System build for $500

[Zorander]

Hi all,

Another friend has asked me to build a list of components to replace his dead system for $500. He is looking at buying a CPU, motherboard, RAM, casing, OS and PSU. He will be reusing his external peripherals and Samsung SSD.



1. What YOUR PC will be used for. That means what types of tasks you'll be performing.
A: Typical webbrowsing activities (FB, YouTube, etc), media playback and Office.

2. What YOUR budget is. A price range is acceptable as long as it's not more than a 20% spread
A: Around AUD$400-$500 (~USD$380-450). It will be spread between CPU, motherboard, RAM, casing, OS and PSU.

3. What country YOU will be buying YOUR parts from.
A: Australia (will use this price list as guide)

4. IF YOU have a brand preference. That means, are you an Intel-Fanboy, AMD-Fanboy, ATI-Fanboy, nVidia-Fanboy, Seagate-Fanboy, WD-Fanboy, etc.
A: No preference, as long as the components are reliable and good value.

5. If YOU intend on using any of YOUR current parts, and if so, what those parts are.
A:
External peripherals (Monitor, KB+mouse, speakers),
Samsung 840 SSD

7. IF YOU plan on overclocking or run the system at default speeds.
A: I doubt he knows how to overclock nor intends to.

8. What resolution will you be using?
A: 1920x1080.

9. WHEN do you plan to build it?
A: Within a few weeks time

10. Do you need to purchase any software to go with the system, such as Windows or Blu Ray playback software?
A: A Windows license. He had always been on XP so anything will be an upgrade for him.

 

[Charlie98]

I built a very similar system for my in-laws, my budget was $400USD.

Using your link, and the parts I picked for my system, here is what I came up with...

CPU : Intel Pentium G3220 Haswell, $69
Mobo : ASRock H81M-HDS mATX, $66
HDD : ?
RAM : G.Skill 2x 4GB 1333, $88
PSU : Corsair CX430v3, $69
Case : Fractal Core 1000, $64
ODD : LG CD/DVD, $19
OS : W7 Home, $105

That brings you in at $480; if you have to add a HDD that would put it over $500. You could save a little by dropping down to 4GB RAM, and maybe selecting a different case.

Windows 7 includes Windows Media Center, which is a pretty capable media playback software; it is not included with W8 or 8.1.

Also, you mentioned Office... that would be over and above what I listed, unless he is able to reuse a current key.

 

[Zorander]

Seems my friend is fixated on getting a quad-core (regardless of my advice). He initially wanted the A8/A10 but when I advised a Pentium/i3 would serve his purposes better, he would not consider anything less than an i5. He does not care about getting a quality case/PSU either. So much for trying to create a quality list and stay under budget. Sad to see him acting like an 'askhole' but it's his money anyway.

Thanks for the list nonetheless, Charlie. I will definitely keep this as a future reference (as long as Haswell is still the current generation).

 

[Essence_of_War]

How would your friend feel about an inexpensive quad-core like the Athlon 760k? Or does he HAVE to have an i5?

 

[Charlie98]

Add $100 for an i5... Even if he doesn't need it.

The Core 1000 is a nice case but you can see where they cut corners... I wouldn't want to go with anything less, personally.

 

[Zorander]

How would your friend feel about an inexpensive quad-core like the Athlon 760k? Or does he HAVE to have an i5?

To his mind, anything less than an i5 is an inferior product so when I told him an A8/A10 is more on par with an i3 (considering his 'general usage' criteria), he upped right away to an i5. I doubt he will consider anything lesser now. I'm not even sure if I successfully persuaded him off the K model (he planned to jump on that).

 

[Essence_of_War]

It sounds like your friend needs to re-think their budget

Have you considered purchasing pre-built? We're at the time of year when many pre-built manufacturers have sales, and I wouldn't be surprised if he could snag a dell, lenovo, hp, asus, acer etc i5 mid tower.

It's really hard to beat pre-built in this budget range anyway, doubly hard if an i5 is "mandatory".

 

[Torn Mind]

I have spec'd out i5 builds in the past when I actually maintained that budget build thread I created; I don't think any of the builds go under $600 USD. Plus, you're in Australia, where the stuff is probably more expensive than in the U.S

 

[Zorander]

I had a quick look around Lenovo and Dell (Australian sites). It's actually still cheaper to buy the parts individually from the link I gave.

Clearly he won't have an i5 build for less than $600. I will leave it up to him to decide whether to go ahead or pare down his build. I have given him my thoughts and the ball is in his court now.

Thanks.

 

[mfenn]

To his mind, anything less than an i5 is an inferior product so when I told him an A8/A10 is more on par with an i3 (considering his 'general usage' criteria), he upped right away to an i5. I doubt he will consider anything lesser now. I'm not even sure if I successfully persuaded him off the K model (he planned to jump on that).

Ask him if he wants the one with the bigger GBs. Maybe then he'll realize that he's being silly.

If he still insists on the i5, you can take Charlie's build and swap an i5 into it. That'll be around $610.

 

[Zorander]

I saw this on Lenovo which I think is a pretty good deal on an IB rig. It fits the bill. I hope he does not think it's slow just because it's last year's model.

What do you think?

ThinkCentre M72e Tower
Web price:$699.00
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$549.00
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Processor
Intel Core i5-3470 Processor (6M Cache, 3.20GHz)
Operating System
Windows 8 64 English
Video Adapter
Integrated Graphics
Total Memory
8GB PC3-12800 DDR3 UDIMM (4GBx2)
Bonus memory included
First Hard Drive
500GB Hard Drive, 7200RPM, 2.5", SATA IIIÀ
Optical Device
DVD Burner/CD-RW, SATA
Warranty
1/1 on-site CA

 

[Charlie98]

The specs look good, it's a basic i5 build.

Getting a prebuilt might alleviate any 'problems' between you and your friend if he has trouble with it later... after all, you didn't build it.

 

[Essence_of_War]

Getting a prebuilt might alleviate any 'problems' between you and your friend if he has trouble with it later... after all, you didn't build it.

Truth. And usually warranty/service stuff on pre-builts is pretty solid.

Help your friend put the OS on that Samsung 840, and I think that build looks pretty good!

 

[runedj4]

http://pcpartpicker.com/user/runedj4/saved/2PDu

CPU AMD A10-6800K 4.1GHz Quad-Core $129.99
Motherboard MSI FM2-A75MA-E35 Micro ATX FM2 $59.99
Memory Crucial 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1333 $69.99
Storage Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM $58.99
Case Rosewill REDBONE ATX Mid Tower $34.99
Power Supply Corsair 430W ATX12V $47.98
Optical Drive Lite-On iHAS124-04 DVD/CD Writer $17.99
Operating System Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (OEM) (64-bit) $82.99

Total: $502.91

Its a great build and will even handle casual games if you wish so, I also included the os for a cool total price of 500$

 

[Charlie98]

Its a great build and will even handle casual games if you wish so, I also included the os for a cool total price of 500$

...except the OP is in Australia...

 

[Zorander]

Truth. And usually warranty/service stuff on pre-builts is pretty solid.

Help your friend put the OS on that Samsung 840, and I think that build looks pretty good!

I forwarded the pre built rig to him o let's see if he goes with it or with the original plan.

Rw. Installing win8, I know with win7 it's simply installing frm cd/iso and entering the serial no. Does it work the same wih win8? I haven't actually worked with it before.

Thanks.

 

[mfenn]

I forwarded the pre built rig to him o let's see if he goes with it or with the original plan.

Rw. Installing win8, I know with win7 it's simply installing frm cd/iso and entering the serial no. Does it work the same wih win8? I haven't actually worked with it before.

Thanks.

Yeah, Windows 8 is basically the same.

 

[finglobes]

I just bought a new Intel E8600 (first released around 2009) OEM 3.33 Intel cpu with 6MB cache on Amazon for $50 (used they run around 40 on ebay). A new socket 775 Gigabyte mobo (with DDR3) costs around $65. You can get 4 Gb of GSkill ram for $35. I bought an AMD 7850 for $109 at Newegg (included 2 free games off Steam) but there is cheaper. A lot of the new stuff is hyped and good dual cores can still rock it. People get too focused on benchmarks and frame rate differences they can't perceive without an app. Bioshock Infinite is still aimed at dual cores. Skyrim was still DX9. Put the stock system described above with a stock Trendy Bridge cpu and most people won't tell a difference with most apps. Quad cores still don't whip games (old and new) better than duals in any large ways .

 

[Charlie98]

So... $250 for 5 year old tech? For $250 he's already half way to a new build.

 

[Seba]

So... $250 for 5 year old tech? For $250 he's already half way to a new build.

It's only $150, not $250.

 

[Torn Mind]

I just bought a new Intel E8600 (first released around 2009) OEM 3.33 Intel cpu with 6MB cache on Amazon for $50 (used they run around 40 on ebay). A new socket 775 Gigabyte mobo (with DDR3) costs around $65. You can get 4 Gb of GSkill ram for $35. I bought an AMD 7850 for $109 at Newegg (included 2 free games off Steam) but there is cheaper. A lot of the new stuff is hyped and good dual cores can still rock it. People get too focused on benchmarks and frame rate differences they can't perceive without an app. Bioshock Infinite is still aimed at dual cores. Skyrim was still DX9. Put the stock system described above with a stock Trendy Bridge cpu and most people won't tell a difference with most apps. Quad cores still don't whip games (old and new) better than duals in any large ways .

If your point is that old hardware is inexpensive and "good enough" for many people, I agree. That doesn't mean that an i5 CPU is mostly hype and trendiness. It offers substantial performance improvements for those who do tap into it fully, and if someone is playing a game like Crysis, BF4, or even a dual-threaded game that simply wants more clockspeed, the i5 provides a substantial difference

Benchmarks would give a "ballpark" estimate as to where the E8600's performance is. And it is certainly on par with and beats some modern budget CPUs like Celerons and Pentiums. That means that a Wolfdale system is still a viable purchase in the current period if the price is right.

 

[Torn Mind]

So... $250 for 5 year old tech? For $250 he's already half way to a new build.

E8600 is slightly better than quite a few of Intel's current budget selections and probably on par with the G3220; it was certainly better than the Sandy Bridge Pentiums. The CPU performance is certainly worth the money, and being able to overclock means a further gap in performance. The motherboard pricing is right around an B85 or H81 mobo. Of course, some features are lost due to the "oldness" of the mobo, such as SATA 6.0 Gbps, but in terms of CPU functionality, the purchases were certainly worth the money.

 

[Charlie98]

I just bought a new Intel E8600 (first released around 2009) OEM 3.33 Intel cpu with 6MB cache on Amazon for $50 (used they run around 40 on ebay). A new socket 775 Gigabyte mobo (with DDR3) costs around $65. You can get 4 Gb of GSkill ram for $35. I bought an AMD 7850 for $109 at Newegg (included 2 free games off Steam) but there is cheaper.

It's only $150, not $250

$50 + $65 + $35 + $109 = $259... at least that's what my Trendy Bridge says... ^_^

E8600 is slightly better than quite a few of Intel's current budget selections and probably on par with the G3220; it was certainly better than the Sandy Bridge Pentiums. The CPU performance is certainly worth the money, and being able to overclock means a further gap in performance. The motherboard pricing is right around an B85 or H81 mobo. Of course, some features are lost due to the "oldness" of the mobo, such as SATA 6.0 Gbps, but in terms of CPU functionality, the purchases were certainly worth the money.

Given the OP's purpose of the machine, I don't see how digging through the bargain bin is going to serve his purposes for the machine better than new tech will in the long run. The final user doesn't intend to OC or, in reality, do anything taxing with the system; it's pretty much agreed that he doesn't even need a 4-core CPU, but the final user thinks he needs one. He'll be installing an SSD, so my thought is to maximize it by having SATA 3. (With a SATA3 SSD and a nice G3220... you could tell the user it's a 4-core with uber staggered matched turbo threading and probably get away with it... :sneaky: Just sayin... () )

I don't disagree with what you are saying, to be honest I don't know much about chipsets older than the 2500K (this is where I came in at...) and the older Pentium D/M chips (which I still have 2 of, unfortunately.)

 

[Torn Mind]

$50 + $65 + $35 + $109 = $259... at least that's what my Trendy Bridge says... ^_^




Given the OP's purpose of the machine, I don't see how digging through the bargain bin is going to serve his purposes for the machine better than new tech will in the long run. The final user doesn't intend to OC or, in reality, do anything taxing with the system; it's pretty much agreed that he doesn't even need a 4-core CPU, but the final user thinks he needs one. He'll be installing an SSD, so my thought is to maximize it by having SATA 3. (With a SATA3 SSD and a nice G3220... you could tell the user it's a 4-core with uber staggered matched turbo threading and probably get away with it... :sneaky: Just sayin... () )

I don't disagree with what you are saying, to be honest I don't know much about chipsets older than the 2500K (this is where I came in at...) and the older Pentium D/M chips (which I still have 2 of, unfortunately.)

I don't know much about those older chips either; I almost totally skipped LGA 775 and Nehalem; my university's computers did have E8400s, but I was no "enthusiast" then. Anand's bench is a handy tool, giving me a some sense of these old chips' performance. I do have some Socket 478 chips, a PIII laptop, a Pentium-M and an ancient PII desktop, most of them were given away to my family as gifts when they were obselete, lol. :awe:

I don't think the poster really was suggesting his build or parts to the OP, but rather just expressing some of his own views about "Trendy Bridge" vs Core 2 Duo. Of course, what applies to the C2D he bought can also apply to a "Trendy Bridge" Pentium or Celeron, or even an i3. :biggrin: Sure, if your budget allows for an i5, get it, but if your budget is tight, sometimes corners do have to be cut.

While the E8600 does go for around $50+ AU on Ebay Austrailia, there doesn't seem to be many listings of it in the land down under, meaning procuring one would likely be more of a chore than here in the States. Its more popular cousin the E8400 goes for around $60 or more over there.

 

[Seba]

So... $250 for 5 year old tech? For $250 he's already half way to a new build.

$50 + $65 + $35 + $109 = $259... at least that's what my Trendy Bridge says... ^_^

Radeon 7850 is a nice graphics card, suitable to be paired even with a current tech CPU. And certainly it is not 5 year old tech. Only Wolfdale platform is. The new build (based on new tech) could also include Radeon 7850 so you will not be "half way to it". You will have only $150 available for the new build (for CPU+MB+RAM).

So there is no justification to include the cost of Radeon 7850, or if you insist on including it, then you can not apply the "5 year old tech" label to the whole thing.