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Possible computer replacement for brother.

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He currently uses a Dell Vostro 400, which is like 7-8 years old. Hopefully that puts the list of questions in context. I will say that he's disabled so trying to pin down what he does and would like to do with the computer is crazy difficult and seems to change every time I ask.

1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc

He uses it mainly for web browsing as far as I know. I would like to build it with the intention of a video card being added later (not now to keep costs lower, so onboard would be required) if gaming becomes something he'd like to do. I want to say he might use it for video chat as he bought himself a webcam awhile back, but I have no idea how much he may use it.

2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?

Let's say $600 without tax and shipping and not including OS. Something under 800 with OS, tax, shipping...the further below that the better.

3) Which country do you live in? If the U.S, please tell us the state and city if possible.

USA, Ohio

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, Motherboard w onboard video, Ram, CPU, SSD primary drive, Power supply. Cables that may be lacking to connect the stuff. I personally would like to see a decent case since Im going to be putting it together and maintaining it in the future and probably a case with 1-2 front USB jacks since it'd just be simpler for him.

5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.

Maybe the hard drive out of the current machine for a secondary storage drive.

6) Will you be overclocking?

Nope.
7) What is the max resolution of your monitor? What size is it?

It's a 19".....Samsung Syncmaster 931BW. Ideally I'd like to get that replaced in the future with something in the 22-24 range, but it'll have to do for now.

8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?

It'd be in the next week or two. Hoping Amazon has some nice pricing for their anniversary so might wait to buy things until then but would like to get ideas and do research now.

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.

Onboard video, USB 3. Just stuff to future proof it a little that arent going to make it cost a lot more.

10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If yes, what OS? Is it 32bit or 64bit?

Yes, Windows 7 64 bit. However I am not sure if he would benefit from Windows 8 or 10 as I have not used them...so there is the possibility of getting a new OS license to make it easier/better for him going forward. I'm open to hearing about the stuff, but don't want the OS included in the budget set above.

I want to say Intel only just because the possibility of gaming, but again if you have an alternative reason for AMD or whatever to get more bang for the buck I'm interested in hearing it.
 
I looked on the lenovo site, there isnt really a lot of options there that I saw using it's search break downs. And I think this time I'd like to build the computer because I never much cared for the Dell he had. It did it's job, but just hated the case and layout of stuff.


This is kinda what I'm looking at now, though I think the CPU may be overkill or the wrong choice. Havent did a lot of research yet.

The case is decent, however I have some concerns on any cases that have top vents because he is an epileptic and there is always the chance something could get spilled onto the case. I know he takes precautions, and it hasn't happened yet but I'd like to find something LIKE the case below without top vents. If it comes to it can always block them off to get a decent looking / decent laid out case.

Probably need some sata cables and maybe a DVI cable in addition to this. And still looking at a Windows key, home edition will probably be fine, although I don't know if 8.1 will confuse him or not...he's been using Windows 7.

Oh and I BELIEVE the CPU listed comes with heatsink and fan. Would like an opinion on it's usefulness if left at stock, etc. If it needs an aftermarket cooler to be on the safe side, I'd like to consider that now as well. With the CPU listed below or any other alternates.

I think I said it in the original post, but for now Im going for a good computer that has the possibility to be a good/great gaming machine with the addition of a video card in the future.

PC Hound Part List

CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K ($235.99 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: ASUS Z97-A ($144.99 @ NCIX US)
Memory: CORSAIR 8GB (2 x 4GB) Vengeance ($53.99 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: CORSAIR 750W CXM series CX750M ($54.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: SAMSUNG 250GB 850 EVO MZ-75E250B/AM ($97.99 @ Amazon)
Case: Corsair Carbide Series 200R ($49.99 @ TigerDirect)
Optical Drive: LG GH24NSC0B ($12.99 @ Newegg)
Thermal Compound: Arctic Silver AS5-3.5G ($6.89 @ Newegg)
Total: $657.82
Price may include shipping, rebates, promotions, and tax
Generated by PC Hound

Editing to note that I would prefer Amazon probably for buying if that makes any difference. I'm neutral on newegg and don't like tigerdirect to much.
 
Well looks like ordering this PC might happen tonight. So am hoping to get some feedback on the picks to see if there is other options I might not have considered.

Used PC Hound to look it up so hope the compatibility listing on it is accurate at the very least.
 
I'm at work so I can't go full in depth until 8 hours from now but that's a bad setup for the money. Especially the PSU since it's a total piece of shit.
 
As others have mentioned: Get a single 8Gb stick, grab that XFX PSU, stay away from EVO-series :)
If you aren't going to overclock you can save 50 bucks going for the Asus H97M-PLUS without any performance penalties.
//Danne
 
You don't need that motherboard and CPU. I can cut $100 off your build right there:

i5 4590:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116991

Asus B85 motherboard:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...&cm_re=b85_motherboard-_-13-131-991-_-Product

Same performance, same useful features (multiple 16x PCIe slots, 4 SATA 6, 2 USB 3.0), less extra crap.

And get the PSU horrorshow recommended.

You can save an additional $80 going with a Core i3, but that's as low as I would go for a build where you might be doing video and or gaming (I would recommenced this processor over the Core i5):

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819117447

For just a budget build, you could go Haswell Pentium (fantastic for web browsing, office and media consumption, light gaming with discrete gpu). That would save you $65 over the Core i3, but it's not a good platform if you want to play high-end games:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116950
 
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Avoid the B85 board, spend the extra 20$ for Intel LAN, better sound and beefier CPU electrical circuits.
There's no point going below i3 in the long run.
//Danne
 
Ok PSU swapped to recommended. Processor changed to recommended i3. Went ahead and got 16gb (2x8gb) because just getting a single 8 seemed kinda meh.

Uhhh I looked at the various motherboards, picked the one in my list below because I liked the layout a bit better, but am willing to hear why it sucks.

Not sure what you mean by stay away from EVO series diizzy, they seem to be well rated and pretty popular.

There's some extra stuff in the list versus original posted like a couple mice and a windows 8.1 key. But it shaved like 125-150 off the price with the changes I made.

Any other suggestions?

And I might need to get sata cables, didnt check if the motherboards come with em anymore or not. Any opinions on stock cooler for the processor? Just want to make sure I got everything covered so Im not putting it together and find out I forgot something.


And I really appreciate the replies guys, very helpful.

PC Hound Part List

CPU: Intel Core i3-4160 ($109.99 @ NCIX US)
Motherboard: ASUS H97-PRO GAMER ($107.98 @ Newegg)
Memory: CORSAIR 16GB (2 x 8GB) Vengeance Pro ($93.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: XFX 650W TS Series P1-650G-TS3X ($54.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: SAMSUNG 250GB 850 EVO MZ-75E250B/AM ($97.99 @ Amazon)
Case: Corsair Carbide Series 200R ($49.99 @ TigerDirect)
Windows: Microsoft Windows 8.1 - Full Version (32 & 64-bit) ($89.99 @ NCIX US)
Mouse: GIGABYTE M6800 ($13.98 @ Newegg)
Mouse #2: Logitech G502 ($59.46 @ Amazon)
Optical Drive: LG GH24NSC0B ($12.99 @ Newegg)
Thermal Compound: Arctic Silver AS5-3.5G ($6.89 @ Newegg)
Total: $698.24
Price may include shipping, rebates, promotions, and tax
Generated by PC Hound
 
Looks good man. I'm not a fan of spending 60 bucks on a gaming mouse, but to each his own.
 
Why are you getting thermal compound if you are not getting a HSF? Just curious.
 
Added it so I wouldnt forget later if I needed it, plus I ran out awhile back.
 
I'm going to show him some mice, his current one is a wireless logitech revolution mx whatever the number is. 100 or 1000. And has messed up clicker from getting dropped or something during one of his seizures. So cheaper mouse might be better.

Im mainly looking to get something that's a upper midrange build that can have a video card added later if he decides he wants it. And something that ain't going to give me a bunch of hardware quirks which is why Im avoiding the AsRock since it seems kinda mixed bag on those for some...with some features not working quite right etc.
 
If you want it to be "upper-midrange", then I would drop the expensive mouse and 16gb of ram. Pull back to a single 8gb stick and put the difference into an i5 4590.

Popping in another stick of ram later is so easy its ridiculous....

(It's what I would do, if that helps you heh)
 
Going to buy it as is, cept going to buy that cheaper mouse you showed along with the cheaper one in the list since I need to replace two mice and he'll just pick which one he likes more.

I think it'll do what he needs. My one concern is games going multi-threaded heavily, which I doubt will happen very quickly assuming he decides to game on the machine. His ideas for what he wants beyond a browse the web and chat online machine changes fairly often.
 
Ditch the Corsair 200R case. It doesn't have free shipping from Tigerdirect, is only $50 + shipping if that MIR goes through, and its cheapest confirmed shipped price is $67. That's a poor price since you can get the better cooling and more up-to-date Corsair 230T from Amazon.com:
$70 - Corsair Graphite Series 230T Black w/ Window ATX Case

Ditch the AS5. It's a bit outdated these days since you can now get the Arctic MX-4 which provides similar if not better levels of cooling but doesn't require any sort of curing time like the AS5.

The motherboard you chose appears to be a solid motherboard from the initial reviews. It does come with four SATA cables so no real need to buy any more SATA cables.

As for the CPU cooler, the stock CPU cooler is usually more than enough. However, if you want something that's relatively quiet and/or your part of Ohio gets ridiculously hot during the summer, a 3rd party HSF would be a good idea.
$31 - Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo HSF

As for the CPU and RAM, honestly, from a long-term standpoint, best go with a Core i5 CPU now even if means only 8GB of RAM. Considering that he kept his last system for 7 to 8 years, going heavy on the CPU up-front is the better course of action. Especially nowadays since pretty much whatever CPU you get is the CPU you're more than likely going to be stuck with for the lifetime of the PC.
 
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Thanks everyone for the advice. It's ordered.

Changed up case to Dangman's suggestion since didnt want to deal with tigerdirect and got MX4 instead of AS.

Didn't get an aftermarket cooler for now since didnt want to research it fitting the motherboard/case etc.

And ended up going with the i3.

765ish with taxes and everything figured in. Yaaay Amazon collecting tax now.

Again, thanks for replying.
 
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