Help building $300-400 budget computer

Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
F

Fermin Santiago III

Honorable
Jul 14, 2013
47
0
10,530
My girlfriend has recently got into playing video games but she also has her own small business doing artwork for people. I would like to get her something that can play video games but mainly can handle running Photoshop smoothly. She has started playing Don't Starve and Sims 4. Thanks for the help!
 
Solution
Ok Go
i really hope your budget doesnt include monitor and OS since it'll be almost impossible to get a capable setup.
but here's my suggestion. it covers most if not all your needs(hopefully). the casing looks professional, quite small since it's a mini tower so you can hide it, got wifi, a dvd burner, and quite good photoshop performance actually if you enable opencl.
but lacks front panel usb3.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD A10-7700K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($109.89 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-F2A88XM-D3H Micro ATX FM2+ Motherboard ($50.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($48.99 @ Newegg)...
Sort by date Sort by votes
TechyInAZ

TechyInAZ

Titan
Jun 23, 2014
18,227
403
81,340
www.youtube.com
how does this look?

If too expensive, then get a 7850K instead.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD A10-7870K 3.9GHz Quad-Core Processor ($148.35 @ Mwave)
Motherboard: Asus A88XM-E Micro ATX FM2+ Motherboard ($66.49 @ OutletPC)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($53.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($46.89 @ OutletPC)
Case: Thermaltake Versa H22 ATX Mid Tower Case ($33.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Power Supply: SeaSonic S12II 520W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($58.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Total: $408.70
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-07-06 11:45 EDT-0400

EDIT: Actually, this is better:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD A10-7850K 3.7GHz Quad-Core Processor ($109.99 @ Micro Center)
Motherboard: ASRock FM2A88X PRO3+ ATX FM2+ Motherboard ($63.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-2133 Memory ($60.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($46.89 @ OutletPC)
Case: Thermaltake Versa H25 ATX Mid Tower Case ($37.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Power Supply: SeaSonic S12II 520W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($58.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Total: $378.84
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-07-06 11:51 EDT-0400
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
B

boosted1g

Titan
Jun 12, 2013
14,846
8
74,965
If she has a small business doing artwork then she needs to dump a lot more money into a PC then $400.
Anything in the $400 level will barley run photoshop. Fine for a 50mb logo or editing an already shrunk jpeg, but will struggle with 100+mb high resolution files.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
B

boosted1g

Titan
Jun 12, 2013
14,846
8
74,965
The A10 is a very weak CPU at the expense of having better integrated graphics.
The A10 is subpar to a core i3 cpu.

ADDED:
The other issue is that that A10 is pretty much the fastest CPU they make in that platform, meaning you pretty much already maxed out with nowhere to upgrade.

Also to maximize photoshop what you want is to use a NVIDIA dedicated GPU. Photoshop will utilize the cuda cores in the GPU so an NVidia GPU will actually help Photoshop performance, while the AMD graphics does nothing.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
B

boosted1g

Titan
Jun 12, 2013
14,846
8
74,965
Here is minimum build which is a good starter platform.
CPU and GPU can be upgraded latter.
You have 320gb drive for OS/Programs, and 1TB drive for scratch drive and backups.
Current GPU will play those games just fine and will play more demanding games on high at 720p and medium at 1080p.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i3-4160 3.6GHz Dual-Core Processor ($108.95 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-B85M-GAMING 3 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($54.45 @ OutletPC)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($48.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 320GB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($26.00 @ Amazon)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($50.89 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 750 Ti 2GB WINDFORCE Video Card ($109.99 @ Newegg)
Case: NZXT Source 210 Elite (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case ($41.99 @ Directron)
Power Supply: Rosewill Capstone 550W 80+ Gold Certified ATX Power Supply ($49.99 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: LG GH24NSC0B DVD/CD Writer ($12.99 @ Newegg)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 OEM (64-bit) ($86.98 @ OutletPC)
Total: $591.22
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-07-06 11:59 EDT-0400
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
B

boosted1g

Titan
Jun 12, 2013
14,846
8
74,965
Now this is an ideal build for what you are doing, naturally you can upgrade to the better parts latter.

Core i5 cpu for better performance
GTX 960 will provide better gaming performance and better photoshop performance in large files
Samsung SSD will provide significant performance increase in loading programs, booting windows, and opening large files.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4460 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor ($166.95 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-B85M-GAMING 3 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($54.45 @ OutletPC)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($48.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($97.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($50.89 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 960 2GB Video Card ($192.49 @ SuperBiiz)
Case: NZXT Source 210 Elite (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case ($41.99 @ Directron)
Power Supply: Rosewill Capstone 550W 80+ Gold Certified ATX Power Supply ($49.99 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: LG GH24NSC0B DVD/CD Writer ($12.99 @ Newegg)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 OEM (64-bit) ($86.98 @ OutletPC)
Total: $803.71
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-07-06 12:06 EDT-0400
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Ok Go

Ok Go

Distinguished
May 23, 2015
276
0
19,060
i really hope your budget doesnt include monitor and OS since it'll be almost impossible to get a capable setup.
but here's my suggestion. it covers most if not all your needs(hopefully). the casing looks professional, quite small since it's a mini tower so you can hide it, got wifi, a dvd burner, and quite good photoshop performance actually if you enable opencl.
but lacks front panel usb3.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD A10-7700K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($109.89 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-F2A88XM-D3H Micro ATX FM2+ Motherboard ($50.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($48.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($46.89 @ OutletPC)
Case: Cooler Master Elite 342 (Black) MicroATX Mini Tower Case w/400W Power Supply ($50.49 @ Amazon)
Optical Drive: Samsung SH-224DB/BEBE DVD/CD Writer ($14.98 @ OutletPC)
Wireless Network Adapter: TP-Link TL-WN881ND 802.11b/g/n PCI-Express x1 Wi-Fi Adapter ($19.98 @ OutletPC)
Total: $342.21
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-07-06 12:03 EDT-0400

still leaves you some wiggle room to upgrade (fancy a media centre? pop in a blu-ray and you get a mediacentre, sort of)
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Solution
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Latest posts

Moderators online

Share this page

COMPANY
RESOURCES
FOLLOW
Top Bottom