Looking for a good $300 PC for office use

RacAtat007 · Jan 25, 2016

I am pretty knowledgeable about gaming PCs and higher end PCs but my family is looking for a new PC for around $300-$350 and I really don't know much about the lower end of things. I am trying to find a decently fast PC either pre-built or I can build it myself for everyday use, no gaming. Any recommendations?

Also if a CPU doesn't have built in graphics will the PC need a GPU for video playback and things like that?

BadActor · Jan 25, 2016

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i3-4170 3.7GHz Dual-Core Processor ($112.99 @ NCIX US)
Motherboard: ECS B85H3-M9 (1.0) Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($30.98 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($29.75 @ Newegg)
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($84.34 @ Amazon)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 250GB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($19.95 @ 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 ($42.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Total: $350.99
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-01-25 13:09 EST-0500

badboyrog2 · Jan 25, 2016

PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/CJtx4D
Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/CJtx4D/by_merchant/

CPU: Intel Core i3-4170 3.7GHz Dual-Core Processor ($112.99 @ NCIX US)
Motherboard: ASRock H97M PRO4 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($79.89 @ OutletPC)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($29.75 @ Newegg)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($45.88 @ OutletPC)
Case: Deepcool TESSERACT BF ATX Mid Tower Case ($28.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Corsair Builder 430W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($39.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $337.49
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-01-25 13:45 EST-0500

RacAtat007 · Jan 25, 2016

Well despite my best efforts these are the 2 finalists. I tried to explain spending more now to get a longer lifespan out of the PC but I guess they will figure that out eventually. Based on the little bit of research I did it seems like the Intel PC will be a bit faster now but doesn't have many choices for upgrades with the socket restriction. The AMD PC should be more easily upgraded but again I don't know much about anything older than a few years ago when I got into PCs. Any idea which is better out of the 2?

http://m.newegg.com/Product/index?itemnumber=N82E16883158064

http://www.walmart.com/ip/HP-Refurbished-Black-6005-Pro-Desktop-PC-with-AMD-Athlon-II-X2-Processor-4GB-Memory-1TB-Hard-Drive-and-Windows-7-Professional-Monitor-Not-Included/23325250

lodders · Jan 25, 2016

RacAtat007 :

If I wanted a low budget PC, I would just buy one from a shop.
The advantages of self build are:- good quality power supply and motherboard, build exactly what you need, more cost effective.
When you build at a very low budget, you end up with a plain vanilla PC with low quality components same as one in a shop.. Sure it costs a few $ less, but you don't have a proper warranty.....

turkey3_scratch · Jan 25, 2016

lodders :

RacAtat007 :

If I wanted a low budget PC, I would just buy one from a shop.
The advantages of self build are:- good quality power supply and motherboard, build exactly what you need, more cost effective.
When you build at a very low budget, you end up with a plain vanilla PC with low quality components same as one in a shop.. Sure it costs a few $ less, but you don't have a proper warranty.....

Except when people build on a $300 budget, the power supply they usually pick is crappy quality. Sometimes worse than the OEM ones.

RacAtat007 · Jan 25, 2016

lodders :

Yes I built my own PC and agree with you. This is for my parents and since I won't see them for a while I would have to build the PC at my house and ship it to them so they decided to go this route instead. I was just wondering out of the 2 links provided what PC was better. As I said I only got into PC about 3-4 years ago so anything older than that I don't know much about.

BadActor · Jan 25, 2016

The one I did has an SSD and a better quality PSU, but the motherboard is a really basic one. Both will perform the same and can be upgraded with more RAM or even an i7 quad core if you wanted to. The onboard graphics should be fine for general usage.

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/id-2547993/psu-tier-list.html

Search

Looking for a good $300 PC for office use

RacAtat007

Distinguished

BadActor

BadActor

Expert

badboyrog2

Distinguished

RacAtat007

Distinguished

lodders

Admirable

turkey3_scratch

Expert

RacAtat007

Distinguished

BadActor

Expert

TRENDING THREADS

Latest posts

Moderators online

Share this page