new tower for granddaughter

[cookiemonster]

Hi I just found out my granddaughter uses a desktop in her class at school she is coming up for 5 and I would like to build her a tower I already have a power supply Corsair 750 and a 19" monitor so really I am looking for a motherboard preferably Gigabyte a processor either Intel or AMD, I was thinking 4gb ram, a 500gb hard drive and onboard graphics a cheap keyboard and mouse it will probably get a bit abuse. oh and a tower, processor doesn't need to be all that powerfull I was thinking something about an intel i3 or the equivalent AMD I don't know anything about AMD or APU or much to do with AMD but I am looking for something that I can upgrade when the time comes, please help with ideas.

P.S. ebuyer or scan preferably.

 

[CAPSLOCKSTUCK]

Make her build it. With your help obviously.

They love it, my nephew does anyway.

 

[GeForce Junky]

What about this:

http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/cwbtqs

In this case/psu combo (not on partpicker)

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/powe...ck-aluminium-chassis-with-120w-psu-vesa-ready

You may need to borrow an older 1150 processor from somewhere though if the mobo bios needs updating to run the 4160. I built something very similar recently and it is beautiful for general use. The one I built I used a large aftermarket fanless cooler (sticking out a hole cut in the case) for totally silent build.

 

[krusha03]

Hi I just found out my granddaughter uses a desktop in her class at school she is coming up for 5 and I would like to build her a tower I already have a power supply Corsair 750 and a 19" monitor so really I am looking for a motherboard preferably Gigabyte a processor either Intel or AMD, I was thinking 4gb ram, a 500gb hard drive and onboard graphics a cheap keyboard and mouse it will probably get a bit abuse. oh and a tower, processor doesn't need to be all that powerfull I was thinking something about an intel i3 or the equivalent AMD I don't know anything about AMD or APU or much to do with AMD but I am looking for something that I can upgrade when the time comes, please help with ideas while the Intel has better CPU performance

P.S. ebuyer or scan preferably.

What is your budget? Are you open to overclocking? Do you have any idea how much space you are gonna need? Because as @GeForce Junky has in his build and SSD will make the whole system snappier. Buying new 500GB hdd at this point is pointless as 1TB can be had for few quids more. Also what is the main use of the pc? A good review covering both AMD A10 and i3 can be found here. As you can see the AMD is much better in gaming and can be overclocked.

I personally would go for this build (maybe substitute SSD for HDD or have both and add better cooler) :

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD A10-7700K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor (£92.12 @ Ebuyer)
Motherboard: Asus A88XM-Plus Micro ATX FM2+ Motherboard (£53.99 @ Dabs)
Memory: Kingston Savage 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-2400 Memory (£50.90 @ Overclockers.co.uk)
Storage: Hitachi Ultrastar 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£40.00 @ Amazon UK)
Case: Zalman Z3 Plus ATX Mid Tower Case (£26.99 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £264.00
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-02-25 12:29 GMT+0000

I know you said you prefer gigabyte and buying from ebuyer or scan but these components where cheaper elsewhere and this motherboard is the cheapest board that is also good for overclocking. Furthermore that ram would unleash the integrated gpu in it's full glory. You can add a cooler or overclock with stock and monitor the temperatures. Check out the review and you will see that overclocking + high speed ram makes the amd apu quite capable. If you dont plan to upgrade in the next 2-3 years this is the system I would go for and should be more than enough for gaming at 720p (i assume that's the resolution since you mentioned 19" screen).

Another option is this:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i3-4160 3.6GHz Dual-Core Processor (£89.99 @ Novatech)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z97P-D3 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£62.36 @ Scan.co.uk)
Memory: Kingston Savage 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-2400 Memory (£50.90 @ Overclockers.co.uk)
Storage: Hitachi Ultrastar 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£40.00 @ Amazon UK)
Case: Zalman Z3 Plus ATX Mid Tower Case (£26.99 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £270.24
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-02-25 12:42 GMT+0000

Having a z97 board would allow you to put an i5 / i7 later on and even overclock if you plan in the future. But once again if you don't plan to upgrade this pc anytime soon I would go for the AMD build

 

[cookiemonster]

Hi the system would be used for small games and homework and generally stuff she does at school ie www.busythings.co.uk I like the idea of a ssd I never thought about that. my buget is around £200- £250 I am not sure about a micro mobo, the other thing I was going to go for windows 7 32bit.

 

[krusha03]

Hi the system would be used for small games and homework and generally stuff she does at school ie www.busythings.co.uk I like the idea of a ssd I never thought about that. my buget is around £200- £250 I am not sure about a micro mobo, the other thing I was going to go for windows 7 32bit.

Any reason why you would like to go for 32 bit windows? You can use the same key for 32 and 64 bit interchangeably as long as it's the same edition. Also do you have any old hard disk laying around? Since 128GB SSD can fill up quickly but with an extra 250+GB hdd for movies / games it would be an awesome pc. Finally what's the problem with mATX boards? You can show around and find a nice, small mATX case as well if you want. However if you are absolutely against mATX you can get this board for few quids more:

http://www.cclonline.com/product/12...33/?siteID=8BacdVP0GFs-sBeJa4AlwsE_DXRTmunnjg

 

[CAPSLOCKSTUCK]

You will find a perfectly suitable 2nd user fully working pc on ebay for less than £100.00.
Post the specs of what you find on here, then bid after getting some advice here.
A 10 yr old pc will suffice for a 5 year old.

 

[krusha03]

You will find a perfectly suitable 2nd user fully working pc on ebay for less than £100.00.
Post the specs of what you find on here, then bid after getting some advice here.
A 10 yr old pc will suffice for a 5 year old.

But where is the joy in building a new PC then? Joking aside while I don't know the 2nd hand market in UK i can imagine that this is true

 

[CAPSLOCKSTUCK]

But where is the joy in building a new PC then? Joking aside while I don't know the 2nd hand market in UK i can imagine that this is true

i agree entirely...i build and encourage others, especially youngsters.
the fella i built the last one for asked me to strip it and rebuild it with his daughters...............that was the condition he set them.......you want it, you build it. His girls are 8 and 10.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Shuttle-X...745?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item4d2e3f37a9


an example, i dont know the vendor i will watch it and post what it sells for

 

[krusha03]

Quick look on ebay, I would go for this:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Fast-Ston...892?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item234ba5fd7c

or

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/HP-Compaq...084?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item20f72c77d4


+ a low profile GT 730 DDR5 like this:

http://www.cclonline.com/product/17...19/?siteID=8BacdVP0GFs-VMDOCNtU3o0RfON1ynJljw

 

[cookiemonster]

thanks CAPSLOCKSTUCK I know what you mean about ebay but I would like to build one for her or let her help and I want to future proof it so it can be upgraded a little bit at a time, yes krusha03 I do have some sata hard drives about,

i agree entirely...i build and encourage others, especially youngsters.
the fella i built the last one for asked me to strip it and rebuild it with his daughters...............that was the condition he set them.......you want it, you build it. His girls are 8 and 10.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Shuttle-X...745?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item4d2e3f37a9


an example, i dont know the vendor i will watch it and post what it sells for

 

[CAPSLOCKSTUCK]

Just for info

 

[cookiemonster]

Hi krusha03 I quite like the sound of this one CPU: Intel Core i3-4160 3.6GHz Dual-Core Processor (£89.99 @ Novatech)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z97P-D3 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£62.36 @ Scan.co.uk)
Memory: Kingston Savage 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-2400 Memory (£50.90 @ Overclockers.co.uk)
Storage: Hitachi Ultrastar 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£40.00 @ Amazon UK)
Case: Zalman Z3 Plus ATX Mid Tower Case (£26.99 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £270.24
as you said I could put an ssd in, does this one have on board graphics or should I add the graphics card in

http://www.cclonline.com/product/17...19/?siteID=8BacdVP0GFs-VMDOCNtU3o0RfON1ynJljw

 

[krusha03]

Hi krusha03 I quite like the sound of this one CPU: Intel Core i3-4160 3.6GHz Dual-Core Processor (£89.99 @ Novatech)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z97P-D3 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£62.36 @ Scan.co.uk)
Memory: Kingston Savage 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-2400 Memory (£50.90 @ Overclockers.co.uk)
Storage: Hitachi Ultrastar 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£40.00 @ Amazon UK)
Case: Zalman Z3 Plus ATX Mid Tower Case (£26.99 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £270.24
as you said I could put an ssd in, does this one have on board graphics or should I add the graphics card in

http://www.cclonline.com/product/17...19/?siteID=8BacdVP0GFs-VMDOCNtU3o0RfON1ynJljw

It has a onboard graphic card thou the one on the AMD APU is significantly better. Did you read the review article i linked earlier?

If you are set on intel then use that build just get an X110 or SSD370 instead of the hard drive and put an old hdd in. Do you have a old gpu also laying around? That 730 GT I linked is a cheap low profile card and would be good for one of those slim tower cases that i linked from ebay since the first generation igp was really bad. If you go for a normal tower you can get a better card 2nd hand or just run it with the igp for the time being until you can afford something better

 

[cookiemonster]

The other reason I like the intel is if I decide to upgrade my processor I can give her my i5 or motherboard.

 

[krusha03]

The other reason I like the intel is if I decide to upgrade my processor I can give her my i5 or motherboard.

As i said if you want to upgrade the system later on then intel would be better. Also if you want something more potent then you can go for something like this used 550 ti. The integrated HD 4400 would be inbetween the 6450 and 430 in the graph below

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/ASUS-GeFo...040?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item3cf3931770

 

[cookiemonster]

Last of all will the Intel system run windows 7 64bit.

 

[CAPSLOCKSTUCK]

Yes

 

[krusha03]

Last of all will the Intel system run windows 7 64bit.

If you have more than 3GB ram it's a must and with these new cpus 64 bit runs better than 32 bit

 

[Iceni]

If she is using computers at school have a word with them about software.

They might not be using windows 7. It could be XP, or Win 8. You want the OSes to match what the school is using.


http://www.novatech.co.uk/barebonebundles/view/bb-64004h.html

Just add a cheap hard drive and swap onto your own PSU.

I use Novatech and Overclockers for most of my parts. Novatech have free delivery on everything over £50 so that factors well to the slightly higher prices compared to scan. The real reason I use both companies is they both have stunning customer service. And you can get hold of novatech online without having to call them up, There's an office hours manned chat system built into the website that they actually use, and the staff are really good on there. Both companies offer stunning delivery, The Novatech free service is normally a 48 hour delivery.

Remember your going to need some speakers as well. Most kids will want to hear whats going on.

For the CD drive if you don't have one kicking about get a USB one. It'll help stop those accidents with sweets on the tray and sticky fingers. You can pop the drive out of reach on a USB extension.

A second component build might look more like this.

£208.90

http://www.novatech.co.uk/products/...ocket1150/h81chipsetmicroatx/ga-h81m-s2h.html

http://www.novatech.co.uk/products/components/processors/intelceleronandpentium/bx80646g3220.html

http://www.novatech.co.uk/products/...dr3memory/ddr3pc3-128001600mhz/ram-16004.html

http://www.novatech.co.uk/products/components/avp-ev33w.html

http://www.novatech.co.uk/products/components/harddrives-internal/2.5inchharddrive/st500lt012.html

http://www.novatech.co.uk/products/components/opticaldrives/satadvdwriters/ihas124-14.html

http://www.novatech.co.uk/products/peripherals/keyboards/keyboardmousebundles/dth-250.html

http://www.novatech.co.uk/products/peripherals/speakers/980-000513.html

It's got keys and speakers as well. For the GPU have a look on Ebay for HD6950's. The current BIN price is about £60.

I picked out that case because it's white and a bit more girly, and it's also a cube so it will be harder to knock over when she's having a mad half hour

 

[cookiemonster]

Hi thanks for all the great help and advice from all with my granddaughters tower, but I think I will be going for krusha03 system.

CPU: Intel Core i3-4160 3.6GHz Dual-Core Processor (£89.99 @ Novatech)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z97P-D3 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£62.36 @ Scan.co.uk)
Memory: Kingston Savage 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-2400 Memory (£50.90 @ Overclockers.co.uk)
Storage: Hitachi Ultrastar 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£40.00 @ Amazon UK)
Case: Zalman Z3 Plus ATX Mid Tower Case (£26.99 @ Amazon UK)
I will let you know how things go.

 

[krusha03]

Hi thanks for all the great help and advice from all with my granddaughters tower, but I think I will be going for krusha03 system.

CPU: Intel Core i3-4160 3.6GHz Dual-Core Processor (£89.99 @ Novatech)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z97P-D3 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£62.36 @ Scan.co.uk)
Memory: Kingston Savage 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-2400 Memory (£50.90 @ Overclockers.co.uk)
Storage: Hitachi Ultrastar 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£40.00 @ Amazon UK)
Case: Zalman Z3 Plus ATX Mid Tower Case (£26.99 @ Amazon UK)
I will let you know how things go.

It's a good system just as we talked earlier if you have HDDs laying around buy a 128GB SSD instead. And i hope you and your granddaughter will have lot's of fun building that tower

 

[CAPSLOCKSTUCK]

+1.
Keep us updated. Cant believe im jealous of a 5 r old.
Nice build @krusha youve done it again.

 

[krusha03]

+1.
Keep us updated. Cant believe im jealous of a 5 r old.
Nice build @krusha youve done it again.

Ha man you have no idea. Every time i am making one of these builds I am happy like I am gonna buy it for myself. But then I look at my bank account and the prices here and reality hits me

 

[CAPSLOCKSTUCK]

I know what you mean................check my specs against the one that little girl will grow up with !!!!

Hope she finds an interest early on in life. A little bit of inspiration at an early age is a good thing. And to build it with her Gramps will be ace.

Goodluck to both of them.