New PC for my dad

[Zynch175]

So I have to upgrade my dads PC. Currently his PC is 9 years old. He is running an Intel Celeron D, an Asrock mobo, 3Gb of RAM and an Radeon Gpu (I do not know the exact specs.)

I want to keep the costs as low as possible, so my plan currently requires me to spend about 195€.

My plan to get him is:

CPU: Intel I3-6100

MOBO: MSI H110M PRO-VH

RAM: Crucial Balistix Sport 4Gb DDR4 

PSU: LC Power 480W (I got it bundled with my case, but it is unused)

SSD: Samsung 840 EVO 120Gb (My old one)

CASE, HDD: His existing stuff.

 

So is my plan OK?

The most demanding task will be looking at vector drawing is CorelDraw, the other stuff he will be doing is pretty much browsing the web.

 

The HDD he has currently has a SATA2 connection. I think I can still use it, since SATA3 is backwards compatible. Right?

 

I need an answer pretty fast, since there are only a few more in stock from where I am buying.

[glitchmaster0001]

yes sata is backwards compadible from 3 to 2 and even to 1. is the computer he has currently a prebuilt system? if it is make sure that it isnt a proprietary case. 

[Zynch175]

It is not prebuilt, a friend built it last time.

And I checked the case, since I was not sure if I can put a M-ATX mobo in, and it is even nicely labeled which holes I need to use for standoffs.

[glitchmaster0001]

if your case supports an ATX board then it would defiantly support a mATX board as well since they are backwards compatible with with each other. that being said, what does your dad do on his PC. if he just uses it to surf the web and watch netflix or youtube videos then i would recommend you swap out the i3 for a pentium and get a hyper 212 evo and overclock that pentium. believe it or not pentiums are good value for money cpus and when overclocked they would have good single threaded proformance as what an i3 has. and its almost half the cost of a i3. plus since i doubt that your dad is the type to upgrade his platform every 2 years you can then later on in far future upgrade that pentium into an i5. 

[Zynch175]

I do not think that he will ever need an i5. I went with an i3, since I will be probably having him use a drawing software like CorelDraw and maybe even AutoCAD to check on my drawing before putting them in production (He runs a additional company on a farm and is building instruments. (the title for this type of company sound weird)) since sometimes he cannot explain how he wants something. Plus the PC will be runing for quite a few years.

 

[glitchmaster0001]

2 minutes ago, Zynch175 said:

I do not think that he will ever need an i5. I went with an i3, since I will be probably having him use a drawing software like CorelDraw and maybe even AutoCAD to check on my drawing before putting them in production (He runs a additional company on a farm and is building instruments. (the title for this type of company sound weird)) since sometimes he cannot explain how he wants something. Plus the PC will be runing for quite a few years.

 

i get that but he seems like the type that keeps a computer for as long as possible example is that 9 year old celeron pc. if he is the type that does that and his workload isnt as taxing then why spend the extra cash on a i3 when a pentium can get the task done. since he will be keeping a pc for beyond its relevant lifespan if he doesnt want to buy a new pc in the next 9 or 10 years he can just upgrade his existing rig and call it a day. it would be cheaper to do that then to start a whole new build from scratch again in the next decade. Another option here is if your dad's pc is a LGA 775 based build with a celeron then you can just do the LGA 771 to 775 mod. buy a Xeon X5460 on ebay for $20 and the adapter for $1 and vola you have a q9650 for much less and cheaper. plus you can overclock the chip to around 3.8ghz and see i5 2500k proformance for just $22. if you want to go the cheaper mod route then feel free to ask me as i have already done this before. 

[glitchmaster0001]

11 minutes ago, Zynch175 said:

I do not think that he will ever need an i5. I went with an i3, since I will be probably having him use a drawing software like CorelDraw and maybe even AutoCAD to check on my drawing before putting them in production (He runs a additional company on a farm and is building instruments. (the title for this type of company sound weird)) since sometimes he cannot explain how he wants something. Plus the PC will be runing for quite a few years.

 

nevermind about the LGA 775 to 771 mod. your dad has such an ancient pc that it uses the PGA style intel CPU which was popular in the late 90s and early 2000s. in this case if budget is your extreme concern then find a LGA 775 board and do the mod. if budget isnt as much of a concern get an i3 or Pentium.