Description

I was doing some work on my grandparent's PC the other day, a very old Dell, and I found that I could max the CPU and Ram way too easy. So I talked them into letting me build them a computer for much less than what they payed for the Dell over 10 years ago, $1300...

Grandpa uses it to surf the Drudge Report and watch those interesting news broadcasts on Youtube and Grandma has gotten quite the knack for burning family videos to DVD and distributing them to all the out of state family.

Cable management in this case was non existent, but I was able to tuck most of the loose ends behind the PSU and disc drive so it looks fairly clean.

I was trying to stay as cheap as possible while trying to maintain decent performance. Took me about an hour to put together, it fits spaciously on their desk, and it matches their picture printer. Grandparents happy! check

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Comments

  • 79 months ago
  • 19 points

Not bad. I'm doing something similar for my wife's grandmother. Coming in with monitor and peripherals right at $500 as a mini ITX. She just wants it for solitaire >.>

Cable management isn't terrible, but it's not exactly necessary in this build either. It's not starved of airflow.

It's almost sad how we start running out of gaming PC's to build and start throwing together anything for anyone just for the sake of building. :P

  • 79 months ago
  • 12 points

They play solitaire more than I sleep! haha

Luckily they already had a nice monitor and an old keyboard/mouse, nice expense to save on.

I'm so addicted to building these things, I can't wait to get my hands on another!!

  • 75 months ago
  • 11 points

Dat last sentancce.

  • 79 months ago
  • 5 points

Nicely done. Well built for what it is to be used for. Ir would have been fun to slap an SSD in there to blow their minds with the super fast boot speed.

I intend to build a similar system for my mom next year. Thanks for the inspiration. Hope they enjoy it.

  • 79 months ago
  • 2 points

I thought about a SSD, but for the cost and the use I didn't think it was really needed. They were used to turning on their computer and going to make coffee. They're happy they don't have to wait :)

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  • 79 months ago
  • 14 points

That's some fast coffee!

Wouldn't want anyone to break a hip ;)

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  • 76 months ago
  • 3 points

dude that cable management is great and very existent

  • 76 months ago
  • 1 point

I tried!

  • 79 months ago
  • 2 points

They might need a bigger HDD and you could get a second one to backup the photos and videos.

  • 79 months ago
  • 6 points

Working in a position where I repair PC's and a majority of my clientele happens to be older folks, I can say pretty confidently that most of them barely use 100GB of space, save for the OS and other system critical stuff. The few that do are usually also riddled with viruses, malware, and spamware of all shapes and sizes.

  • 79 months ago
  • 1 point

Sad but true..

  • 79 months ago
  • 2 points

As far as the drive space usage, price-per-gb, a large HDD may have been more practical simply because you can get a 1TB for $70 as it sits already. But at the end of the day, cheaper is cheaper no matter what.

  • 79 months ago
  • 2 points

I thought about 500 to 1TB, but for what they would use it for.. total overkill. Even if they are more for the $$.

  • 79 months ago
  • 1 point

Almost could have completely replaced the HDD with a 240-256GB ish SSD. But your price would have increased by about $100. :P

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  • 79 months ago
  • 1 point

She keeps everything on DVD and CD oddly enough.. She doesn't use 100 of her old 320 so I thought 250 would be good for now.

  • 79 months ago
  • 2 points

Doing stuff for grandparents is ******* cool - good on you. I bought my granddad a new PC about six months ago - about three months before I got back into building unfortunately.

  • 79 months ago
  • 3 points

Thank you! It feels good that something I enjoy can make them happy :)

  • 79 months ago
  • 2 points

Hardware looks nice! One question: what where the specs of their older build? Anyways this looks like a nice build, this should entertain your grandparents quite nicely!

Happy usage! (sorry I couldn't write happy gaming because I don't think your grand parents would be playing TF2)

  • 79 months ago
  • 3 points

Thank you so much!

They were using a Dell Dimension 4600. Pentium 4, 2.8ghz, 1gb ddr I believe. My gma still has the original invoice and they paid over $1300 for it..

Haha no TF2 for them but maybe some 3d mahjong :)

  • 68 months ago
  • 1 point

Funnily enough, I once met a random old guy while playing TF2.

That seems like a ridiculous price now, but was that a good deal back in the day?

  • 67 months ago
  • 2 points

does the job and i bet it blew their mind +1

  • 79 months ago
  • 1 point

Love it! This is what I want to build my parents! This is a perfect case too. If its for web surfing why go with a big case. I love the smaller ones overall anyway.

  • 79 months ago
  • 1 point

The case worked out really well. Super thin, stand it up or lay it down, and looks classy. Not much for bells and whistles, but for simple users it works out quite nicely!

  • 79 months ago
  • 1 point

You may want to plug in the front USB 3.0 connector. It's the blue cord that is just sitting at the bottom of the case. The port is at the bottom to the right of the 3 ports you already have used.

  • 79 months ago
  • 3 points

facepalm I knew I was missing something... Thanks :)

  • 79 months ago
  • 1 point

It happens. Just too many things to plug in. It's easy to miss something

  • 79 months ago
  • 1 point

Quite nice, but I would've chosen a Pentium. Love how small it is though.

  • 79 months ago
  • 1 point

I was torn on processor choice, but if it works, it works right?

  • 79 months ago
  • 3 points

Hmm, decent integrated graphics is always nice though.

  • 79 months ago
  • 5 points

Plays solitaire at max FPS ;)

  • 74 months ago
  • 1 point

heheheheh

  • 79 months ago
  • 2 points

Of course, my friend has an A6 and he loves it.

  • 79 months ago
  • 1 point

This is very good! Especially when the cable management options and price are taken into account, this is a very good, organized build.

  • 79 months ago
  • 1 point

Thank you! Much appreciated feedback :)

  • 77 months ago
  • 1 point

How's that mobo? IS it good?

  • 77 months ago
  • 1 point

Didn't have any issues with it at all, though I didn't put a GPU in it to test that but it is a well made board!

  • 77 months ago
  • 1 point

Thanks man planning to buy this and an a8-5600k.

  • 77 months ago
  • 1 point

Not sure if this is a super great overclocking board, but if you're not into that thing it should work out well for you!

  • 77 months ago
  • 1 point

Anyways I'm on a budget build. what would you get a10-5800k *is it really worth it? or the a8-5600k. can't afford high end stuff XD I'm only 15 TT

  • 77 months ago
  • 1 point

Hit me with your parts list in a PM and I'll be happy to help you out :)

  • 75 months ago
  • 1 point

What case did you use?

  • 75 months ago
  • 1 point

The brand is Xion. I can't remember the exact name off the top of my head.

  • 73 months ago
  • 1 point

Perfect build. Have they ever had issues with this?

  • 73 months ago
  • 2 points

Not a single one!

  • 73 months ago
  • 1 point

Good to know; I was worried the PSU could be problematic over time.

  • 73 months ago
  • 2 points

I figure that could be an issue eventually. They don't use it for anything stressful so I would imagine it would last quite a while.

  • 71 months ago
  • 1 point

I just started putting together a similar build for my parents. Their 7 year old dell just pooped out on 'em finally. I wish I would of came across your build earlier, I really love that case! It would of fit my parents perfectly, but I've already ordered a case. Good stuff, I bet your grandparents love it!

  • 62 months ago
  • 1 point

should have gone with with quad gtx titans in case they need to game

  • 62 months ago
  • 2 points

I am now regretting that decision... ;)

  • 60 months ago
  • 1 point

You could have gotten a 1TB Barracuda for about $60, no need the $90 for a 250GB lol

  • 60 months ago
  • 1 point

This build is old now. I paid around $30 for that drive. It didn't make sense to give them a 1TB drive as most of it would be a waste.

  • 60 months ago
  • 1 point

Ah, understandable.

  • 60 months ago
  • 1 point

Im not sure if anybody else sees what I'm seeing, but the partlist is an X99 DDR4 build..

  • 60 months ago
  • 1 point

Yes... I always accidentally save over the parts list. I'll fix it!

  • 60 months ago
  • 2 points

okay. Made me laugh when i saw it haha

  • 58 months ago
  • 1 point

Better than what I have

  • 53 months ago
  • 1 point

Love that MoBo, use it for most of my AMD builds. It's so cheap and so good for the price! Note, I don't really put builds on PCPartPicker because my camera broke, so you won't find any of my AMD builds there.

  • 49 months ago
  • 1 point

I am doing the same for my grandparents

  • 49 months ago
  • 1 point

Good on you man!

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  • 79 months ago
  • 1 point

Thank you!! :D

It also comes with a red stripe down the center, but Gma wasn't going for it haha

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