$300 Basic Build

slaya

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Nov 10, 2002
Messages
1,132
Well first off, I haven't been to these forums nor have I kept up with the trends of computer hardware since my last build of many years ago.. It's safe to say i'm out of the loop and learning again all the cool things the computer world has to offer. What you see in my sig was my desktop computer until my motherboard went bad. It was replaced with a socket 7 motherboard I had laying around and a lightening fast athlon XP 1800+.

To jump to windows 7, I obviously need a major upgrade in the hardware department so that is my plan. I am looking for a basic all around decently powerful desktop. For what my sig desktop is to windows XP, is what i'm looking for this new desktop to be to windows 7, eh?

1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
Light gaming, mainly counter-strike:source, but i'd like to play some newer games too, not specificly looking to max out any settings. Photoshop, and ofcourse emails and web browsing.

2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
Don't want to spend more than 300$ all together, don't mind buying used.

3) Where do you live?
NY, I have a micro center near by.

4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, etc. The word "Everything" is not a valid answer. Please list out all the parts you'll need.
CPU
Quiet/effecient CPU Cooler
Motherboard
Ram
Video card

If there is room in the budget maybe a better hard drive, and a sata dvd-rw drive.

5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.

Will be re-using my case (antec slk3700), my power supply (corsair 400cx), my hard drives(wd raptor 74gb, aswell as a 200gb ide drive), and my IDE dvd drive.

6) Will you be overclocking?
Probably not

7) What size monitor do you have and/or plan to have?
19" lcd

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? etc.
Nothing in particular

10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If yes, what OS? Is it 32bit or 64bit?

Yes, w7 64bit

Thanks
 
As an Amazon Associate, HardForum may earn from qualifying purchases.
Do you live near the Yonkers MC store or the Long Island MC store?
 
Well first off, I haven't been to these forums nor have I kept up with the trends of computer hardware since my last build of many years ago.. It's safe to say i'm out of the loop and learning again all the cool things the computer world has to offer. What you see in my sig was my desktop computer until my motherboard went bad. It was replaced with a socket 7 motherboard I had laying around and a lightening fast athlon XP 1800+.

To jump to windows 7, I obviously need a major upgrade in the hardware department so that is my plan. I am looking for a basic all around decently powerful desktop. For what my sig desktop is to windows XP, is what i'm looking for this new desktop to be to windows 7, eh?

1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
Light gaming, mainly counter-strike:source, but i'd like to play some newer games too, not specificly looking to max out any settings. Photoshop, and ofcourse emails and web browsing.

2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
Don't want to spend more than 300$ all together, don't mind buying used.

3) Where do you live?
NY, I have a micro center near by.

4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, etc. The word "Everything" is not a valid answer. Please list out all the parts you'll need.
CPU
Quiet/effecient CPU Cooler
Motherboard
Ram
Video card

If there is room in the budget maybe a better hard drive, and a sata dvd-rw drive.

5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.

Will be re-using my case (antec slk3700), my power supply (corsair 400cx), my hard drives(wd raptor 74gb, aswell as a 200gb ide drive), and my IDE dvd drive.

6) Will you be overclocking?
Probably not

7) What size monitor do you have and/or plan to have?
19" lcd

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? etc.
Nothing in particular

10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If yes, what OS? Is it 32bit or 64bit?

Yes, w7 64bit

Thanks

Unfortunately, new motherboards with IDE ports have become more and more rare these days. In fact, most new motherboards have no IDE ports at all - only SATA ports. And that 74GB Raptor is nowadays totally outdated because its average sustained transfer speed is only about half of what current-generation 7200 RPM hard drives can achieve (in fact, transfer-speed wise the 74GB Raptor is slower than even a current-generation 5400 RPM "Green" hard drive).

Thus, you will need to make room in your budget for a newer-generation (and larger-capacity) SATA hard drive and a SATA DVD burner (or increase your budget). SATA DVD burners can be purchased for about $20 these days.
 
As an Amazon Associate, HardForum may earn from qualifying purchases.
Here's my suggested build. Feel free to comment.

CPU/Motherboard
$100 - Intel Core i3-2100 (pretax, use the stock cooler -- it's actually decent for a stock one)
$10 (yes, really $10, put them both in your cart) - MSI H61M-P23 (B3) LGA 1155 H61 mATX

Taxes come out to $9.49

I can't really suggest an AMD build with a $110 Intel Core i3-2100 + Motherboard offer available. For $20 more than Microcenter's Phenom II x2 560 BE + motherboard combo the Core i3 just blows it out of the water performance wise.

RAM
$23 - G.SKILL Value Series 4GB 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Desktop Memory

Graphics Card
I'm concerned about your power supply being able to power a beefier card due to its age. So I'm recommending the Radeon 6670 because of it's high performance per watt and overall lowish power requirements (tops out around 50 to 60 watts.) It'll still run CS: Source with no problems, and even newer games with the eye candy turned down.
$84 (before $10 MIR) - XFX HD-667X-ZHF3 Radeon HD 6670 1GB AND Dirt3 for Free via Website

Drives
$20 - Sony Optiarc CD/DVD Burner Black SATA Model AD-7260S-0B - OEM
$45 (use promo code EMCKBJB22) - Seagate Barracuda Green ST1000DL002 1TB 5900 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s

Total (including taxes and shipping): $298.20

If you really want an IDE controller to save your current hard drive and CD drive:
$20 - StarTech 1 Port PCI Express IDE Controller Adapter Card
 
I think you should go for a Llano built, fits with what you want, cheap cpu gpu that will let you play games with a decent motherboard, and ram, easy to fit in that budget.
Built one recently and it works nicely and plays starcraft 2 and league of legends fine.
 
My main argument against Llano is that when you look at it from a price perspective, it doesn't add up. (See this review for more analysis.)

Since the OP has a Microcenter nearby it becomes even more heavily weighted in the Core i3's favor.

$100 for an Intel i3-2100
$10 for a motherboard
$84 for a Radeon 6670
Total: $194

$130 for an A8-3850
$70 for a motherboard (Microcenter doesn't appear to have any combos, at least not that I can see online)
Total: $200

So for $6 less, you get a faster CPU and a faster GPU.

Don't get me wrong, the A8-3850 is a GREAT chip. It's a wonderful idea (I looked into putting a Llano rig together for my girlfriend when they came out.) It's just not priced right for a significant portion of the market, and I think given the OP's proximity to a Microcenter he can make his dollar go further.
 
Thanks for the help guys. I wasn't aware of the new revisions to hard drives outdating my raptor.

tonytnnt's list looks really good, i revised it slightly by changing the hard drive in particular.

I don't use much space at all, in fact my current 200gb hard drive isn't even half full.

Newegg has a combo deal on the same optical drive and this seagate drive which would bring down the price by 7$. It is 7200rpm versus 5900rpm, though it has a lower 16mb cache versus the 32mb cache the 1tb drive has.

The 7$ isn't the issue, it's that I would be inclined to reduce storage space in order to get a faster drive. Is that the case here?
 
I don't think I can give you a great indicator for the difference in performance.

But I can give you canned benchmark results.

Seagate ST1000DL002 (The 1TB drive)

Seagate ST3500413AS (The 500GB drive)

Samsung F3 (a fast, commonly recommended 7200 RPM drive for reference)

You can do a bit of Googling and see if you find any more data than that, but that's what I found on a quick search. Also, remember that as you increase data density on a hard drive, your data read speeds can increase. That's one (of the many) of the reasons why a modern hard drive can beat a Raptor.
 
Sounds like the 500gb would be a better fit for me, though one question. Being that i'm using a underpowered PSU as it is, would going with the less power hungry green drive be a wise decision?
 
Being that i'm using a underpowered PSU as it is, would going with the less power hungry green drive be a wise decision?

Wouldn't make that much of a difference. However I think your PSU should still be good enough for a HD 5770 or HD 6770 card if you have the money for those cards
 
I doubt the power difference will be that large between the two hard drives. It wouldn't hurt, but it's not entirely necessary (my opinion.) The issue with graphics cards is that while the 6670 uses up to about 60 watts of power, something like the 5770 can use up to about 110 watts. Hard drives use a fair amount less power than this, and it usually peaks at startup when other components (like the GPU) are not using a lot of power.

So long story short, it doesn't matter which one you get in terms of your power supply.
 
Gotcha, I think i'll save money on the hard drive and spend a little more on the video card.

I'm leaning towards purchasing 6770 after researching the benefits over the 6670. I understand it consumes almost double the power. Though, I used a PSU calculator to estimate the power consumption and it comes to 320watts, so i'm assuming my 400watt PSU should be adequate.

The calculator i used: http://extreme.outervision.com/psucalculatorlite.jsp




So far my list is:

Core i3 2100 3.1 ghz Retail processor - $99.99
MSI H61M-P23 mATX Intel (combo^) - $ 9.99
Tax - $ 9.49

4gb G.Skill DDR3 Memory - $ 22.99
Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 500GB - $ 53.48
Sony Optiarc CD/DVD Burner (combo^) - $ 0
SAPPHIRE HD 5770 1GB 128-bit -$119.99 (-$20 MIR)
Shipping - $ 3.87

Grand total: $319.80 ($299.80 after MIR)




Also, would I benefit from jumping to 8gb of ram?

Any thoughts on the list?
 
Remember Microcenter has a 2x2GB DDR3 1333 kit for $19.99+$1.73 tax in case you want to save a little over the G.Skill

Here
 
Good build!

That's more video card than I thought you'd be able to afford, and you have an easy upgrade path to Quad core if you so desire. I agree with Danny: 8GB is so cheap it's tempting, but you'll never notice the difference.
 
Video card idea is sound. I originally didn't include it as it would have put you over budget. But the 5770/6770 is about 40-50% faster for $20-$30 more. As for the PSU, if you do notice any graphical tearing or boot issues, your PSU will be the likely culprit. But deal with that if the time comes (I think you'll probably be okay. My main worry is how old the PSU is as they don't put out as much power as they age. But with only two hard drives, a mid range GPU, and a dual core i3 you'll probably be okay.)

If you want Shogun 2 Total War, Dirt 3, and a lifetime warranty, get:
(before $20 MIR) - XFX HD-677X-ZNLC Radeon HD 6770 1GB AND Shogun 2 Total War AND Dirt 3 via [URL="http://xfxforce.com/en-us/Features/dirt3.aspx"]Website

The only downside compared to the Sapphire are the outputs (the Sapphire has 2 DVI, 1 HDMI, and 1 Displayport, whereas the XFX has 1 VGA, 1 DVI, and 1 HDMI.) But unless you're running a multimonitor setup (and even then a setup with 3 or more monitors) you won't notice any issues.

8GB of RAM won't hurt you. But I don't know how much benefit it would give you right now. I would not go for the Microcenter deal because it uses 2x2GB sticks. I specifically recommended 1x4GB stick so you could upgrade to 8GB in the future very easily. But considering you can get 8GB for $40 now (use promo code EMCKBJB24) it won't drastically affect your budget if you decide to go for it now.
 
Last edited:
A few hours ago I took a trip to Micro center and picked up the motherboard/cpu combo, along with their ram. I do understand the drawbacks as I won't be able to upgrade in the future now that i'm occupying both ram ports :( But honestly, I was tempted to have a running system now rather than later so I took it. I don't see myself upgrading anytime soon as 4gb seems to be more than enough for what i'll be doing.

My reasons for choosing the Saphire over the XFX was specifically because dual DVI is pretty important for me. My monitor's VGA output doesn't quite work the way it's supposed to (everything is unusually blurry even on the native resolution) so running it on DVI is a must. And on occasion I do connect it to my TV using a DVI_to_HDMI cable. Though, being that it does have HDMI out, I could just do HDMI_to_HDMI if I decide I don't mind purchasing a 20ft HDMI cable. I'll give this some thought, but as you said having a lifetime warrenty is tempting.

Also, the PSU isn't as old as the desktop itself. It was purchased last year when the original Antec went bad.

By the way I am writing this message from the new computer, i installed windows 7 from a flash drive :D:
Antec case
Corsair 400watt PSU
MSI Board
Core i3 processor
Microcenter 4gb ram
onboard video
WD 74gb raptor for now..

Ordering the dvdrw+hd, and video card soon!

Thanks for the help everyone, especially tonytnnt


Just need to order the optical drive
 
Nice! Congrats, and I definitely understand purchasing things in store to get that immediate gratification.

Glad to hear the PSU is newer.

I also understand where you're coming from with the DVI ports. I'm picky about that kind of stuff too. I think the Sapphire should be fine. XFX has a little better reputation when it comes to customer support, and it also has the lifetime warranty. You also get Dirt3 for free. If you don't want to compromise, you could get this:

$125 (before $15 MIR) - XFX HD-677X-ZNFC Radeon HD 6770 1GB AND Shogun 2 Total War AND Dirt3 (via website linked above) -- lifetime warranty

Unfortunately it's $5 more than the Sapphire cards before MIR, and $10 after MIRs.

You could also order an HDMI cable from Monoprice for pretty cheap depending on what length you need.

And you can still upgrade the RAM in the future -- you just have to replace both sticks. But I wouldn't worry about that too much. It wasn't too many months ago (5 or 6) that 1x4GB stick was going for $40, which is what 2x4GB sticks go for right now. It's crazy how fast RAM prices have dropped in just half a year.
 
So I just played some counter-strike:source, and to my surprise on maxed out settings I was averaging 54fps:eek:. My old setup with a 6600gt would only do about 33fps. The quality isn't great, and it definitely has more than a few artifacts but it's completely playable.

I wish my monitor worked the way it's supposed to over VGA, if that was the case I would hold off on ordering a video card until I actually needed one better than the onboard. That way my 100$ would go a bit further. I can honestly say, i'm probably going to be about 90% just web browsing on this computer, and feel even purchasing a 6770 would be a waste. On the same token, I don't want to get a 6670 for $80, when $20 more can get me something 40% more powerful.

Though if i do get a 6770, I will probably just cough of the extra $10 for the XFX. The lifetime warranty justifies it (once my watercooling setup leaked on my geforce4 ti4200 and fried it years after I bought it), and having matching pcb boards will just be the icing on the cake. lol!

Regarding the ram, what you said were my thoughts exactly. If I feel like jumping to 8gb of ram, it would cost me $40 today, in 6months that will probably be half the price. On that note, i'm amazed at how cheap parts are these days (I haven't been around since the socket 7 days..)
 
Well, if you wanted to, you could upgrade your monitor instead of the graphics. I'm not sure what Microcenter's return policy is, but you could also consider a more expensive motherboard.

$5 more (I didn't realize this before) gets you a motherboard with DVI out.

$15 - Biostar H61ML LGA 1155 H61 mATX Intel Motherboard

Microcenter's website return policy is located here.

It might be worth a shot if the integrated graphics are good enough for you right now and it isn't too much of a hassle for you to tear it apart and redo it.
 
Isn't the 6770 just a relabeled 5770? AMD is doing the same as nVidia's 8800gt/9800gt/250gts. Not saying 6770 is a bad card, just that if a 5770 is cheaper, get it.

http://www.hwcompare.com/5704/radeon-hd-5770-vs-radeon-hd-6770-1gb/

The 6790 uses an actual 6 series GPU and has 256 bit memory interface and a bit more power. I do not think it would be a good fit in this build though.

http://www.hwcompare.com/10021/radeon-hd-5770-vs-radeon-hd-6790/

Yes, the 6770 is just a relabeled 5770. In fact, if you search Newegg for 5770, you'll see 6770s show up in your search results (at least I do.) But if you're looking at other stores, definitely check both.
 
Agh, I wish I was aware of the Biostar before I purchased everything. It is a very tempting option to follow through with the exchange, and i've been debating it all day. I really don't want to take apart the system, and rebuild it. Though it does offer a significant benefit to me at only 5$ more.

Is there anything else the Biostar motherboard has to offer over the MSI which could help me sway my decision into exchaning it?

To be honest, im leaning towards just ordering a video card though so I guess it isn't as big of a deal.

On that note, after a bit of research i've noticed nVidia has something to offer in my price range, and its boiled down to either the HD 6770 (i'm aware its the same as the 5770 with only a slightly better HDMI port, and pci-x 2.1, but it's going for the same price) or the GTX 550 ti.

I know the GTX 550 ti is extremely power hungry in comparison to the 6770, and could be an issue for my 400watt psu, but in regards to performance how do these two stack up?
 
The GTX 550Ti is a tad faster. It'll use up to 12 amps on your 12 volt rail. The price is definitely right though.

Yeah sorry about the Biostar board. You can take some comfort in the fact that the MSI board is better than the Biostar on almost everything except video out. The MSI supports up to 10 USB 2.0 ports, 16GB of RAM, 8 channel audio, and has gigabit ethernet. The Biostar board supports up to 8 USB 2.0 ports, 8 GB of RAM, 6 channel audio, and has 10/100 Mbps ethernet. Other differences are that the MSI has 3 PCIe x1 slot whereas the Biostar has 1 PCIe x1 slot and 2 PCI slots instead.
 
Back
Top