Super Budget Workstation Build

[nowwhatnapster]

Background Story: (for those of you who like to read)

Trying to convince the owner of a SMB under financial constraints to buy a new PC. His current workstation is pretty damn old and to top it off he has some serious issues with his windows xp installation. I have tried troubleshooting them but there something wrong with a core windows service. I don't a reliable system image I can restore either. It is not worth any more man hours troubleshooting IMO. It needs a fresh install; better yet, he needs a new damn computer. If I have to go through the effort of a fresh install I feel it it is a waste on old hardware like this. So I'm trying to build him a super budget PC that is upgradable down the road, but also offer significant performance improvment over his existing pc. He has also been considering switching to a laptop which is rocking a t6300. So I want my build to be faster than that if possible.​

Typical usage:

Firefox (10-15 tabs), Outlook 2007 (2 gigs of pst files), Quickbooks 2011 (600mb data file, 10 years of data, multi user, with website sync), Word, Excel, PDF's, Streaming music of some variety i think he uses RealPlayer . He needs like 4 gigs of ram to run all this comfortably. A speedy hard drive would be great because his PC is the quickbooks host and that file gets abused.​

Current system specs:

• HP pavilion a250n mid tower (slightly modified)
• XP Pro 32-bit
• Mobo
• 2GB (512x4) DDR 400
• P4 Northwood, 2.4ghz, 512k L2, 533Mhz
• 320GB WD circa 12-19-2005
• NEC 16X DVD±R IDE, circa 1/24/2006

BUDGET:
[Strike= ]$300 or less,[/s]$400? The owner is pretty dead set on having me reload this box with xp and continue using it. If I can build something that is 2x as fast, upgradable, and even running windows 7. that would probably make him bite.

New Build (All prices include S/H)

• [Strike= ]OS - $140 - Windows 7 Pro 64-bit[/s]
• OS - $100 - Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
• Case - $15 - Antec Three Hundred (I have one kicking around I want to get rid of)
• [Strike= ]PSU - $35 - Thermaltake TR2 430W (5 year warranty for $35? seems to good to be true)[/s]
• [Strike= ]PSU - $48 - Antec NEO ECO 400W (Per Danny Bui's suggestion)[/s]
• PSU - $42.50 - Antec EarthWatts 380W Green EA-380D
• [Strike= ]MOBO - $60 - Biostar (ehh.. indifferent all the budget H61 mobo's are about par, this was a few bucks cheaper)[/s]
• [Strike= ]MOBO - $71 - ASUS P8H61-M LE/CSM (REV 3.0)[/s]
• MOBO/CPU - $130 - Gigabyte GA-H61M-S2H + Intel G620
• [Strike= ]CPU - $48.25 - Intel G530[/s]
• [Strike= ]Ram - $23 - Crucial 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 1333[/s]
• Ram - $20 - Crucial 4GB (1x4GB) DDR3 1333
• DVD - $5 - DVD+-RW 16x Sata (another part I have sitting in storage)
• [Strike= ]HDD - $120 - WD Caviar Black 500GB[/s]
• [Strike= ]HDD - $100 - WD 250GB RE4 WD2503ABYX[/s]
• HDD - $75 - WD 250GB Caviar Blue WD2500AAKX

Total: $387.50

Other Considerations:
Quality and stability before everything else. If there is something in my setup you feel is an inferior product please let me know.

As you can see I am coming up short. I don't have a hard drive yet and I'm at $290. Any 7200rpm drive on newegg is like 70 bucks. I might as well consider SSD given those prices, but SSD's are small. I haven't seen his HDD usage recently but last I checked it was around 60Gigs. I'm sure there was some fat in their that could be trimmed, but still I wouldn't want to stick him with a tiny SSD.

 

[Dangman]

• PSU - $35 - Thermaltake TR2 430W (5 year warranty for $35? seems to good to be true)

It is: it's a piece of shit PSU barely capable of half its rated power. And that's under ideal conditions. So don't get tat PSU unless you want to come back later on and explain to the owner why his PC is now dead. This is the cheapest PSU that I can recommend:
$48 - Antec NEO ECO 400C 400W PSU

As you can see I am coming up short. I don't have a hard drive yet and I'm at $290. Any 7200rpm drive on newegg is like 70 bucks. I might as well consider SSD given those prices, but SSD's are small. I haven't seen his HDD usage recently but last I checked it was around 60Gigs. I'm sure there was some fat in their that could be trimmed, but still I wouldn't want to stick him with a tiny SSD.

I don't think we can meet your budget of $300. You're already using bottom of the barrel parts and you're still not meeting your budget. Short of convincing the owner to up his budget by another $100 or so or converting him to Linux, there's no way you can build a solid PC with Windows 7 for this owner

Your best bet would be to wait for Dell to have another one of their great $300 PC deals (happens once every few weeks or so) or if you need the PC ASAP, this might be an option:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883108659

For Dell deals, hit up www.gotapex.com. Dell Outlet might also have a few PCs for $300.

 

[nowwhatnapster]

$300 is just an arbitrary number I came up with. After doing some part research, it seems completely unrealistic. I must say I like the lenovo on newegg however it is a bit dated. Dated means finding parts will be harder when its due for an upgrade. Lets nix the $300 dollar budget, and also nix that PSU. It just amazes me that a crap PSU would have 2000+ reviews on newegg and 4 eggs. Granted I have little experience with low end parts.

I was at the SMB today transferring files to a laptop for temporary usage. I pulled the HDD from the failing PC and low and behold I see a heatsink laying on the bottom of the chassis. It was the northbridge heatsink Well I guess I know what caused the OS corruption. It looks like it fell off at least a month or two ago because their was dust all over the northbridge adhered to the thermal compound.

 

[JTY]

I would hit up Staples or Office Depot. Last fall, my dad got a Dual Core system (can't recall CPU model) with 3GB RAM, DVD Burner, 750GB HD, and Windows 7 for $349.

 

[Dangman]

Lets nix the $300 dollar budget, and also nix that PSU.

So what's the budget now?

It just amazes me that a crap PSU would have 2000+ reviews on newegg and 4 eggs. Granted I have little experience with low end parts.

Goes to show how ill-informed people are when it comes to PCs.

 

[nowwhatnapster]

I guess I am shooting for $400 or less. Really as cheap as it can go while maintaining reliability.

 

[Dangman]

Ditch that WD drive and go with this significantly faster and larger 500GB drive for $15 less:
$85 - Hitachi 7K1000.D HDS721050DLE630 500GB 7200RPM SATA 6.0Gb/s Hard Drive

Ditch that Crucial RAM as it will limit your ability to upgrade to 8GB of RAM later on. I recommend this single 4GB RAM set for $3 less:
$20 - G.Skill F3-10666CL9S-2GBNT 4GB DDR3 1333 RAM

Now use the $18 in savings towards this faster CPU and probably slightly better quality H61 mobo:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.882730

 

[Deleted member 88227]

$48 - Antec NEO ECO 400C 400W PSU

Need to order this PSU today. It's got a 15% off promo code APRPS15, making it $41.23 shipped.

 

[nowwhatnapster]

Ditch that WD drive and go with this significantly faster and larger 500GB drive for $15 less:
$85 - Hitachi 7K1000.D HDS721050DLE630 500GB 7200RPM SATA 6.0Gb/s Hard Drive

I can't argue the price, however the warranty is 2 years less than the one I picked, half the load/unload cycles, and my client is only utilizing 70GB of his 320GB HDD. I'm still leaning twards the WD2503ABYX at the moment.

Ditch that Crucial RAM as it will limit your ability to upgrade to 8GB of RAM later on. I recommend this single 4GB RAM set for $3 less:
$20 - G.Skill F3-10666CL9S-2GBNT 4GB DDR3 1333 RAM

Well the current mobo i selected only has 2 ram slots... so I was planning on ditching the ram whenever it was time to upgrade. I suppose i could only use 1 stick of ram now but that would cut into performance, no? The ram would be operating in single channel. I guess that is not a very big performance hit. Maybe 2-4 percent. It would save more money down the road and 3 bucks right now.... I like it. I'll change my OP shortly.

Now use the $18 in savings towards this faster CPU and probably slightly better quality H61 mobo:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.882730

Since the G530 is on the order of 7x faster than what he is using right now. I think I would rather pour the funds into the mobo or PSU at the moment.

Need to order this PSU today. It's got a 15% off promo code APRPS15, making it $41.23 shipped.

I doubt it will happen today considering it is Easter.

 

[Dangman]

I can't argue the price, however the warranty is 2 years less than the one I picked, half the load/unload cycles, and my client is only utilizing 70GB of his 320GB HDD. I'm still leaning twards the WD2503ABYX at the moment.

So longer warranty (not gonna factor in the reliability factor as that's fairly random) is a better choice than significantly higher performance?

Since the G530 is on the order of 7x faster than what he is using right now. I think I would rather pour the funds into the mobo or PSU at the moment.

PSU wise, really no point in more money into that considering the type of system you're building. Mobo, fair point but you haven't said what exactly you're looking for in a mobo. Besides a good mobo is gonna cost more than $18 and the Gigabyte I mentioned is probably of slightly better quality anyway.

 

[nowwhatnapster]

So longer warranty (not gonna factor in the reliability factor as that's fairly random) is a better choice than significantly higher performance?

I put some more thought into the hard drive. The enterprise class drive I picked is dumb idea for this build. You are correct the performance and price savings outweigh the warranty, TLER and load cycles. I did some more shopping in this price range and found the WD2500AAKX priced at $75. It is slower and half the size of the drive you suggested, but 250GB is plenty for my client and the performance loss is only about 10% for a $10 savings.

PSU wise, really no point in more money into that considering the type of system you're building. Mobo, fair point but you haven't said what exactly you're looking for in a mobo. Besides a good mobo is gonna cost more than $18 and the Gigabyte I mentioned is probably of slightly better quality anyway.

Found an antec earthwatts for the PSU that is actually cheaper and I believe its good quality, see OP. I also swapped out the Biostar MOBO for your suggestion. I think I'm almost done tweaking this build.

 

[Dangman]

I put some more thought into the hard drive. The enterprise class drive I picked is dumb idea for this build. You are correct the performance and price savings outweigh the warranty, TLER and load cycles. I did some more shopping in this price range and found the WD2500AAKX priced at $75. It is slower and half the size of the drive you suggested, but 250GB is plenty for my client and the performance loss is only about 10% for a $10 savings.

But that's such a shitty price to GB ratio. That's not getting the most bang for the guy's buck. In addition, what sites/reviews are you reading that shows that 250GB drive only being 10% slower than the Hitachi I linked?

Found an antec earthwatts for the PSU that is actually cheaper and I believe its good quality, see OP.

It's a good PSU.

I also swapped out the Biostar MOBO for your suggestion. I think I'm almost done tweaking this build.

I'd still spend the extra $12 for the CPU + mobo combo I recommedned earlier to further push any need to upgrade by another few months or so.

 

[TCM]

If he NEEDS 4GB to run his work stuff, put in 8GB.