hello tek community. I am going to be building a PC for my grandmother because the one she is using is hopelessly out of date (its probably 6-8 years old, you know the one 512mb ram >2.0GHz processor dell piece of crap). I am pretty sure she is only using it for online banking, some email, light web browsing spreadsheets and whatnot. my goal is to have a small form factor machine that gets what she needs done quick. I am basically asking for some CPU motherboard and case suggestions. I dont care if it is Intel or AMD, I just want small and quick. I am not looking to overclock this, there will be no dedicated GPU I have never build a small/tiny system before so as far as a case goes I am really going to rely on the community.
I recognize that build you posted because it's the exact build I came up with for a mini portable gaming PC (which I posted in another thread). It even has the Canadian prices I put in manually. lol ;) I had no CPU on the list because I'm waiting for the new Kaveri A8-7600 APU.
Anyways, for your grandmother who's not going to be gaming, I'd recommend building something like this instead: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/31pZl
Same case but different guts. Will be more than fast enough for what she needs.
the budget is most likely going to be sub 600. the less expensive the better (balance quality is important you know). sorry first time with that site I didnt know I had to do anything to get the link to persist :/
I was thinking about putting an an APU just because I thought it may bring a little balance to the system since it is missing a GPU. also that case is great. sleek and would totally fit in the little desk compartment she uses
The CPU I selected in my recommendation has on-board Intel graphics. It's nothing super powerful, but it's your grandmother we're talking about here. Not like she will be doing anything that requires significant GPU muscle. Even still it is capable of playing most games at 720p on low settings. So it's not completely useless. lol
I don't think it's necessary to spend anywhere near $600 for a basic use machine and still build something with good quality components (like the build I suggested). That being said, if you want to go the route of an AMD APU and still try to keep the cost down, it means you'll have to go with an FM2 socket motherboard which will not support the new Kaveri APU's and will limit future upgrade options. The cheapest FM2+ ITX motherboards are a little pricey, IMO.
But I mean it's your/her money. If you want to spend more, that's up to you. I'm just saying, for what it will be used for, does it really need a $100+ motherboard and $100+ CPU?