Advice needed on wife PC

[menos]

Heya all,

My girlfriend's PC recently died. The PC in question was a P4 from HP, so not many (not standard) parts can be reused, and so I was thinking of building a whole new PC.

It is meant for doing some basic office stuff: browse the net, watch some youtube movies, read mail, listen to music, watch some pictures from vacation. No gaming, no HD moviewatching, no other heavy stuff. Also, portability is not really required. She rarely leaves her PC on for a long time, so I'm not sure if focusing heavily on power consumption in the new build is necessary. It should also not be spcr-quiet.

Preferably it should be in a desktop-like format (micro-atx) since the available space is limited, I was thinking of the Antec Minuet 300.

There are a few options I (we) have considered, but have a hard time making a choice. I hope you can help us make a more educated choice.

Here are the options, note that the HD, keyboard, mouse, screen can be transplanted to the new system:
1. a cheap C2D laptop, some can be found around 400€. We tried a EEE PC but find it too slow.
. CON: not future proof? Hard to change parts?

2. an amd 780/DDR2 system:
. ASRock K10N78FullHD-hSLI R3.0 (€ 52,90)
. AMD Athlon II X2 240 (€ 54,90)
. 1x2GB Kingston DDR2 ValueRAM (around €50)
. Antec Minuet 300 (€ 94,90)
PRO: Cheap
CON: not future proof enough?

3. an AMD AM3/785/DDR3 system:
. MSI 785GM-E65 (€ 89)
. AMD Athlon II X2 240 (€ 54,90)
. 1x2GB Kingston DDR3 ValueRAM (around €50)
. Antec Minuet 300 (€ 94,90)
PRO: more future proof than 2.
CON: a bit more expensive than 2.

Does it makes sense to wait for the X2 240E?

4. an intel system
. E5300 (€ 59,90)
. not sure about the mobo, maybe the G31TM-P21? or a DDR3 supporting mobo?
. 1x2GB Kingston DDR2 ValueRAM (around €50)
. Antec Minuet 300 (€ 94,90)
PRO/CON: yes, good question. Any pros/cons wrt 2. or 3.?

5. Mac Mini
PRO: small, low power, stylish (women maybe care even more about this than us )
CON: new OS to get used to, you can't changed parts (how about when the warranty period expires?), twice the price. How do macs work together with PC's, I seem to remember that copying files from a networked PC works without any problems right?

Hope you guys can help us out here!

[hybrid2d4x4]

Does it makes sense to wait for the X2 240E?

No, they are usually nothing more than factory undervolted variants with a significant price premium, and you can get the same results with a bit of tweaking (as long as you pick a mobo that supports it).

As for the options you laid out, AMD is a lot better when it comes to upgrade paths, as it doesn't force you into a whole new platform when it comes out with a new architecture (or even by segregation of the high-end and mainstream as with X58/P55). So in order of increasing upgradeability, your systems probably go something like this: Mac Mini, Laptop, E5300-based system, 780G, 785G. Value-wise you can't argue against the AMD systems, and performance-wise, they are all within spitting distance of one another with the Mac and AMD systems having the better on-board video than the Intel. One major knock against the Mac in my books (other than costing twice as much, as you say) is the lack of supporting common standards such as dual-link DVI (for which a USD$100 adapter is needed). I guess my vote would be for the AMD 785 system, overall.

PS: I'm genuinely disgusted by the price of RAM you guys have over there, not only relative to what it costs here, but relative to the cost of your other components. You should be able to get an enthusiast-grade 4GB kit for that money.

[CA_Steve]

Her needs are met by the most basic of PCs...seems like a waste of effort to build something that will cost about the same as what you can buy. Upgrade path seems silly - web browsing and you tube req's aren't going to explode over the life on this computer...

I'd just buy a name brand system and call it a day. Plus, you won't be on the hook as much for tech support.

Mac Mini is a great choice. I bought the original release for my mom and I only get maybe 1 call a year for help. Learning the OS enough to do her tasks is a piece of cake. And, it has the great Core 2 Duo + Nvidia 9400M chipset combo. Low power, good performance. The baseline system is all she needs. $600 (US)

Dell Zino HD is also interesting. It'll cost less than the Mac Mini, if you don't load all of the bells and whistles. One caveat, it's in early stages of production and there have been some build quality issues with it (poorly attached cooling causing higher than normal cpu temps and high fan noise). Good news is that Dell will fix/replace a bad unit. Good units are pretty quiet and don't consume much power. Configure it with the 6850e cpu, windows 7, maybe increase the memory to 3GB. ~$430.

[fpsrandy]

i cringe everytime i see asrock boards. look for a board from ASUS, gigabyte, etc... if you can. asrock boards we get in where I live in Canada do not last long at all. very common to see them die randomly after 18 months.

If your girlfriend is lookign for something more stylish or cool looking; have you looked at the zotac atom/ion boards? you can get the dual core 330 boards that will be more powerful than the asus eee pcs, and it will be strong enough for blu ray playback if you wanted.

[loimlo]

I would take choice 2 for its fast enough performance and cheaper price. To enhance system running, I might purchase 2x2GB DDR2 for potential Win7 upgrade. After all, web surfing doesn't require a lot of horsepowers. Btw, 22' LCD will do your girlfriend's computer experience a great favor. Trust me!

As for Asrock, its boars tend to serve me very well in terms of pricing and functions. I'm not sure about its longevity, but how can you make sure it before actually pulling the trigger? I've had almost every vendor failed me randomly in past 10 years that led me to believe it's the sample variance that counts. For example, I've RMAed a MSI board after only 8 months service time. Is MSI that bad? By contrast, I've RMAed one ASUS board after 2.5 years service time. So Asus is three timers better than MSI? That said, I'll take price, function, performance, and warranty into purchase consideration. For example, if ASUS can't get my job done, I'll turn around and get Gigabyte instead. Ohh, ASUS's low-end boards like Intel G31, nVIDIA 6150, tend to be very boring in terms of board layout, bios options, and OC ability. I'd avoid their budget boards.

[menos]

Thanks all for you opinions.

My personal preference goes the the 785. I don't mind building a system myself (I'll enjoy it even ) and maintaining it (the gf never had any issues with her previous PC).

Steve has a point about the silliness of the upgrade path, so maybe I should stick to the 780 system instead. I'll be on the look for a good quality board.

I don't really like the idea about picking a brand name system (I may be wrong here):
. for some reason I associate technical customer support with weeks of waiting on spare parts (and therefore you computer) in case of trouble.
. Don't they often use non-standards parts? so when the warranty expires, you can't easily replace defective components?
Please tell me if my feeling is wrong here.

I can feel the gf has a strong preference for the Mac, and if it wasn't comparatively more expensive (more than double if you include the required display adaptor), I would tell her to go for it.

[hybrid2d4x4]

Upgrade path seems silly - web browsing and you tube req's aren't going to explode over the life on this computer...

I guess the upgrade path is a bit silly, but keep in mind that this will also mean cheaper/more readily available replacement parts if a component shits the bed sometime within the useful lifetime of the system.

As for req's exploding, also true but look at youtube with its recently added 720/1080P formats. If you were to go bottom-of-the-barrel (ie: VIA/Atom/older single core CPU), you'd be missing out. Not that DDR2 vs 3 will make a difference as with his proposed systems...but still, you don't want to cut too many corners. I still see budget Athlon64+GF7050 desktops advertised in flyers

[loimlo]

.
. Don't they often use non-standards parts? so when the warranty expires, you can't easily replace defective components?
Please tell me if my feeling is wrong here.

I can feel the gf has a strong preference for the Mac, and if it wasn't comparatively more expensive (more than double if you include the required display adaptor), I would tell her to go for it.

Yes, big OEM vendors tend to use proprietary components. For example, Dell has a liking for BTX case/PSU as they want to have their customers gotten stuck with their customer service. You'll have troubles finding BTX parts on the retail market. To complicate matters, I've seen HP had modified power connectors' shape in ordet to prevent customers from using 3rd-party PSUs. Of course, they had their political rhetorics like the protection of mis-using/misunderstanding OOXX.

[menos]

The gf will go for the Mac Mini. Good for her, pity for me.

Thanks for the advices though!

[CA_Steve]

have fun!