Need a little more advice

[Magilla]

First off, thank you all for the help and heads up and edumication.

My goal is to get my dad a nice system for his needs, self build barebones I guess. I don't know how long he'll have it but it needs to be stable and trouble free as we can afford. His room where he lives gets hot a few months a year. He keep busy burning disk here and there, works with family photos, scanning, lots of Word/Excel and some webpage work. No gaming. Trying to keep the costs down, I'm utilizing rebates and sales at tiger and newegg and wherever I can. I've gone from a cheap barebone kit at $100 incl. shipping to going with a 939 with PCIe16. That's where I get stuck.

Q:
Does the video, mobo and ram all have to be OC-able in order to OC?

Is getting a refurbished CPU 1 OR CPU 2 OR CPU 3 an accident waiting to happen? I was thinking at least it's been tested and works etc. I have noticed some refurbished items are all of the same brand name no matter what product it is.

Can a SATA board operate and use the benefits of a SATA-II 3.0Gb/s HDD?

Zoomfly has a DDR-400 and a DDR400 ram. What's with the"-"?

DISKS
One or two HDD's SATA and ATA I already have.
Basic DVD is all we need I guess Lite-on SHM-160P6S / 16x8x16x DVD+RW / 16x6x16x DVD-RW / 8x DVD+R DL / 4x DVD-R DL / 48x24x48x CD-RW / DVD Writer

VIDEO
I nearly bought an AGP board but I see that PCIE-16 cards can cost the same. That tossed out my last . bundle idea

PSU $60 ~ should I go better than this?
OCZ ModStream OCZ45012U ATX/BTX/PCI Express/SATA 550W Power Supply 95~132Vac / 190~264Vac TUV, UL, CSA, CE, CB, FCC

RAM $60
OCZ Enhanced Latency 512MB (2 x 256MB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM Unbuffered DDR 400 (PC 3200) Dual Channel
Ultra 512MB PC3200 DDR 400MHz CL3 Memory

MOBO
Not sure what to do here now. I'd like to keep it under $100

CPU HEATSINK
Seen some real cool stuff out there with pipes etc. Any favorites for $20-$30?

Need some quite case fans etc, any idea on 80/120 mm fans or RAM/HDD HEATSINKS

TEMP CONTROLS
How do I check the temp on the system core etc.? Do I need a fan controler in a drive bay?

I've heard all sorts of great things about DFI yet I looked at the low end mobo's on Newegg and there's a lot of troubles with them. Do you have to get a higher end board before those great reviews kick in?

I've noticed a preference of Newegg over tiger, is it the service that makes the diff?

Thanks again

 

[WorldIndustries]

OVERCLOCKING
I don't think you would need to overclock for your dad's uses. Unless you're going to use it for gaming on the side.

REFURBISHED CPU
I'd think you're a lot better off not getting a refurbished CPU...

SATA2
I think a board has to have Sata2 listed in the features in order to utilize a Sata2 HD fully.

BUNDLE
That bundle looks okay for normal usage, but you might want to look into a video card if you'll be doing more than that. Intergrated graphics suck.

PSU
OCZ is a decent brand for PSU. Should be fine.

HSF
As long as you're not overclocking, any standard aftermarket HSF will be okay.

FANS
Look for Panaflow fans. They're really high quality.


Overall, you've got a pretty good hold on what you need. It should work fine for your dad's uses, but I wouldn't reccomend any gaming on it without a video card...

 

[Magilla]

Thank you for the input.

I was going to buy a refurbished board from Newegg and got a full page warning. Testing/repairing is all handled by the manufacturer and they may or may not even be checked/repaired. I didn't buy it and would rather get a new one with guarantee.