Best bang for my buck..

F

feo

Limp Gawd
Joined
Dec 24, 2006
Messages
183
Long story short, my PC got fried by lightning a few weeks back but I was due for an upgrade anyway. I'm not from the US but I'd say my budget is roughly equivalent to $700-800..

I'm out of touch with hardware so can you guys recommend me a build please?

Looking for a motherboard, CPU, 4GB+ RAM and a quiet PSU. I don't game on my PC so onboard graphics is fine for me.

AMD/Intel? I dunno...whatever'll give me the most bang for my buck..
 
I'm from SA but can pretty much get anything you guys have over there.

PC will be used for browsing mostly but I'll also be using it to stream movies to my 360, encoding movies and maybe a bit of Photoshop. I just want everything to be super snappy and not slow down to a crawl when I have multiple apps open.
 
Excuse for asking this but, what is SA? Saudi Arabia? South America? South Australia?
 
Are you reusing any PC parts? Do you need an O/S for this PC as well? Where do you plan on ordering the parts from?
 
HardwareGuru said:
Are you reusing any PC parts? Do you need an O/S for this PC as well? Where do you plan on ordering the parts from?
Click to expand...
I'm still gonna use my HDDs from my old PC, also the optical drives will move over...everything else is new.

I have an OS...Windows 7.

Probably a local supplier but you can link me to Newegg to get an idea of how much the components will cost.

So...should I go for Intel or AMD? Motherboard suggestions, CPU suggestions, RAM suggestions?
 
If you're going to reuse your HDD and Optical Drives and you have Windows 7 O/S, you can put together an Intel Core i5-750 or Core i7-860 build for $700-$800.


CASE - Antec Three Hundred for $55-$60, CoolerMaster RC-690 for $70-$80
Antec and Coolermaster generally the most common cases.

PSU - Corsair 400CX for $50, Corsair 450VX for $65-$70, Antec Earthwatts 500 for $70-$80
Corsair and Antec power supplies normally the most common PSU recommend. However, avoid the Antec Basiq line

CPU - Intel Core i5 750 for $200 or Intel Core i7-860 for $280
*Note - The Core i5-750 cpu does not support HT (Hyperthreading)

RAM - G.Skill, Corsair, OCZ, or Patriot 4GB DDR3 1333, 1600MHZ 1.5-1.65Volt memory modules for $92-$100

MOBO - ASUS or GIGABYTE P55 Chipset Mobo for $135 - $150

VIDEO CARD - ATI Radeon HD 4350, 4550 or Nvidia Geforce GT 210 for $35-$50

By the way, what is the specs of your last pc that got fried? Also, what model HDD are you reusing?
 
HardwareGuru said:
If you're going to reuse your HDD and Optical Drives and you have Windows 7 O/S, you can put together an Intel Core i5-750 or Core i7-860 build for $700-$800.


CASE - Antec Three Hundred for $55-$60, CoolerMaster RC-690 for $70-$80
Antec and Coolermaster generally the most common cases.

PSU - Corsair 400CX for $50, Corsair 450VX for $65-$70, Antec Earthwatts 500 for $70-$80
Corsair and Antec power supplies normally the most common PSU recommend. However, avoid the Antec Basiq line

CPU - Intel Core i5 750 for $200 or Intel Core i7-860 for $280
*Note - The Core i5-750 cpu does not support HT (Hyperthreading)

RAM - G.Skill, Corsair, OCZ, or Patriot 4GB DDR3 1333, 1600MHZ 1.5-1.65Volt memory modules for $92-$100

MOBO - ASUS or GIGABYTE P55 Chipset Mobo for $135 - $150

VIDEO CARD - ATI Radeon HD 4350, 4550 or Nvidia Geforce GT 210 for $35-$50

By the way, what is the specs of your last pc that got fried? Also, what model HDD are you reusing?
Click to expand...
It's an old piece of crap that's like 5 years old.

Athlon 64 3200+ Socket 939
MSI K8N Neo2 motherboard
1 GB Kingston RAM
Geforce 6800GT

HDD = 500GB Seagate SATA 7200.11 and a Samsung Spinpoint 500GB
 
Yikes! That is pretty dated man. Sorry didn't post links to the parts. I'm a bit lazy hehe. But, if you want to go even cheaper, than it would be an AMD Phenom II X4 Quad Build

AMD Quad Build

CPU - AMD Phenom II Quad 955 3.2ghz for $165

MOBO(s) -
GIGABYTE GA-MA790GPT-UD3H AM3 AMD 790GX for $115
ASUS M4A78T-E AM3 AMD 790GX for $130
GIGABYTE GA-MA785GT-UD3H AM3 AMD 785G for $95
ASUS M4A785TD-V EVO AM3 AMD 785G for $100

RAM
G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 for $92
G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 for $93
G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 for $95
G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 for $95
CORSAIR XMS3 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 for $95
CORSAIR XMS3 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 for $95

PSU
Antec NEO ECO 400C 400W for $45
Antec NEO ECO 520C 520W for $65
CORSAIR CMPSU-400CX 400W for $55
CORSAIR CMPSU-450VX 450W for $65

CASES
Antec Three Hundred for $55
Antec Sonata III 500 w/500Watt Antec Earthwatts PSU for $100
Antec NSK6580 Black w/430Watt Antec Earthwatts PSU for $100
COOLER MASTER Elite 330 for $40
COOLER MASTER Elite RC-330-KKR1 for $50
COOLER MASTER ELITE 335 for $43
COOLER MASTER Centurion 534 for $55
COOLER MASTER RC-690 for $70

The Intel Core i5-750 and Intel Core i7-860 cpus would be overall faster than the AMD Phenom II X4 955 cpu though. By the way, are you considering overclocking on this build also?
 
Hehe, an i5 will blow that 3200+ away. I was about to suggest not spending so much money on an i5/i7 (and go AMD instead), since all you do is browse, stream, encode, and some photoshop, but considering how long you wait between upgrades, an i5 would probably be best. :p

RC-590 is also a good case choice, typically $15-30 less than the RC-690.

Antec Earthwatts is also a good choice for PSU, if its cheaper than a Corsair or Neo Eco.
 
HardwareGuru said:
The Intel Core i5-750 and Intel Core i7-860 cpus would be overall faster than the AMD Phenom II X4 955 cpu though. By the way, are you considering overclocking on this build also?
Click to expand...

Thanks for the suggestions...will go through them all and post back here. Overclocking...that's a no...maybe if I get bored and wanna squeeze out some more performance but definitely not buying this rig with the intention of overclocking it.

enginurd said:
Hehe, an i5 will blow that 3200+ away. I was about to suggest not spending so much money on an i5/i7 (and go AMD instead), since all you do is browse, stream, encode, and some photoshop, but considering how long you wait between upgrades, an i5 would probably be best. :p

RC-590 is also a good case choice, typically $15-30 less than the RC-690.

Antec Earthwatts is also a good choice for PSU, if its cheaper than a Corsair or Neo Eco.
Click to expand...

Yeah it looks like it'll either be an i5 or an AMD Quad but like you say, time between upgrades is LONG so I might have to go for the beefier option now.
 
BTW HardwareGuru, any links for mobos and RAM should I choose to go the i5 route?
 
Most of the Gigabyte or Asus P55 boards are good, as well as eVGA and MSI. Same RAM as the AM3 parts listed above.

I like this board, since it has USB3.0 and SATA600:
$135 - GIGABYTE GA-P55A-UD3 LGA 1156 Intel P55 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0

... if such features are useless to you, then you can go for a cheaper board with the features that fit your needs. Since you didn't answer the sticky thread questions... What features do you need in a motherboard? (eg. legacy ports, firewire, sli, crossfire, at least 2x pci, at least 3 pci-e, etc).
 
Lots of USB ports, more than one LAN port is preferable, decent onboard sound and graphics, no real need for anything else.

I was looking at the Asus P7P55D motherboard and it's reasonably priced and so is the i5 processor so for now, that's what I'm going for. The only issue is that I read that RAM on this board should be 1.65V or less...is this true? Would RAM rated at 1.8V work?
 
feo said:
... I was looking at the Asus P7P55D motherboard and it's reasonably priced and so is the i5 processor so for now, that's what I'm going for. The only issue is that I read that RAM on this board should be 1.65V or less...is this true? Would RAM rated at 1.8V work?
Click to expand...

DDR3 RAM used with ALL Core i5/i7 CPUs should be as close to the JEDEC DDR3 spec as possible, which is 1.5v. Intel specified max is 1.65v -- any higher may damage your CPU. The memory controller is integrated into the CPU. ;) Personally, I recommend getting as low voltage as you can, so there's headroom to raise the voltage if needed. 1.5v also makes for better compatibility, but all 1.65v sticks SHOULD have at least one 1.5v profile in its SPD table.

That board is fine.
 
Just note that the Intel P55 Mobos do not come with onboard graphics so.. you will have to purchase a separate video card. Just get a cheap Radeon HD 4350, Radeon HD 4550 or Nvidia Geforce GT 210 graphics card for $30-$50
 
If you go i5 (+1 on that being your best option), be mindful to get 1.5V-1.6V ram.

P55 boards no likey the higher voltage flavors.
 
HardwareGuru said:
Just note that the Intel P55 Mobos do not come with onboard graphics so.. you will have to purchase a separate video card. Just get a cheap Radeon HD 4350, Radeon HD 4550 or Nvidia Geforce GT 210 graphics card for $30-$50
Click to expand...

Yup, just discovered that little tidbit of info yesterday! :(

I heard that newer board with onboard graphics are coming out next year but I can't wait that long so it looks like I'll just get a cheapie...it's not like I game on my PC anyway. (that's what the 360 is for :D)

PinkFloyd said:
If you go i5 (+1 on that being your best option), be mindful to get 1.5V-1.6V ram.

P55 boards no likey the higher voltage flavors.
Click to expand...

Yeah, but it's not easy finding 1333MHZ DDR3 RAM @ <1.6V...the hunt continues.

Which brands of RAM work best with the P55 board I want? (i.e. P7P55D)
 
feo said:
... Which brands of RAM work best with the P55 board I want? (i.e. P7P55D)
Click to expand...

The major name brands with voltage ratings of 1.5v. :p Name brands include (in no particular order) Crucial, Corsair, Kingston, Mushkin, G.Skill, OCZ, GeiL, etc.
 
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