Frugal Friend looking for new PC

[Kenadian]

A friend of mine is looking for a new PC but he's not looking to pay all that much, in fact, his allotted budget is less than $500 CDN.

He's a part-time Photographer who really just needs it for storage and some light image alteration/enhancement.

These are the Barebone's Kit's he's selected from TigerDirect.ca and I'd like your guys valuable feedback on them or any alternatives you think he should consider:

http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=9150973&CatId=31

http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=8986989&CatId=31

http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=9152396&CatId=332

http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=9152611&CatId=332

I forgot to mention that he's trying to get 8 to 10 years out of the system which he's almost nearly done with his current PC.

Having said that, his current PC can't even run YouTube in 720 so that gives you an idea of what kind of performance drop off he's accustomed to.

I think he's looking to make this purchase within the next week or so.

Thanks.

 

[Produx]

For what he's going to do with it all of these look pretty decent. I would choose one of the models with at least 8gb of memory and the 1Tb of HDD to have better performance with any of his photo tools, maybe photoshop or other editing software and storage for all his photo work.

In case he would decide to get into some gaming with us he could upgrade his video card without too much hassle as well in the near future.

 

[Kenadian]

Thanks for the feedback Produx and I couldn't agree more.

This guy will never game so no fear in that. I think the most he's ever going to do with this rig is watch 1080P on YouTube and run Photoshop.

Out of all of the above, this one:

http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=9150973&CatId=31

...has the most cores and the most amount of memory while including a 1TB 7200 RPM Drive however no integrated graphics core.

However there is no integrated graphics core which doesn't sound good lol.

 

[Produx]

Sounds perfect for what he wants to do. Photoshop is not depending on any CUDA cores or heavy video card and can run perfectly on a 6 core cpu with nice memory included.

As I can see from the mainboard specs there's plenty of SATA ports left for any future expension ideas to maybe add an SSD or more HDD space.
Also a nice PCI express slot for in case he would like to do something with 3D or Video editing it's going to be easy and cheap to add a simple "older" Gforce card.

I can't see the price of this machine since it's out of stock but if he already selected this one before it should be within his range of budget.

 

[Kenadian]

Funny, it just went out of stock within the past hour or so of posting this message.

I think it's likely to be completely out of the picture now, bummer.

 

[JohnnyK]

You know why I would not buy this? Because the PSU is likely some noname POS that will only cause pain and suffering. Get at least an 80+ certified brand name PSU, the wattage is fine.

 

[Kenadian]

I don't think you can alter parts in these bare bone kits so unless you can think of a solution that is similar in price with a better PSU then these are the only options.

He's having me assemble it for him as well so individual parts adding up to these kits is also a very available option.

 

[JohnnyK]

http://www.logicalincrements.com/

Take his budget as a baseline; drop the dedicated gfx card and sub in an A8 or so for the X4 CPU, add other stuff he needs (still need an optical drive etc.?). That's my quick & dirty suggestion.

What about peripherals and OS? Does he need that too?