Non gamers

N

non gamer

Member
We are both late 50's, computer literate but no experts and nearing retirement, don't do games (grandchildren years away). Looking for a replacement Home PC, for general internet surfing, spreadsheets, banking, holiday photos, some music. We want a reasonable spec with decent size monitor and potential for additional usage in retirement. Have looked at these forums and have come up with the following spec - any advice on the spec would be most welcome! -

STYLISH PIANO BLACK ENIGMA CASE + 2 FRONT USB
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i3-560 Dual Core (3.33GHz, 4MB Cache) + HD Graphics
Motherboard
ASUS® P7H55-M SI: MICRO ATX VALUE MAINBOARD,USB 2.0 & SATA 3.0Gb/s
Memory (RAM)
4GB SAMSUNG DDR3 DUAL-DDR3 1333MHz (2 X 2GB)
Graphics Card
1GB ATI RADEON™ HD 5670 PCI EXPRESS - DirectX® 11
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
1TB WD CAVIAR GREEN WD10EARS, SATA 3 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Memory Card Reader
INTERNAL 52 IN 1 CARD READER (XD, MS, CF, SD, etc) + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT
Power Supply & Case Cooling
450W Quiet 80 PLUS Dual Rail PSU + 120mm Case Fan (£29)
Processor Cooling
INTEL SOCKET LGA1156 STANDARD CPU COOLER
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Facilities
ONBOARD 10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT
USB Options
6 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL (MIN 2 FRONT PORTS) AS STANDARD
Firewire & Video Editing
3 Port IEEE 1394a Firewire PCI Card (£9)
Operating System
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence (£79)
Office Software
FREE Microsoft® Office Starter 2010 (Limited functionality Word & Excel)
Anti-Virus
BULLGUARD INTERNET SECURITY - FREE 90 DAY TRIAL
Monitor
IIYAMA E2271HDS 22" LED WIDESCREEN, HDMI/DVI-D FULL HD 1920x1080 (£139)
Keyboard & Mouse
Logitech® Wireless Desktop® MK250 Keyboard and Mouse Combo (£19)
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£5)
 
Sleinous

Sleinous

Author Level
Could we have a rough idea of what budget we should be working towards? Some parts of teh above spec are great, some parts may be a little overkill for your intended usage.
 
PCS

PCS

Administrator
Staff member
Welcome to our forums :)

Generally a great spec there. For simply browsing the internet/spreadsheets/banking/e-mail the spec is too powerful, but if you plan to start a little photo editing, etc the spec is well balanced and has plenty of power to keep the PC future-proof for at least the next 3 - 5 years baring any unforseen computing advances!
 
S

Shibin

Enthusiast
Would you need a 450w psu and a ati 5670?...unless you did lots of photo editing. You could probably go for the intergrated graphics and 350w psu or the ati4350/gt 210. Them 2 are the cheapest gpus at this site for nvidia and ati.

Otherwise great spec,sleinous would be happy with the hdd (inside joke) :D
 
Sleinous

Sleinous

Author Level
I would indeed, as Shibin said, it really depends if you will be catching up on Bbciplayer in the future etc etc, you really could benefit from a cheap, dedicated GPU, but maybe not something as powerful as the 5670. Then again, it will make your pc less prone to becoming quickly outdated.
 
N

non gamer

Member
Many thanks for your help, Sleinous/Shibin / PCS; It really does help us non techs. Budget was approx £700. We have taken the advice of Shibin and moved to a Power supply 350 /120 Fan and a Graphic Card 512MB ATI Radeon HD 4350. This has pushed the price down from £738 to £671. Just a couple of questions should I get some speakers or are the Screen built ins ok ? Also currently use a wired keyboard, should I stick to my wireless Keyboard and mouse selection "Logitech® Wireless Desktop® MK250 Keyboard and Mouse Combo (£19)"

So spec now is;
Case
STYLISH PIANO BLACK ENIGMA CASE + 2 FRONT USB
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i3-560 Dual Core (3.33GHz, 4MB Cache) + HD Graphics
Motherboard
ASUS® P7H55-M SI: MICRO ATX VALUE MAINBOARD,USB 2.0 & SATA 3.0Gb/s
Memory (RAM)
4GB SAMSUNG DDR3 DUAL-DDR3 1333MHz (2 X 2GB)
Graphics Card
512MB ATI RADEON™ HD 4350 PCI EXPRESS
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
1TB WD CAVIAR GREEN WD10EARS, SATA 3 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Memory Card Reader
INTERNAL 52 IN 1 CARD READER (XD, MS, CF, SD, etc) + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT
Power Supply & Case Cooling
350W Dual Rail PSU + 120mm Case Fan
Processor Cooling
INTEL SOCKET LGA1156 STANDARD CPU COOLER
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Facilities
ONBOARD 10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT
USB Options
6 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL (MIN 2 FRONT PORTS) AS STANDARD
Firewire & Video Editing
3 Port IEEE 1394a Firewire PCI Card (£9)
Operating System
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence (£79)
Office Software
FREE Microsoft® Office Starter 2010 (Limited functionality Word & Excel)
Anti-Virus
BULLGUARD INTERNET SECURITY - FREE 90 DAY TRIAL
Monitor
IIYAMA E2271HDS 22" LED WIDESCREEN, HDMI/DVI-D FULL HD 1920x1080 (£139)
Keyboard & Mouse
Logitech® Wireless Desktop® MK250 Keyboard and Mouse Combo (£19)
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£5)
 
S

Shibin

Enthusiast
Sound and wireless/wired keyboard are personal preferences. I would guess sound would be the same as it would be 2.1 unless you intend to use better than 2.1. Wired/wireless keyboard wont matter but if ur on a tight budget you could use your own wired keyboard/mouse.
 
Sleinous

Sleinous

Author Level
This is also a little spec I just thought up, and as for the mouse and keyboard, you could just keep your existing ones, I never been to keen on wireless as batteries are a bit of a pain :p and I love cables anyways ;) I have a bluetooth mouse for my netbook, keep changing batteries -.-

Anyway, this comprises of a Core 2 Duo, and quite a decent GPU to make sure this PC never actually needs an upgrade, heck the grandchildren will be able to play games on it one day :p

Just thought i'd add some more specs for food for thought :)

Here it is:

Case
PCS MAELSTROM T900 BLACK GAMING CASE (£42)
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™2 Duo E8400 (3.00GHz) 1333MHz FSB/6MB L2 Cache
Motherboard
ASUS® P5G41T-M LX2 S: MICRO ATX VALUE BOARD & DDR3, SATA-II, 2 x PCI
Memory (RAM)
4GB SAMSUNG DDR3 DUAL-DDR3 1333MHz (2 X 2GB)
Graphics Card
1GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTS450 GDDR5 PCI EXPRESS - DirectX® 11
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
1TB WD CAVIAR GREEN WD10EARS, SATA 3 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Memory Card Reader
INTERNAL 52 IN 1 CARD READER (XD, MS, CF, SD, etc) + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT
Power Supply & Case Cooling
450W Quiet 80 PLUS Dual Rail PSU + 120mm Case Fan (£29)
Processor Cooling
SUPER QUIET 22dBA TRIPLE COPPER HEATPIPE CPU COOLER (£19)
Sound Card
ONBOARD 8 CHANNEL (7.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Facilities
ONBOARD 10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT
USB Options
4 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL (MIN 2 FRONT PORTS) AS STANDARD
Operating System
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence (£79)
Office Software
FREE Microsoft® Office Starter 2010 (Limited functionality Word & Excel)
Anti-Virus
BULLGUARD INTERNET SECURITY - FREE 90 DAY TRIAL
Keyboard & Mouse
Logitech® Wireless Desktop® MK250 Keyboard and Mouse Combo (£19)
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£5)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 9 to 12 working days
Quantity
1

Price: £666.00 including VAT and delivery.

Without monitor of course, but just some more suggestions :)
 
S

Shibin

Enthusiast
Sleinous he wanted the illayama monitor,and on that matter. edit:
Without monitor of course, but just some more suggestions
Click to expand...
I hate you sleinous...this is war.

@nongamer: If you arent gaming etc i dont know what the advantage is on buying an illyamma. Try going for the 22inch £119 one which is cheaper,1080p and around same specs. You wont notice a difference as spec is around same.
 
Sleinous

Sleinous

Author Level
Haha war war :p I can cheapen it further, by removing the GTS 450, but, for some reason ive never been too keen on the GT220 and the 210, no idea why. I guess, its just because I think you may as well just go for onboard in that case :)
 
N

non gamer

Member
Thanks for feed back guys; the spec from Sleinous has us thinking re now (PCS MAELSTROM T900 BLACK GAMING CASE and Intel® Core™2 Duo E8400 (3.00GHz) 1333MHz FSB/6MB L2 Cache Processor). We are not that Computer Clever to decide which to go for and we do need a new monitor which gets us up to £780 for the Sleinous Spec (us Non Gamers) ?.
 
Rakk

Rakk

The Awesome
Moderator
Shibin said:
@nongamer: If you arent gaming etc i dont know what the advantage is on buying an illyamma. Try going for the 22inch £119 one which is cheaper,1080p and around same specs. You wont notice a difference as spec is around same.
Click to expand...

Just cos it's not planned for gaming doesn't mean you can't have a better quality monitor :)

I can see a big difference between my 3 year old generic monitor and my 6 year old Iiyama monitor just by looking at wallpaper on my desktop, the Iiyama screen really does look a lot sharper and the colours much nicer :)
 
S

Shibin

Enthusiast
Yeh but i only recommended it as he said he wasnt on a tight budget,but no biggie...and if your such a big non gamer then i dont really see the need for gtx 460. But your call.
 
N

non gamer

Member
Thanks for all your advice guys. We will do some thinking re the i3 route and the Sleinous route
 
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Sleinous

Sleinous

Author Level
What ive tried to put together is something you hopefully wont ever need to upgrade, the i3 i5 i7 generation may be a little overkill tbh, if you want to go quad core, an Intel Quad Core CPU would be ample, you could also possibly downgrade the GPU, but, you could seriously benefit from the better GPU when it comes to watching high def vids
 
J

James

Active member
A cheap option with upgrade-ability:

Case
STYLISH PIANO BLACK ENIGMA CASE + 2 FRONT USB
Processor (CPU)
AMD ATHLON II X2 255 (3.10GHz/2MB CACHE/AM3)
Motherboard
ASUS® M4A87TD/USB3: DUAL DDR3,SATA 6.0GB/s, USB 3.0
Memory (RAM)
2GB SAMSUNG DDR3 DUAL-DDR3 1333MHz (1 x 2GB)
Graphics Card
512MB ATI RADEON™ HD 4350 PCI EXPRESS
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
1TB WD CAVIAR GREEN WD10EARS, SATA 3 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Memory Card Reader
INTERNAL 52 IN 1 CARD READER (XD, MS, CF, SD, etc) + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT
Power Supply & Case Cooling
350W Dual Rail PSU + 120mm Case Fan
Processor Cooling
STANDARD AMD CPU COOLER
Sound Card
ONBOARD 8 CHANNEL (7.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Facilities
ONBOARD 10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT
USB Options
6 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL (MIN 2 FRONT PORTS) AS STANDARD
Operating System
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence (£79)
Monitor
IIYAMA E2271HDS 22" LED WIDESCREEN, HDMI/DVI-D FULL HD 1920x1080 (£139)
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£5)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 9 to 12 working days
Quantity
1

Price: £575.00 including VAT and delivery.

A better option, but still within the £700 budget:

Case
STYLISH PIANO BLACK ENIGMA CASE + 2 FRONT USB
Processor (CPU)
AMD ATHLON II X4 640 (3.00GHz/2MB CACHE/AM3)
Motherboard
ASUS® M4A87TD/USB3: DUAL DDR3,SATA 6.0GB/s, USB 3.0
Memory (RAM)
4GB SAMSUNG DDR3 DUAL-DDR3 1333MHz (2 X 2GB)
Graphics Card
1GB ATI RADEON™ HD 5450 PCI EXPRESS - DirectX® 11
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
1TB WD CAVIAR GREEN WD10EARS, SATA 3 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Memory Card Reader
INTERNAL 52 IN 1 CARD READER (XD, MS, CF, SD, etc) + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT
Power Supply & Case Cooling
450W Quiet 80 PLUS Dual Rail PSU + 120mm Case Fan (£29)
Processor Cooling
STANDARD AMD CPU COOLER
Sound Card
ONBOARD 8 CHANNEL (7.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Facilities
ONBOARD 10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT
USB Options
6 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL (MIN 2 FRONT PORTS) AS STANDARD
Operating System
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence (£79)
Monitor
IIYAMA E2271HDS 22" LED WIDESCREEN, HDMI/DVI-D FULL HD 1920x1080 (£139)
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£5)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 9 to 12 working days
Quantity
1

Price: £661.00 including VAT and delivery.


With the extra money you could get a Faster Processor/Delivery, better Hard Drive/Graphics/Warranty etc...
 
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J

James

Active member
Intel are faster than AMD, but tend to be more expensive, but your requirements aren't high, so you might as well get as much as you can for as little as you can.
Little info underneath for you :)

Just to reference before I start, I made the spec on this page:
http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/computers/amd-top-spec-pc/

So instead of getting the cheaper(but still a good option)
Processor (CPU)
AMD ATHLON II X4 640 (3.00GHz/2MB CACHE/AM3)

You could spend a little extra and get a;
Processor (CPU)
AMD PHENOM II X4 955 (3.20GHz/8MB CACHE/AM3) - BLACK EDITION

It's just a faster CPU of the same kind, and I'm not sure you'd need it with what you want to do with it, as a Quad Core will do it all fine and for quite a few years to come I'd say.
 
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