A budget build for my nephew

V

vdragonlance

Limp Gawd
Joined
Dec 8, 2005
Messages
485
1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
Gaming and web browsing.
2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
$400, shipping not included.
3) Which country do you live in? If the U.S, please tell us the state and city if possible.
Arizona, US
4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, etc.
CPU, RAM, SSD, K/M, MoBo, PSU
5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
I'm giving him my old Corsair 230T case and my AIO cooled R9 290x.
6) Will you be overclocking?
That's a negative
7) What is the max resolution of your monitor? What size is it?
1080p
8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
ASAP
9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? USB 3.0? SATA 6Gb/s? eSATA? Onboard video (as a backup or main GPU)? UEFI? etc.
Wireless network adapter, but not a deal breaker.
10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If yes, what OS? Is it 32bit or 64bit?
Yessum 64bit

I bought a 980 Ti, and decided to give my old R9 290x to him, but he needs everything else. This is a what I quickly came up with:

PC Hound Part List

CPU: AMD FX-6300 ($109.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: GIGABYTE GA-78LMT-USB3 (rev. 6.0) ($49.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.SKILL 8GB (2 x 4GB) Ripjaws X Series ($49.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: CORSAIR 650W CSM Series CS650M ($98.98 @ Newegg)
Storage: Kingston 120GB SSDNow V300 Series SV300S37A/120G ($56.02 @ Newegg)
Keyboard: Cooler Master CM Storm Devastator ($31.98 @ Newegg)
Total: $396.95
Price may include shipping, rebates, promotions, and tax
Generated by PC Hound

Thanks in advance for the help!
 
You're spending way to much on that psu. And also, too much on that ssd.

I would do this:

PC Hound Part List

Motherboard: ASUS SABERTOOTH Z87 ($59.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: G.SKILL 8GB (2 x 4GB) Ripjaws X Series ($49.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: CORSAIR 750W CXM series CX750M ($54.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: OCZ 240GB ARC 100 ARC100-25SAT3-240G ($49.99 @ Amazon)
Keyboard: Cooler Master CM Storm Devastator ($27.99 @ Amazon)
Total: $242.95
Price may include shipping, rebates, promotions, and tax
Generated by PC Hound

This leaves you with $150. The perfect amount to buy an i5. Since you are not OC'ing, a used i5 4430 or similar should be perfect and 290x will be rocking!
 
Last edited:
He only has $400 to spend so waiting on rebates isn't ideal and Amazon charges sales taxes in AZ making some of the parts a tad more expensive than from Newegg, plus no Prime membership.

I did switch out the PSU with the one you recommended, it's $15 cheaper before the rebate.
 
Motherboard:
MSI B85M Eco
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130798
Intel NIC, Realtek Audio, good enough for what it is...
72$

CPU:
Intel Core i3-4360 (4370 needs a very new BIOS)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116993
150$
Mobo supports it straight out of the box - http://www.msi.com/support/mb/B85M-ECO.html#support-cpu

Memory:
Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB 1600Mhz
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130798
Good solid ram, it just works and going with 4Gb sticks today is just stupid...

PSU:
Antec HCG-620M
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371059
64.99$ (w/o 20$ mail-in rebate)
Solid value Seasonic rebrand PSU...

Storage:
TOSHIBA DT01ACA100
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822149382
I would highly advice against getting a 1TB HDD, (2TB would be much better) but budget....
I have no idea how 120Gb is going to last if you're going to play games let alone I would avoid cheap SSDs and poor controllers like the plague such as the Sandforce which the Kingston SSD uses.

That'll give you a much better bang for the buck
$390.96 w/o keyb (w/o rebate)

//Danne
 
vdragonlance said:
He only has $400 to spend so waiting on rebates isn't ideal and Amazon charges sales taxes in AZ making some of the parts a tad more expensive than from Newegg, plus no Prime membership.

I did switch out the PSU with the one you recommended, it's $15 cheaper before the rebate.
Click to expand...

Completely understand.

Is he willing to buy used? There are a lot of good deals to be had.

For $250 on the f/s section you can get i5 3570k, gigabyte z77-ds3h, and g-skill ripjaws 8gb 1600mhz ddr3! Something like that would be a steal.

Can find good deals on ssd also in the f/s/t section. I just grabbed a 120gb for $35 shipped.

Add
PSU: Power Supply: CORSAIR 750W CXM series CX750M ($54.99 @ Newegg)
K/M: Keyboard: Cooler Master CM Storm Devastator ($27.99 @ Amazon)

Would have enough left over to buy a cheap 212 evo. Obviously this would fly. Also don't skimp on PSU. A 290x system will pull ~400w at load.

If you are going all new, the i3 is your best bet.

THis is $403 without any rebates and all new, except refurb board:

PC Hound Part List

CPU: Intel Core i3-4370 ($142.49 @ TigerDirect)
Motherboard: GIGABYTE GA-Z87-D3HP ($54.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.SKILL 8GB Ripjaws X Series ($45.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: CORSAIR 600W CXM series CX600M ($59.99 @ NCIX US)
Storage: Seagate 1TB Barracuda ST1000DM003 ($49.99 @ Amazon)
Storage #2: SanDisk 128GB SDSSDP-128G-G25 ($49.99 @ TigerDirect)
Total: $403.44
Price may include shipping, rebates, promotions, and tax
Generated by PC Hound

Or drop the HDD and go i5:
PC Hound Part List

CPU: Intel Core i5-4460 ($188.99 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: GIGABYTE GA-Z87-D3HP ($54.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.SKILL 8GB Ripjaws X Series ($45.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: CORSAIR 600W CXM series CX600M ($59.99 @ NCIX US)
Storage: SanDisk 128GB SDSSDP-128G-G25 ($49.99 @ TigerDirect)
Total: $399.95
Price may include shipping, rebates, promotions, and tax
Generated by PC Hound
 
Last edited:
If you're going to suggest at least do it properly, that mobo needs at least BIOS F6, can you guarantee that he gets that?

The G.SKILL have some silly heatsinks that may be an issue in terms of clearance.

What's the point in going for an inferior PSU that's more expensive than keeping it at the same e-tailer?

That SSD seems quite slow and old, Sandisk does have a pretty poor track record of aftermarket support (firmware upgrades) etc if I'm not mistaken. What is this SSD actually called even?
//Danne
 
Last edited:
doug_7506 said:
Completely understand.

Is he willing to buy used? There are a lot of good deals to be had.

For $250 on the f/s section you can get i5 3570k, gigabyte z77-ds3h, and g-skill ripjaws 8gb 1600mhz ddr3! Something like that would be a steal.

Can find good deals on ssd also in the f/s/t section. I just grabbed a 120gb for $35 shipped.

Add
PSU: Power Supply: CORSAIR 750W CXM series CX750M ($54.99 @ Newegg)
K/M: Keyboard: Cooler Master CM Storm Devastator ($27.99 @ Amazon)

Would have enough left over to buy a cheap 212 evo. Obviously this would fly. Also don't skimp on PSU. A 290x system will pull ~400w at load.

If you are going all new, the i3 is your best bet.

THis is $403 without any rebates and all new, except refurb board:
Click to expand...

Yea, he doesn't want to buy used and go through the hassle of trying to get his money back if something happens to the part.

The i5 build seems really good, I switched a couple of parts around and got this:

PC Hound Part List

CPU: Intel Core i5-4460 ($191.98 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: GIGABYTE GA-Z87-D3HP ($54.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.SKILL 8GB Ripjaws X Series ($45.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: CORSAIR 600W CXM series CX600M ($62.98 @ Newegg)
Storage: Kingston 120GB SSDNow V300 Series SV300S37A/120G ($56.02 @ Newegg)
Total: $411.96
Price may include shipping, rebates, promotions, and tax
Generated by PC Hound

He's going to suck it up and fork $30 more for a K/M lol.
 
Have fun when/if you get a mobo that doesn't support the CPU since you seem to ignore that fact.
//Danne
 
Last edited:
You mean the latest firmware, yes.... and how are you going to solve that if you don't get that installed?
//Danne
 
doug_7506 said:
PSU: Power Supply: CORSAIR 750W CXM series CX750M ($54.99 @ Newegg)
Click to expand...
The CX750M is not a good PSU at all:
http://www.hardocp.com/article/2015/01/21/corsair_cx750_750w_power_supply_review/#.VX1AjvlViko

JonnyGURU himself states that the CX750 and CX750M are internally the same PSU:
http://hardforum.com/showpost.php?p=1041381519&postcount=45

vdragonlance said:
Motherboard: GIGABYTE GA-Z87-D3HP ($54.99 @ Newegg)
Click to expand...
Do note that motherboard is refurbished. So it's just a small step above buying "used" hardware. In other words, you only have a slightly better chance of getting a working motherboard with a refurbished part over a used part. So if your friend really wants to avoid used, that basically rules out refurbished as well.

In addition, diizzy is indeed justified in his worry about firmware support for that CPU. I've seen first hand that it can take as long as 9 months for motherboards to be shipped with updated BIOs that supports new CPU releases. It being refurbished does not mean that it was actually updated with the latest UEFI update.

vdragonlance said:
Power Supply: CORSAIR 600W CXM series CX600M ($62.98 @ Newegg)
Click to expand...
With the HardOCP review of the CX750/CX750M showing that it was a very crappy PSU, the quality and performance of the CX650M is in doubt as well. Nor is that CX650M at such a low price that it's worth risking the PC over. Spend the extra $2 for a significantly better and confirmed quality PSU: The ANtec HCG-620M that diizy linked to earlier.

vdragonlance said:
Storage: Kingston 120GB SSDNow V300 Series SV300S37A/120G ($56.02 @ Newegg)
Click to expand...
This is a very shitty SSD. I'd rather recommend a regular hard drive over that SSD. If your friend is only planning on installing like 1-3 games at a time, I recommend spending the extra $10 for the Crucial BX100 120GB SSD. If your friend plans on installing like 10+ games as well as download an extensive amount of data, get a regular hard drive.
 
YeuEmMaiMai said:
I guess he'll have to just install the CPU and update the BIOS
Click to expand...
Not possible with Intel setups. They can only be updated with a older supported CPUs. If the UEFI doesn't support the CPU of the box, what will happen when you use that CPU in that mobo is that the system won't POST.
 
Dangman said:
Not possible with Intel setups. They can only be updated with a older supported CPUs. If the UEFI doesn't support the CPU of the box, what will happen when you use that CPU in that mobo is that the system won't POST.
Click to expand...

As I understand it, you can update the bios on ASUS motherboards without it POSTing with a USB stick.
 
No, you can't.
The build with the MSI board and i3 CPU will work OOTB which I posted earlier.
//Danne
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top