Girlfriend wants a PC.

O.k, so my Girlfriend wants a PC that is capable of playing games like Sims 3, Minecraft, errr, and other stuff girls like. It doesn't need to be anything too fancy but something that would allow her to play games without trouble.

She has around £500 to spend on the PC.

If possible I would ask you tech peeps to build a PC online (Somewhere like www.ibuypower.com) and share the link with what you think is best. She will want it building up and delivering to her home (England).

Of course it doesn't have to be a custom built PC, it could be a pre build PC, whatever you guys think is best.

 

Converted that to dollars as we can't see those websites with pounds as they see a US IP and send us to the US website. Anyway, conversion has 500 pounds at about $780. For that amount, a custom-built place isn't going to get you much. They have a mark-up of about 30-40% for putting your system together for you.

There are pre-built machines that cost that much and would fit her needs, but you might do better looking on whatever the equivalent to Craigslist is in your area. If she doesn't want to do that, then shop NewEgg. Also, if she doesn't already own a monitor, she will probably need to increase her budget.

 

I disagree on some of these points. $750 bucks can go a good distance with the simple requirements you've set. Sims 3 requires a 2ghz p4 at minimum. Ha! You can do way more! It also doesn't sound like the monitor needs to be too fancy. You can get useable widescreens for under 150. Hell, youre inside a budget for a decent laptop even. About a year ago, i got a 15.4wide dual core amd with respectable graphics for the casual gaming you are talking about for 379.99. This is an easy budget and she can pick the color/accessorize!. Just look for the deals - of course, this all assumes you have similar deals in England

 

I'm literally just after the tower, no need to worry about monitor/keyboard/mouse etc. She will be quite happy with a rubbish monitor.

 

From my experience with the 3570K, I would go as far as saying you could skip a dedicated gpu if those are the games that want to be palyed. So ~250 for a combined CPU/GPU. I was able to play skyrim on the 3570K and it was a pleasant experience. This route also leaves room in the future if you do decide you really need a beefier machine.

Along the lines of skipping a dedicated GPU......

LINK

Those are the parts I would throw together but I don't know if you/she want to attempt and build it yourself. It really isn't that difficult just throwing stuff together and installing drivers. The only place IMO to trim fat on this is the mobo and get a smaller PSU(~4-500W) which is totally doable. 650W would be good incase a GPU is installed in the future and you can go up or down ~40$ on the mobo (I originally had a maximus V gene which was still within the ~780$=£500 budget). An NZXT Havik 140 would also work as an air cooler for a similar price or cheaper depending where you get the H60.

 

AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition Deneb 3.4GHz Socket AM3 125W Quad-Core Processor 120$
Antec Three Hundred Illusion Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case 70$
COOLER MASTER GX Series RS650-ACAAE3-US 650W ATX12V v2.31 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Power Supply 70$
GIGABYTE GA-970A-UD3 AM3+ AMD 970 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard 100$
EVGA 01G-P3-1556-KR GeForce GTX 550 Ti (Fermi) FPB 1GB 192-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 130$
G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) 35$

or thats as close to 500EU i could get. 500eu = 630us and that pc is 690 and your gf will be ripped off if you buy it there =]
iBUYPOWER Computer :: Gamer Mage D245 http://www.ibuypower.com/Store/Gamer_Mage_D245/w/124755

 

I just ran sims 3 on an nvidia ion rig i use as a htpc to prove a point. It worked fine. Literally anything will work with the needs you've posted will work. I do really like the suggestion about using a cpu based graphics solution to start, leaving room to upgrade if/when you feel the need. Just makes sense.

 

Euro =/= Pounds Sterling

500 British pounds = 622.244251 Euros = 784.650001 U.S. dollars = 794.379561 Canadian dollars

eta.

I really don't like the pre configured options at the ibuypower place. I feel like they are forcing you to choose crap and charging too much for it because the selection is junk. I'm not sure if there are dedicated PC stores like NCIX in Britain but I know at NCIX for an extra 50$ on top of your order they will assemble and test the system you choose if you buy all the parts required from them and ship it out. It adds about 1 week onto the delivery schedule from what I could ascertain.

 

Yeah this has to be a pain in the ass for you- you know, exchange rates and limited parts availability and all. You'd think it would be any more expensive there since everything is made in China anyway. And i agree about the ibuypower kind of sucking. Cheap parts= higher profit margins. Is in their interest to cut corners wherever they can get away with it.

 

Unfortunately that's all true. I think a lot of it is tax based that accounts for increased prices. Strangely the cost of everything in UK / EU is on a gradual increase, that is except our wages.

Thanks Enigma. A pre built machine would do the job, just I'm not too sure what I'm looking at with spec's at the moment. Haven't been keeping myself up to date.

 

Thanks man, I sent her the specs and will see what she thinks soon. Cheers again buddy, lifesaver.

 

I have heard a lot of good about Lenovo too and it seems they don't come with too much bloatware too. I also just wanted to clarify that Lenovo isn't actually part of IBM, but I was unsure if you knew this based on how you worded the response. I just figured I would let you know if you didn't because I wasn't sure until about a week ago when I talked to my uncle that just retired from IBM. Also good luck with your search for the computer for you girlfriend! If you can get the parts I'd recommend doing the build it's fun building it and you know what your getting more so... mostly because it's fun though.

 

Problem is if I build the PC and anything goes wrong I'm the one to blame or come to when it needs fixing. At the moment I have no problems with that but if we split up for whatever reason (or when I move aboard) then she will be contacting me with the problems. I would rather avoid that

Plus, I think she actually wants a pre built machine for less hassle and delivery.

 

I got a lenovo laptop for the girlfriend. I was very pleasantly surprised.

 

How did you waterproof it so she doesn't get it wet while she's in the kitchen?

 

zing!

 

dishtowel over the keyboard. good to go