Man, I would have loved one of these when I was a kid! Times, they have certainly changed. Read on for more info, specs and build log...
My little brother and sister are 12 and 9 respectively and getting older now and as such have a greater need for a PC they can rely on for homework, games, general stuff. The PCs they are each using now aren't necessarily terrible or anything but are a bit dated in terms of specs and are almost ready for retirement. So I've taken this as an opportunity to upgrade them both or rather start from scratch! The machines they use now, as I said, are a bit antiquated and have issues far too often so it makes more sense just to get new stuff.
Current Spec:
Generic ATX case
Silver Power 400W PSU
Abit Fatal1ty F-I90HD mobo
1.8GHz Pentium e2160 (LGA775)
2/4GB DDR2-533 RAM
MSI Nvidia 8600GT 256MB GDDR3 (fanless :))
19" monitor (forget the brand, 1440x900, will be keeping these)
The PCs are about 5 or 6 years old at this point and are clearly showing their age. The Sims 3 is about as much as they'll run. I've had GTA IV run on one of them but it wasn't exactly what you'd call pretty (1024x768 yuck!)
I've already ordered the new parts and most of them have arrived. Still waiting on the PSUs and GPUs so everything else is still sitting in their boxes until tomorrow/end of week when I can get stuck into building.
New Spec:
BitFenix Shinobi ATX case
BeQuiet Pure Power L8 430W PSU (No experience with this brand, took a gamble)
Asus AMD Radeon 6670 1GB GDDR5 (nice perf bump over 8600GT)
Decent enough specs for the money I think. In total each machine cost £280.
You might be thinking, "Uh silly man, hasn't bought any storage." Ah well you see I already have a couple of 120GB SSDs and 320GB WD Blues which shall be making their way into these and should work away quite nicely.
See below for some pics. If I can be bothered I might post some benchmarks:
