Building for a friend... or not?

[fingal]

I have a friend who knows very little about computers, to the point of being almost phobic about them. He's decided he wants to learn more, and he sees me as his guide.

This might sound great, but he thinks a computer is some sort of problem solving oracle; something he needs to unlearn fast! Its become clear that he needs his own box, to save him from coming around to use mine!

He's pretty bright and used to be an explosives expert, so if he gets frustrated he might blow me up...

Anyway, his funds are limited but he has around £600 to spent on a low cost machine. He won't be playing Unreal Torny, just surfing the Net, doing some word processing and emailing people.

My question comes down to this: should I build a cheap machine for him, or get him to buy a base unit? I could probably find him a cheap unit, but I don't like second hand electronic stuff. It's tempting to source the components online, build it at my place and install an easy to use distro.

Any ideas, and have any of you done this yourselves for friends and relatives? It's a scary prospect because I don't mind building or sourcing things for myself, but once friends are involved, things seem a bit more likely to go wrong.

All comments, warnings and advice very welcome. I decided to put this in the Coffee Lounge as it's not a technical question...

[Lakshmipathi]

I had this experience few years back,when i bought my first system.
Whether to go for assembled-system or branded system...
In fact,then my friend suggested me to go for assembled system.
We then decided on Hardware details (Intel or AMD ,size of RAM,HardDisk size,Motherboard,graphics card etc etc ) I don't know much knowledege about these things but he help me to buy a best system which provides value for my money.I got better System because of his help

So i guess you should help him to create a assembled system.
(I hope someone from LF comes with best configuration
with in your budget)

You will have warranty period,even if something goes wrong

[Thrillhouse]

I would probably go for the brand name, myself. For that amount of money, I think you could get a very good desktop machine and have support from the vendor to boot.

From what I've read, building your own machine doesn't save you the kind of money that it used to.

Plus, if something goes wrong with it, your friend is probably more likely to blow up the company than you.

[elija]

Personally, I wouldn't build for a friend. You instantly become the tech support for the box As you
are in the UK, may I recommend EfficientPC, Ubuntu Linux desktops and laptops: EfficientPC.co.uk, I have bought a couple of things from
them now and have never been disappointed.

This is the specs of the base unit I last bought

* 1xAsus P2-M2A690G Barebone
* 1xAthlon64 Dual Core 6000+
* 2xCorsair 2GB DDR667
* 1xSamsung 500GB SATA2
* 1xSamsung 18x DVDRW
* 1xOne Yr RTB Hardware Warranty

It's tiny, sexy and glows blue. For an extra £0.00, they will preinstall Ubuntu on it for you. Oh and that spec £358.12 inc vat.

Obviously, you will need a monitor etc.

Mine had NVidia rather than ATI though...

[fingal]

Useful stuff guys - thanks for the advice so far.

[Oxygen]

£600 as low budget?!?!?

Christ on a bike, I could build a machine that runs CRYSIS for that ammount!

Are you buying a pre-built PC or putting the parts together yourself? Personally if I was helpng a friend I'd get the parts myself because then I'd know what parts I've used. My current friend who I do a ton of tech support for (He uses Kubuntu Hardy) has an Advent PC which had absolutely no documentation on drivers. Was so hard to set up.

My favourite PC parts website is CCL Computers - Awarded Best Online Retailer 2007 & 2006 for Laptops, Desktops & Computer Hardware and I have a friend who recommends ebuyer.com

I'd break £600 into the following
£100 for the CPU + heatsink
£50 for the mobo
£100 for the GFX
£50 for the ram
£30 for a mouse and keyboard
£40 for a sata drive
£40 for two additional optical devices
£30 for the case and PSU
£100 for the monitor

If my calculations are correct that leaves £60 to go spend on some good Linux books (or booze)

[squirm]

Check out bare bone systems. I know around here you can get a quadcore, mobo, 2gigs of ram, power suply, and cheapo case for like $599

this is Canada so I bet you can beat that in any other country (we get raped for electronics)

[fingal]

£600 as low budget?!?!?

He he... That's a very 'top line' estimate, and I suspect my friend isn't very good with money. I intend to encourage him to spend as little as possible (after all, friends are helpful like that).

Some good comments on here. They are really helping me, thank you!

[oz]

Just remember that if you build it yourself, "you" are the support channel. If any thing should go wrong, it might damage your friendship. Of course, the support period will be considered to last forever by your friend.

I'd personally recommend buying a pre-built machine, even though you might still be expected to provide some support.

[geese]

For an acquaintance I would just buy a machine and let them go to the vendor for support.

For a good friend I usually try to get the best value machine (not necessarily the cheapest) for their needs. And in most cases I build one.
Most of my friends see me as the computer guy and I usually have to deal with their computer woes. Knowing exactly whats in their machine do help a lot.