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Budget desktop PC for basic stuff & graphics work

L

LateraLex

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jan 14, 2008
Messages
391
Hi, my wife works in a very small sign shop and has pretty awful computers. I think her main PC is due for an upgrade and if it could be done for around $400 that would be excellent. The current machine is running Vista and is just all around bad, so we don't need a powerhouse to be a huge upgrade.

1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc Mainly Corel Draw X5, Outlook, light photoshop work
2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included? $400-$500 with tax + shipping included
3) Which country do you live in? If the U.S, please tell us the state and city if possible. Boston area, near a Microcenter
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. Case, mobo, powersupply, CPU, RAM, video card, DVD-R drive
5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model. Have a monitor (20" I think), a copy of Windows 7, and a keyboard + mouse
6) Will you be overclocking? No
7) What is the max resolution of your monitor? What size is it? Probably 1920, about 20". Would like support for 2 monitors (of about that same size). Monitors not part of this budget, but would take a recommendation on an inexpensive one!
8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC? Within next 2-4 weeks
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. Nothing special comes to mind. The total company storage of work files is about 200gb. We have an external drive for backup, but might put them all on this new machine for speed reasons
10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If yes, what OS? Is it 32bit or 64bit? Yes, Win 7 64 bit

THANKS!
 
About 20 minutes, so not bad but delivery is better if the costs are really close
 
For some reason, Microcenter is blocked here at the office I'm at so I won't be able to provide a build list till late.

With that said, do you mind at all being the tech support for your wife's business? I ask because for not that much more, you might be better off getting a PC from Dell Business. They do have 3 year next day support available. Which means that they'll actually come out to her business and fix the PC right there.
 
If it is pretty close in price, the added support would be good. It is basically her and my father in laws business so they are always trying to keep costs down. My only fear of buying a prebuilt is that they seem to have Windows 8 now... which is not what they would want.
 
Unfortunately I don't know those programs. I would assume an i5 system would be preferred.

I was just doing this with a customer. Dell does have options for Win7 still. But I don't think they will be in your requested budget. The onsite support can't really be beat though. (I'm not saying it's the best but just being able to have someone out next day is hard to beat)

http://www.dell.com/us/business/p/featured-deals.aspx?c=us&cs=04&l=en&s=bsd&~ck=mn

If the prebuilt options dont suite your needs, you can call/chat them to see what they can do to meet your needs. I did this for a customer just to see what they could offer. They will likely tell you 'we don't normally do this but...". They should be able to give you an idea at least.

If you or someone can provide support, it may be worth it to build something off the FS section here.

outlaw
 
I think I'd rather skip the Dell option as it is really unlikely they would ever use it. Can anyone recommend a parts list or prebuilt that would be under $500 with shipping (or local pickup)? Same requirements as above. They need dual output to VGA monitors, but am guessing I could just get adapters if most outputs are DVI now...
 
LateraLex said:
I think I'd rather skip the Dell option as it is really unlikely they would ever use it. Can anyone recommend a parts list or prebuilt that would be under $500 with shipping (or local pickup)? Same requirements as above. They need dual output to VGA monitors, but am guessing I could just get adapters if most outputs are DVI now...
Click to expand...

At $530 including an Intel quad-core AND a copy of WIndows 7 Pro, I don't think a better DIY system can be built without cuts to performance or quality.
 
Dangman said:
At $530 including an Intel quad-core AND a copy of WIndows 7 Pro, I don't think a better DIY system can be built without cuts to performance or quality.
Click to expand...

Fair enough. I didn't see dual outputs for VGA or DVI - am I missing it somewhere? I was hoping to get a look at the back of the tower to see what was there, but they only have a single photo of the front.
 
Shit, you have a point. It has VGA and HDMI only. Are you sure that monitors don't have HDMI?
 
Almost positive without looking... they are really old.

Edit: chatting with Dell now... looks like you can run a second VGA with the HDMI splitter cable!
 
I think the Dell agent is an idiot. After 20 minutes I get the sense that they don't know what they are talking about, and are going to get me to clone the same desktop onto 2 monitors using a splitter... I was under the impression that you need a video card that can handle two different outputs. So the Dell has a single VGA and a single HDMI. I have no idea if I could use both at the same time.
 
Ok, so all I need is a single HMDI to a VGA cable... nice. They sell one for a crisp $38. I'm sure I can get one for <$10
 
LateraLex said:
Ok, so all I need is a single HMDI to a VGA cable... nice. They sell one for a crisp $38. I'm sure I can get one for <$10
Click to expand...
Yup. Though if you can't find one for $10, rather than get that $38 adapter, it's cheaper to get the $30 HD 5450 video card and get dual VGA that way.
 
If there's anyone I love to prove wrong, it sure is myself....I recommend going for this DIY setup over that Dell since you're not going take advantage of the next day business support and assuming that your Windows 7 key is reusable:
$265 - Intel Core i5-4670K CPU + MSI Z87-G41 PC MATE Intel Z87 ATX Motherboard In-Store MicrocenterCombo
$55 - Corsair CMV8GX3M1A1600C11 8GB DDR3 1600 RAM
$65 - Western Digital Blue WD10EZEX 1TB 7200RPM SATA 6.0Gb/s Hard Drive
$21 - LG GH24NS95B DVD Burner
$40 - Corsair 430CX V2 430W PSU
$43 - NZXT Source 210 Elite Black ATX Case
-----
Total: $489 shipped

BUY THAT RAM RIGHT NOW!

That's the lowest 8GB of DDR3 RAM has been in the past 3 months. The above setup gets you a slightly faster CPU and onboard video that's actually faster than the HD 5450 I recommended earlier. Also, double the RAM and double the storage space.
 
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