Building a computer for a relative?

[Coaxialgamer]

Hello,

So my grandma is getting a new computer. I asked her if she wanted me to build her one.

She said yes.

My parents keep insisting that she ahould buy a prebuilt because then she can have it repaired if there is a problem (i only visit her Twice a year).

The problem is that she will be getting a pretty crappy machine if she goes prebuilt.

Should i just give up and let her buy a prebuilt?

This is a parts list i compiled, containing an os and monitor :http://pcpartpicker.com/p/jBLNt6

Feel free to submit your own lists. It will be an office pc.

[skyress3000]

If it's just an office PC I would get a CPU with an iGPU and put no GPU in to make it cheaper.

[RickDick]

Man just build a pc with a 970 so your grandma can have some quality 60 fps AAA game time if you know what im talkin about.

[ELSknutson]

I would get here an I pad. easy to use.

But a getting a prebuilt is pointless unless its a laptop.

a pc repair shop would rather repair the custom pc then some crappy HP, dell etc.

What is she going to be useing the PC for?

[Senzelian]

Hello,

So my grandma is getting a new computer. I asked her if she wanted me to build her one.

She said yes.

My parents keep insisting that she ahould buy a prebuilt because then she can have it repaired if there is a problem (i only visit her Twice a year).

The problem is that she will be getting a pretty crappy machine if she goes prebuilt.

Should i just give up and let her buy a prebuilt?

This is a parts list i compiled, containing an os and monitor :http://pcpartpicker.com/p/jBLNt6

Feel free to submit your own lists. It will be an office pc.

A 750Ti is a total overkill, or does your grandma play LoL?

I guess she is probably fine with a Celeron based part and 4GB of RAM.

I would get here an I pad. easy to use.

But a getting a prebuilt is pointless unless its a laptop.

a pc repair shop would rather repair the custom pc then some crappy HP, dell etc.

What is she going to be useing the PC for?

Do you know what those prebuilts retail for? I've seen 4th gen i3s with 8GB of RAM and a 1TB HDD for 299€. That's far from beeing pointless.

[AlTech]

Why do you need a 750Ti? I would actually go with an Haswell core i3 or a Haswell Pentium. Get rid of the 750Ti.  Other than that GOod.

[J. Hammond]

I know that the 750 Ti is a respectable little card, but is your Grandma going to be doing anything other than derping around on the internet? If so, then the prebuilt isn't underpowered, it's your build that's overpowered.

 

If she isn't going to play games, even a laptop will do fine.

[Coaxialgamer]

Man just build a pc with a 970 so your grandma can have some quality 60 fps AAA game time if you know what im talkin

about.

Well that would be kinda dumb..

I already did a few parts list and it seems that an fx 6300 and 750ti arent more expensive than an a10 build.

[AlTech]

A 750Ti is a total overkill, or does your grandma play LoL?

I guess she is probably fine with a Celeron based part and 4GB of RAM.

They don't make Celeron Desktop parts anymore. Only Pentium ones.

[pcman365]

just go with a pentium and intergrated graphics save some money

[Coaxialgamer]

just go with a pentium and intergrated graphics save some money

But wouldnt a dual core be bad for desktop use?

[The_Stig]

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

 

CPU: Intel Core i3-6100 3.7GHz Dual-Core Processor  ($119.99 @ SuperBiiz) 

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-H110M-A Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard  ($54.99 @ SuperBiiz) 

Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2133 Memory  ($42.99 @ Newegg) 

Storage: Crucial BX100 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($85.00 @ Adorama) 

Case: Cooler Master N200 MicroATX Mid Tower Case  ($43.99 @ NCIX US) 

Power Supply: Corsair CX 430W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply  ($44.99 @ Amazon) 

Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Home OEM (64-bit)  ($90.99 @ NCIX US) 

Monitor: Acer G226HQLBbd 60Hz 21.5" Monitor  ($89.99 @ Amazon) 

Total: $572.93

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-11-19 18:26 EST-0500

[ELSknutson]

you could also get http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16856164011&cm_re=gigabyte_brix-_-56-164-011-_-Product

[Critiax]

But wouldnt a dual core be bad for desktop use?

For an office PC a dual core is fine

[Senzelian]

They don't make Celeron Desktop parts anymore. Only Pentium ones.

And that means I cannot buy them anymore?

Haswell based Celerons are still available and they deliver all the features you could possibly want for a little office PC.

 

-snip-

Another overkill build. Also, he lives in Paris...

[BuckGup]

I would get here an I pad. easy to use.

But a getting a prebuilt is pointless unless its a laptop.

a pc repair shop would rather repair the custom pc then some crappy HP, dell etc.

What is she going to be useing the PC for?

NONONO! You think Ipads would be easy for an old person my god NO! We got our grandma one and she didn't know how to do anything and when we told her how to do it she would get confused and the mercury was gone! She called the scrollbar on the side mercury because it looked like a thermometer. I would swap out that CPU for a penitum and you should be good. Even if grandma wants to play some WoW or CSGO.

[Coaxialgamer]

Also, it would be good if the computer had a capable cpu. My family tends to bloat computers with software, so i would like it to run a lot of stuff in the boackground

[TheRandomness]

@The_Stig The one and only time a CX is allowable

But wouldnt a dual core be bad for desktop use?

My friend games on one, it's fine

[ELSknutson]

A 750Ti is a total overkill, or does your grandma play LoL?

I guess she is probably fine with a Celeron based part and 4GB of RAM.

Do you know what those prebuilts retail for? I've seen 4th gen i3s with 8GB of RAM and a 1TB HDD for 299€. That's far from beeing pointless.

I use to work for HP and the harware they put in them is the cheapest junk you can buy in a proprietary case  you could build the same thing with better parts for hundreds less in most cases. "Black Friday you could find a steal."

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883156711&cm_re=dell_desktop-_-83-156-711-_-Product

 

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA91N3G28741&cm_re=hp_i3_desk_top-_-2NR-000A-000J5-_-Product

[ELSknutson]

NONONO! You think Ipads would be easy for an old person my god NO! We got our grandma one and she didn't know how to do anything and when we told her how to do it she would get confused and the mercury was gone! She called the scrollbar on the side mercury because it looked like a thermometer. I would swap out that CPU for a penitum and you should be good. Even if grandma wants to play some WoW or CSGO.

I got my dad who knows nothing about computers and I got him an I pad and now he is streaming to you tube. I guess every experience is different.  And no Im not an apple fan. 

[Senzelian]

I know you live in France, but this is just a general idea.

Micro ATX, Pentium and a nice small HTPC case with a 120GB SSD.
Will be super quick for browsing, e-mails and other stuff and won't need much space.

Not sure what PSU InWin did use for this case, but you can also get a cheaper case and a Silverstone SFX PSU.

4GB of RAM are enough and you can easily upgrade to 8GB if really needed for whatever reason.

And for 215$ it's actually a great little PC.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Pentium G3220 3.0GHz Dual-Core Processor ($49.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: MSI H81M-P33 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($45.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: Crucial 4GB (1 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($19.89 @ OutletPC)
Storage: A-Data Premier SP550 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($39.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Inwin BL641.FH300TB3F HTPC Case w/300W Power Supply ($59.99 @ Directron)
Total: $215.85
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-11-19 18:36 EST-0500

 

[kels]

I made you an affordable rig for your ol'e lady bro. 

 

http://pcpartpicker.com/parts/partlist/

[d3sl91]

Also, it would be good if the computer had a capable cpu. My family tends to bloat computers with software, so i would like it to run a lot of stuff in the boackground

Either a pentium dual core, or, amd quad core is still fine. You can do remote desktop and run ccleaner every couple months if they are that bad. If they were to get a prebuilt, that's what they would be getting anyway. At most, an i3 with 4 threads. 

 

As someone who has built dozens of "computers for grandma, wife, office". She will NOT get any more warranty or repair than you, unless she purchases a service plan for extra money. Every part you put in there has at least a couple years of warranty if it ever fails. For the first year, maybe, she will get phone service. But if anything really breaks, she's gonna be sending it back to the manufacturer. 

 

IMO, you shouldn't be spending more than $400 on a system for this scenario. Sorry if I have your location wrong - but this may give you a general idea. 

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD A10-5800K 3.8GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($79.99 @ SuperBiiz)

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-F2A68HM-H Micro ATX FM2+ Motherboard  ($37.98 @ Newegg)

Memory: Kingston HyperX Fury Blue 4GB (1 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory  ($20.49 @ SuperBiiz)

Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 500GB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($42.99 @ Amazon)

Case: Fractal Design Core 1100 MicroATX Mini Tower Case  ($39.99 @ NCIX US)

Power Supply: Corsair CX 430W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply  ($24.99 @ Newegg)

Optical Drive: LG GH24NSC0 DVD/CD Writer  ($13.89 @ OutletPC)

Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Home OEM (64-bit)  ($85.98 @ OutletPC)

Total: $346.30

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-11-19 18:41 EST-0500

[Coaxialgamer]

I know you live in France, but this is just a general idea.

Micro ATX, Pentium and a nice small HTPC case with a 120GB SSD.

Will be super quick for browsing, e-mails and other stuff and won't need much space.

Not sure what PSU InWin did use for this case, but you can also get a cheaper case and a Silverstone SFX PSU.

4GB of RAM are enough and you can easily upgrade to 8GB if really needed for whatever reason.

And for 215$ it's actually a great little PC.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Pentium G3220 3.0GHz Dual-Core Processor ($49.99 @ SuperBiiz)

Motherboard: MSI H81M-P33 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($45.99 @ SuperBiiz)

Memory: Crucial 4GB (1 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($19.89 @ OutletPC)

Storage: A-Data Premier SP550 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($39.99 @ Newegg)

Case: Inwin BL641.FH300TB3F HTPC Case w/300W Power Supply ($59.99 @ Directron)

Total: $215.85

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-11-19 18:36 EST-0500

thanks. Thats actually a pretty good buget build i could get.

I guess i always tend to make overkill configs, lol

[pcman365]

But wouldnt a dual core be bad for desktop use?

if its just being used for checking emails and all that it will be fine