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Budget Build -- How Does This Look?

P

PenaltyShot

Gawd
Joined
Sep 4, 2002
Messages
964
I'm looking to build a reasonably powerful PC for a family member who primarily does web browsing, some light photo and video editing, some casual gaming, some music stuff like Guitar Tracks Pro, and office productivity apps. I'm trying to keep it under $700.

How does this config look?

Motherboard: GIGABYTE GA-MA785GM-US2H
CPU: Phenom II X4 965
Memory: 2 X 2GB Kingston HyperX T1 Series
Case: Apex MJ-16
Power Supply: DiabloTek PHD380M. (I've never heard of DiabloTek. Good choice?)
Boot Hard Disk: Crucial RealSSD C300 64GB

Plus a $20 DVD burner, and their existing USB keyboard, mouse, monitor, etc.
Running Windows 7 Home Premium.

-------------------------
If you need these stock questions answered, here they are:

1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
Answered above.
2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
Answered above, under $700 including tax.
3) Where do you live?
Colorado
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.
The parts listed above.
5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
Keyboard, mouse, monitor, secondary internal hard disk.
6) Will you be overclocking?
No.
7) What size monitor do you have and/or plan to have?
Have a 17"
8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
ASAP
9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? USB 3.0? SATA 6Gb/s? etc.
None of the above.
10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If yes, what OS? Is it 32bit or 64bit?
Windows XP; upgrading to Windows 7 Home Premium (purchasing the upgrade software)
 
Personally I would go ahead and get a motherboard that supports DDR3. The RAM for DDR3 has fallen in price quite a bit and is as cheap or cheaper than DDR2.

I would go with one of these motherboards.(One has more features than the other, so that is up to you)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131672
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131406

RAM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231277
or
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231180
 
That's a pretty crappy setup for the money for various reasons:
- Shitty PSU
- Outdated motherboard
- Overpriced RAM

Here's a better setup for the money:
$145 - AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition CPU
$88 - Biostar TA880GB+ AMD 880G mATX Motherboard + Patriot PSD34G1333K 2 x 2GB DDR3 1333 RAM Combo
$145 - Crucial RealSSD C300 CTFDDAC064MAG-1G1 2.5" 64GB SSD
$59 - Antec NEO ECO 520C 520W PSU
$50 - Cooler Master Elite 341 RC-341C-KKN1-GP mATX Tower Case
---
Total: $487 plus tax and shipping

Key advantages over your planned setup:
- Better case
- Better PSU. Yes it's a tad overkill but considering the price of the cheapest PSU that I can recommend, I think the extra $14 is well worth it for the extra headroom for future upgrades and better efficiency.
- Cheaper RAM and room to upgrade to more DDR3 RAM in the future
- Onboard video is slightly faster

Now if your definition of casual gaming involves actual 3D games like SC2 and such, then I recommend adding this video card to the above build and you'll be set:
$115 - EVGA 01G-P3-1450-TR GeForce GTS 450 1GB PCI-E Video Card
 
PenaltyShot,

I agree with Danny's substitutions. You see, that Apex case you originally chose cannot accommodate a regular ATX power supply at all -- and thus, you would have been limited to PSUs that are either downright shitty or have piss-poor performance-to-price ratios. Plus, it has only a single 60mm (that's right, 60mm, not even 80mm) fan for exhaust. And that DiabloTek PSU you chose has no UL number printed on its label at all whatsoever, which usually means that it is likely really shitty to begin with. The Cooler Master microATX case Danny suggested can accommodate a regular ATX PSU, thus giving you a much, much wider choice in PSUs.

And building a DDR2 system nowadays is foolish unless you already have a sufficient amount of spare DDR2 memory already in your possession: Right now, the cheapest DDR2 memory modules now costs more money per GB than many of the slightly-higher-than-standard performance DDR3 memory modules. Plus, prices on DDR2 memory will continue to rise to potentially astronomical price levels due to the fact that hardly any new systems use this type of RAM any more.
 
Last edited:
Hey, THANKS, guys.

Danny, your suggestions look great. I have to admit that I have never really priced budget items before (I buy higher-end stuff for myself), and I put together my initial list on a lunch break without my usual level of research. I guess in retrospect I shouldn't have been too surprised to hear descriptions of "shitty" and "crappy," then!

Anyway, you saved me a ton of time, and actually some money too. Awesome. Thanks again.
 
If the person you are building for is not concerned with the size of the case I would go for the Cooler Master HAF 912 personally. It only cost $10 more. Then again I am not really familiar with the case he posted above, so it may be good as well. I am just merely suggesting that you throw the 912 into your comparison. This is a pretty good size case though and that may bother some people. It makes it a lot nicer for the builder though. :)
 
One more question: Judging by some of the reviews of the Phenom Black, the stock cooler is loud. What would be the best, EASY TO INSTALL aftermarket HSF for this CPU? It just needs be nothing special, no overclocking will be done, but it does need to be quiet.
 
PenaltyShot said:
One more question: Judging by some of the reviews of the Phenom Black, the stock cooler is loud. What would be the best, EASY TO INSTALL aftermarket HSF for this CPU? It just needs be nothing special, no overclocking will be done, but it does need to be quiet.
Click to expand...

At this point you'd need a monstrously large cooler. This is because aftermarket coolers the same size as the stock AMD cooler are as loud as, if not louder than, the stock cooler - and still do not cool sufficiently better than stock cooling to justify spending the money on. In other words, those smaller aftermarket coolers are definitely not worth anywhere near the prices that they are currently selling for.
 
That's what I was afraid of, E4g1e. Couldn't find the right balance of small size / quiet / low profile / won't block other stuff / actually cools the CPU enough. Nothing seemed to fit all the criteria. Oh well.
 
PenaltyShot said:
That's what I was afraid of, E4g1e. Couldn't find the right balance of small size / quiet / low profile / won't block other stuff / actually cools the CPU enough. Nothing seemed to fit all the criteria. Oh well.
Click to expand...

The case I recommended can fit this HSF:
$30 - Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus HSF for LGA 1366 and LGA 1156

Not small and it's a tight fit which requires you to ditch any possibility of attaching a side fan to the case but it does fit and it is relatively quiet.
 
That monstrosity fits into that microATX case?

OK, it might work, but here's what I never like about stuff like this:

* Installation is a pain in the butt (a "torment," one reviewer called it). I hate these HSFs that make you feel like you're going to break something in order to just get the damn thing in.

* Installation instructions suck. Usually very poorly translated from some Asian language.

* Requires you to sacrifice RAM slots or take off some other useful thing like a side case fan in order to acommodate it.

I dunno.
 
Then you're never getting a 3rd party HSF. No matter what HSF you get, there's always gonna be those few people who have trouble with that HSF, whether due to incompetancy, lack of experience or lack of knowledge.

For example, the sacrificing RAM slot comment: Unless you're using stupidly tall RAM, the average RAM sticks as well as RAM slots will not be blocked by that HSF short of a pisspoor placement of the RAM slots. As for the side fan, it's not all that useful considering that it's sole job is to cool the CPU area. However if there's already a good HSF in place, no reason for that side fan unless you're some kind of worrywort.

As for the installation being a pain in the butt. Again that's actually more relative to the user's experience, skill, and understanding of HSFs. What's a PITA for some is actually easy for someone else.
 
Whoa whoa, wasn't going for any sort of elitism man. I wasn't referring to you dude. I was referring to the user reviews you posted. If you read the post again, not once did I refer to your capability or experience. Like I said, "there's always gonna be those few people who have trouble with that HSF". The user reviews you quoted reflects those few people who I'm talking about.

I apologize if my post sounded "elistist" or disparaging to you.
 
Alright, sorry. Thought you were directing that to me, and those kinds of comments just tick me off.

I beg to differ with you, though, on your use of the word "few." I'm reading the hundreds of reviews of this thing (and not only that one, of most other HSFs too), and it sure doesn't look like just a "few" people think installation is a pain in the butt. Looks like MOST people to me.

The ones who say, "Oh, this was a breeze to install" are either (a) lying in order to make themselves look l33t -- that's the most likely answer in most cases, (b) have installed that particular HSF many times before and have gotten it down by now and therefore don't represent the first-time potential buyer, or (c) are just unusually lucky / gifted with HSF installation, and as such truly define the word "few."
 
The fact is, most of the large HSFs must be screwed (bolted) into the motherboard when installing. This means that often the motherboard must be removed entirely from the case before the installation of the CPU HSF.

And not all stock HSFs or cheap small HSFs are as easy to install as it looks: The stock HSFs from both Intel and AMD look easy to install - but locking the locks properly takes at least a good amount of thumb and/or finger strength to do so; otherwise, the HSF will just pop off of the CPU during use.
 
Meh.

Dunno what to tell you man. Most of the good cooling HSF I've seen use a similar mounting system if not worse. The only real easy to install HSF is actually the stock AMD HSF and those that uses a similar mounting system. But the ones that uses that same mounting system may not be quiet or good cooling.
 
PenaltyShot said:
No problem. I ended up buying the thing anyway. Wish me luck. :cool:
Click to expand...

Since this is a complete new build anyway, it is easier if you install the HSF onto the CPU and motherboard before you install the motherboard into the case. The ones who claim to have trouble with the installation of that HSF tried to do it with the mobo still inside the case.
 
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