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Computer for Dad

H

hkhawk

Limp Gawd
Joined
Aug 17, 2004
Messages
216
I want to upgrade my Dad's computer:

1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc

Web browsing, lots of email, youtube, Word, listening to music

2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?

$250-500

3) Where do you live?

North Carolina

4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, etc. Please be very specific.

Mobo with integrated graphics, CPU, RAM

5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.

Antec SLK-2600 case, Antec SmartPower 350 PSU, HighPoint PCI ATA RAID card, 2x 40GB WD Caviar ATA HDs, PCI Creative Audigy sound card and nice stereo speakers, CD Burner, PCI wi-fi 802.11g card with external antenna

6) Will you be overclocking?

No

7) What size monitor do you have and/or plan to have?

18" diagonal 1280x1024 LCD, might upgrade in future but not to anything massive or super high resolution

8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?

When Windows 7 comes out

9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? etc.

Three PCI card slots for Audigy (he loves listening to music on his computer and has a really nice sound card and stereo speakers), RAID card (uses mirroring and does NOT want to use built in RAID in case of MOBO failure, we have a back up RAID card just in case), and PCI wifi card. Integrated graphics

10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license?

No, will get Windows 7.

My Dad does a lot of emailing, web browsing, and writing. He is retired but writes a lot and is on his computer most of the day researching and writing. I built him an Athlon XP system about 7-8 years ago and he loves it but it is starting to show its age. He wanted me to build him a computer because he liked my computer and had previously had hard drive failure so I made him a computer with RAID mirroring. He just wants something cheap, powerful, and RELIABLE that will last him a long time. He usually has his email, webpages, and Word open and copies and pastes between them. He absolutely hates when this takes a long time. Otherwise, his requirements are quite basic, I doubt such a computer would cost very much at all.

The most important factor by far is reliability, please don't suggest anything that may be prone to failure, he is willing to spend more for quality components
 
For your father's usage, he's better off buying a prebuilt like a Dell. Dell's PCs are pretty reliable and solid these days.

Also I wouldn't use the Smartpower PSU. The Truepower I and II series as well as the Smartpower series were well known for their above average death rates due to a poor choice in caps and cooling design. In more specific terms, Antec/CWT specified/used caps (Fuhjyyu caps) that did not respond well to heat. Unfortunately, Antec made the decision to have the PSU fan only ramp at really high temps in an effort to keep the PSU quiet. However, just medium to high temps were enough to screw up the caps so really high temps were murderous. Over time, this degraded the quality and performance of those PSU series.

So I recommend replacing the PSU, especially if you hear a squeal, whine, or any odd noise coming from the PSU. However, do note that the Truepower I and II series as well as the Smartpower series had a three year warranty. So if you do hear a squeal, whine, or any odd noise, that's enough grounds to RMA the PSU.

Also using a RAID setup with IDE hard drives will be slower than many single SATA HDD out there. So is a separate SATA compatible RAID card part of that $350 budget as well?

Also note that with onboard RAID, you can move the RAID to another mobo based on the same chipset.
 
Danny Bui said:
For your father's usage, he's better off buying a prebuilt like a Dell. Dell's PCs are pretty reliable and solid these days.

Also I wouldn't use the Smartpower PSU. The Truepower I and II series as well as the Smartpower series were well known for their above average death rates due to a poor choice in caps and cooling design. In more specific terms, Antec/CWT specified/used caps (Fuhjyyu caps) that did not respond well to heat. Unfortunately, Antec made the decision to have the PSU fan only ramp at really high temps in an effort to keep the PSU quiet. However, just medium to high temps were enough to screw up the caps so really high temps were murderous. Over time, this degraded the quality and performance of those PSU series.

So I recommend replacing the PSU, especially if you hear a squeal, whine, or any odd noise coming from the PSU. However, do note that the Truepower I and II series as well as the Smartpower series had a three year warranty. So if you do hear a squeal, whine, or any odd noise, that's enough grounds to RMA the PSU.

Also using a RAID setup with IDE hard drives will be slower than many single SATA HDD out there. So is a separate SATA compatible RAID card part of that $350 budget as well?

Also note that with onboard RAID, you can move the RAID to another mobo based on the same chipset.
Click to expand...

Specifically, what prebuilt computer would you recommend? He definitely wants RAID mirroring for reliability, speed is not so important. HD capacity is not important at all as he doesn't nearly fill up the 40GBs he has right now.

If you think I should replace the HDs with SATAs and get a new PSU what do you recommend? The PSU is whisper quiet right now and we have never had any problems but who knows? It is definitely out of warranty now.
 
hkhawk said:
Specifically, what prebuilt computer would you recommend? He definitely wants RAID mirroring for reliability, speed is not so important. HD capacity is not important at all as he doesn't nearly fill up the 40GBs he has right now.

If you think I should replace the HDs with SATAs and get a new PSU what do you recommend? The PSU is whisper quiet right now and we have never had any problems but who knows? It is definitely out of warranty now.
Click to expand...

Hmm, not 100% sure what sub $500 prebuilt PCs out there that have RAID. But I still recommend hitting up www.gotapex.com or dellout.com for Dell deals.

If you do go the DIY route, I'd go this route:
$120 - AMD Athlon II X2 240 CPU + Gigabyte GA-MA785GM-US2H AMD 785G HDMI mATX motherboard Combo
$58 - Corsair VS4GBKIT800D2 G 2 x 2GB DDR2 800 RAM
$100 - 2 x Western Digital WD3200AAKS 320GB 7200RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive in RAID 1
$42 - Seasonic SS-300ET 300W PSU
-----
Total: $320 plus tax. Free shipping on all the parts.

Also do note that RAID is not backup.
 
Danny Bui said:
Hmm, not 100% sure what sub $500 prebuilt PCs out there that have RAID. But I still recommend hitting up www.gotapex.com or dellout.com for Dell deals.

If you do go the DIY route, I'd go this route:
$120 - AMD Athlon II X2 240 CPU + Gigabyte GA-MA785GM-US2H AMD 785G HDMI mATX motherboard Combo
$58 - Corsair VS4GBKIT800D2 G 2 x 2GB DDR2 800 RAM
$100 - 2 x Western Digital WD3200AAKS 320GB 7200RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive in RAID 1
$42 - Seasonic SS-300ET 300W PSU
-----
Total: $320 plus tax. Free shipping on all the parts.

Also do note that RAID is not backup.
Click to expand...

That seems pretty good. Why exactly do you recommend those HDs? Yeah I know RAID is not backup but my Dad is more worried about HD failure than anything as he has had this happen to him a couple times.
 
hkhawk said:
That seems pretty good. Why exactly do you recommend those HDs? Yeah I know RAID is not backup but my Dad is more worried about HD failure than anything as he has had this happen to him a couple times.
Click to expand...

Those HDDs are quiet, some of the fastest drives out there, and are of good reliability.

However, there are better bang for the buck drives but I do not know anything about them:
$50 - Samsung Spinpoint F3 HD502HJ 500GB 7200RPM SATA HDD

Same price as the 320GB but larger. However I haven't seen any performance numbers on those Samsung drives.
 
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