Hi All,
My mom gave me a call this weekend to ask for my help in picking out a new computer for their house. They don't know anything about computers, and they had a Dell Inspiron 530 (3gb ddr2, old motherboard, intel core 2 duo, and an aftermarket graphics card) which blew up for unknown reasons. I found out that they purchased a new graphics card so my dad and brother could play games from best buy for like 70$. Well, it was an ATI Radeon HD 4350 and it turns out that that specific graphics card needs a recommended 650 watt psu. They were using a 300 watt stock power supply from dell.
Suffice it to say I'm pretty sure they have blown the PSU and since they've been running the system this way for a year and want a new computer, we're only going to be able to salvage the external peripherals such as monitor, keyboard, etc, and probably the only internal stuff we will be able to keep is the DVDRW and the Hard drive.
So they are pretty poor, but they do need the new computer. They want one they can play games on without blowing up (my dad and brother keep the computer on and in use like at least 10 hours a day) and need my expertise to help them build it. They will be purchasing the parts on Newegg, all together, and I will come to the house and install it for them and then install the OS/Etc.
They have 550$ total for this (final price) but would like to spend as little as possible, because money is tight. I don't care if it's AMD/ATI or Intel/Nvidia, we would just like the best price to performance we can get.
Do you think we will be able to salvage the hard drive and dvd drive? They were probably not running with enough power for about a year.
It seems I will need a Case, Motherboard, RAM, CPU, GPU, PSU, wiring + fans. I would appreciate any help you guys can give, because I don't know what the best/cheapest/most value route is nowadays.
Approximate Purchase Date: ASAP
Budget Range: $450-550 After Shipping and Tax
System Usage from Most to Least Important: Mid-range Gaming (Battlefield 3 is the best game they have), General Purpose (YouTube, Word Processing, Internet). The machine is the family-main computer and my father and brother fight over computer time. It is typically on all day.
Parts Not Required: Keyboard, Mouse, Monitor, Hard Drive, DVD-RW
Preferred Website(s) for Parts: newegg.com
Country: USA
Parts Preferences: I do not have any parts preference, I am looking for the best price😛erformance/value as my parents do not have much money to spend on this project.
Overclocking: I would prefer to stay away from overclocking, as it’s for my parents and I don’t want to be responsible for overclocking issues.
SLI or Crossfire: If possible, probably not possible
Monitor Resolution: They have a 23 inch HP 2331 1920x1080 monitor.
Additional Comments: This computer will be used at least 12 hours a day, my brother and dad are on it 24-7. My dad comes home from work, gets on YouTube and plays FPSs, my brother will steal the computer as soon as he is done. My mom will use it to check email and do quickbooks or whatever budgeting software they have.
My mom gave me a call this weekend to ask for my help in picking out a new computer for their house. They don't know anything about computers, and they had a Dell Inspiron 530 (3gb ddr2, old motherboard, intel core 2 duo, and an aftermarket graphics card) which blew up for unknown reasons. I found out that they purchased a new graphics card so my dad and brother could play games from best buy for like 70$. Well, it was an ATI Radeon HD 4350 and it turns out that that specific graphics card needs a recommended 650 watt psu. They were using a 300 watt stock power supply from dell.
Suffice it to say I'm pretty sure they have blown the PSU and since they've been running the system this way for a year and want a new computer, we're only going to be able to salvage the external peripherals such as monitor, keyboard, etc, and probably the only internal stuff we will be able to keep is the DVDRW and the Hard drive.So they are pretty poor, but they do need the new computer. They want one they can play games on without blowing up (my dad and brother keep the computer on and in use like at least 10 hours a day) and need my expertise to help them build it. They will be purchasing the parts on Newegg, all together, and I will come to the house and install it for them and then install the OS/Etc.
They have 550$ total for this (final price) but would like to spend as little as possible, because money is tight. I don't care if it's AMD/ATI or Intel/Nvidia, we would just like the best price to performance we can get.
Do you think we will be able to salvage the hard drive and dvd drive? They were probably not running with enough power for about a year.
It seems I will need a Case, Motherboard, RAM, CPU, GPU, PSU, wiring + fans. I would appreciate any help you guys can give, because I don't know what the best/cheapest/most value route is nowadays.
Approximate Purchase Date: ASAP
Budget Range: $450-550 After Shipping and Tax
System Usage from Most to Least Important: Mid-range Gaming (Battlefield 3 is the best game they have), General Purpose (YouTube, Word Processing, Internet). The machine is the family-main computer and my father and brother fight over computer time. It is typically on all day.
Parts Not Required: Keyboard, Mouse, Monitor, Hard Drive, DVD-RW
Preferred Website(s) for Parts: newegg.com
Country: USA
Parts Preferences: I do not have any parts preference, I am looking for the best price😛erformance/value as my parents do not have much money to spend on this project.
Overclocking: I would prefer to stay away from overclocking, as it’s for my parents and I don’t want to be responsible for overclocking issues.
SLI or Crossfire: If possible, probably not possible
Monitor Resolution: They have a 23 inch HP 2331 1920x1080 monitor.
Additional Comments: This computer will be used at least 12 hours a day, my brother and dad are on it 24-7. My dad comes home from work, gets on YouTube and plays FPSs, my brother will steal the computer as soon as he is done. My mom will use it to check email and do quickbooks or whatever budgeting software they have.
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