$700 Dollar PSP system for wife, any good builds?

[schitzoflink]

APPROXIMATE PURCHASE DATE: within a month
BUDGET RANGE: 600-700 Before

SYSTEM USAGE FROM MOST TO LEAST IMPORTANT: Paint Shop Pro (photo editing) surfing Internet
PARTS NOT REQUIRED: Keyboard, Mouse and Monitor

PREFERRED WEBSITE(S) FOR PARTS: Newegg or Amazon
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: US

PARTS PREFERENCES: None (AMD CPU for price savings)

OVERCLOCKING: No
SLI OR CROSSFIRE: No

MONITOR RESOLUTION: 1400x1050 (max)
ADDITIONAL COMMENTS: This is going to be a new comp for the wife, need a Case with ports on top (she rolls over them while plugged in otherwise) also needs to be quite but the budget is most important.

Current thrown together build any changes appreciated

XCLIO Godspeed 747

Not sure on HDD Need at least 500GB

Corsair 450w

Sony DVD Burner

Radeon 4850

ASRock M3a770DE

AMD Phenom x2 550

Need HSF also

And 4 GB of Ram not sure if I need to worry about performance too much on this? If so I'll grab some G.Skill C7 or OCZ C7 for around 80?

Also She needs to move large files fairly frequently so a good 16GBish flash drive that I can put on her keys that she won't break (disclaimer...she has cracked her solitaire so the flash drive needs to be pretty sturdy)

So I'm looking for something around this performance wise but want to try and keep it as cheap as possible 600-700 is what I'm coming up with. THANKS!

 

[anonymousdude]

Quad core- $96

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103706&cm_re=propus-_-19-103-706-_-Product

Mobo- Asrock is fine, but I am a fan of gigabyte - $60 or $75

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128376&cm_re=770_motherboard-_-13-128-376-_-Product

Case- Antec 300 or 300 illusion if the ports would be ok. They're not on top, but are at the very top of the front. - $60 or $70

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129042&cm_re=antec_300-_-11-129-042-_-Product

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129066&cm_re=antec_300-_-11-129-066-_-Product

If that doesn't work then the nzxt beta evo might fit you- $60

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811146059&cm_re=nzxt_evo-_-11-146-059-_-Product

Memory- G skill or ocz is good. 4GB will suffice, but you may want to consider 8GB.- $115

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231318&cm_re=g_skill_eco-_-20-231-318-_-Product

HDD- Samsung F3 or Seagate 7200.12- $55

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822152181

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148395&Tpk=7200.12%20500

PSU- The corsair is good- $60

Alternative- ocz modxstream 500w- $40

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817341016&cm_re=modxstream-_-17-341-016-_-Product

Graphics card- You won't need a 4850 if you're not gaming, but $110 is a good price.

A 4670 would suffice- $80

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150449&cm_re=xfx_4670-_-14-150-449-_-Product

The DVD drive is fine- $30

OS- Win 7 Home premium or Pro- you choice- $105 or $140

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116754&cm_re=win_7_oem-_-32-116-754-_-Product

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116758&cm_re=win_7_oem-_-32-116-758-_-Product

Flash drive- I think this is sturdy enough - $55- there are cheaper ones around $40 or less

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820233059&cm_re=16gb_flash-_-20-233-059-_-Product

The stock HSF will be fine if you're not overclocking.

Total $696-$806+ tax and shipping (includes flash drive) otherwise $641-$751.

You can always trim down on costs if you decide to get slower memory, the cheaper case, or a cheaper flash drive.

Also since you're not buying this now you may want to post again when you have a set date of purchase. Prices like to change quite a bit.

 

[schitzoflink]

Besides the OS everything looks good, I already bought a win7 pro upgrade with her student discount ($30)

 

[anonymousdude]

Besides the OS everything looks good, I already bought a win7 pro upgrade with her student discount ($30)

Then with the money saved you could afford a phenom II instead like the 925

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103656&cm_re=phenom_II-_-19-103-656-_-Product

And a better motherboard like the Asus M4A79XTD EVO like in your other build.

Also you could get a better graphics card though I still feel it's unnecessary for photo editing.

Maybe spend that money on some extra memory if your wife handles very large images.

 

[schitzoflink]

The Win7 is 32 bit, should I even get more than 4gb or memory?

 

[anonymousdude]

The Win7 is 32 bit, should I even get more than 4gb or memory?

In that case just get the 4GB. When you bought win 7 couldn't you have gotten the 64 bit version?

 

[schitzoflink]

Best answer selected by schitzoflink.

 

[schitzoflink]

In that case just get the 4GB. When you bought win 7 couldn't you have gotten the 64 bit version?

Yes, but the student $30 is for upgrade versions, so I bought a Win7 Home to upgrade her school laptop, and a copy of win7 pro to upgrade our current 4 yr old desktop with XP pro.

I'll be using the Win7 pro on her new desktop but the XP is 32bit.

For my new comp (the other thread) I'm buying Win7 Pro 64.

 

[anonymousdude]

The Windows 7 upgrade discs come with both the 32 and 64 bit versions. The only thing is that you can't use the upgrade option to go to 64 bit, but if you were to do a clean install you could. It puts everything into a windows.old folder, but I would back everything up in the first place. I've done this to the very laptop I'm typing on right now and it has given me no problems.

 

[schitzoflink]

Sweet, but Im still going to keep her DT 32 bit untill 64 becomes more ubiquitous for two reasons, she won't really need more then 4GB of ram, and on the odd occasion she has some problem with a gadget or program not working with the 64bit OS I won't have to troubleshoot over the phone from work lol