Building a computer for mom

Hardware Hub Build a PC
1

Just wanted to get some thoughts on a PC build I'm working of for my mom. All she does right now on her computer is Facebook, email, Skype and maybe some photo editing. 

Here is what I have so far: pcpartpicker

Budget: $400 or less, Country: USA, OS: already have a copy of  Windows 8.1

Found a refurbished monitor at New Egg HP L1910 for $59.95 and the mother board is refurbished as well. The keyboard/mouse said OEM next to it not sure if that makes a difference besides being cheaper. Also if anyone as any suggestions for a good web cam. I'm still kind of new at this PC building thing, so any help would be much appreciated. 

 

2

for $400,- isnt a laptop maybe a better option?

Eventualy a decent used one?

3

http://pcpartpicker.com/user/deejeta/saved/pJzH99

webcams - microsoft, logitech all pretty much do the same. <$20 would get you a decent one.

4

Anyway is the $400,- for everything? included the monitor and webcam?

5

Get her a cheap laptop. There are plenty laying around for under your budget, it being a holiday and all....

6

If you look you will find laptops with "betterish" specs for that price on newegg ,an example :

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834314684

7

The reasons for a desktop vs a laptop would be:

1. She would get a bigger screen with a desktop.

2. A desktop would have some sort of upgrade path in the future. 

3. She has never moved or used her existing laptop outside of her office.

4. My ex-wife, got my gaming computer in the divorce and I don't have the money to build another one. So build a PC for my mom for Christmas scratches that itch.

 

8

$400 for everything

9

Including the webcam and mouse(I own a Logitech HD C270 therefore I assume that the C310 is an upgrade - it's a great webcam for the money): 

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/Q4CYwP

You can play around with it as you like. The V300 SSD really isn't that bad (including the newer ones that have "terrible" performance). It's actually great, coming from a 7200 RPM hard drive and I've had it for quite a few months, it's snappy as ever. MSI H81M-P33 is a solid board, enough said. Crucial Ballistix Sport (1 x 4 GB) is exactly what I'm running (except two of those), excellent RAM for the money. Went for the Cooler Master case as it's relatively cheaper and the entry-level mATX boards were cheaper than the entry level mini-ITX boards. Corsair power supply - cheap, standard yet great product for very low budgets. 

:)

10

The v300 SSD IS that bad... it's terrible... for $10 or so more, there's drives that outperform by literally 2.5x... get a Crucial M500, Samsung EVO, Corsair Neutron, Kingston HyperX, literally anything outperforms it for an SSD, but those are actually top of the market fast... I've got a SSDNow v300 and Force LX in my system... I'll test both drives right now... 

 

AS SSD Bench: Kingston SSDNow v300 Results

Read:

Seq- 171.98 MB/s

4K- 12.87 MB/s

4K-64Thrd - 80.3 MB/s

Acc.time - .295ms

Write:

Seq- 69.4 MB/s

4K- 50.26 MB/s

4K-64Thrd - 56.5 MB/s

Acc.time - .377ms

 

AS SSD Bench: Corsair Force LX (which is notoriously slow for writing)

Read:

Seq- 518.55 MB/s

4k - 25.74 MB/s

4k-Thrd - 260.35 MB/s

Acc.time - .111ms

Write:

Seq - 141.81 MB/s

4K - 58.99 MB/s

4k-64Thrd - 114.85 MB/s

Acc.time - .056ms

 

And that's the cheap bottom of the line Corsair... that's generally right in the same price range but prices fluctuate a lot... it's just a terrible SSD... I paid $50 for the Force LX a few months ago and $60 for the SSDNow last year... I just use it as a cache drive now