$580 Budget Build

[razzbaronz]

Hi Guys,

I'm looking to build a $500-600 PC for my father. He mostly just watches movies (may HDMI out to a TV) and surfs the web, sometimes a bit of photoshop. I'm mainly doing this because he complains about how loud our old computer is, and because it's over 8 years old! He's sitting with an Athlon XP 1.6Ghz and 1GB RAM. This is supposed to be both quiet and powerful for the money (all Newegg):

SAMSUNG CD/DVD Burner Black SATA Model TS-H663C/UOAH - OEM - $15.99
Antec Solo Black/Silver Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - $94.99
SAMSUNG Spinpoint F4 HD204UI 2TB 5400 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive -$79.99

HIS IceQ H567Q1GD Radeon HD 5670 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card w/ Eyefinity
$99.99 ($30.00 Mail-in Rebate Card)

COOLER MASTER Silent Pro M600 RS-600-AMBA-D3 600W ATX12V V2.3 SLI Certified CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Modular Active ...
$79.99 ($20.00 Mail-in Rebate)

G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9D-4GBRL
$49.99

AMD Phenom II X4 925 Deneb 2.8GHz Socket AM3 95W Quad-Core Processor HDX925WFGIBOX
ASUS M4A87TD EVO AM3 AMD 870 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard
(combo Deal)-$60.00 Combo = $159.98

Subtotal: $580.92

Thoughts?

 

[gkay09]

^ Some suggestions - Why a 600W PSU ??
IMO this case + PSU would suit
Antec NSK 4482B Black 0.8mm cold rolled steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case 380W Power Supply
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129072

Graphics card - Get a passive card, would further reduce the noise level
HD 5570 is powerful enough for his needs...Anyways that 380W can handle even 5750...
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161342

 

[razzbaronz]

Wow, fantastic suggestions! It's down to only $450 now!

 

[gkay09]

^ And a 5400RPM drive as a main drive ? For a boot drive, you would need something faster...
Samsung F3 1TB - I guess it would be big enough and is surely faster than that drive...That F4 would surely be a good storage drive, but I doubt a faster boot drive...
http://www.superbiiz.com/detail.php?name=HD-HD103SJ&src=FR&pid=ec8bceb7a2efab39e37059deeacd14d7c23f4cc4fd0eb2e319361933bf3e3ccf

 

[razzbaronz]

What do you think of a i3-540 rather than the AMD chip? It'll run at 73W rather than 95W, which I like:

Intel Core i3-540 Clarkdale 3.06GHz LGA 1156 73W Dual-Core Desktop Processor BX80616I3540
BIOSTAR TH55B HD LGA 1156 Intel H55 HDMI Micro ATX Intel Motherboard

for $170 combo price vs $160 for the AMD.

 

[gkay09]

^ You actually loose out on features such as USB3.0 and SATA 6GB/s(This might not matter, but USB3.0 is a good feature)
Also the power difference I doubt, if it was a 125W TDP CPU, then you might say that, but 95W vs 73W? Also you get a true Quad...

 

[razzbaronz]

Best answer selected by razzbaronz.