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Budget build help.

Z

Zenprophet

Weaksauce
Joined
Apr 30, 2012
Messages
80
1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
Gaming, (diablo 3, Guildwars 2, Hearthstone, Browsing.

2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
$350, including tax/shipping.

3) Which country do you live in?

US, Kentucky.

4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, etc.
Everything, except keyboard, OS, mouse, and monitor.

5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing?
keyboard, mouse, monitor.

6) Will you be overclocking?
No.

7) What is the max resolution of your monitor? What size is it?
1080p TV.But, I will purchase a LED monitor in the future.

8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
As soon as possible.

9) What features do you need in a motherboard?
Nothing special, but I would like it to have onboard graphics if possible.

10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If yes, what OS? Yes Windows 7 64 bit.

This build is for my brother he was using an emachines ET1331g-05w. We are looking for something that will handle the games mentioned above on or under his budget. We found a build on Reddit http://pcpartpicker.com/p/xyp9Bm we also found a kit on tiger direct that someone said would run those games well. http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=9595636&CatId=31

I looked around and there are a lot of refurbished PC's and I'm not sure if they are really powerful enough for what we want, and not sure I trust the refurb machines.

I've gotten great help here before and am hoping someone can help me out with this build for my brother.

Thanks.
 
Are you sure you can't spare an additional $50? That would make a world of difference in the price to performance of the PC.

Avoid Tigerdirect bundle deals altogether: They're often bundled with really really shitty power supplies that'll end up costing you a lot of money in the long run.

As for the Reddit build, as I sort of alluded to above, while it certainly hits your budget, it's not a good value for the money. The RAM is overpriced, the case doesn't provide any sort of decent cooling for a gaming PC or even office PC, the PSU is less than optimal, etc. Not to mention the potential incompatibilities in the form of the motherboard and CPU.
 
am1 5350. 4 cores > 2. I only did a quick search, but I can't find any benchmarks comparing the graphics between the intel and amd budget line though.. The only reason to buy the g3258 is to OC. If you don't plan to do that, it's silly to go for. the amd processing will be comparable, the same price, but 2 more cores.
 
The budget is a little. Stretched at 350, we could push it to that in a couple of weeks. I Was leery of the reddit post when my brother found it that's why I came here. With the games I mentioned what's the cheapest viable build you can find? I can try to get him to push the budget to $400. But that would take a couple of weeks to make happen.
 
One last detail I have one day of Amazon prime left for free two day shipping. Not sure if that helps with any build suggestions, but it would cut down on shipping if I order before 8am est.
 
My advice is to go to newegg or tiger direst or even Amazon, oh even microcenter and look for some random CPUs and look for the combo deals. I just looked at the 6800k Richland for example and it had the full case with HDD and SSDn 8Gb of ram, case and all for ~$370. Intel unfortunately will cost too much (my god couldn't believe the combos there, hard to penny-pinch) OF COURSE I never advise 2CORES EVER. There were a lot of 2 core Intels cheaper but minimum I recommend is I5.

But seriously there are a lot of AMD CPUS alone that cost ~$45 then look to see if they have a combo deal. They vary but one other thing to consider is for AMD APUs they have an iGPU BUT you will likely want a better GPU for the fun at higher FPS and eye-candy. You can get a lot of GPUs in the $100-$200 range that will be better than the iGPU and allow a cheaper APU/CPU to be used whilst OCing it.
 
Well to be honest unless it is a complete bundle I'd be lost. Could you give me a link to the bundle you found? And would it run the games I listed?
 
OP, do you have an MC or Fry's near you? You really need a nice combo deal on the CPU/ Board to make this work.
 
Small town nothing like that around. i can probably extend the budget to 400, but that will push the build out two- four weeks. Any build suggestions?
 
Zenprophet said:
Small town nothing like that around. i can probably extend the budget to 400, but that will push the build out two- four weeks. Any build suggestions?
Click to expand...

Well, here's the deal. I see you're trying to help your brother out. I enjoy seeing things like this and it warms my heart. So, guess what: i can help your brother out too, if you want.

Here's what i propose: I have an old MSI X58M board that i am/was using for one of my bitcoin mining rigs. It's old, but it still works just fine and is quite durable. You would just need to get a used 920 and you're good to go. I can send that board to you plus an HD7750, for free. The 7750 should cover your GPU needs. I've also got an extra Hyper 212 Evo that i never put into use, as well as a Corsair CX430 that is too small for anything useful to me that i can also send you, for free. Don't worry about shipping, because that would take $$$ from the rest of your build.

Here's where we are at:
CASE: NZXT Source 210 :: $39.99 + 5.99 shipping = $46
PSU: Covered, Corsair CX430
MOBO: Covered, MSI X58M "Might Mouse"
CPU: used i7 920 off Ebay :: $40
HSF: Covered, CoolerMaster Hyper 212 Evo
GPU: Covered, HD7750 (GDDR5 version)
RAM: Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB (2x4GB) :: $77
HDD: Crucial MX100 256GB SSD :: $110

We're looking at a grand total of somewheres around $300 at the max. The only part that you purchase that coudn't really be folded into another build would be the 920.

What do you think? I noticed that you wanted onboard graphics: is there a reason for this?

Edit: Colors! :D
 
Last edited:
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atp1916 said:
Well, here's the deal. I see you're trying to help your brother out. I enjoy seeing things like this and it warms my heart. So, guess what: i can help your brother out too, if you want.

Here's what i propose: I have an old MSI X58M board that i am/was using for one of my bitcoin mining rigs. It's old, but it still works just fine and is quite durable. You would just need to get a used 920 and you're good to go. I can send that board to you plus an HD7750. The 7750 should cover your GPU needs. I've also got an extra Hyper 212 Evo that i never put into use, as well as a Corsair CX430 that is too small for anything useful to me. Don't worry about shipping, because that would take $$$ from the rest of your build.

Here's where we are at:
CASE: NZXT Source 210 :: $39.99 + 5.99 shipping = $46
PSU: Covered
MOBO: Covered
CPU: used i7 920 off Ebay :: $40
GPU: Covered
RAM: Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB (2x4GB) :: $77
HDD: Crucial MX100 256GB SSD :: $110

We're looking at a grand total of somewheres around $300 at the max. The only part that you purchase that coudn't really be folded into another build would be the 920.

What do you think? I noticed that you wanted onboard graphics: is there a reason for this?
Click to expand...

That looks good except: DEFINITELY get a dedicated GPU. iGPU from Intel sucks bad. You could also drop the SSD to a 120GB for just the few games and get a 1Tb HDD. Cost depends on how much Storage you need. I had a 1Tb but all my steam games were coming close to maxing that so I got a 3TB for $109 @ newegg. But over all that build looks good. I am not much for buying used CPUs but you wont find any i7s cheap enuf new, not really i5s less than $150 and that's on a good day.

Edit: If you really have to have iGPU go AMD. That richland 6800k I mentioned earlier can clock well into the 4.0-5.0Ghz range on the CPU and the iGPU is far better than any Intel (careful of the min/avg/max numbers, its the iGPU graphs of FPS that really matter and Intel is agonizingly bad).
 
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Hey atp1916, Thanks!

I've already checked out ebay for the i7 920 and will look for the right seller to buy from. I asked for onboard graphics because my brother has only ever had an out of the box pc and just really trusts onboard graphics as a back up. The onboard graphics isn't a must have, just more of a comfort thing for my brother, but I'm sure once he has a running system he won't care about that.

Thanks again apt this is awesome!
 
No problem. Check your PM.

Your brother will be too busy picking his jaw up off the floor when he sees what a discrete card can do over onboard :p
 
The build is a success!!! My brothers and I got the last part from eBay and got everything installed. It booted up on the first try. Thanks for the help!!
 
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