$400 Build for general home use

jr663

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Jun 26, 2014
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Approximate Purchase Date: e.g.: 2 weeks

Budget Range: $400

System Usage from Most to Least Important: General home use, some light video editing.

Are you buying a monitor: No



Parts to Upgrade: Everything, except the hard drive

Do you need to buy OS: No


Preferred Website(s) for Parts: Newegg and Amazon.

Location: Huntsville, Alabama, USA

Parts Preferences: AMD CPU, Asus motherboard, Corsair PSU, and anything else you think is good.

Overclocking: Maybe

SLI or Crossfire: No

Your Monitor Resolution: 1920x1080



And Most Importantly, Why Are You Upgrading: Current PC is too slow


So I offered to build a $400 PC for my friends Dad who is not pleased with his current PC. It's been a while since I have been hardcore into PC hardware, so I don' know what is best for this PC. However, I did do some research and attempted to create a partlist.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD A10-5800K 3.8GHz Quad-Core Processor ($109.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: Asus A55BM-K Micro ATX FM2+ Motherboard ($55.24 @ Mwave)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($82.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Kingston SSDNow V300 Series 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($54.99 @ Adorama)
Case: Corsair 300R ATX Mid Tower Case ($59.99 @ NCIX US)
Power Supply: Corsair CX 600W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($49.99 @ Newegg)
Other: Hard Drive From Old PC ($0.00)
Total: $402.19
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

If you have any input, it would greatly be appreciated.
 
Solution
you can use newer gen cpu 6600K at similar price
btw it will be nice for APU build to use mini ITX case

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD A8-6600K 3.9GHz Quad-Core Processor ($99.98 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: ASRock FM2A78M-ITX+ Mini ITX FM2+ Motherboard ($76.50 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Sniper Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-2133 Memory ($75.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Kingston SSDNow V300 Series 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($54.99 @ Adorama)
Case: Cooler Master Elite 130 Mini ITX Tower Case ($48.99 @ Mwave)
Power Supply: XFX 550W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($25.99 @ Newegg)
Other: Hard...
you can use newer gen cpu 6600K at similar price
btw it will be nice for APU build to use mini ITX case

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD A8-6600K 3.9GHz Quad-Core Processor ($99.98 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: ASRock FM2A78M-ITX+ Mini ITX FM2+ Motherboard ($76.50 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Sniper Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-2133 Memory ($75.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Kingston SSDNow V300 Series 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($54.99 @ Adorama)
Case: Cooler Master Elite 130 Mini ITX Tower Case ($48.99 @ Mwave)
Power Supply: XFX 550W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($25.99 @ Newegg)
Other: Hard Drive From Old PC ($0.00)
Total: $382.44
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Cooler-Master-Elite-130-award.jpg
 
Solution

t3nn1spr3p

Honorable
Jul 3, 2012
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10,710
Here's an interesting Intel alternative. Was able to get an i5 in it, and 4GB of ram is more than enough. Also, the other build uses annoying mail-in rebates.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4590 3.3GHz Quad-Core Processor ($199.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: MSI H81M-P33 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($50.39 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 4GB (1 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($38.70 @ Newegg)
Storage: Kingston SSDNow V300 Series 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($54.99 @ Adorama)
Case: NZXT Gamma Classic (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case ($29.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Antec Basiq 350W ATX Power Supply ($29.99 @ Amazon)
Total: $404.05
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
 
As you just need a general use PC, just go to BestBuy/Walmart right now, grab a i3 based Desktop (heck Go laptop! make yourself unwired and portable, kitchen table, outside, in Dad's bed, etc.) for only $249-299. This provides a total solution, under warranty (something goes wrong he simple calls the included 1800 for support) and does all the 'basics' in a presetup system with no risk (self build you make a mistake POOF! that part dead and you need to spend for it again).
 

t3nn1spr3p

Honorable
Jul 3, 2012
247
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10,710
Except a $399 laptop wouldn't be anywhere close to the performance of either of these builds, let alone one for $299. Have you ever owned a laptop that cost $299 from bestbuy?

And anyway, he already has a 1080p monitor! And hard drive and os.
 


Actually yes, Fry's Electronics great time to buy 2 weeks before Black Friday they price slash heavy 'current' stuff to make room for the BF stuff. My Wife' i5-3xxx runs nice at 1080p on the big TV and has worked real nice and well as a 'general PC'. Also she loves to play alot of the FB games or Evil genius and is gorgeous on it.
 


Better build, but note to OP: Your saying you have 'drive and OS' problem is if that is a OEM computer (I.e. DELL, Gateway, etc.) you CAN'T use that Windows. It is tied ONLY to the hardware (CPU, Mobo and sometimes the actual CASE itself!) and will not 'load' nor will it 'install' on any other computer because it scans for the hardware and will allowed to run on the maker/model it was sold with.

Secondly I am heavily betting the 'Drive' is a old SATA II 5400RPM drive, puts it in a brand new system and "why is it as slow as the old system", because your still using a old old drive that runs very slow, the rest of the computer won't make it speed up. Further depending on how 'old' (hardware only is provided a 3 year warranty, so after 3 years EXPECT IT to just SUDDENLY DIE for 'NO REASON') the drive is, and with such constant use, your putting all this new investment relying on a old drive 'expected' to fail. I would add to the cost a simple 1TB drive ($49) as the storage drive with the SSD as the OS drive, and will be pretty dang fast!
 

jr663

Reputable
Jun 26, 2014
4
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4,510


As far as OS is concerned, I already have that purchased. However, the hard drive is a good point. The old HDD is a 500GB 5400 RPM, but for a meager $50 for a 1TB 7200RPM HDD, I would be crazy not to do that!
 


I do not agree. Installing Windows, plus Office Suite along takes over 40GB, just to "type a letter", that is 1/3 of the drive already filled with nothing else. Once you hit 50%+ on a SSD the SSD performance degrades as rapidly as you 'fill it' past 50%. Minimally today if your going to just have a SSD in a full computer, you need at least 240GB drive, and NEVER download from STEAM, because that will fill your drive before you can spell STEAM. Again the number one solution is a SSD PLUS TB drives, one for performance to OS and critical files, the other for storage, data and programs.