Helping someone at work build a computer
 

(All prices in Canadian!)

I am helping someone who I work with build a computer. I am a little stuck on which processor to use as the price varies so much.

The guy plans to mainly use this computer to download music/media. Surf the internet, run MS office and the normal things like that. He has a son who is 12 and just starting to get into gaming. I am selling him my old 8800gt for $50.

I am not sure which processor to get, but here are my choices so far (all intel):

Quad Q8300 @ 2.5 GHz = $260
Quad Q8200 @ 2.33 GHz = $220 (currently on sale)
Dual E7400 @ 2.8 GHz = $160

For what he uses and for the little gaming his son might do I imagine that the E7400 should be fine, just not totally sure.

Well might as well list the rest of the components so far as well:

I have two choices for the PSU/Case so far:

1.) Antec Three Hundred with Corsair VX550 Watt PSU = $146
2.) Antec Sonata III with Antec Earthwatts 500W PSU + extra case fan = $160

MOBO

1.) Gigabyte GA-EP43-DS3L = $110
Gigabyte GA-EP43-DS3L w/ DualDDR2 1200, 7.1 Audio, Gigabit Lan, PCI-E 2.0 x16 at Memory Express Computers

RAM

1.) Kingston 4 gig (2x2) 6400 = $65

Hard Drive

1.) Seagate 500gig = $75

Optical Drive

1.) DVDRW DL = $30

Nice setup.
The E7400 should be sufficient and could be replaced later if needed.
But keep in mind that 32 bit OS will have hard time using more that 3 Gb ram.

Yours
Zweiblumen

4gigs of ram is hardly anything more expensive than 2 gigs so that is not much of a concern. I believe that the 32 bit systems use 3.5 do they not?

I have that board and the E7400 with 4 gigs of ram. Rock solid so far (3 months). My usage is roughly the same as your friends would be, except for the gaming.

get the dual core processor. The quad core would be totally wasted on what he plans to do.

Any ideas on the case? I figured the Sonata would be much quieter, but it will run hotter with the 8800gt, which is why I added the extra case fan. I know the 8800gt is a little bit of overkill for what he will be using it for, but for $50 bucks he won't get anything else that even comes close.

I have experience with the Sonata line of cases as my old computer is in one, but I don't know anything about the Three Hundred (Currently I have a Twelve Hundred for myself, but I am pretty sure that can't be compared at all to the Three Hundred :D)

For the price of the sonata, consider a Thermaltake Armor or Armor Jr. Some of the coolest-running non-liquid cases I've ever worked with, especially the full sized one.

I built my new computer yesterday and I have the Antec Three Hundred and an Antec 650 W power supply. It comes with two case fans and between the case, fans, cpu fan, and video card it is really quiet. Newegg has a deal for this right now for $144. It is a different model of the 650W power supply I got but it should be good also.

The case certainly doesn't look as cheap as it was. My only complaint is that I had more space between the end of the motherboard and the HDD bays. I have a GTX 260, three HDDs, and an SSD and there is no room whatsoever. It makes it difficult to move stuff around setting it up.

Thanks for a advice, the computer was ordered today. We went with the Antec 300 case with the E7400.

My only complaint about my Antec 900 (which seems to be endemic to the "hundred" series of cases) is that the front mic and speaker outputs are...not so good. The sound quality coming through is generally ok, but I got constant complaints when I talked on vent until I moved my headset to the rear jacks. Otherwise, though, I love it. Good luck!