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Help with build for friend

M

mMike01

Weaksauce
Joined
Dec 1, 2008
Messages
110
1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? tc.
internet, family pictures/video, some gaming, movies.
2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
$1000.00 including tax and shipping.
3) Where do you live?
Pennsylvania
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.
22" LCD, mouse and keyboard.
5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
6) Will you be overclocking?
No
7) What size monitor do you have and/or plan to have?
22" LCD
8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
Purchasing withing the next 2 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? etc.
Nothing special
10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If yes, what OS? Is it 32bit or 64bit?
No.

My friend asked me to build him a new pc. Said he wanted something that can do some gaming as well as regular pc tasks.
He also wanted to be able to hook it up to his HDTV via HDMI. Here is the build so far, it is a little over his budget not
including shipping. I included 3% sales tax in the parts I have him get from the microcenter in New Jersey (3% sales tax
in that area). If we could bring it below 1000 that would be great. I'm not sure of the gfx card I should get, I know I need
something to do some modern gaming and has to have a HDMI port that can handle audio as well. I also originally wanted the 1TB
Samsung Spinpoint HD, but it is currently out of stock. Not sure how often that gets replenished.

Processor: Intel I5 2500K (Microcenter) - 185.40
MB: Gigabyte GA-P67A-UD3-B3 LGA 1155 P67 ATX Motherboard (Microcenter) - 128.74
Memory: GSKill Ripjaw 4 gb kit - 49.99
SSD: Mushkin Enhanced Callisto Deluxe MKNSSDCL120GB-DX 2.5" 120GB SATA II MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) - 224.99
HD: WD Black 640gb - 69.99
GFX: Powercolor AX6850 - 169.99
DVD: DVD burner - 19.99
Case: COOLER MASTER Storm Scout SGC-2000-KKN1-GP Black Steel / Plastic ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - 79.99 (subtract 10 w/ promo)
PSU: CORSAIR CMPSU-750TX 750W ATX12V - 109.99
OS: Windows 7 (student discount copy off MS.com) - 29.99

Total: $1059.06

Any suggestions welcome, thanks in advance.
 
Pick up the Samsung F3 1TB drive from Amazon.com:
$60 - Samsung Spinpoint F3 HD103SJ 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive

SSD wise, That Mushkin SSD is based on the Sandforce SF-1200 SSD design. As such, its real world performance is significantly lower than what's stated and many other SSDs. Thus, I recommend picking up the significantly faster Crucial C300 or C400 SSDs for $25 more.

RAM wise, you'll be fine with this RAM set as DDR3 1600 doesn't provide any noticeable real world performance increase:
$41 - G.Skill Ripjaw Series F3-10666CL9S-4GBRL 4GB DDR3 1333 RAM
 
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Thanks for the advice, will change build accordingly.

How do you feel about the graphics card? I'm really not sure whats good or good bang for buck cards on the ATI side.
 
mMike01 said:
How do you feel about the graphics card? I'm really not sure whats good or good bang for buck cards on the ATI side.
Click to expand...
What resolution is that monitor? If it's 1680x1050, then the HD 6850 should be ok for that resolution. And yes that HD 6850 1GB is one of the bang for the buck GPUs in that price range.
 
Last edited:
mMike01 said:
6) Will you be overclocking?
No

Processor: Intel I5 2500K (Microcenter) - 185.40
Click to expand...

One dumb question. If you're not overclocking, why are you spending the extra $20-30 for a K-class processor?
 
Chas said:
One dumb question. If you're not overclocking, why are you spending the extra $20-30 for a K-class processor?
Click to expand...

Actually, at Micro Center, the next-lower CPU they carry is the i5-2400. They do not carry the plain i5-2500. The i5-2400 is clocked 200MHz lower than the i5-2500(K) yet costs only $30 less. Besides, ordering a plain i5-2500 from somewhere else would have cost the OP more money than the MC price for the i5-2500K even after sales tax.
 
Last edited:
tonytnnt said:
If you need to get below $1000, and since you're not overclocking, ditch the 2500k and get the Core i5-2400 for $150 (before taxes) at Microcenter. Also get the MSI H67MA-E45-B3 motherboard instead for $110. This will shave $46 off the budget with negligible performance decrease. By also following Danny's advice on the RAM and HDD you'll be below budget.
Click to expand...

This. Not-so-good choices in other components would affect performance equally as much as, if not more than, dropping the CPU to the next lower step.
 
If you don't want to give up the CPU speed you could still get the 2500k but save $15 getting the MSI H67 motherboard I referenced above and then get a 64GB SSD. You won't lose any speed that way.
 
Thanks for the advice all, I'm pretty sure he won't mind going over 1k for the build. If he does I will take the other advice, but for now if everything originally is fine plus Danny's changes I will go w/ that.

Just one question, for the Crucial C300 SSDs on newegg, there are 3 that seem the same, 2 are sold out with this one: Crucial RealSSD C300 CTFDDAC128MAG-1G1CCA 2.5" 128GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) available. The price seems to be the one that was referred to. Is there any big difference between the 3?
 
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