$550 Office PC with Light Gaming

lordevilthefirst

Distinguished
Feb 21, 2011
16
0
18,510
Approximate Purchase Date: Next Week

Budget Range: $500-$600 including Operating system

System Usage from Most to Least Important: Basically needs to be able to run all Microsoft office products wells and handle light gaming. Minecraft and League of Legends type games. The system is for my Aunt and is mainly an office PC.

Preferred Websites for Parts: I would prefer amazon.com and/or newegg.com

Location: Missouri

Parts Preferences: I don't care if its an AMD or Intel CPU. I really want every single part to be from a high quality manufacturer. The case doesn't need to be super study, but I am inexperinced in building PCs, so a case that is easy to build in would be nice.

Your Monitor Resolution: 1920x1080

Thank you everyone who responds.
 
Solution
For a computer doing normal computing, like office work, you definitely want dual-channel memory, and an Intel CPU for the single thread performance. The R7 250 will even get better gaming performance than an APU, and you'll see better gaming/regular use performance out of an i3 + R7 250 than an APU. You also don't need a $70 power supply for a build like this, as you'll be using minimal power.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i3-4130 3.4GHz Dual-Core Processor ($119.96 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: MSI H81M-P33 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($49.99 @ Mwave)
Memory: A-Data XPG V1.0 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($64.99 @...
This build should be good for her uses.
Only potential problem I can see being the SSD. Depending on her storage needs, you might want to swap that with a 2TB drive or something.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD A8-6600K 3.9GHz Quad-Core Processor ($105.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-F2A55M-S1 Micro ATX FM2+ Motherboard ($49.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 4GB (1 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory ($42.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Samsung 840 EVO 250GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($153.95 @ Newegg)
Case: Fractal Design Core 1000 USB 3.0 MicroATX Mid Tower Case ($43.98 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: XFX 550W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($69.99 @ Newegg)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 (OEM) (64-bit) ($102.98 @ Newegg)
Total: $551.87
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-05-12 10:40 EDT-0400)
 
For a computer doing normal computing, like office work, you definitely want dual-channel memory, and an Intel CPU for the single thread performance. The R7 250 will even get better gaming performance than an APU, and you'll see better gaming/regular use performance out of an i3 + R7 250 than an APU. You also don't need a $70 power supply for a build like this, as you'll be using minimal power.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i3-4130 3.4GHz Dual-Core Processor ($119.96 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: MSI H81M-P33 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($49.99 @ Mwave)
Memory: A-Data XPG V1.0 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($64.99 @ NCIX US)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($73.98 @ Amazon)
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon R7 250 1GB Video Card ($79.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Fractal Design Core 1000 USB 3.0 MicroATX Mid Tower Case ($39.99 @ Micro Center)
Power Supply: Antec 450W ATX Power Supply ($32.48 @ Newegg)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 (OEM) (64-bit) ($89.98 @ OutletPC)
Total: $551.36
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-05-12 10:54 EDT-0400)

Also went with a WD Black drive for a good combination of speed and storage space. At a budget like this, an SSD is just too expensive.
 
Solution