• Some users have recently had their accounts hijacked. It seems that the now defunct EVGA forums might have compromised your password there and seems many are using the same PW here. We would suggest you UPDATE YOUR PASSWORD and TURN ON 2FA for your account here to further secure it. None of the compromised accounts had 2FA turned on.
    Once you have enabled 2FA, your account will be updated soon to show a badge, letting other members know that you use 2FA to protect your account. This should be beneficial for everyone that uses FSFT.

300$ Build

Status
Not open for further replies.
T

tgray96

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Dec 13, 2010
Messages
1,055
1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
Web Browsing Mostly, Everyday tasks
2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
310$ with tax
3) Where do you live?
Indiana USA
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.
Case , MOBO , CPU , HDD , RAM

5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
Antec Neopower 400 PSU
6) Will you be overclocking?
Should I?
7) What size monitor do you have and/or plan to have?
22" dell (already own)
8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
Now
9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? USB 3.0? SATA 6Gb/s? etc.
No
10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If yes, what OS? Is it 32bit or 64bit?
Windows 7 64bit ( own-it)

here's my list:

HEC Blitz Black Steel Edition ATX Mid Tower Computer Chassis Gaming Case w/ Front Blue LED 120mm Fan & Top 120mm Fan
$39.99

Western Digital Caviar Green WD10EARS 1TB 5400 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
$64.99

JetWay JMA3-785GP-LF AM3 AMD 785G HDMI Micro ATX AMD Motherboard
$59.99

Mushkin Enhanced Silverline 4GB 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Desktop Memory Model 991770
$47.99

AMD Athlon II X4 640 Propus 3.0GHz Socket AM3 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor ADX640WFGMBOX
$99.99

Total:$307.84 (with coupon code)

Antec NEO ECO 400C 400W Continuous Power ATX12V 2.3 / EPS12V 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Power Supply (already own this)

Whats everybody think?
 
It's Christmas and it's Saturday night; you shouldn't expect much activity this weekend. Besides, it takes a little while to come up with the appropriate response(s) to your questions.

The RAM is post #3 isn't good because you're relying on the after-rebate price. That stick of RAM is $60 before rebates and shipping. The hard drives that you're considering in posts 1 and 3 are green drives, which are good as a storage drivse but not as good as primary or OS drives. Do you really need the storage capacity of a 1TB or larger drive?
 
It is Christmas day..
Anyhow, I don't recommend a Green edition WD drive for a OS drive. Perfect for a data drive, but not fast enough for the OS. Decent build for the price though.
^
|
Beat me!
 
tgray96 said:
sorry, when i have a coupon codes that expire in 36 hours that save me close to 100 dollars, i would love to be able to use them, ME on a budget!
Click to expand...

... And you have all day Sunday, when more people will be able to "stop by," to make your order. RELAX. Trying to stress us out won't help us try to alleviate your stress.

Which "coupon codes" are you talking about? Most of the parts that you've asked us about are generally bad choices, and the only "code" that I saw in this thread was for $10 off the cost of the case. If what you mean by "coupons" are mail-in rebates, they aren't going to make your build come in under $300 when it comes time for you to check out.

Go with this instead:

$30 - HEC Blitz Black Steel Edition ATX mid-tower case (with $10 off promo code factored in)
$85 - AMD Athlon II X2 245 + BIOSTAR MCP6P3 AM3 microATX combo
$42 - Mushkin 2x2GB DDR3 1333 dual channel kit
$60 - Samsung Spinpoint F3 HD103SJ 1TB SATA HDD
=====
$217 - Subtotal (not including shipping, taxes, or rebates)

That should be more than enough for web browsing and most "everyday tasks." I included the case (as you can't really beat that deal) and the Mushkin RAM that you were considering earlier. The Samsung hard drive that I chose for you is much faster than the green drives and it's currently on sale for a bit less. (Go with the Western Digital 500GB hard drive only if you really need to save money. $60 is a really good deal for a 1TB 7200RPM two-platter hard drive.)

But why do you "need" a quad-core processor? If you really want to keep the Athlon II X4 640, you could replace the processor, motherboard, and RAM kit with the following instead:

$198 - AMD Athlon II X4 640 + Gigabyte GA-MA74GM-S2 + G.Skill 2x2GB DDR2 800 combo

With the case and hard drive, the above combo comes to $288 before shipping and taxes. But the board limits you to the more expensive DDR2 RAM and you won't be able to use the current generation of Phenom II AM3 processors. (The Bulldozer series processors that are coming in 2011 are incompatible with any of the boards available today.)
 
As an Amazon Associate, HardForum may earn from qualifying purchases.
The ECS A785GM-AD3(1.0) is $75 at TigerDirect before a mail-in rebate. If you're willing to spend $175 on the processor and motherboard together (and leaving everything else about the same), I can find you a couple of better options at NewEgg.

$165 - AMD Athlon II X4 640 + Biostar TA790GXB3 AM3 AMD 790GX ATX combo
$168 - AMD Athlon II X4 640 + Asus M4A88T-M AM3 AMD 880G microATX combo

If you want the quad core, but don't want to spend that much, consider this combo:

$147 - AMD Athlon II X4 640 + Asus M4A78LT-M LE AM3 AMD 780L microATX combo

The onboard video for that board is an AMD (formerly ATI) Radeon 3000. I don't know how well that particular GPU is capable of playing back HD (1080p) video, if at all. (Yes, it has a DVI port.)

EDIT: With each of the above three combos (and the case, RAM, and HDD in my earlier post), you're looking at $297, $300, and $279, respectively, before taxes and shipping.
 
Last edited:
lol @ 1 hour later post on xmas eve complaining about no replies. however on a budget biostar mobos are plenty for your needs but so is the gigabyte 740g
 
thanks guys (-shadowssong) i am going to think about it and get some sleep1 appreicate the suggestions!
 
ok tirades i think i like the combo with the quad and the asus M4A88T-M Board!
Plan on using the HEC case, The Mushkin Ram, ANd as for the hard drive, i want something fast as you pointed out, but i want soemthing from newegg, especially after reading their reveiws about amazons shipping...
 
hows this drive? Western Digital Caviar Black WD6402AAEX 640GB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive
 
ok heres my list so far:
hec blitz case
the amd athlon 2 x4 640 (combo)
the asus m4a88t-m (combo)
The mushkin 2x2 gb ddr3 1333 ram kit
ad the western digital black 640gb
 
No on the WD Caviar Black WD6402AAEX; the Samsung F3 HD103SJ purchased from NewEgg is a much better value. The performance between the two drives is about the same, but the Samsung gives you over 50% more storage capacity (compared to the Caviar Black) for only $5 more.

And HELL NO! on the HEC Orion PSU. The long story short is that it's a "generic" power supply that can't handle its rated load properly. Stick with the NEO ECO power supply that you currently have; it's much better than the HEC.
 
Hey tirades the link is taking me to a 70 dollar drive and thats a hell of a lot more tham the 45 western digital
 
hec blitz case
the amd athlon 2 x4 640 (combo)
the asus m4a88t-m (combo)
The mushkin 2x2 gb ddr3 1333 ram kit
and 500 gb western digital blue
 
awesome I am going to order it 3 day shipping from newegg tomoorow morning after i put the cash in my checking account! I keep everybody updated..!
 
i ordered everything! the case is shipping from NJ and everything else from CA, So Lets see how long it takes!
 
That's good to hear.

Please take pictures of the completed build so we all can see your hard work pay off.
 
Will do Tirades! my hard work? I wanna take the time to help everybody that helped me! Thanks for all the help!
 
Well the parts should be here by, say Wednesday, I ordered rush proc. so I'll upload some when i get done!
 
Hey Tirades, Being my first build, anything you reccomend? procedures? tips? Thanks!

Edit: For that matter anybody have tips tricks requirement, or procedures to guide me along my first build! Would be appreciated!
 
Last edited:
Check the stickied General Hardware FAQ: There's a ton of links there about how to build the PC itself. Including some tips here and there.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top