[jtchal]

Hey guys,
I've been asked by my friend to set up a computer for his dad.
It will be used to replace his dying laptop to run the basics such as office, MYOB, internet browsing etc.
At the moment I am unsure whether MYOB will run with 64bit windows, so that is subject to change.

I will give him two options, a cheap/budget build and another more reliable and more powerful build (I think):

Budget build

vs.

Quality build

Let me know what you think.
Of course, if he prefers the AMD CPU/MOBO combo and still wants to spend a bit more I'll use the Corsair PSU.

Cheers

Jtchal

[zjacka]

Llano works much better with faster memory http://www.tomshardw...ano,2975-6.html

If you don't have to have Windows Prof then Home would save about $50

[JoshHunter]

Both look pretty solid. However I would spend <$10 more and swap the Caviar Blues for Spinpoint F3's.

Just mah
http://i.imgur.com/Icjy6.jpg

You know the rules – and piracy is illegal. LinuxUser

Edited by LinuxUser, 04 April 2012 - 10:01 AM.
Removed promotion of piracy.

[jtchal]

Have just changed the RAM to 1600MHz for a whole extra $7! Loving the RAM prices at the moment.
As for the Spinpoint F3's they're about $20 extra for the nearest one in stock.. Looking at buying most parts from Alphacity, unfortunately they don't seem to sell the spinpoints. Will double check on their website though.

[LinuxUser]

I suggest you use the same case and PSU for both builds – if either is good enough for one, it is good enough for both. MYOB will run on 64-bit Windows – I've done it myself. As above, there is probably no need for Windows 7 Professional, Home Premium would do – except in the extremely unlikely circumstance that a feature of the Professional edition is needed (such as group policy, or less network restrictions). Either way, I would suggest the i3 build, as it will be semi- CPU-intensive workloads, and almost no graphics-intensive workloads (except maybe for some of the web browsing, for which the i3 should be perfectly adequate).

Edited by LinuxUser, 04 April 2012 - 10:07 AM.

[jtchal]

I'm more than willing to build i3 system, looking forward to putting together my first ever intel system.
As about Windows Professional, it was particularly requested by the client. I told him that it wasn't really worth the ~$55 difference but he wanted it anyway.

@Linux, I'm keeping that cheap case option there because I'm am unsure of the budget that the client had in mind. However, if he doesn't mind splashing a lil' bit of cash then he will definately be getting a good quality PSU and a decent case.

[LinuxUser]

Personally, I'd go for the cheapest case I could find (very likely a Gigabyte one, they are reasonably good actually), and get a cheap-but-decent PSU. Then I'd make everything else fit the budget with that – I would never do a build without a decent PSU, because you know who will get blamed if it fails. You're better off with a cheaper motherboard and/or CPU than with a cheap PSU. If you had to, you could always say that the budget is too low – but that is unlikely.

[TomSahz]

You definitely want to do as much as you can limit liability for faults or failures that occur through no fault of your own. Building a PC for someone else is allways risky, just make sure to stick to the parts list you've put together and don't let anyone try to swap anything round.

[S0up2up]

For the i3 build, change the RAM module to 2x2Gb sticks instead of the single stick.

[jtchal]

All parts have been bought and are on their way down from Auckland.
I was just browsing through the motherboard's specs and I just noticed that it is compatible with 2 DIMM @ 1066/1333 MHz.
Is it still going to work fine with the RAM I bought which is the Kingston HyperX Blu DDR3 1600 MHz?

[JoshHunter]

Yeah it will. When you install RAM it runs at 1333MHz anyway. For example if you bought a 2133MHz rated kit you would have to adjust it to that speed manually or use Intel XMP.

Tl;dr: Yes it will work

[jtchal]

JoshHunter, on 14 April 2012 - 10:30 PM, said:

Yeah it will. When you install RAM it runs at 1333MHz anyway. For example if you bought a 2133MHz rated kit you would have to adjust it to that speed manually or use Intel XMP.

Tl;dr: Yes it will work

Baaawss! Cheers.
I'm slowly learning a few things about Intel components, those will come in handy when I decide to upgrade my own machine sometime this year..

[JoshHunter]

No problemo. Yeah I had to pick a few things up too, especially regarding differences between chipsets.

If you're upgrading your machine you should try and wait for Haswell (not until next year, might be a bit long to wait), or pick up a secondhand SB system, Ivy Bridge isn't looking too promising nearly 100°c temps at ~1.2v 4.6GHz overclocks >.<

[LinuxUser]

You mean, it doesn't look too promising for overclocking except on extreme cooling! Because it seems perfectly good for at lower overclocks or with no overclock – and excellent for laptops. And it seems that it doesn't have a cold bug either, so it should be good for extreme cooling, where it will probably get some very high clocks.

[JoshHunter]

Yeah I see its capable of a 100% OC on LN2 buuut to the average pseudo-enthusiast consumer, I.E me, the extreme cooling capabilities have absolutely no value.

It will be good for laptops, given the lower power consumption, but did you see the desktop i5/i7 chips have a 95w TDP now?

Ivy is relatively pointless when SB will soon cost a lot less and give the same performance due to higher clock capabilities

[LinuxUser]

I doubt they've changed the TDP – I'm going to be interested to see what it actually is when it releases – but I have heard that rumour although not on any of the news sites.

[jtchal]

The computer is built, Windows & MSE are installed and fully updated.
However, I'm starting to freak out since every time I shut down the computer, it just restarts by itself...
Anyone know what could be causing this?

[JoshHunter]

LinuxUser, on 16 April 2012 - 10:21 AM, said:

I doubt they've changed the TDP – I'm going to be interested to see what it actually is when it releases – but I have heard that rumour although not on any of the news sites.

They have. Its apparently a 95w part now.

[S0up2up]

jtchal, on 22 April 2012 - 09:28 PM, said:

The computer is built, Windows & MSE are installed and fully updated.
However, I'm starting to freak out since every time I shut down the computer, it just restarts by itself...
Anyone know what could be causing this?

Hmm that is interesting.
While it is running, click on the start menu, type cmd into the start box.
When Command Prompt comes up as one of the results, right click and run as admin.
Then type: shutdown -s

See if that turns it off completely or not. (Refer to http://answers.micro...fb-35583e63d988)

If that doesn't work, are all the BIOS setting on default? That has been known to cause this problem too.

[jtchal]

S0up2up, on 22 April 2012 - 10:44 PM, said:

Hmm that is interesting.
While it is running, click on the start menu, type cmd into the start box.
When Command Prompt comes up as one of the results, right click and run as admin.
Then type: shutdown -s

See if that turns it off completely or not. (Refer to http://answers.micro...fb-35583e63d988)

Alright that seems to work, although it's not acceptable for a PC that isn't mine.
I will look into BIOS updates tomorrow but it isn't a good feeling when you've prepared something with so much love and it doesn't want to work properly...
Could it be the mechanism of the power button you think?

[LinuxUser]

jtchal, on 23 April 2012 - 01:10 AM, said:

Alright that seems to work, although it's not acceptable for a PC that isn't mine.
I will look into BIOS updates tomorrow but it isn't a good feeling when you've prepared something with so much love and it doesn't want to work properly...
Could it be the mechanism of the power button you think?

You mean the power button on the case? Because the power button action can be configured in the Power Options in Control Panel, and may well be set to restart rather than shut down. Does Shut Down on the start menu work correctly then?

JoshHunter, on 22 April 2012 - 10:23 PM, said:

They have. Its apparently a 95w part now.

Source please?

[jtchal]

LinuxUser, on 23 April 2012 - 09:27 AM, said:

You mean the power button on the case? Because the power button action can be configured in the Power Options in Control Panel, and may well be set to restart rather than shut down. Does Shut Down on the start menu work correctly then?

I shut it down last night using "cmd>shutdown -s" method.
Fired it up twice this morning and used the "start > shutdown" method which seems to be working now...
Maybe it was having a bad day yesterday? I'm still not convinced that it's working properly yet though.

EDIT: I just placed the top, front covers and the side panel back on, "start > shutdown" power off for 2 seconds then it boots again?! Argh!!

[LinuxUser]

I could understand problems booting, but problems shutting down and rebooting seems really strange. Try flashing the motherboard BIOS – it may be the cause of the problem.

[jtchal]

LinuxUser, on 23 April 2012 - 04:56 PM, said:

I could understand problems booting, but problems shutting down and rebooting seems really strange. Try flashing the motherboard BIOS – it may be the cause of the problem.

I did earlier today, no difference...
I just swapped PSU in the new build, replaced the Corsair by a cheapo 420W I had in a spare machine. It seemed to shut down fine...
I also placed the Corsair PSU in the spare machine and it seemed to operate normally in there?! So I will now put it back in its intended place and hopefully it will be working properly.

[LinuxUser]

Yes, but from your previous post it is an intermittent fault, so it may be tricky to figure out – how many times did you try? But I'm guessing you've got the right source of the problems – the PSU.

[jtchal]

It didn't work properly in where it's supposed to
I tried 3 times for each machine.

[S0up2up]

LinuxUser, on 23 April 2012 - 05:50 PM, said:

Yes, but from your previous post it is an intermittent fault, so it may be tricky to figure out – how many times did you try? But I'm guessing you've got the right source of the problems – the PSU.

Buts it weird that it works fine in another unit. Because if I am right in thinking (Correct me if I am wrong) there isn't any feedback from the Mobo/HDD's back to the PSU, right? Nor is there anyway for the PSU to enact this supposed communication.

[LinuxUser]

S0up2up, on 23 April 2012 - 07:02 PM, said:

Buts it weird that it works fine in another unit. Because if I am right in thinking (Correct me if I am wrong) there isn't any feedback from the Mobo/HDD's back to the PSU, right? Nor is there anyway for the PSU to enact this supposed communication.

The motherboard holds the PS_ON line low to keep the PSU on, but that can't really do anything. I guess it would seem to have to be the motherboard, then.

jtchal, on 23 April 2012 - 06:45 PM, said:

It didn't work properly in where it's supposed to
I tried 3 times for each machine.

You mean that the Corsair still doesn't work in the new machine, then? Or that one machine shutting down correctly with the PSUs swapped?

[jtchal]

Nope, the Corsair doesn't work in the machine it is supposed to work in (the Intel Core i3 build).
But somehow it shut down fine in the old Athlon II X2 build three times in a row...

[LinuxUser]

Did the i3 build with the other PSU work fine? I'm thinking it is probably the motherboard, although if it consistently works with the command line it will probably be Windows. To test that, create a desktop shortcut to use it – right-click the desktop, point to New, select Shortcut, type "shutdown -s" (the command line instruction to shut down), click Next, Finish – and then see if it works consistently.