$350 budget build

A

Almighty ODST

Gawd
Joined
Sep 24, 2010
Messages
703
1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
SOLIDWORKS, GOOGLE SKETCHUP, DAY TO DAY TASKS
2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
$350 NOT INCLUDING TAX
3) Which country do you live in? If the U.S, please tell us the state and city if possible.

CA
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
MOBO
RAM
CASE
PSU
HDD
DVD DRIVE

5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
NONE
6) Will you be overclocking?
NO
7) What size monitor do you have and/or plan to have?
20"
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.
ONBOARD VIDEO
10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If so, what OS? Is it 32bit or 64bit?
WILL BUY W7 X64 SEPERATE



Buddy needs a build. I told him not much could be done and concessions would have to be made (cheap-as case, onboard video, etc).
The best I could find on newegg was the combo deals like these two:
AMD
INTEL

Which would be better for his needs? Thanks a lot for the help.
 
Hmm...... Why not a prebuilt?

Only have my phone now so cant do research now. Hopefully one of the other guys might be able to come up with a build
 
If you were in my area i'd sell you my

Intel i5 lynnfield 750
MSI p55-gd65 mobo
Gskill 4gb 1600mhz ddr3
and BFG 550w psu for cheap.
throw in a dvd burner drive free :)

thats pretty much and entire system minus case and video card.
 
Danny Bui said:
Hmm...... Why not a prebuilt?

Only have my phone now so cant do research now. Hopefully one of the other guys might be able to come up with a build
Click to expand...

I checked HP and their prebuilts have celerons in them..I thought that was kinda shitty. Unless they're rebranded sandy bridge chips lol
 
For that budget, I think you'd be better off with a prebuilt computer honestly. I don't think anyone here can touch a budget that low with what Dell, HP or some other big brand can do. $350 isn't a lot to play with.
 
Almighty ODST said:
I checked HP and their prebuilts have celerons in them..I thought that was kinda shitty. Unless they're rebranded sandy bridge chips lol
Click to expand...

Well, you can't have everything unless you increase the budget: At the $350 total price you will almost always end up with an extremely shitty PSU that (literally) won't last even one minute with any modern parts. For example, on both of those Newegg combos, the PSUs in those combos can't really deliver anywhere close to their advertised wattage ratings - a big no-no in my book. (In fact, the "430W" PSU in the Thermaltake case in the Intel combo is really only a 230W PSU of very low efficiency.) And both of those combos linked come with slow hard drives (sure, the 1.5TB Seagate Barracuda Green hard drives deliver decent sequential performance and an excellent capacity-to-price ratio, but their random access speed is molasses-slow compared to almost every other hard drive on the market). Those deficiencies greatly diminish the value of both of those combos, in my book.

On the other hand, those $350 pre-builts typically have Celerons, all right - but they are of the old Core 2 Duo-based variety, not even the Clarkdale-based version. And there are no Sandy Bridge-based Celerons in existence at this present time (nor are there any plans in the foreseeable future from Intel to introduce them to even OEMs, let alone the reseller market). Occasionally, you might get an Athlon II x2 CPU in that low-budget prebuilt.
 
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Come on guys, this can be done.

Note: I haven't applied any coupons to make this build. See this thread for some current Newegg Sales, and since you're in CA be sure to check out Amazon too. (Use the Corsair coupon if you buy from Newegg -- 10% off.)

I have to run, but I'll try and clean these links up later:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.728936
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813138316
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822145299
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827151233
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139026
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811146061
Total before tax, before any coupons, after shipping: $355
 
You mention that you are going to be running SolidWorks on this computer, which means that you are going to really be straining low end hardware with a 350$ budget, SolidWorks recommends 6GB of RAM alone. Also on-board video might not cut it either, unless you get an AMD APU.

Here are my suggestions for a cheap workstation around your price range:
Totals are :

- Onboard Video : $311.93\
- Workstation with descrete Video: $381.92
- APU System: $428

[NOTE] All parts are from newegg with their respective item #s

----- Basic Parts -----
LG CD/DVD Burner Black SATA Model GH22NS70 OEM - OEM
Item #: N82E16827136238 $17.99

Rosewill R101-P-BK 120mm Fan MicroATX Mid Tower Computer Case
Item #: N82E16811147112 $29.99

HITACHI HDS721050CLA362 (0F10381) 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive HITACHI HDS721050CLA362 (0F10381) 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
Item #: N82E16822145299 $39.99

Antec NEO ECO 400C 400W Continuous Power ATX12V 2.3 / EPS12V 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Power Supply Antec NEO ECO 400C 400W Continuous Power ATX12V 2.3 / EPS12V 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Power Supply
Item #: N82E16817371029 $44.99

G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1066 (PC3 8500) Desktop Memory Model F3-8500CL7D-8GBRL G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1066 (PC3 8500) Desktop Memory Model F3-8500CL7D-8GBRL
Item #: N82E16820231308 $43.99

AMD Athlon II X3 445 Rana 3.1GHz Socket AM3 95W Triple-Core Desktop Processor ADX445WFGMBOX AMD Athlon II X3 445 Rana 3.1GHz Socket AM3 95W Triple-Core Desktop Processor ADX445WFGMBOX
Item #: N82E16819103872 $74.99

----- END ----- @ 252$

----- Motherboard and Video options -----
BIOSTAR A770E3 AM3 AMD 770 ATX AMD Motherboard BIOSTAR A770E3 AM3 AMD 770 ATX AMD Motherboard
Item #: N82E16813138179 $49.99

ATI 100-505551 FirePro V3700 256MB PCI Express 2.0 x16 Workstation Video Card ATI 100-505551 FirePro V3700 256MB PCI Express 2.0 x16 Workstation Video Card
Item #: N82E16814195072 $79.99

OR Just this if you really think on-board video is okay.

BIOSTAR A880G+ AM3 AMD 880G HDMI Micro ATX AMD Motherboard
Item #: N82E16813138283 $59.99

OR go with an APU :

AMD A6-3650 Llano 2.6GHz Socket FM1 100W Quad-Core Desktop APU AD3650WNGXBOX
Item #: N82E16819103943

ASRock A75M-HVS FM1 AMD A75 (Hudson D3) SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 HDMI Micro ATX AMD Motherboard with UEFI BIOS
Item #: N82E16813157261

Together : $177

-----
 
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No Fry's??? What about their .com????

GATEWAY $329

I agree at that price you are VERY limited.

Processor: 2nd Gen. Intel Pentium Dual Core G620 (2.6GHz)
Memory: 4GB DDR3
Hard Drive: 1TB SATA
Optical Drive: SuperMulti DVD+/- RW
Wireless Connectivity: 802.11n
Operating System: Windows 7 Home Premium
 
I read that solidworks is single threaded and very cpu dependent so I went ahead and recommended him some parts from amazon for a i3-2100 build. I figure the speed and IPC of the i3-2100 is probably better than anything else in the price range. The build came out to $370 or so on Amazon and I told him to buy Windows 7 x64 for $29 off MS store. Thanks for all the help everyone!

4gb crucial ram
500gb caviar blue
coolermaster elite 341
i3-2100
asus p8-h61 le
antec earthwatts 380
dvd drive

He won't be stressing the computer by adding gpus or anything so the earthwatts should be perfectly fine for his needs.
 
Almighty ODST said:
I read that solidworks is single threaded and very cpu dependent so I went ahead and recommended him some parts from amazon for a i3-2100 build. I figure the speed and IPC of the i3-2100 is probably better than anything else in the price range. The build came out to $370 or so on Amazon and I told him to buy Windows 7 x64 for $29 off MS store. Thanks for all the help everyone!

4gb crucial ram
500gb caviar blue
coolermaster elite 341
i3-2100
asus p8-h61 le
antec earthwatts 380
dvd drive

He won't be stressing the computer by adding gpus or anything so the earthwatts should be perfectly fine for his needs.
Click to expand...

That's very much the same build as my current Internet rig. The only differences are the larger case and a different-brand motherboard on my build.
 
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