Rig advice: Office PC to last 5 years

[crimson117]

I'm building a PC for a family friend who needs a new home office PC. She'd like it to last 5 years and is set on a 17" LCD. She does mostly MS Word, Internet, Email, MS Publisher, and some basic photo editing.

I don't think I'd bother overclocking this for her. All the stuff is priced from newegg including shipping unless a better price turns up. It's basically the recent Anandtech budget model with some of the optional upgrades. Any comments how I can make this better, or save money without sacrificing much performance?

Processor: AMD Athlon 64 3000+ 512K 1.80 GHz socket 939 (Retail - Venice) $146.00
Motherboard: MSI nForce4 (939) K8N Neo4-F $85.00
Memory: 2x512MB Corsair Value Select PC3200 2.5-3-3-8 2T $83.00
Video Card: MSI RX300SE-TD128E Radeon X300SE 128MB DDR PCI Express x16 Video Card - Retail $53.00
Hard Drive: Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 ST380817AS 80GB 7200 RPM Serial ATA150 Hard Drive - OEM $66.50
Optical Drive: NEC Silver IDE DVD Burner Model ND-3540A - OEM $48.00
Floppy Drive: SONY Black 1.44MB 3.5" Internal Floppy Drive Windows 98SE/ ME/ 2000/ XP - OEM $13.50
Case, Power Supply, Speakers, Keyboard, Mouse bundle: Codegen 4C-4063S-CA Combo 350W PSU $69.00
EDIT: Alternate Case/PSU/etc.: Antec SLK1650B 350W case, cheap Logitech Keyboard/Mouse combo, use speakers included on Polyview LCD about $100 ($30 more than the Codegen option)

Display: Polyview V17E Silver-Black 17" 14ms LCD Monitor - Retail $210.00
Operating System: Microsoft Windows XP HOME Edition With Service Pack 2 - OEM $90.00
Software: MS Office Basic 2003: Word, Excel, Powerpoint $172.00

Grand Total including monitor and office software and OS: $1,036.00 ($1,066.00 with Antec case option)

 

[John]

Please keep in mind that you will be the "tech guy on call" when she has questions or problems. Recommend that she buy a cheap Dell w/ a 4 yr warranty. You'll thank me in the long run.

 

[shoRunner]

get a better psu

 

[crimson117]

Originally posted by: John
Please keep in mind that you will be the "tech guy on call" when she has questions or problems. Recommend that she buy a cheap Dell w/ a 4 yr warranty. You'll thank me in the long run.

Heh... I did mention that Dell's service would be available much more often (24/7) than I am, and she knows my rate for tech support

 

[crimson117]

Originally posted by: shoRunner
get a better psu

Why? Nothing in the system is too taxing power-wise...

 

[stevty2889]

Looks good other than the PSU. Whle there is nothing too taxing, generic power supplies can cause a lot of problems, and they don't have the protection of quality PSU's. When a generic PSU blows, it can take other things with it, while quality PSU's have added circuitry to protect against this. I lost a $180 to a generic 400w PSU..it just isn't worth the risk. Plus once they heat up, they output even less power, and can cause the system to become unstable. Never skimp on the PSU if you want a stable reliable system.

 

[batmanuel]

Originally posted by: John
Please keep in mind that you will be the "tech guy on call" when she has questions or problems. Recommend that she buy a cheap Dell w/ a 4 yr warranty. You'll thank me in the long run.

Yup. You'll probably be able to save her some cash in the process as well, if you spend some time checking the coupon sites. There's bound to be some hot Back to School deals soon.

OTOH, if you are going to go the DIY route and the rig is not going to udergo a mojor upgrade anytime soon, I'd save a few bucks and get a S754 2800+ for $131 shipped along with a cheap but decent NF3 board like the Epox 8KDA3I ($65 shipped at the Egg). That way you could upgrade the graphics a bit to a vanilla 9600 so you have a fully DX9 compliant graphics part so you (hopefully) will be able to run Aero Glass with with full hardware acceleration when Windows Vista comes out next year.

 

[JMoore]

You'd prob be fine w/ the generic PSU, but wouldn't it be better to be safe? Exspecially since she wants to use it for so long. If I were you I'd get an Antec PSU and case combo for about $70. It will look a lot nicer and prob be a lot quieter. Mouse/Keyboard combo's aren't that much and you can get speakers for less than $10. A lot of ppl try to skimp on the case/psu and regret it. The extra $20-$30 would be really well spent.

Edit: and if she is not going to game you can prob save $30 by getting a slower ms lcd dislay.

 

[crimson117]

The Antec SLK1650B would cost $81 at newegg. With $15-20 for mouse/keyboard, it's still only about $30 total more; and the LCD includes speakers anyway (and she doesn't really listen to music on it so she won't care about the quality).

She's definitely not going to game on it; but I can't find a better 17" that has a DVI connector.


Heh... more and more I'm hoping she'll go with the Dell option...

 

[vegetation]

Originally posted by: John
Please keep in mind that you will be the "tech guy on call" when she has questions or problems. Recommend that she buy a cheap Dell w/ a 4 yr warranty. You'll thank me in the long run.

Agreed, most of us here cringe doing even for immediate family, but for a family friend? No way. The real red flag here is how she wants it to last 5 years, which makes her a cheap-o who will call on you at 1am when she downloads a virus and demands to know why you purchased crappy hardware that failed on her.

 

[shoRunner]

Originally posted by: crimson117
The Antec SLK1650B would cost $81 at newegg. With $15-20 for mouse/keyboard, it's still only about $30 total more; and the LCD includes speakers anyway (and she doesn't really listen to music on it so she won't care about the quality).

She's definitely not going to game on it; but I can't find a better 17" that has a DVI connector.


Heh... more and more I'm hoping she'll go with the Dell option...

get the antec, definately worth the $30 difference.

 

[crimson117]

Originally posted by: vegetation

Originally posted by: John
Please keep in mind that you will be the "tech guy on call" when she has questions or problems. Recommend that she buy a cheap Dell w/ a 4 yr warranty. You'll thank me in the long run.

Agreed, most of us here cringe doing even for immediate family, but for a family friend? No way. The real red flag here is how she wants it to last 5 years, which makes her a cheap-o who will call on you at 1am when she downloads a virus and demands to know why you purchased crappy hardware that failed on her.

Maybe I'll tell her that I read further reviews on some parts and the prices for more reliable components would make it cost-ineffective, and she should just get the Dell.

 

[imported_g33k]

Originally posted by: vegetation

Originally posted by: John
Please keep in mind that you will be the "tech guy on call" when she has questions or problems. Recommend that she buy a cheap Dell w/ a 4 yr warranty. You'll thank me in the long run.

Agreed, most of us here cringe doing even for immediate family, but for a family friend? No way. The real red flag here is how she wants it to last 5 years, which makes her a cheap-o who will call on you at 1am when she downloads a virus and demands to know why you purchased crappy hardware that failed on her.

If I got called up at 1:00am, I would go over there to work. But, not on her computer.

 

[jlbenedict]

since you are getting an X300 based video solution, I would recommend this motherboard:

MSI RS480M-IL
Its an ATI based chipset, with onboard X300 video..
Newegg currently has this board for $78.00..
The board, based on the reviews and users that have it, is quite stable..

This would save you a few $$, plus its still a good board.

 

[w00t]

Originally posted by: g33k

Originally posted by: vegetation

Originally posted by: John
Please keep in mind that you will be the "tech guy on call" when she has questions or problems. Recommend that she buy a cheap Dell w/ a 4 yr warranty. You'll thank me in the long run.

Agreed, most of us here cringe doing even for immediate family, but for a family friend? No way. The real red flag here is how she wants it to last 5 years, which makes her a cheap-o who will call on you at 1am when she downloads a virus and demands to know why you purchased crappy hardware that failed on her.

If I got called up at 1:00am, I would go over there to work. But, not on her computer.

sure, the only lady ur gonna have is the one in ur sig.

 

[jpeyton]

Looks good, but make sure you get a Antec case + PSU.

 

[suicidalpigeon]

opertons last quite a while.

 

[imported_Frallan]

Originally posted by: crimson117

Originally posted by: vegetation

Originally posted by: John
Please keep in mind that you will be the "tech guy on call" when she has questions or problems. Recommend that she buy a cheap Dell w/ a 4 yr warranty. You'll thank me in the long run.

Agreed, most of us here cringe doing even for immediate family, but for a family friend? No way. The real red flag here is how she wants it to last 5 years, which makes her a cheap-o who will call on you at 1am when she downloads a virus and demands to know why you purchased crappy hardware that failed on her.

Maybe I'll tell her that I read further reviews on some parts and the prices for more reliable components would make it cost-ineffective, and she should just get the Dell.

Smart move...

 

[dsa1971]

honestly, for $1000 she could get a pretty good Dell with an extended 4 year warranty. I've been down the road of building systems for friends. Anytime anything goes wrong on their system regardless of whether it's software or hardware it's your fault and you need to fix it.

 

[dullard]

For an office computer you went a little overkill:
[*]You can dump the video card.
[*]There is no reason for a DVD burner.
[*]You might be able to find a cheaper 40 GB hard drive if you wait a while (she'll never use more than 10 GB). Or there is a 80 GB drive for $25 on the hot deals forum (I didn't check if the deal was still good).

Thus you could knock off ~$100. For a comparable Dell with LCD you are talking $600 for the basic hardware stuff. But then add on MS Office and a long warranty and you'll be back in the $900 range anyways.

 

[poisonthewell]

Too bad the Egg rapes you on shipping for cases. Get that Antec a little cheaper here holmes.

 

[dquan97]

another vote for dell machines. Get a decent one with integrated vid card (since she's not doing anything video intensive) and dvd/cdrw.

 

[crimson117]

Originally posted by: dsa1971
honestly, for $1000 she could get a pretty good Dell with an extended 4 year warranty. I've been down the road of building systems for friends. Anytime anything goes wrong on their system regardless of whether it's software or hardware it's your fault and you need to fix it.

Actually, with the new 30% off $999+ coupon, and the free 17" LCD, I can get this system for $1100.51, taxed and shipped. This finally beats the Custom PC I configured for her:

Dell Dimension 5100
Intel® Pentium® 4 Processor 531 w/HT Technology (3GHz,800FSB)
Microsoft® Windows® XP Home Edition
1GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 400MHz (4x256M)
Dell USB Keyboard
FREE UPGRADE! 17 inch E173FP Analog Flat Panel
128MB PCI Express? x16 (DVI/VGA/TV-out) ATI Radeon X300 SE HyperMemory
80GB Serial ATA Hard Drive (7200RPM)
3.5 in Floppy Drive
Dell® 2-button USB mouse
Integrated Intel® PRO 10/100 Ethernet
56K PCI Data Fax Modem
Adobe® Acrobat® Reader 6.0
Single Drive: 48x CD-RW / DVD-ROM Combo Drive
Integrated Audio with Dolby Digital 7.1 capability
Dell A215 Speakers
Microsoft Office Basic - Includes Outlook, Word, Excel
No Security Subscription
Musicmatch® Jukebox Basic
Photo Album? SE Basic
2Yr Ltd Warranty, 2Yr At-Home Service, and 2Yr Technical Support
6 Months of America Online Membership Included
Award Winning Service and Support
No QuickBooks package selected- Includes limited use trial
Recycle my old system with Dell (FREE)
Microsoft® Windows® XP Home Edition backup CD