Budget Build (~$500)

S

Sc0rched

Gawd
Joined
Sep 28, 2003
Messages
629
I have been using laptops for my main machines the past couple of years and I have been itching to have an actual desktop machine again. Sadly, my budget this time around isn't too great. After doing a bit of looking around the only reasonable system I have been able to fit into my price range is an Intel i3-530, but I have been out of the scene for awhile and thought some other thoughts would be nice. Now to the details....

1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
Programming (IDEs include Eclipse, Visual Studio, etc), Photoshop, Streaming/Video playback, and occasional gaming (mainly older games)
2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
$400-600 inc. tax and shipping
3) Where do you live?
Washington (State), US
4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, etc. Please be very specific.
Everything. CPU, RAM, Case, PSU, Video Card, and Motherboard
5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
Not reusing any parts
6) Will you be overclocking?
I plan on using stock cooling, but will be overclocking if I can get anything decent out of it at a stable speed.
7) What size monitor do you have and/or plan to have?
Two 22" Monitors, (1680x1050) /w VGA and DVI inputs
8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
Within a month. Now preferably.
9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? etc.
On-Board Sound, RAID is a plus.
10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If so, what OS? 32bit or 64bit?
Yes, Windows 7 32-bit and 64-bit editions.


I know there are many of these posts so thanks in advance for all the help.
 
 
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amtabn.jpg


Here you go.

EDIT:

Oh, you wanted a i3... This setup will be faster than i3 in multitasking due to the quad-core and better in Photoshop too. But it's your choice.
 
Will it be faster than the i3? I think maybe if he did some minor OCing than yes. I think that they would perform similar at stock. When the multi-processing is needed than yes, I can see the Athlon chugging along ahead of the i3.
 
You will be very pleased with an I3 especially if you overclock it. It has 4 threads and while it's not an I7 it absolutely flies for the price. I use Photoshop, Soundbooth, Sonar, etc, etc, all at the same time, as well as other apps that are very demanding and this chip eats it all for breakfast.

As far as ocing goes I think 3.8 on stock cooling with a slight voltage bump is entirely feasible.

Any Intel Core Series chip will make you a happy man. And you can always drop in an I5/I7 at anytime if you ever desired.
 
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i like deluded's build - but i would go for the asus or gigabyte versions of that board. shouldn't be more expensive if you look for deals.
 
 
i'd say go with the psu, ram, hdd, and dvd-rw right above me... 231$

i3 530 - 125$
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115222&cm_re=i3_530-_-19-115-222-_-Product
intel 1156 mobo 110$
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813121396
5670 96$
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102871&cm_re=5670-_-14-102-871-_-Product

=562$ ... and you need a case, do you live near a Fry's or Microcenter? Shipping on cases is kind of high. Gwarren's case isn't a bad deal otherwise, even though he priced it wrong, it's 47$ shipped. That would bring the total to 609$, a little over your budget.

and yeah, these amd builds ahead of me are good, too. but i'd recommend something better than onboard video for light gaming. It really depends on what you mean by older games, like 2-3 years old or 5-10 years old?
 
If you get an I3 I would get one of these combo deals from ewiz. Keep your eyes open there because they frequently offer $10-15 off coupons as well.

http://www.ewiz.com/detail.php?name...ocessor-i3-530-2-93GHz-4MB-LGA1156-CPU-Retail


In fact there is one going right now.

The MSI H55 Combo on the bottom of the page for 199.98. Add coupon code "SHAMROCK10" to your cart and you get $15 bucks off. $185 shipped out the door and you get a speedy I3 with a nice little MSI board with good features, 4 memory slots, nice oc'ing, etc.

Coupon ends on 3/11
 
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If you want to compile faster than you've ever seen, get an SSD. :p Intel or Indilinx would be good. X25-M 80GB G2, Kingston 40GB, A-Data or any of the Indilinx (OCZ Vertex, Agility; Patriot TorqX; SuperTalent UltraDrive ME; G.Skill Falcon, etc).
 
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