crimsonparadox

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Nov 4, 2011
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Hey all. This will be my first time building. One question I have before I start is whether I should buy this thing now or wait until the summer. I know November has lots of sales on parts thanks to Black Friday and stuff. But as of right now I live in a dorm with limited space and don't have as much money. If I wait until the summer I will maybe have a bit more money and I'm moving into an apartment later that year. Mostly I want to know if this is the right time to buy parts and build since I want this computer to last for some years (unlike my laptop which is dying around 2 years right now). I also want to be sure I can reuse things if I ever want to upgrade. Hope I filled out everything right, sorry if I didn't.

Approximate Purchase Date: Late November/Black Friday? or in the Summer


Budget Range: 600-700 after rebates


System Usage from Most to Least Important: Games (WoW, League of Legends, Dungeon Defense TF2 (doesn't have to be at max settings, I just want to be able to play without lag)), Internet browsing, Word Processing, Website Editing, Movie watching


Parts Not Required: I need everything, except maybe a mouse.


Preferred Website(s) for Parts: Doesn't matter as long as they are reputable.


Country of Origin: United States


Parts Preferences: No preference


Overclocking: Doesn't really matter


SLI or Crossfire: Doesn't matter


Monitor Resolution: I also need to buy a monitor, so any links to good sales would be good. It doesn't have to be huge. I'm okay with a small monitor.


Additional Comments: For the mouse, keyboard, speakers, it doesn't have to be the gaming type. I also need a Windows 7 install disk. I really don't know that much about computers so I couldn't answer the overclocking ,etc. questions. If you have any advice please feel free to let me know.
 
Solution
1TB is going to push it slightly over budget but heres a decent Pentium based build:

Intel Pentium G850 - $87.99
2x2GB G.Skill Ripjaws - $26.99
ASRock H61M-VS - $59.99
XFX HD 6670 1GB - $79.99 ($15 MIR)
Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB - $139.99
Coolermaster Elite 430 - $49.99 ($10 MIR)
Corsair CX-430 - $44.99 ($20 MIR)
Samsung DVD Burner - $18.99
Windows 7 Home Premium - $99.99
Acer 20'' Monitor - $89.99
Logitech S-220 - $24.99
Logitech M100 - $11.99
Logitech K120 - $13.99

Total - $749.87 before shipping and rebates

After rebates it's $704 and should run most games at medium/high decently at 1600x900.
If hard drives weren't so expensive this wouldn't be so hard. Slightly over the budget but I'd aim for something like this:

i3-2100
ASRock H61M-VS
4GB Kingston Value Series
XFX HD 6770 1GB
Samsung Spinpoint F3 500GB
Antec Earthwatts 380W
Xigmatek ASGARD II
SAMSUNG CD/DVD Burner
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-bit - OEM
Acer 20'' Monitor

That comes to $707 on Newegg, that's before shipping and $30 rebates. Then spend say $30-40 on keyboard, mouse and speakers and you're at roughly $750. If you can't afford that I would drop the i3 down to a Pentium G840 and the GPU down to an HD 5670 or something.
 
Alternatively if you don't mind playing at medium-ish settings you could do a much cheaper FM1 based build such as this:

AMD A6-3650
Kingston Value 4GB (2 x 2GB)
ASRock A55M-HVS
SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 500GB
SeaSonic SS-300ET Bronze 300W
SAMSUNG CD/DVD Burner
Xigmatek ASGARD II
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-bit - OEM

That only comes to $500 before shipping and a $10 rebate.

Means playing on medium settings but you can get some nicer peripherals:

Acer 23.6'' Monitor
Logitech S-220

That brings it to about $680.
 

crimsonparadox

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Nov 4, 2011
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Would you recommend building now (nearer to Black Friday) or just waiting until later this coming summer? Maybe the prices for the harddrives might go down by then or would it not really matter?

As for the builds you suggested, I could probably do the lower 500 USD build, as long as I am still able to upgrade the rig in the future and this computer is decent enough to play games without lag on low settings. Just want it kinda future proof for a few years until I can afford a real rig.
 
I don't think hard drive prices are going to come down for a long while to be honest, I wouldn't hold my breath.

Just build it nearer to now, either the A6 build or the Pentium by the sounds of it. Not sure of the price difference but if it's not much of a difference go for the pentium/HD 5670 build.
 

crimsonparadox

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Nov 4, 2011
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Do you have a suggestion for a 1tb harddrive storage brand that I could replace the Samsung 300gb with? Or would that increase the price too much for the builds. I'm currently debating if I should just spring for the i3 or stick with the Pentium.
 
1TB is going to push it slightly over budget but heres a decent Pentium based build:

Intel Pentium G850 - $87.99
2x2GB G.Skill Ripjaws - $26.99
ASRock H61M-VS - $59.99
XFX HD 6670 1GB - $79.99 ($15 MIR)
Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB - $139.99
Coolermaster Elite 430 - $49.99 ($10 MIR)
Corsair CX-430 - $44.99 ($20 MIR)
Samsung DVD Burner - $18.99
Windows 7 Home Premium - $99.99
Acer 20'' Monitor - $89.99
Logitech S-220 - $24.99
Logitech M100 - $11.99
Logitech K120 - $13.99

Total - $749.87 before shipping and rebates

After rebates it's $704 and should run most games at medium/high decently at 1600x900.
 
Solution

crimsonparadox

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Nov 4, 2011
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Haha, so I'm dumb and realized I have a bit less money than I thought. So I have to stick with the 500 gb samsung spinpoint f3 HD instead of the 1tb. I don't have the change the build any right?