300 is faster.

 

[CarlJohnson]

Ok I placed the order yesterday. Here is what I went with:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103687 X2 245
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128395 Gigabyte AM3 785G
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148194 Crucial 2GB DDR3
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136098 320 GB blue
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817153023 TT 430W
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811147073 Rosewill case

The total came to be $347 including a external HD enclosure and shipping. Thanks for your suggestions and I'll post back with how well it runs.

 

[Trap05]

Should work great