building a home desktop, a few quick questions

Dome · Oct 1, 2014

So it's been roughly 10 years since i've built my own pc; i've mostly been using laptops in the mean time. i figure it'd be nice for me to build a nice, simple pc for home use. word, excel, diablo 3, nothing too strenuous or creative. no video editing, no overclocking, mostly home office use and the occasional video game. my budget is open, but if i could get everything for under $800 i'd be thrilled. let's call $1000 the ceiling. (including all peripherals except speakers) hopefully my old klipsch speakers still work.

as i get started shopping (mostly newegg) i realize i have no idea where to begin filtering results for balance b/w quality and cost. i've completely lost touch with hardware and PC knowledge, so where's a good place to start? i'm not interested in mincing details or spending hours nitpicking between products; i tend to get lost easily in details and was hoping for a resource of way of shopping that will let me just focus getting a good deal.

i appreciate any tips for cutting down my time spent researching.

Deleted member 88227 · Oct 1, 2014

While most of the questions are answered, not all of them so here is a good place to start.

http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1349433

wtourist · Oct 1, 2014

J Macker · Oct 1, 2014

wtourist said:
What games at what resolution?
Pick your video card and operating system, monitor, than look at remaining budget.

He said Diablo 3. And "occasional"

So, for general office home use, with light D3 gaming, I'd strongly recommend dual 23" LCDs, or a single 27" LCD with 2560x1440 resolution. For a max $1000 budget (assuming you're going to purchase LCDs), that leaves about $700 for the actual computer, including keyboard & mouse.

Budget $30 for a cheap keyboard & mouse (you pick, but I recommend this $10 mouse)
Windows 7, $40 from this guy,
Now we're down to $630 remaining.

I'd suggest getting a 256GB ssd for $85, and going without a large mechanical drive because the budget is tight.

$70 for ram

$480 remaining,

if you get a lower power video card, then a CX430w psu for $13 after rebate & VISACHECKOUT code (only thing that beats this value is the XFX core 550w psus that go on sale for $26 after rebate.

or, a safe bet is the Rosewill Capstone 550w for $60

$50 corsair graphite 230T

$370 remaining... now we're down to the nitty gritty details of cpu, mobo & video card.
The best performance per dollar is going to be purchasing used. If you don't want to buy used, you won't have nough money for an i5.

A used 2500k or 3570k sells for about $140-$160 on ebay or the FS/FT section. But, I know you said no overclock, so a non-K cpu either new or used, is going to cost around $130 for a used one, or $190 for a new one.

There are some risks to buying used motherboards (damaged sockets), so I'd recommend getting a new motherboard (unless you have a Microcenter where you can buy a cpu/motherboard combo on sale).

So, for $370,
used core i5 3470 for $130 (ebay)
new motherboard $76
and that leaves $165 for a used Radeon 280x.

Dome · Oct 2, 2014

thanks for your help, guys. i'll take a gander through all this. not interested in buying used, but i'm gonna put this info to use.

building a home desktop, a few quick questions

Dome

2[H]4U

Deleted member 88227

Guest

wtourist

[H]ard|Gawd

J Macker

[H]F Junkie

Dome

2[H]4U