Budget Build for parentPost Date: 2010-07-06 |
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Zimbawan 
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Joined: 18 Mar 2010 Online Status: Offline Posts: 71 |
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 Topic: Budget Build for parentPosted: 06 Jul 2010 at 10:15pm |
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Hello again guys,
My mother decided it was time for her to get a new pc and after having my digitalstorm machine for a few months I talked her into getting one. This one needs to be at most $1500. The most important thing to her at this point is she wants it to be SILENT (her old dell doesn't make a sound). I can't imagine the stock factory fan on the processor being all that loud. I'm not sure about the 120mm case fan on the CM Elite 310. Is it loud? Should I upgrade it to a quieter fan? If so, which fan? Anyways, here is the build I'm looking at for the moment. This computer will be used for general web surfing, dvd playing, word processing etc. Nothing intensive and she does not do any gaming whatsoever. We will also be purchasing a new monitor which will be a 24" 1920x1200 Specifications: |
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Zimbawan
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Joined: 18 Mar 2010 Online Status: Offline Posts: 71 |
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Posted: 07 Jul 2010 at 2:05am |
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bump? was looking to purchase tomorrow.
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Dragoonseal
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Joined: 03 Apr 2009 Online Status: Offline Posts: 2247 |
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Posted: 07 Jul 2010 at 6:27am |
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You may want to email DS and ask them what their quietest case is among the cheaper selections. The HAF 922 might work with its two large 200mm fans, large fans are usually quieter because they don't need to run at high RPMs to still move a lot of air. But almost no matter what you do it will still be louder than the Dell was, hopefully you can help her understand that. The Dell was completely silent because it had basically no air flow, at all, probably just a single 120mm fan on the back of the case. That's not to say something from DS will be loud, I find Lilim to be amazingly quiet for the amount of fans in her, but it's just really hard to mimic the absolute silence of an inert fanless Dell.
How much effort does she put into always keeping a PC maintained and fast running? If she has a tendency to install a lot of unnecessary stuff and let it get bogged down by bloatware then I would do anything you can to manage to squeeze a 40GB Intel SSD into the budget. Use the 40GB Intel SSD for OS/apps and a conventional HDD for games/music/movies/pictures. The SSD will be able to handle loading ridiculously higher amounts of applications without slowdown than a HDD would, so it's probably the single biggest boost to performance in a PC you could get her. |
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Lilim
Intel Core i7 920 @4.2GHz HAF 932 - Dual SLI Nvidia GTX 480s 3x Intel X25-M G2 (80GB) SSD RAID0 |
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!ender_
DS Veteran
Joined: 24 Oct 2007 Online Status: Offline Posts: 4219 |
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Posted: 07 Jul 2010 at 9:15am |
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rofl a web surfing mom who doesnt play games with a haf 922 and an intel ssd?
what do you think she'll be doing exactly that would need an overclocked bloomfield and 6gb ram????
I'm all for overkill, which is why im over 4ghz, but im an enthusiast... hardly the same thing
seriously now, nothing against DSO, becuase you know i love this site, but zimba for what youre looking for for your mother could be picked up for probably around $500, probably less, and you could probably build it for about 350ish
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Zimbawan
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Joined: 18 Mar 2010 Online Status: Offline Posts: 71 |
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Posted: 07 Jul 2010 at 12:36pm |
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@Dragon - thx for the feedback
@ender - I'm well aware what I'm getting. I'm an enthusiast myself and I just got a digital storm system a la http://www.digitalstormonline.com/forums/forum_posts.asp?TID=10557 I was planning on turning the overclock option off. I can't help that she wants something way better than she needs. I have tried telling her that multiple times but I guess she just thinks that if she gets good stuff then it will last her longer since she has been using her current computer for 8+ years. Regardless, my only interest was essentially how to make this thing as quiet as possible. I may just call DSO. Edited by Zimbawan - 07 Jul 2010 at 1:27pm |
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Dragoonseal
DS Veteran
Joined: 03 Apr 2009 Online Status: Offline Posts: 2247 |
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Posted: 07 Jul 2010 at 6:59pm |
I don't think you realize how ridiculously badly an unaware web surfing parent can trash a PC. Both of my parents' PCs are like this, and so are a number of my friends' parents' PCs. Except for the video card both of my parents' PCs actually have better specs than my last PC, but both of them run in excess of 20 times slower than it did. They are absolutely infested beyond repair with adware, bloatware, anti-malware, anti-virus applications, add-on toolbars, and just an unheard of amount of other unnecessary applications, most of which are all set to run at start up and/or auto update. They take upwards of 10 minutes just to start up and reach a "usable" state, and I greatly hesitate to say they ever even reach a "usable" state. I've tried numerous times to clean them up some, but there is so much crap on them that they don't want to let me uninstall, and even then all in all they are so far gone that nothing short of a complete Windows reinstall could help them. But they are Dells and don't have a Windows CD/DVD for reinstall, go figure. I just can't change their usage habits, they will trash any PC they ever use now or in the future, but any PC they get in the future is 100% absolutely going to have a good budget Intel SSD for OS/apps, this will help a lot of the issue of them managing to grind a normal HDD to a unbearable crawl. I'll also make sure they're overloaded with extra RAM for all their unintentional "multi-tasking" with so many apps running, RAM is cheap. The HAF 922 suggestion is just because he wanted a quiet case. |
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Lilim
Intel Core i7 920 @4.2GHz HAF 932 - Dual SLI Nvidia GTX 480s 3x Intel X25-M G2 (80GB) SSD RAID0 |
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!ender_
DS Veteran
Joined: 24 Oct 2007 Online Status: Offline Posts: 4219 |
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Posted: 07 Jul 2010 at 11:30pm |
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i guess its just life experiences that differ here:
my mom works from home so she uses her computer probably 6+ hours a day, thats more than me
and she calls to ask me typical mom things, like "how do i get windows to stop alerting me that this this and this"
but i gave her and taught her spybot and ccleaner, and she writes it on her calander(lol) to use it twice a month. every time i go to visit everything is perfectly clean and crisp
guess i got lucky =/
BUT regaurdless of the situation, he said that shes looking for silent. the haf fans, imo, are not loud but are not silent either. i just think it would make WAY more sense to get a smaller build together and get some noiseblockers or noctua fans to give her the quiet shes looking for, i honestly, no matter how bad, can not see someone who uses a computer like that needing 8 overclocked cores
like i sad 3-400 MAX i could put together a newegg cart with all youd need for silent use in her range
either way, just my 2 cents, its his build, just offering some money saving advice
could have done way better with a little time, but just as an example
pick up a few combo deals and some noctuas or noiseblockers and youve got yourself a browsing movie watching machine and $1000 to spend on a monitor
 Edited by !ender_ - 08 Jul 2010 at 8:55am |
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Zimbawan
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Joined: 18 Mar 2010 Online Status: Offline Posts: 71 |
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Posted: 08 Jul 2010 at 11:59am |
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I see what you're saying. I'm gonna have to agree with Dragoon here. Her computer is deathly slow and always has problems from all the stuff that gets on it. The main problem is that she had configured some hp computer and is comparing everything I mention to the parts in it. It had some decent parts cuz it was around $1500. Anyways, I was gonna talk to her about it last night but I found out she had already called digitalstorm and ordered it. I may have to see if I can change a couple things in the order.
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!ender_
DS Veteran
Joined: 24 Oct 2007 Online Status: Offline Posts: 4219 |
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Posted: 08 Jul 2010 at 1:13pm |
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lol nice, thats what i like, a mom that takes charge and gets it
dont get me wrong, the build is good, just think its overkill, but what room do i have to talk when im over here pushing my 875k to 86C for some benchmarks that no one cares about
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ablahblah
DS Veteran
Joined: 12 Jun 2009 Online Status: Offline Posts: 2312 |
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Posted: 08 Jul 2010 at 3:30pm |
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aaaaaaaaaagh, what? what video card was in it...a 5670. hm, never mind, I was about to suggest the mainstream directed $199 GTX 460 that would be coming out on the 12th...never mind then lol.
srsly though, for web surfing, it's overkill....some people would KILL for an overclocked build like that right now  Edited by ablahblah - 08 Jul 2010 at 3:33pm |
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R4D4RPR00F
Core i7 920 @ 3.9Ghz Asus Sabertooth X58 EVGA GTX 570 Mushkin 6GB 1414Mhz |
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