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~$500 Office/Light Gaming PC?

S

Scionyde

n00b
Joined
Jun 22, 2013
Messages
9
My family and I are chipping in to buy parts for a new PC for my Dad, and I'll build it. I built my first gaming desktop a few months ago, so I have a small amount of experience.

1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
-It'll be an office PC, with some light gaming. My Dad has mentioned he's kinda interested in Train Simulator

2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
-$500ish including taxes

3) Which country do you live in? If the U.S, please tell us the state and city if possible.
-MA, 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.
-All the parts that I listed below in PC Part Picker

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?
-I don't live near home, so for simplicity, probably not.

7) What is the max resolution of your monitor? What size is it?
-I think his monitor is 720p or something like that.

8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
-I'd like to get it done before Xmas

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.
-I'd like to use and SSD, so I think SATA III would be good, and USB 3.0 too. I'd like to use a microATX case.

10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If yes, what OS? Is it 32bit or 64bit?
-Yes, I have a copy of 64-bit Windows 7 ready

Some notes:
-In the build below, I've manually adjusted the prices of the HDD and SSD to account for taxes I'd pay on Amazon, and I've manually adjusted the motherboard price since if I went in-store to Microcenter for a CPU/mobo bundle, that's probably what I'd pick.


PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD A10-6800K 4.1GHz Quad-Core Processor ($129.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-F2A88XM-D3H Micro ATX FM2+ Motherboard ($40.61)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory ($68.00 @ Newegg)
Storage: Kingston SSDNow V300 Series 120GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($85.34)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($64.19)
Case: Cooler Master N200 MicroATX Mid Tower Case ($52.99 @ Mac Mall)
Power Supply: Antec Basiq Plus 550W 80+ Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($64.99 @ Amazon)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-04 DVD/CD Writer ($14.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $521.10
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-12-14 17:16 EST-0500)


I'm completely new to this form factor, as well as AMD parts, so hopefully I didn't do something obviously stupid. At this price range, I'm sure a few things look odd. I'd really like to have an SSD in the build for the OS and some programs, because I think my Dad would really like the faster speeds. Also, I'm sure the PSU is overkill, but I wanted something modular from either Antec, Corsair, Seasonic, of XFX. I know there's the CX series from Corsair, but I'm a little spooked about how some of the 'Most Helpful' comments on Newegg are about some of them making horrible noises and/or exploding.

Some questions:
-The motherboard chipset is A88X - I won't need to flash the BIOS to work with this Richland APU, right? As I understand it, if I got something with an A75 chipset, I'd have to flash the BIOS unless I chose a Trinity APU (I think)
-Is the voltage on the RAM okay? I've never been clear about RAM voltages and whether there would be compatibility issues or not.

I'd fully welcome any and all suggestions. :)
 
Last edited:
At that price point, I suggest you drop the SSD in favour of a modest GPU for a better gaming experience. OTOH at 120 GB, you will likely get away without the HDD.

How is he going to back up this PC? Does he already have an external USB drive?
You'll need to add in the cost of a keyboard and mouse and a monitor cable. I'm guessing that he'll be using the family TV since you say it's 720p, so you might want to think about a wireless keyboard and mouse.
 
Quartz-1 said:
At that price point, I suggest you drop the SSD in favour of a modest GPU for a better gaming experience. OTOH at 120 GB, you will likely get away without the HDD.

How is he going to back up this PC? Does he already have an external USB drive?
You'll need to add in the cost of a keyboard and mouse and a monitor cable. I'm guessing that he'll be using the family TV since you say it's 720p, so you might want to think about a wireless keyboard and mouse.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the response :)

Yeah, I'd still like to keep the SSD as a boot drive because I think he'd like the faster speeds. You might be right about dumping the HDD though, he does have a couple external hard drives he uses with his current older desktop. He does have a keyboard and mouse, so he's all set with that too (sorry, should've mentioned that). Also, I double-checked, and I think his monitor is 900p.

My initial plans were to get him a GPU, but I really have no idea if he'll play anything beside Train Simulator, lol. I think the APU might be a good starting place, and if he starts gaming more, he could probably buy a discrete GPU himself and I'd be happy to install it for him.

Maybe it would be worthwhile to dump the HDD and get some faster RAM/save some money? I'd have to think about that...
 
Scionyde said:
Power Supply: Antec Basiq Plus 550W 80+ Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($64.99 @ Amazon)
......
Also, I'm sure the PSU is overkill, but I wanted something modular from either Antec, Corsair, Seasonic, of XFX. I know there's the CX series from Corsair, but I'm a little spooked about how some of the 'Most Helpful' comments on Newegg are about some of them making horrible noises and/or exploding.
Click to expand...
Considering how popular Corsair PSUs are, you are going to see more people complain about PSUs that unfortunately slipped by QC. In any case, I recommend this higher quality Seasonic modular 360W PSU instead:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00918MEZG/?tag=extension-kb-20

Yes it's still more than enough power for that PC.
Scionyde said:
Some questions:
-The motherboard chipset is A88X - I won't need to flash the BIOS to work with this Richland APU, right? As I understand it, if I got something with an A75 chipset, I'd have to flash the BIOS unless I chose a Trinity APU (I think)
-Is the voltage on the RAM okay? I've never been clear about RAM voltages and whether there would be compatibility issues or not.
Click to expand...
AFAIk, you should be fine. As for the RAM voltage, AMD hasn't really been clear about the max RAM voltage for their CPUs. You should be fine though from what I've seen.

Scionyde said:
Yeah, I'd still like to keep the SSD as a boot drive because I think he'd like the faster speeds. You might be right about dumping the HDD though, he does have a couple external hard drives he uses with his current older desktop.
Click to expand...
Definitely keep the SSD. It'll make the system feel snappy even after a few years of use.
Scionyde said:
My initial plans were to get him a GPU, but I really have no idea if he'll play anything beside Train Simulator, lol. I think the APU might be a good starting place, and if he starts gaming more, he could probably buy a discrete GPU himself and I'd be happy to install it for him.
Click to expand...
You should realy ask him if he ever plans on playing any other games. When you add in a discrete GPU, you effectively negate one of the main advantages of the AMD APU platform: The faster onboard GPU. At that point, you're better off going Intel for their better CPU performance in games.

Scionyde said:
Maybe it would be worthwhile to dump the HDD and get some faster RAM/save some money? I'd have to think about that...
Click to expand...
Soon you're going to start reaching the point of diminishing returns with faster. You should not spend more than $70 max for a 8GB of RAM these days regardless of speed.
 
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Scionyde said:
You might be right about dumping the HDD though, he does have a couple external hard drives he uses with his current older desktop.
Click to expand...

Excellent!

He does have a keyboard and mouse, so he's all set with that too (sorry, should've mentioned that). Also, I double-checked, and I think his monitor is 900p...
Click to expand...

All good stuff.

Maybe it would be worthwhile to dump the HDD and get some faster RAM/save some money? I'd have to think about that...[/QUOTE]

No, you're fine on RAM, just dump the HDD and keep the SSD. 120 GB will be more than enough for his use, and you can always add a HDD later.
 
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