Building PC for mom, needs to be quiet. $1,200 budget.

Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
R

RADD1

Distinguished
Aug 30, 2013
55
0
18,640
http://pcpartpicker.com/p/jGJzFT

I started out by shopping around for a new PC for her, but couldn't find any PCs with fast processors, win7, no graphics card, and very low noise for less than $1200. So, this is the build that I have planned. I of course want everything to be compatible with everything else, which partpicker says it will be, but want it to be as quiet as possible.

She mainly uses the PC for browsing the web, youtube, email, occasional photo-editing, blogging, and streaming.

The aspect of the build with which I am most concerned is that it generate very little noise..

She is only using 80 gigs of her 160 gig hard drive that she has now, thus the small SSD.

I was going to pass on a graphics card because of the noise it generates, and from what I've read, the onboard graphics of the i5 5th gen is strong enough to handle the above.

She wants a matte screen for no glare/reflection and an austere case.

This will be my first time building a PC; please let me know if I am missing something, there's some incompatibility, or I could better use our budget.

Thank you!
 
Sort by date Sort by votes
RazerZ

RazerZ

Judicious
Ambassador
Aug 18, 2013
9,961
0
33,960
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Pentium G3220 3.0GHz Dual-Core Processor ($59.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: ASRock H81 Pro BTC ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($51.00 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($41.40 @ Newegg)
Storage: Samsung 840 EVO 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($129.99 @ Best Buy)
Case: NZXT Source 210 (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case ($29.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Corsair Builder 430W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($19.99 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: Samsung SH-224DB/BEBE DVD/CD Writer ($14.99 @ Newegg)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (OEM) (64-bit) ($84.99 @ NCIX US)
Monitor: BenQ GL2460HM 60Hz 24.0" Monitor ($134.99 @ Amazon)
Total: $567.33
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

There's basically no part in this pc that will generate a lot of noise so it should work well. You could replace the stock cooler to let the CPU run cooler, but there won't be much of a noise difference.



The build you posted is meant for a high performance pc. The pentium G3220 is an excellent choice for a basic office pc.
 
Upvote 1 Downvote
Solution
moozilbee

moozilbee

Honorable
Jul 19, 2013
716
0
11,160
Edit: Oops, Razer posted the build whilst I was writing this comment, a lot of my suggestions still apply if you have that extra money to spend on nice keyboard & monitor etc.
Also, RazerZ, you didn't include an aftermarket cooler, was that a mistake or is the stock cpu cooler actually not that noisy?


Yup, RazerZ is right, for example she would only need a max of 4gb ram, a 120gb ssd would probably be fine (but you can stick to the 250gb to be safe if you want), that processor is way overkill for the build, I'm not sure how quiet the case fans or cpu cooler are, but you could easily fit it in your budget to replace them all with a noctua cpu cooler and noctua case fans.
That powersupply is also very overkill for this low power build, it's really not needed, a bronze rated psu would be fine, you could fit a more expensive fanless powersupply in your budget if you want. If you're downgrading the CPU, you could also downgrade the motherboard as a $130 mobo isn't needed. If you wanted to you could add in a cheaper fanless graphics card for things like photo editing, though it wouldn't be entirely nescessary.

Anyway, point being, you should spend lots less money on the insides of the computer since if she's not doing any heavy gaming or lots of photo work, she really doesn't need to spend too much.
You can use all the money you saved to get her things that she will actually notice the difference in, such as a better monitor, and a nice keyboard (she could try out a mechanical keyboard if she does lots of typing), and a nice mouse & mousepad.
 
Upvote 1 Downvote
RazerZ

RazerZ

Judicious
Ambassador
Aug 18, 2013
9,961
0
33,960


He can add a after market cooler if he wants, it's nice to have, but it's not a necessity. The stock cooler that comes with haswell CPUs is quiet enough to where the noise shouldn't be noticeable.

Intel Haswell LGA 1150 (Socket H3) Stock Cooler Noise Test

 
Upvote 0 Downvote
R

RADD1

Distinguished
Aug 30, 2013
55
0
18,640
Thanks for the replies.

RazerZ, in the build you suggested, why did you change the monitor and optical drive? The monitor you suggest is only $19 cheaper and isn't IPS, which I thought was desirable, and I don't really see any difference between the optical drives.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
R

RADD1

Distinguished
Aug 30, 2013
55
0
18,640
One more question for you guys: Is there anything comparable to the build RazerZ posted that "comes in a box", as my mom puts it (as in already built)? My research didn't turn up anything that hit all of these marks, but I likely wasn't looking for the right things. Doesn't matter if its a laptop or desktop, she just wants to know if there are similar computers that I missed. (She doesn't have much faith in me building one. :()

Thanks.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
RazerZ

RazerZ

Judicious
Ambassador
Aug 18, 2013
9,961
0
33,960


In that case swap it out for this monitor if you want an IPS display:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B005BZNDS0/ref=sr_1_2_olp?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1404739052&sr=1-2&keywords=ips+monitor&condition=new

Not really... with a prebuilt pc you're losing out on quality since they use the cheapest parts they can find to make profits, and in the end you get the same( in rare cases) or worse specs.

Also for the current PC if she is going to use more than 256GB of data, then swap the 256GB SSD for a 120GB Samsung EVO SSD and add a 1TB HDD.

Building a desktop really isn't that hard. There are plenty of video tutorials that show you how to build it step by step, plus if something goes wrong you always have the tomshardware community to help you out :)

The optical drive is a different brand, but the same on the inside. It's $2 cheaper.


 
Upvote 0 Downvote
moozilbee

moozilbee

Honorable
Jul 19, 2013
716
0
11,160
Yeah you'll be fine building your own PC, it's really not very difficult, mostly just involves screwing lots of pieces into a case and then plugging them into eachother, and apart from the power supply and all it's wires, there is only about.... 10 ish wires in the whole PC, 1 per case fan, 1 for cpu, 1 for gpu, 1 per hard drive/SSD, 1 per optical drive, and then everything has one wire plugged into it from the power supply.

Point is, it's really not that complex and you can totally shove it in your mothers face that you did it when she didn't believe in you :D
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Latest posts

Moderators online

Share this page

COMPANY
RESOURCES
FOLLOW
Top Bottom