AMD vs Intel for $450 build

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preludeman92

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Hello and thanks for the help in advance!

I've been charged with building a new computer for my aunt who has never used a computer before. Don't know why it needs to be new, but that's my instruction from another family member. Guess it's time to replace the WebTV she has been clinging onto...

I can't decide should I go with an AMD A6-6400k and Gigabyte A55 motherboard combo for $80 or an Intel G1610 and H77 motherboard combo for $100 for the basis of my build? I don't have a preference (I've built several AMD and Intels in the past), so which is better for this application?

She mostly will do email, Facebook, online games, and probably Netflix from the computer. I'm guessing very light word documents and photo printing as well. I'm personally guessing she will use it twice and hate it, spill diet coke on it, or get it stolen.

My budget is about $600 for everything: windows 7, case, PS, RAM, CD, HDD, printer, monitor, mouse/keyboard, speakers (built into monitor hopefully!), everything!
 
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ronintexas
I know quite a few people who play Facebook and/or other online games, you probably should look at a quad-core AMD like the AMD A8-5500 ($99), or a core i-3 2100 ($120), with 8GB RAM. The built-in graphics should be enough to play the games (I am assuming Facebook, Pogo, etc...), 8GB RAM will give her plenty of computing power. Here is a similar build I did for my wife who basically does the same thing:

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/1xdWz ($582.91 - without printer).

Printer (this one is a pretty good printer) - $70 - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16828415264

You can save $90 on the build by utilizing Ubuntu 13.10 and install Cairo Dock (it will be simple enough for her to use).

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Bill Reinhardt

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Well I always recommend that if the build is less than $1000, go with AMD. But, considering this is not a gaming build, I would say go with Intel, considering they typically consume less power and run cooler. You cant go wrong with either.
 
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ronintexas

ronintexas

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I know quite a few people who play Facebook and/or other online games, you probably should look at a quad-core AMD like the AMD A8-5500 ($99), or a core i-3 2100 ($120), with 8GB RAM. The built-in graphics should be enough to play the games (I am assuming Facebook, Pogo, etc...), 8GB RAM will give her plenty of computing power. Here is a similar build I did for my wife who basically does the same thing:

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/1xdWz ($582.91 - without printer).

Printer (this one is a pretty good printer) - $70 - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16828415264

You can save $90 on the build by utilizing Ubuntu 13.10 and install Cairo Dock (it will be simple enough for her to use).

 
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preludeman92

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Thank you... glad you liked it!
Unfortunately, it's the God's honest truth. She's not all there mentally and not really to be trusted by herself (let alone on the internet as far as I'm concerned!). And she lives in a sort of group setting with similar people. There's plenty of reasons she's never been given a computer until now. For example, she got mad at Time Warner Pictures about the ending of a movie she saw in theaters so she took it out by pouring a 2L of diet coke on her Time Warner Cable box. The poor tech came out and she claimed it stopped working because she set her remote on it. The tech disagreed seeing the empty bottle on the box and left. She called the police because the cable guy "stole" her cable box.

 
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preludeman92

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Also, anyone know a good way for me to be able to remote in to solve problems?
Or to lock her out of sensitive areas of the computer?
And I'm guessing make an image of the fresh install on a flash drive locked in the computer is a decent solution for when it goes horribly wrong?
 
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preludeman92

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Ronintexas: thanks for the suggestion of using Ubuntu, but I know the first time she goes to download/instal something and it doesn't work, I'll just be installing windows anyways.
 
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Bill Reinhardt

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I use TeamViewer for remote access. Easy to set up and use. Pretty decent frame rate too.

A clean image backup would be an excellent idea!

As for locking her out of senstive areas, try removing admin privileges from her account and create a seperate admin login.
 
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Kamen_BG

Kamen_BG

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This is slightly out of your budget, but it's pretty much the best you can afford.

PCPartPicker part list

CPU: AMD A8-5600K 3.6GHz Quad-Core Processor ($92.23 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: MSI FM2-A75MA-P33 Micro ATX FM2 Motherboard ($54.03 @ Amazon)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory ($58.65 @ Newegg)
Storage: OCZ Vector Series 128GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($79.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Silverstone PS08B (Black) MicroATX Mid Tower Case ($34.90 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: Antec Basiq 430W 80 PLUS Certified ATX12V Power Supply ($43.83 @ Amazon)
Optical Drive: Asus DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS DVD/CD Writer ($16.99 @ Newegg)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8 (OEM) (64-bit) ($85.99 @ NCIX US)
Monitor: Acer G206HQLbd 60Hz 19.5" Monitor ($89.99 @ Newegg)
Keyboard: V7 CK0A1-4N6P Wired Standard Keyboard w/Optical Mouse ($10.40 @ Amazon)
Speakers: Creative Labs A220 9W 2.1ch Speakers ($25.56 @ Amazon)
Other: Canon PIXMA iP2702 ($40.00)
Total: $632.56
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
 
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preludeman92

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Thanks for the suggestions guys and girls.

What about something real low powered like an AMD E350 or the like? I've never been able to mess around with one. The Windows 8 tablets powered by an Atom seem okay. Or am I really just setting myself up for failure with one of low powered systems?
 
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MEC-777

MEC-777

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You don't need anything crazy, but I would make sure it's "up to snuff" with regards to lasting for many years and remains relevant. Any of the A8 series AMD quad-core APU's would be ideal.

Primarily; keep it simple and basic.

Here's what I would build:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD A8-5600K 3.6GHz Quad-Core Processor ($92.23 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: ASRock FM2A75M-ITX R2.0 Mini ITX FM2 Motherboard ($91.97 @ Newegg)
Memory: Kingston HyperX 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR3-1866 Memory ($48.74 @ Amazon)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 250GB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($52.99 @ NCIX US)
Case: Inwin BP655.200BL Mini ITX Desktop Case w/200W Power Supply ($41.18 @ NCIX US)
Optical Drive: Asus DVDE818A7T/BLK/B/GEN CD Reader, DVD Writer
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8 (OEM) (64-bit) ($83.88 @ Outlet PC)
Monitor: BenQ GW2255 60Hz 21.5" Monitor ($99.99 @ NCIX US)
Keyboard: Logitech K100 Wired Slim Keyboard ($14.99 @ Newegg)
Mouse: Logitech M100 Wired Optical Mouse ($9.98 @ Mac Mall)
Speakers: Creative Labs A60 4W 2ch Speakers ($19.51 @ Amazon)
Total: $555.46
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-08-28 14:42 EDT-0400)

(All US prices)
 
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Wisecracker

Wisecracker

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Actually ... If you can find a new 'Bobcat' laptop (preferably with Win7) and have an OEM copy of the OS laying around, you can replace the OEM 5400 RPM drive with as SSD and Granny will have one heck of a great experience.

Probably ... for less than $400 total.





 
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Kamen_BG

Kamen_BG

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The E350, while very efficient, is a very, very slow CPU.
My mom has a Laptop with a E350. It has dual channel memory and a 5400 RPM drive.
The CPU is by far the weakest link. (Have compared directly to two laptops one with a Core i3 and another with a Core i7. MASSIVE DIFFERENCE).
If you want her to have a normal PC experiance, go with something more powerfull.
 
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Wisecracker

Wisecracker

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I've been using an HP e350 laptop for 20 months modded with an OCZ SSD and 2x4GB GSkill RAMs, and can attest you are wrong.

edit: And by the way, the e350 does not operate in dual-channel.





 
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ronintexas

ronintexas

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Facebook games, Pogo.Com, and other online games that are popular with the community right now, are typically flash/javascript games, and most bottleneck at the CPU level. Most quad-core AMD CPUs and all "core" (i-3, i-5, i-7) Intel CPUs with 8GB RAM will work fine. If you have an Intel Celeron, duo-core, or AMD that isn't quad core (this is a very generic statement), you will have quite a bit of lag in the game performance. And when "momma" plays Bejeweled Blitz and she misses the high score because of CPU lag - she isn't happy....LOL.

The upside - very few of these games will need anything more than an integrated GPU or basic video card (i.e. ASUS Geforce 210 - about $30).

SSD will enhance boot time, but not much else, as I don't see a huge performance increase on internet browsing.
 
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preludeman92

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Well, would I be better off recycling an AM3 motherboard and putting in a new Phenom II x 6 processor? That just seems like too much processor for what she needs.
Honestly, I still use Core 2 Duo E8400 (and 9800GTX+) in my desktop at home, and core 2 duo for my laptop and server. I've never found anything to bog them down too much other than video encoding. I've got $2500 rigs (Core I7's, 16gb ram, Nvidia Quadro cards) at work and they seem to be the same speed doing typical stuff as my Core 2 Duos. Granted, my experience with flash is limited to Youtube since I don't have Facebook, Netflix, and don't online game in general.
 
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ronintexas

ronintexas

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They are pushing the envelope on Facebook with some of the flash games. Zynga, Pop-Cap and others utilize Flash, and watching the processor utilization and memory utilization, 4GB is not enough - and 8 is very rarely ever used. For CPU, depending upon the game, you will find that the older processors are extremely "jerky" in the video performance, and utilization sits at 100% for long periods of time. I don't understand the need to push the hardware envelope with these "free" online games, when the appeal is supposed to be the masses, and you hope that a few spend some bucks to get ahead....instead of spending on games, they have to spend on new hardware.....LOL.

My old duo-core was top of the line in 2006.....Media Center PC with 4GB RAM....now it has problems playing simple games on Facebook. By 2020....I imagine my core i-7 3770k with 16GB RAM will be underpowered to play simple games online.....
 
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preludeman92

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To add confusion (options?) I just realized for the same price as the Intel G1610 Combo Microcenter will sell me an AMD FX 4130 kit or FX 6300 kit for another $10.

Would 1 of these be a much better solution for I can only assume what is a very flash intensive scenario that will probably be loaded with crapware as soon as I deliver it?
 
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8350rocks

8350rocks

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FX 6300 > all other options for the money.
 
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