$600ish (US) PC

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Jubei

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Dec 22, 2007
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My wife's desktop bit the dust and we need to buy/build her a new one.

She currently has a HP slimline with these specs:

AMD X2 5000+ CPU
2GB DDR2 PC5300
500GB HD
MicroATX MB
MicroATX slimline case
MicroATX 200W PSU (yes, 200W!)
On board video - I think it's LE 4150SE (it sucks)
16x DVD Burner

We are going to keep the monitor, keyboard and mouse and that's it! Her old machine overheats and HP won't do anything about it other than replace the crappy parts with the same crappy parts that will fail again in six months when it is outside of the warranty. Her CPU is already damaged, the RAM is notebook sized and I can see a funky capacitor on the motherboard (ie about to fail). We might be able to use the hard drive, but I can't get a consistent SMART reading out of it, so I'm going to play it safe and buy her a new one. This machine was only $360 or so when I bought it less than a year ago - otherwise I would have built her one myself. It was a stellar deal back then and dollar for dollar I couldn't touch it price wise. Now money isn't so tight and we can get her something nice(er).

She surfs the web, plays with photoshop a little, watches movies (from DVD's and over HULU and Netflix) and plays some games: SIMS 2, SPORE, SIMS 3 (when it is released) so a little GFX omph is desired. Here's what I've put together so far:

LITE-ON Black 22X DVD Burner - OEM

COOLER MASTER Centurion 541 RC-541-SKN1 Black Aluminum bezel, SECC chassis MicroATX Mini Tower Computer Case - Retail

SAMSUNG Spinpoint F DT HD502IJ 500GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM

SAPPHIRE 100265HDMI Radeon HD 4830 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card - Retail

PC Power & Cooling Silencer PPCS500 500W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Power Supply - Retail

G.SKILL HK 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Retail

ASUS P5QL-CM LGA 775 Intel G43 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail

Intel Pentium E5200 Wolfdale 2.5GHz 2MB L2 Cache LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor - Retail

Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 64-bit for System Builders - OEM

$630 after shipping

So what do you guys think? Thoughts? Suggestions? I can play around with it some more to find better deals and/or lower shipping costs.
 
Doesn't look too bad. What will she be using it for exactly? It looks to be just fine for work and such, a bit underpowered for gaming... but with the games you said she plays it should be fine. The OEM disc is a smart buy, as I have an OEM 32-bit XP and I can use it over and over for my own custom built systems I make for other (I use Vista 64 on this one).

I built my computer for around 700$ (I already had a somewhat decent video card) and it's a monster in games. The card is the only thing holding it back right now.
 
B-miester said:
looks good, but what are you gonna do with the old one?
Click to expand...

Old one doesn't boot reliably (and locks randomly and will freeze after a bit of use). Most of the parts are either proprietary or have failed.
 
Jubei said:
OOPS!

And let's forget the microATX crap:

COOLER MASTER Centurion 5 CAC-T05-UW Black Aluminum Bezel , SECC Chassis ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail
Click to expand...

Your case will do, but you may want to look around and see what other cases are available. I would recommend something with a front 120mm intake fan (case well-perforated on the bottom front), 120mm rear exhaust fan, and side vent that can take an optional 120mm fan. I just walked out of Frys with a Thermaltake M9 for $50. A good vent system will keep things cool and quiet.
 
bigwilly said:
Your case will do, but you may want to look around and see what other cases are available. I would recommend something with a front 120mm intake fan (case well-perforated on the bottom front), 120mm rear exhaust fan, and side vent that can take an optional 120mm fan. I just walked out of Frys with a Thermaltake M9 for $50. A good vent system will keep things cool and quiet.
Click to expand...

I have the same case with my PC and I love it! The front is grilled and you can feel the air getting sucked in. It does have dust filters - just pop the front off and spray with some air once every now and again.
 
InfenXi said:
I would get XP rather than Vista. Dunno if you can get it though.
Click to expand...

XP64 is terri-bad in my experience. Vista64 with SP1 works great with modern hardware and anything other than day-one drivers (ie the ones that came out for vista in Jan '07).
 
Jubei said:
My wife's desktop bit the dust and we need to buy/build her a new one.

She currently has a HP slimline with these specs:

AMD X2 5000+ CPU
2GB DDR2 PC5300
500GB HD
MicroATX MB
MicroATX slimline case
MicroATX 200W PSU (yes, 200W!)
On board video - I think it's LE 4150SE (it sucks)
16x DVD Burner

We are going to keep the monitor, keyboard and mouse and that's it! Her old machine overheats and HP won't do anything about it other than replace the crappy parts with the same crappy parts that will fail again in six months when it is outside of the warranty. Her CPU is already damaged, the RAM is notebook sized and I can see a funky capacitor on the motherboard (ie about to fail). We might be able to use the hard drive, but I can't get a consistent SMART reading out of it, so I'm going to play it safe and buy her a new one. This machine was only $360 or so when I bought it less than a year ago - otherwise I would have built her one myself. It was a stellar deal back then and dollar for dollar I couldn't touch it price wise. Now money isn't so tight and we can get her something nice(er).

She surfs the web, plays with photoshop a little, watches movies (from DVD's and over HULU and Netflix) and plays some games: SIMS 2, SPORE, SIMS 3 (when it is released) so a little GFX omph is desired. Here's what I've put together so far:

LITE-ON Black 22X DVD Burner - OEM

COOLER MASTER Centurion 541 RC-541-SKN1 Black Aluminum bezel, SECC chassis MicroATX Mini Tower Computer Case - Retail

SAMSUNG Spinpoint F DT HD502IJ 500GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM

SAPPHIRE 100265HDMI Radeon HD 4830 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card - Retail

PC Power & Cooling Silencer PPCS500 500W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Power Supply - Retail

G.SKILL HK 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Retail

ASUS P5QL-CM LGA 775 Intel G43 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail

Intel Pentium E5200 Wolfdale 2.5GHz 2MB L2 Cache LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor - Retail

Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 64-bit for System Builders - OEM

$630 after shipping

So what do you guys think? Thoughts? Suggestions? I can play around with it some more to find better deals and/or lower shipping costs.
Click to expand...

Great stuff, more than enough for what she needs.
 
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