Need Rock Solid Build Prescription

[jsmileb]

Our reliable Dell 9100 is getting glitchy after 7 great years of service. I thought about a Dell XPS8100 or XPS9000, but the Dell forums are so full of horror stories, that I am reluctant to go the Dell route as the company has lost their perspective. I have a couple of builds that I use, an Intel DG965 running Vista Ult 64bit, and an MSI X48C Platinum running 7 Home Pre. 64bit. I can keep them running and enjoy doing so. My wife just wants to go to the computer and have it work 100% of the time. So I'd like to do a build that is as reliable as possible.

Basically she uses it for surfing, email, uses MS Word for docs, Skypeing with grandchildren.


Requirements:

Windows 7- 64bit OS
4GB memmory will do anything she needs to do.
I would like to have an HDMI connection including sound.
System board sound is perfectly adequate.
Fairly fast but need not scream.

If more information would be helpful, please ask. If you have a suggestion, please list all components you've used successfully.

I have a predeliction for PC Power and Cooling power supplies, but would consider other.
Case should be a Mid Tower with ports and switches at the top as it sits under a desk. But I can find cases on Newegg.
I am more familiar with Intel processors. I've never used an AMD.
Have primarily used ATI vid cards, and find the HDMI connection is available with them.
Thanks for looking,

 

[Ritwik7]

Can you give us a budget? That would help in making recommendations.

 

[dividebyzero]

Location too.
Off the top of my head I'd say a Core i3 / H55 combo.Onboard graphics, works well with W7, some future expandibility, speedy at default settings, HDMI on the motherboard.
Unless your wife is a closet gamer then a discrete graphics card isn't needed, which would allow use of a more moderate PSU and a smaller mATX chassis if thats a consideration.

The only downside I could see is that the chipset/CPU are new tech- but as they're both incremental derivations of existing (i5/i7, P55/X58) platforms that have had for the most part, a troublefree introduction I wouldn't think it's a big downside.

 

[jsmileb]

Can you give us a budget? That would help in making recommendations.

I kinda thought that the Dell reference, XPS 8100 or 9000 covered that, but to be more clear, I'd like to stay under $1K. No monitor needed. If I could stay around $700 that would be great. I put a package together on Newegg over the weekend just to compare to Dell, X58 board, i7(920) processor, 8GB DDR3 ram, 750 PC Power supply, $140 video board, case, HD, DVD/CD. As I recall it was between $1100 and $1200. I decided too much for some web browsing and skyping.

Really, what I'd like is a recipe by someone who has put together a system that has been glitch free, or darn near. In the past Dell has been pretty solid, but it seems that their higher end desktops are suffering quality issues.

dividesbyzero, I'll cruise on over to Newegg and see what they have in the i3, H55 segment. Had not really considered less than i5.

 

[Ritwik7]

I decided too much for some web browsing and skyping

If that's what you do with your system then I think you would do very well under $700.

Something like this should suffice:

AMD Athlon II X4 620 Propus 2.6GHz - $99.00
GIGABYTE GA-MA790GPT-UD3H - $114.99 ($99.99 after $15.00 Mail-In Rebate Card)
G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 2 x 2GB DDR3 1600 - $93.99
CORSAIR CMPSU-400CX 400W - $54.99
Western Digital Caviar Black WD5001AALS 500GB - $69.99
Sony Optiarc AD 7240S - $27.99
Antec Three Hundred Illusion - $59.99

Total - $520.94

I haven't recommended a video card as the onboard should do fine as long as you're not gaming.

 

[dividebyzero]

Cheap enuf.

@Ritwik
Off topic - how does the website handle the renaming of the URL links?
is it a
<a href="http://www.overpricedepeenpos.html" target="_blank">Greatupgrade4noob</a>
type convention?
Some of the url links (especially for configurator results) are horrendously long- wouldn't mind cleaning up future posts. Cheers.

 

[Ritwik7]

@Ritwik
Off topic - how does the website handle the renaming of the URL links?

Type in the name of the component and highlight it. Then copy the link and paste it after clicking on the "Insert Link" symbol.

I explained it this way 'coz that's the way I understand it. Didn't quite get <a href="http://www.overpricedepeenpos.html" target="_blank">Greatupgrade4noob</a>.

Not technical.

 

[dividebyzero]

Cheers.
Overthinking it I guess. That's the way I would normally rename a link and have it open in a sperate window using html. in a doc etc.