Budget Mini-ITX Build

[Tunnel Vision]

Hey guys, I'm looking to build a new PC for my mother. Her current PC is an Athlon 64 3200, 2GB DDR, and a Geforce 6600...so a new pc will be a huge upgrade. I'm looking to build the PC in a small form factor.

1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
She will be using this PC for web browsing, email, using MS office, turbotax, and light gaming. The only games she will play are Diablo 3 and Plants vs Zombies.
2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
$600 or less if preferred. Tax and shipping not included.
3) Which country do you live in? If the U.S, please tell us the state and city if possible.
U.S.
4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, etc.
Case, CPU, Motherboard, RAM, Optical drive, hard drive, power supply, and operating system.
5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing?
She is reusing her monitor (1600x900), keyboard, mouse, and speakers.
6) Will you be overclocking?
No
7) What is the max resolution of your monitor? What size is it?
Currently 1600x900 (19') but she may upgrade to a 22' (1680x1050) in a couple years.
8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
I play on buying this PC for her in January.
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.
I'd prefer to have USB 3.0 and SATA 6Gb/s support. This pc will not be used intensively so many features are not required.
10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license?
No, Windows 8 will be purchased with the PC.

The current build I came up with last night looked like this:
Case: BitFenix Prodigy 79.99
CPU: AMD A10-6800K Richland 4.1GHz FM2 - Black Edition 139.99
Motherboard: ASRock FM2A88X-ITX 99.99
Memory: G.SKILL Ares Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3 1600 52.99
HDD: WD Green 1TB 67.25
ODD: LiteOn DVD Burner 14.99
PSU: Thermaltake SMART Series 550W 59.99
OS: Win 8.1 64bit OEM 99.99
Total: 615.18

She will only be doing light gaming so I figured a graphics card is not necessary. With the tight budget, is AMD or Intel the better cpu choice? I've only built Intel rigs the past few years so I am not as familiar with AMD setups. The BitFenix case is large enough that she will not have it sitting on top of her desk. If she were to want something smaller, what case and power supply would you guys recommend?

 

[Scionyde]

Hey look at that, I posted something similar on this sub-forum not too long ago - I'm trying to plan an APU build for my Dad in a microATX case. xD

Since I'm also asking for advice, I'm hardly an expert. But since I've been looking into similar stuff, here are my thoughts. (Somebody correct me if I'm wrong ^^)

-APUs benefit from faster RAM speeds in games, so if you ever find room in your budget (cheaper case, maybe?) you could possibly go for 1866 or 2133 MHz.
-I'm not sure where you're able to buy from but from what I've seen from a couple online vendors, you could get a Caviar Blue 1TB HDD for a little cheaper. Plus, the Caviar Blue is 7200 rpm, so it'll be faster than Caviar Green at 5400 RPM
-If you're planning to do this build in January, I think people were saying that AMD was releasing their new Kaveri APUs right around then. It'll use the same socket, so you could potentially order everything else except for the APU while waiting.

 

[Lowebrow]

I'm a little green when it comes to builds but I like trying and I love a challenge

CPU: Intel Core i3-4330 3.5GHz Dual-Core Processor ($139.99)
Motherboard: MSI H81I Mini ITX LGA1150 Motherboard ($66.15)
RAM: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($57.99)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($59.98
Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 650 Ti 2GB Video Card ($132.98)
Case: Cooler Master Elite 120 Advanced (Black) Mini ITX Tower Case ($35.99)
PSU: Corsair CX 430W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($29.99)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-04 DVD/CD Writer ($14.99)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 - OEM (64-bit) ($94.99)

Total: $615.05

I know it relies a bit on MIR and one should only count on those when the check is in your hand. But overall I think this would be a solid performer for a budget system. I would love feedback.

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/2klcw

 

[Dangman]

8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
I play on buying this PC for her in January.

You're planning this build way too early. Our parts recommendations tend to change weekly and sometimes even daily due to parts becoming overpriced, out of stock, outdated, or outperformed over time. So if you want up-to-date advice, please bump up this thread in January. Especially if AMD's Kaveri are any good.

With that said, you do have parts in your list that would not make sense even if you bought them today:

HDD: WD Green 1TB 67.25

Extremely overpriced for what it is. As Scionyde and Lowebrow have pointed out, you can find fasterhard drives for around the same price as that WD Green drive. Since the HDD is the main bottleneck in the performance of a PC, you should be aiming for a fast a drive as possible.

PSU: Thermaltake SMART Series 550W 59.99

Generally, only TT's Toughpower PSUs are any good. The rest seems to be mediocre at best to pretty damn shitty at worst. Plus, for a mITX setup, you want to try to get either a modular PSU or a non-modular PSU with only the connections you'll actually end up using.

If she were to want something smaller, what case and power supply would you guys recommend?

Silverstone SG05.

Since I'm also asking for advice, I'm hardly an expert. But since I've been looking into similar stuff, here are my thoughts. (Somebody correct me if I'm wrong ^^)

-APUs benefit from faster RAM speeds in games, so if you ever find room in your budget (cheaper case, maybe?) you could possibly go for 1866 or 2133 MHz.
-I'm not sure where you're able to buy from but from what I've seen from a couple online vendors, you could get a Caviar Blue 1TB HDD for a little cheaper. Plus, the Caviar Blue is 7200 rpm, so it'll be faster than Caviar Green at 5400 RPM
-If you're planning to do this build in January, I think people were saying that AMD was releasing their new Kaveri APUs right around then. It'll use the same socket, so you could potentially order everything else except for the APU while waiting.

You are indeed correct on all points.

I'm a little green when it comes to builds but I like trying and I love a challenge

CPU: Intel Core i3-4330 3.5GHz Dual-Core Processor ($139.99)
Motherboard: MSI H81I Mini ITX LGA1150 Motherboard ($66.15)
RAM: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($57.99)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($59.98
Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 650 Ti 2GB Video Card ($132.98)
Case: Cooler Master Elite 120 Advanced (Black) Mini ITX Tower Case ($35.99)
PSU: Corsair CX 430W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($29.99)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-04 DVD/CD Writer ($14.99)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 - OEM (64-bit) ($94.99)

Total: $615.05

I know it relies a bit on MIR and one should only count on those when the check is in your hand. But overall I think this would be a solid performer for a budget system. I would love feedback.

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/2klcw

The biggest issue with that PC is its reliance on MIR. Honestly, that's almost like lying to the person you're trying to help IMO. The second issue is that the video card and CPU are overpriced for the performance they offer. The Core i3 4130 is $20 less and only 100Mhz slower than the Core i3 4330. As for the video card, the HD 7790 is faster than the GTX 650 TI for the most part and is $10 to $13 cheaper.

With that said, once you swap out the CPU and GPU, it's not bad.