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Lightbulbie

Lightbulbie

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Oct 26, 2012
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So my high school has these poor little Pentium and Celeron desktops that are getting pretty old, say, 5+ years? I decided to make a little list of parts in case (probably won't happen but whatever) we get a $15,000 grant. These systems will be used in a tech classroom that uses Rhino, architecture design programs, and Internet Exploder.

Lack of OS has reasons that have been looked over.

CPU Intel Core i3-3220 3.3GHz Dual-Core

Motherboard ASRock H77M Micro ATX LGA1155

Memory G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR3-1600

Storage Western Digital Caviar Green 500GB 3.5" 5400RPM

Video Card Gigabyte GeForce 210 1GB

Case Fractal Design Core 1000 USB 3.0 MicroATX Mid Tower

Power Supply Antec 380W ATX12V / EPS12V

Optical Drive Lite-On iHAS124-04 DVD/CD Writer
 
Solution
shortstuff_mt
8GB of RAM easily fits into the budget and will make the computers relevant for a lot longer. These aren't bad little budget systems.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i3-4130 3.4GHz Dual-Core Processor ($116.98 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-H81M-HD3 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($57.49 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Ares Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($74.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Green 500GB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive ($58.99 @ Adorama)
Case: Fractal Design Core 1000 USB 3.0 MicroATX Mid Tower Case ($29.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply:...
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shortstuff_mt

shortstuff_mt

Glorious
Apr 1, 2008
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What is the budget for each system? I would go with current-generation Haswell CPUs. You probably would be just fine using the integrated GPU on the i3 chip for basic use. The 5400RPM green drives aren't a great choice for a main system HDD. Here is a nice, simple, build that should work great for the intended use. I'm not sure what design programs you will be using, but an upgrade to 8GB may be well worth it if it fits the budget.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i3-4130 3.4GHz Dual-Core Processor ($116.98 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-H81M-HD3 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($57.49 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($47.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 500GB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($51.97 @ Amazon)
Case: Fractal Design Core 1000 USB 3.0 MicroATX Mid Tower Case ($29.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Antec EarthWatts Green 380W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($44.01 @ NCIX US)
Optical Drive: Samsung SH-224DB/BEBE DVD/CD Writer ($16.98 @ OutletPC)
Total: $365.41
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-02-12 12:39 EST-0500)
 
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Lightbulbie

Lightbulbie

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Oct 26, 2012
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The MAX budget per system is $450, and these systems won't be upgraded for another.. 5-7 years? I do like how your setup is, though I went with Caviar Green for the energy use. Our district is huge on energy saving stuff..
 
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g-unit1111

g-unit1111

Titan
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Jul 27, 2011
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You could go with an AMD A10 and save some serious money there. The new and improved A10-7850K has better integrated graphics than Intel does and therefore you won't need to purchase a GPU:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD A10-7700K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($159.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: ASRock FM2A88X EXTREME4+ ATX FM2+ Motherboard ($84.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-2133 Memory ($76.50 @ Newegg)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($63.14 @ Amazon)
Case: Cooler Master Elite 430 ATX Mid Tower Case ($34.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Antec EarthWatts Green 380W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($44.01 @ NCIX US)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-04 DVD/CD Writer ($14.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $478.61
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-02-12 12:52 EST-0500)

That's slightly over budget but eliminates the need for a primary GPU. I'm sure that the school officials probably wouldn't care as long as it gets the job done.
 
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shortstuff_mt

shortstuff_mt

Glorious
Apr 1, 2008
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43,965


Not if you don't plan on upgrading the systems for 5-7 years. How much RAM was considered overkill 5-7 years ago? 8GB is the standard now and I'm sure it will be considered a minimum for many software applications in the next 5-7 years.

 
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g-unit1111

g-unit1111

Titan
Moderator
Jul 27, 2011
42,538
815
104,940


Not if you're using onboard graphics. The A10 splits the CPU cores between the graphics and the processor itself, and on this kind of system any RAM you use will be shared RAM, meaning that it will be shared equally between processor and GPU duties, so the more you have at a faster speed, the better and more stable your system will be. On occasion depending on brand some times the 1TB hard drive is cheaper than the 500GB hard drive, but maybe that could bring the systems down to the required $450 mark:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD A10-7700K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($159.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: ASRock FM2A88X EXTREME4+ ATX FM2+ Motherboard ($84.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-2133 Memory ($76.50 @ Newegg)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 500GB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($47.00 @ Amazon)
Case: Cooler Master Elite 430 ATX Mid Tower Case ($34.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Antec EarthWatts Green 380W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($44.01 @ NCIX US)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-04 DVD/CD Writer ($14.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $462.47
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-02-12 13:09 EST-0500)
 
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shortstuff_mt

shortstuff_mt

Glorious
Apr 1, 2008
10,191
24
43,965


What rendering software to you use? Does it support Nvidia CUDA acceleration? The integrated HD 4400 GPU on the i3-4130 supports OpenCL 1.2 and OpenGL 4.2. Depending on the software used, it's possibly faster than the GeForce 210.
 
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shortstuff_mt

shortstuff_mt

Glorious
Apr 1, 2008
10,191
24
43,965
8GB of RAM easily fits into the budget and will make the computers relevant for a lot longer. These aren't bad little budget systems.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i3-4130 3.4GHz Dual-Core Processor ($116.98 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-H81M-HD3 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($57.49 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Ares Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($74.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Green 500GB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive ($58.99 @ Adorama)
Case: Fractal Design Core 1000 USB 3.0 MicroATX Mid Tower Case ($29.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Antec EarthWatts Green 380W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($44.01 @ NCIX US)
Optical Drive: Samsung SH-224DB/BEBE DVD/CD Writer ($16.98 @ OutletPC)
Total: $399.43
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-02-12 15:50 EST-0500)
 
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