New $500-600 office PC build

[hsilman]

Approximate Purchase Date: This Week

Budget Range: $500-600. This includes Windows 7 operating system

System Usage from Most to Least Important: Basic office applications(tax software, Word/Excel, etc), web surfing

Parts Not Required: Monitor, Keyboard, Mouse

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: Newegg.com

Country of Origin: USA


Parts Preferences: I Don't care if it's AMD or Intel. I'm looking for performance at least at the level of the i5 2400, though if that's overkill for office application you can recommend less. Current build is a "duo core" 1.8ghz, so pretty much anything will be an improvement!

Overclocking: No

SLI or Crossfire: No

Monitor Resolution: 1024x768

Additional Comments: A quiet PC would be nice, and if an energy saving power supply is in budget I would appreciate it, though it's not necessary. I will have to include windows 7 in the budget.

Also, I am willing to buy non-newegg items if they offer a significant deal. I know that RAM and hard drives are often on sale all over and I will pick them up from amazon or microcenter for instance(online only, no b&m) if there's a good deal this week.

Thanks!

 

[boeing114]

Looks good 😉 Hard drives aren't necessary slow, but the problem is they can only access 1 file at a time, and there are moving parts so they are more prone to dataloss or corruption. SSDs are definitely the way to go for a boot drive, but you really can't beat the capacity of standard hard drives, so they work good for file storage.

I forgot to ask, but will have an external device (like an external drive or server) that he can back up his files on?

 

[hsilman]

yes he already has multiple external HDD, dvd backups, and even an iomega zip drive! don't know if the zip drive will be compatible(I think it's an ide internal one) but it's not a big deal.

He has a tech person where he is(I'm 6 hours away) locally, who he is going to ask about data migration from his old pc. Tax software company said they can't guarantee anything prior to 2008, but multiple forums suggest win7 pro in compatibility mode works fine so I'll have to get him that. As soon as I get word that the data can be moved, I'm putting the order in.

So glad I found this forum a few months ago, you guys are so knowledgeable!

 

[boeing114]

Sounds good 😉 And haha, we try anyways. Good luck on your build! If you have any more questions, feel free to ask! I've built a few

 

[internetlad]

I don't believe the ZIP drive will work, at least not guaranteed.

 

[boeing114]

ZIP Drive? Are you talking about a floppy drive because you mentioned it was IDE.

 

[internetlad]

ZIP Drive? Are you talking about a floppy drive because you mentioned it was IDE.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zip_drive

Not a floppy but rather similar.

 

[boeing114]

Hah, haven't really heard of them, hence I'm only 16 😛

So you said it was an IDE interface?

 

[hsilman]

yeah it's OLD. back when 100MB of storage per disk was a big deal.

He keeps his old quickbook backups on it, but I think he recently put them on cd-r media so it's no big deal. I can probably find an ide to usb adapter or enclosure if I have to.

 

[boeing114]

You could probably find a motherboard with an IDE connector. Or even an add on card, like a pci express

 

[internetlad]

you can find USB ZIP drives for fairly cheap, it would probably be a better option, as i've heard complaints that some drives don't work with IDE add-on cards.

 

[ps3hacker12]

this is the IDE to sata adaptor i would reccommend (its the one i use now):
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Serial-SATA-Motherboard-IDE-HD-Converter-Adapter-A23-/300572529416?pt=UK_Computing_CablesConnectors_RL&hash=item45fb84d308

 

[internetlad]

I suppose the point is moot anyways if he backs up his .QBW files onto cds now anyways.