$500 for PC upgrade

A

aethelwulf

[H]ard|Gawd
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Nov 20, 2007
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1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
Gaming (DOTA 2, various FPS games), Web browsing, Media and streaming.
2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
$500 - tax and shipping included.
3) Which country do you live in? If the U.S, please tell us the state and city if possible.
Rochester, NY, 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.
CPU, RAM, Motherboard, SSD
5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
Optical drive, keyboard/mouse, speakers, monitor, P182 case, Corsair 620HX power supply, radeon 5850, couple WD hard drives.
6) Will you be overclocking?
Possibly
7) 7) What is the max resolution of your monitor? What size is it?
55'' 1080p monitor.
8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
Within the next couple months
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.
Onboard video would be nice, as well as USB3.0.
10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If so, what OS? Is it 32bit or 64bit?
Yes, Win7 64bit

Cheers and thanks for the advice!
 
Can you narrow down your time frame any further? Our recommendations tend to change monthly and sometimes even weekly.

Also, in regards to overclocking, gonna need a yes or no here as that will determine what motherboard and CPU we recommend. "Possibly" doesn't help.
 
Ok. Say within the next 2 weeks. And I would like the option to overclock so call it a yes.
 
$500 is a good amount of space to work with for needing only 4 items. The questions I have for you are: Do you have a preference of AMD to Intel? And how large would you like the SSD?

An i5-3570K and 8GB of G.Skills will run you $255. An inexpensive Z77 board (found this MSI http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130653) is going for $90. Then a fair performing SSD will run anywhere from $85-130ish. All of that combined at max price will hit $475, unless you decide on a different board/socket.

Another item to note is if you will be overclocking, you should get a better HSF, as stock simply won't cut it.
 
I don't need a particularly large SSD. Around 100GB +/- would be good, as it will primarily be used for the OS. I've got plenty of other hard drives for storage, I just want the speed from the SSD. Depending on how much I spend on the parts right now, I may or may not buy a HSF immediately, but I would like to have the option to overclock in the future, even if I don't do it immediately.

As for preference, I generally prefer Intel.
 
Here's what i recommend:
$215 - Intel Core i5-3570K CPU
$140 - Asus P8Z77-V LK Intel Z77 ATX Motherboard
$35 - G.Skill Ripjaws Series F3-10666CL9S-8GBXL 8GB DDR3 1333 RAM
$110 - Crucial M4 CT128M4SSD2 2.5" 128GB SSD
----
Total: $500 shipped

The above Asus is a far far better overclocker and of higher quality than the MSI mobo that DoomDoomDoom mentioned. So the extra cash for it is well worth it IMO. Yes no room to fit in a HSF with your current budget but I would recommend increasing your budget by $25 to fit in a 3rd party HSF. It's simply more cost effective (in terms of time and effort) to build the PC with the 3rd party HSF at the beginning rather than have to take apart and reassemble the PC later on to attach a 3rd party HSF later on. In other words, less of a hassle. I recommend this HSF:
$25 - Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus HSF for LGA 1366 and LGA 1156
 
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Danny Bui said:
The above Asus is a far far better overclocker and of higher quality than the MSI mobo that DoomDoomDoom mentioned. So the extra cash for it is well worth it IMO. Yes no room to fit in a HSF with your current budget but I would recommend increasing your budget by $25 to fit in a 3rd party HSF.
Click to expand...

Plus there's a $15 rebate, which will help a bit down the road.

Danny Bui said:
I recommend this HSF:
$25 - Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus HSF for LGA 1366 and LGA 1156
Click to expand...

For 25 bones, that is hard to top. I had the this and it was fine, but I wanted something from keeping my CPU as toasty after awhile. I opted for the Thermalright TRUE Spirit 120 ([H] review) though the M version might be good if you are worried about size concerns - both are priced the same currently at 42.90. An alternative might be the Arctic Freezer i30 for $38 on Amazon, for the sake of choice. Can't really find anything much better than those at inexpensive prices. If you're wanting better later, a self-sustained pump/block might be a good option.
 
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Well, with coolers that cheap it does seem foolish not to include it now! I guess I was thinking I'd have to spend more to get a decent one.

Thanks for all the help and advice guys!
 
So I am planning on buying this week. It's a little later than I had originally planned and I just wanted to see if your recommendations had changed since you said it can be so variable Danny_Bui.

Thanks!
 
Well the big change is that we're recommending that you buy from Amazon.com as much as possible since Newegg has effectively denied HardOCP commission.

So if you do buy the above parts from Amazon.com (just click the links and there'll be an Amazon redirect), swap out the RAM and SSD for the following:
$36 - Corsair CMX8GX3M1A1333C9 8GB DDR3 1333 RAM
$125 - Crucial M4 CT128M4SSD2CCA 2.5" 128GB SSD w/ USB to SATA Adapter and Drive Cloning software
 
As an Amazon Associate, HardForum may earn from qualifying purchases.
Danny Bui said:
Well the big change is that we're recommending that you buy from Amazon.com as much as possible since Newegg has effectively denied HardOCP commission.

So if you do buy the above parts from Amazon.com (just click the links and there'll be an Amazon redirect), swap out the RAM and SSD for the following:
$36 - Corsair CMX8GX3M1A1333C9 8GB DDR3 1333 RAM
$125 - Crucial M4 CT128M4SSD2CCA 2.5" 128GB SSD w/ USB to SATA Adapter and Drive Cloning software
Click to expand...

Well, I like support Hardforum, so I'll make sure to use the commission links! Thanks for the help again.
 
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Actually I was thinking of ordering some new case fans, any recommendations? I want them to be quiet primarily. I would rather have it quiet than have a huge overclock.
 
Yateloons, Nexus, and some Scythe fans are fairly quiet.
 
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