Any help with making Sister systems?

[Meltdown]

Hello there.. I'm trying to put together a system for my sister. She's purchasing all the components new. She's a university student. Just simple web browsing with the ability to watch media files, listen to MP3's, run word processing and spreadsheet software and perhaps play the occasional game of The Sims 2. This is the system someone suggested. Is it overkill? Is it not enough? I just need something that's good value for money for her with some possible upgrade options down the road. Obviously if I can save her some money, so much the better, being a student her budget isn't unlimited.

Potential System:

Intel Pentium 4 3.2GHz Workstation
Asus P5GD2 Deluxe Socket 775 Motherboard w/onboard sound
Intel Pentium 4 540 3.2GHz 800FSB LGA 775 box model processor
Corsair 1GB PC3200 DDR2 DIMM (2x512MB Kit)
Panasonic 1.44MB Floppy Drive
LG DVD+-RW Dual Layer Internal Drive
Maxtor 120GB 7200RPM SATA hard drive
Asus Radeon X300SE 128MB Video Card
Antec SLK1650 Mid tower Beige Case w/350w
Microsoft Multimedia Keyboard & Optical Mouse Bundle
Samsung 710N 17" LCD Monitor

Any thoughts? Ways to save some cash? Improvements to make? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!

 

[liquidpaper007]

you dont need that processor. do you like playing sims on high detail? I think you should be fine with a low end athlon 64 and a budget video card, which is cheaper than your 540 and much more cooler.

how much does all of that cost you?

 

[dmroeder]

I can't say if it's overkill or not, that's up to you and your sister. It sound like a really nice system.

I don't know much about LG optical drives, but people swear by Plextor. I have used Lite-On and they have been great. NEC makes good ones too. Again, I only mention this because I haven't heard much about LG (for all I know they might be great)

I personally like Segate drives (because of the 5 year warrenty). I do have a Maxtor that I've had for a while with no problems though.

I always like to buy at least a 400W PSU. You never know when you might want to upgrade something and they you find out the hard way that the PSU isn't enough.

And I would buy AMD! (Sorry I had to add that)

 

[endyen]

Is that you AMD Meltdown?
If so , just get her a Dell.
If you just an Intel fanboy, one of the celeronD chips should be overkill for that gfx card.
LG opticals are great value.
No need to go corsair on the memory, except maybe value select. Patriot might be a better choice (cheap and good).

 

[Guest]

It really depends if your sister is hot or not...
Really, get her a webcam too always handy for University chix!

Asus P4P800DX, P4C 2.6ghz@3.25ghz, 2X512 OCZ PC4000 3-4-4-8, MSI 6800Ultra stock, 2X30gig Raid0

 

[Rugger]

*shakes head*
:lol:

__________________________________________________
<font color=red>You're a boil on the arse of progress - don't make me squeeze you!</font color=red>

 

[mpasternak]

that system is fine, but maybe on the expensive side for a simple use machine.

you can build cheaper equal performing that will also be better in the long run

Try an AMD A64 like the 3000 or 3200. they're cheap, and run great.
any AMD motherboard will do, but try to keep with an Nforce board.
video card will do. you don' need anything super powerfull. if you wanna just give it longer life, a 6600GT might be better.
any cheap hard drive will be fine whether it's maxtor or Seagate, ditto goes for optical drives.

you could probably put together this system for less than 600 if you know where to look