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Sub-$400 barebones?

B

bustaplz

Limp Gawd
Joined
Oct 26, 2007
Messages
130
First, a list of the systems in question:

Mom's machine:
Intel DG33TL (tired of this mATX mobo)
Intel Core Duo E2200 (pretty nice little chip)
3GB G.Skill DDR2-800
Vista x86 HP (EWW)
2x Samsung 22" @ 16x10 (a christmas gift from me)

Dad/Sister's machine:
GIGABYTE GA-P35-DS3L (been a very solid board)
Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 (easy OC)
4GB G.Skill DDR2-800
Sapphire HD4870 (my old card, great performer)
W7 x64 HP (I forced this upgrade)
BenQ 24" @ 1920x1200
XCLIO 500W PSU

My mom's machine is mainly her work/home office PC, recently she has taken to playing some games after my sister made her play through Portal. The onboard graphics barely handle Portal and I have a HD4650 that I picked up because I couldn't find a low-pro card that was any better and the price was great. Long story short, the mobo doesn't like the card so I can't help her out there. The dual monitors don't help that little onboard chip out much and she sometimes see lag just watching a hi res youtube video.

My Dad's machine might as well be my little sister's. She is the main user these days, plays a LOT of games and spends quite a bit of time in Photoshop. It runs well for this right now, no complaints.

Money is tight for me right now as I am very recently unemployed, so I have to alter my previous plan to upgrade my sister to a i7/5870 system via the hand-me-down method. ;) Now I am looking at something like:

Intel Core i5-750
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115215
$195

GIGABYTE GA-P55-USB3
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128425
$120

G.SKILL DDR3-1333 2x2GB
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231180
$90

TOTAL: $405

This doesn't include a CPU heatsink(I haven't been impressed with the stock coolers from the E2200, E6600, Q6600 or my i7-930) and I certainly would OC the i5 a good bit.

Add on $100 for W7 x64 HP for my mom's machine because I really don't like Vista and her system would look like this:

GA-P35-DS3L
Q6600
Zalman CNPS-9500
G.SKILL DDR2-800 2x2GB
HD4650
W7 x64 HP
Zalman CNPS-9500
A pretty decent little machine in my eyes, maybe a bit overkill for light gaming, but with hardware that I have had in service for years with no issues and an upgrade from Vista to 7 and a dedicated video card. I also wouldn't have to deal with that silly mATX case!

And my sister is left with:
GA-P55-USB3
i5-750 (think moderate OC)
G.SKILL DDR3-1333 2x2GB
Sapphire HD4870
XCLIO 500W PSU


Now this leaves me with three pieces of hardware not accounted for.

ATX PSU for one of the machines.
Simple, inexpensive ATX case.
CPU cooler for the 1156 socket.

Before I left my job, I was planning an upgrade to a 5970 or two Fermi cards and a 3x1 monitor setup. Obviously I need to scrap that for the moment, but if I go through with a similar upgrade in the future, I would likely hand my 5870 down to my sister and in turn the 4870 to my mom.

Anyone reading this far will likely recognize my complete omittance of AMD processors and an overflow of AMD/ATI graphics cards. In mid-2007 I upgraded from a very dated Athlon XP 3000+ to a C2DE6600+GF8800GTS and was so impressed by the E6600 that I haven't even considered switching back. Adding a 4870 to that E6600 a couple years back was the same story.

I've had no experience with the Phenom stuff, but for my mom's machine I would consider possibly just upgrading her machine to an AMD quad core if the price is VERY right.

Thanks for reading my novella of a post and thank you very much for some insight.
 
If you want to spend as little money as possible, it's better to go with an AMD-based system:

$225 - AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition & G.Skill 2x2GB DDR3 1600 combo
$190 - Asus M4A87TD/USB3 & Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit OEM combo
=====
$415 - Subtotal (not including shipping, taxes, or rebates)

Granted, the Core i5 750 setup would be faster, but you'll have a nice overclocking platform and Windows 7 for only $10 more than your Intel-based setup.

CPU cooler (1156 or AM2/AM3): Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus - $32
Cheap PSU (for your mom's "new" rig): Corsair CX430 - $50
Cheap PSU (for your dad/sister's new rig): Seasonic S12II 520 BRONZE - $60
Cheap case: Cooler Master Elite 310 - $40

All of the links are from Amazon as it offers free shipping on those parts. You may think that spending $50 to $60 on a PSU is too much. Being currently unemployed, it might be too much for you, but these PSUs are generally better than many other similarly priced models. If you can only replace one of them now, get a new PSU for the new (processor/motherboard/RAM) platform.
 
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Very nice finds, I'm impressed. I think I may go ahead with those combo deals after reading up on the hardware a bit.

Thanks!
 
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