Trying to help out my dad

[Dyslexia]

Hey guys I'm trying to help put my dad with his computer situation, as his 10 year old computer just died. He is pretty bummed as all he played was Civilization 3, Silent Hunter 3, and Quake 2.

Feeling like I should help I made up a quick build on new egg and I wanted to see if there were any huge holes in the build ( this will be my 1st complete build from scratch) so here it is.

Case - Cooler Master HAF 912
MOBO - ASRock Fm2 A88X
CPU - AMD A8-6600K Quad core
GPU - CPU integrated Radeon HD 8570D
CPU Cooler - Noctua NH-U12S 120 x 120 x 5
OS - Windows 7 Ultimate 64 Bit OEM
RAM - G.Skill Ripjaws X series 8GB (2x4GB)
PSU - Corsair CX Series 500w
HDD - Toshiba 500gb 32Mb cache 6.0 GB/s
Optical Drive - Asus DRW 24B 1ST

I know this seems like overkill for Civ 3 and quake 2 but its gonna be around for 10 years as well as my dad will probably play a dew of the newer cCiv games because him PC has more that 2GB of ram.

Anythings helps. Thanks guys

 

[Theocnoob]

HAF 912? Do you know how huge those cases are?
Why are you doing in ATX what you could do in ITX? Build him a nice compact little box. It won't cost you more money.

I'd look at giving him a bit more graphical horsepower than just a midrange APU by itself can provide. I'd actually steer you towards an i3 and an AMD 270 or Nvidia 750Ti, whichever is cheapest. That'll let him play most of the games out there with decent performance instead of just some of them.

If you tell me where you're located (What country, and are you near a Microcenter store?) and your budget before taxes, I can put something together for you.

Also seriously, Win 7 is dead. You can make 8.1 run just like 7 with some tweaks. Win 8.1 is more lightweight, loads faster, runs smoother, and is overall just a better OS. Also it'll be supported for 2 or 3 years longer than Win 7 will when they reach EOL around 2018-2020.

All signs are pointing towards MS making Windows a free OS just like Apple, Google, and Linux have done. They can't survive as the lone payed OS out of the pack forever. Don't expect that to happen in the immediate future but I'm saying that when it comes time to upgrade his OS again, odds are it'll be a matter of downloading the latest windows for free and that'll be it.

BTW is he still using an old CRT monitor? If he is you should include a proper 22-24" panel in your budget. Nobody needs CRT. Horrible technology.

 

[sweenytodd]

How much are your budget for your dad's PC?

 

[Dyslexia]

How much are your budget for your dad's PC?

Its 700, but that's includinging shipping so its more like 600.

 

[Theocnoob]

"If you tell me where you're located (What country, and are you near a Microcenter store?)"
So USA? Canada? Australia? There is more than one country that uses dollars as currency.

Its 700, but that's includinging shipping so its more like 600.

Not really. On PCpartpicker the price incl shipping will be shown.

 

[bob4933]

"If you tell me where you're located (What country, and are you near a Microcenter store?)"
So USA? Canada? Australia? There is more than one country that uses dollars as currency.



Not really. On PCpartpicker the price incl shipping will be shown.

It also shows MIR that most people don't like to deal with, keep that in mind as well. And probably not interested in overclocking as well I'd imagine. I built my dads computer with the 912, its a solid case, and not "OMG HUGE". It's a normal sized case really.


anywho,
Sounds like a good build to get an a10 kaveri chip. The a8 6600 is pretty weak compared to the A10 and not much less expensive either. I will recommend you get an aftermarket cooler as well, the stock one is LOUD. Also, if he was running a 10 year old computer, its probably time to get a new monitor unfortunately.


This would be my recommendation for a reliable, long lasting PC he can actually enjoy. Please bear in mind some of these are sales that may not exist in a couple days (the power supply in particular). You can also pick up a used monitor much cheaper if he needs that.

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/bkkfGX

Whatever you get, i highly recommend you get that power supply and the ram TODAY. They can sit in a box for a bit, but those are some pretty sweet prices.

 

[Theocnoob]

It also shows MIR that most people don't like to deal with, keep that in mind as well. And probably not interested in overclocking as well I'd imagine. I built my dads computer with the 912, its a solid case, and not "OMG HUGE". It's a normal sized case really.


anywho,
Sounds like a good build to get an a10 kaveri chip. The a8 6600 is pretty weak compared to the A10 and not much less expensive either. I will recommend you get an aftermarket cooler as well, the stock one is LOUD. Also, if he was running a 10 year old computer, its probably time to get a new monitor unfortunately.


This would be my recommendation for a reliable, long lasting PC he can actually enjoy. Please bear in mind some of these are sales that may not exist in a couple days (the power supply in particular). You can also pick up a used monitor much cheaper if he needs that.

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/bkkfGX

Whatever you get, i highly recommend you get that power supply and the ram TODAY. They can sit in a box for a bit, but those are some pretty sweet prices.

Ya but what I'm saying is that this could be easily done in ITX. Hell, it could be done in a NUC sized box if AMD made them.

There are no expansion cards whatsoever. No sound card, no wifi card, no GPU, nothing. It's just the board, the CPU, RAM, and a couple of drives and a PSU. That's about all there is going in the case.
Why get a 50 liter box when an 8 liter box will suffice?

If the OP's dad wants to get a GPU, a sound card, maybe a wifi card, etc down the line, then ATX is for him. Otherwise, and it sounds like this is going to be the case as with most people's PCs-- it will sit in its original form with no upgrades for the next decade (god willing). If people move houses, need to move the PC, etc, it's a lot easier for them to pick up an ITX case under one arm than it is to pick up a big tower. JM2C.

 

[HANDxOFxGOD]

+1 on theocnoob's reply.

Be a good son and get him a moderately new discrete GPU. lol

 

[RollingThunder]

"If you tell me where you're located (What country, and are you near a Microcenter store?)"
So USA? Canada? Australia? There is more than one country that uses dollars as currency.

Canada, near you.

 

[Theocnoob]

Canada eh? The land of flapping heads, beady eyes, and unfairly high PC component prices. Your budget will go much further in the states than in the great white north, that's for sure.

 

[Dyslexia]

Hey Canada is just fine. For me at least.

 

[Dyslexia]

The original build i had did have an added GPU but when i saw that the processor was ****ty i upgraded, and saw that the CPU had a GPU with integrated. If there is a way to make them both work in tandem i would love to but i don't have any clue if thats possible

 

[Dyslexia]

theocnoob what you really seem to be driving for is the smaller case (which i will look into) and earlier you said should go Intel, and get a better GPU to go with it. I would rather not go Intel as the tend to be more expensive albeit more powerful (AMD fan boy here). Also he uses a 20' LCD monitor, so im not worried about the monitor.

 

[Theocnoob]

theocnoob what you really seem to be driving for is the smaller case (which i will look into) and earlier you said should go Intel, and get a better GPU to go with it. I would rather not go Intel as the tend to be more expensive albeit more powerful (AMD fan boy here). Also he uses a 20' LCD monitor, so im not worried about the monitor.

Fanboyism is self-inflicted cruelty. Why would you knowingly buy an inferior product? You can get a G3258 for LESS money than a decent A8 APU will cost you, and the G3258 will significantly outpace the APU in raw compute performance. Then you add a GPU, and you're off to the races.

You can do dual graphics on an APU by using a very low end GPU (check the supported list, an example would be an R7 250). The GPU and APU will work in tandem to increase your framerate.

You are seriously better off though with a low end Intel chip and a low end (entry level "decent") GPU like an R9 270.

I think you should look at an i3, a B85 board, and an R9 270. Or, if you want to OC, a G3258, rock bottom Z97 board, Arctic Freezer 7 cpu cooler ($15). I think you're better off with the i3 though, just in case you run into a game that demands more than 2 threads. It's already happening.

 

[ninjacore]

+1

And can you not reuse the OS from his old PC?