My parents are considering buying a new computer, and asked me to build it for them. They usually run fairly lightweight programs (no gaming, at most some photo editing) that run fairly well on their 6-year-old computer (P3 866mhz + Windows ME), but are worried about the age of their components.
They were hoping to use the hard drive (80gig IDE) and disc drives (a DVD and a CD burner) from their old computer.
What I was planning on:
Processor: AMD Athlon 64 X2 4000+ Brisbane 2.1GHz
Motherboard: PC CHIPS A33G*
Memory: A-DATA Value Series 1GB
Case/PSU: Rosewill R805BS Black/Silver Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case 300W connector Power Supply**
Although they like the specs (Dad wanted 1gb instead of 2gb RAM to cut price down), they were worried about the reliability of some components. All I could find on the reliability of the "PC Chips" motherboard was that the company which bought them is the 4th largest, which really doesn't help much. Also, I was somewhat wondering about the case/PSU. I've heard that sometimes combos aren't very good, but was wondering about Rosewill. I have a friend who bought a Rosewill 500W power supply and hasn't had a problem.
They're also getting Windows XP.
Something else, we don't have any thermal compound on hand. Does some come with the CPU, is it necessary for a computer like this, or what kind would you recommend?
They were hoping to use the hard drive (80gig IDE) and disc drives (a DVD and a CD burner) from their old computer.
What I was planning on:
Processor: AMD Athlon 64 X2 4000+ Brisbane 2.1GHz
Motherboard: PC CHIPS A33G*
Memory: A-DATA Value Series 1GB
Case/PSU: Rosewill R805BS Black/Silver Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case 300W connector Power Supply**
Although they like the specs (Dad wanted 1gb instead of 2gb RAM to cut price down), they were worried about the reliability of some components. All I could find on the reliability of the "PC Chips" motherboard was that the company which bought them is the 4th largest, which really doesn't help much. Also, I was somewhat wondering about the case/PSU. I've heard that sometimes combos aren't very good, but was wondering about Rosewill. I have a friend who bought a Rosewill 500W power supply and hasn't had a problem.
They're also getting Windows XP.
Something else, we don't have any thermal compound on hand. Does some come with the CPU, is it necessary for a computer like this, or what kind would you recommend?