No idea what CPU/APU to start out with. Under $350 or so build.

[mattives29]

I am in the thinking process of building a computer for my wife and I (may eventually become hers) and I don't know where to begin on what CPU or APU to use. I have never built a computer before and will be doing this by myself. It doesn't seem hard at all; if anything my dad can help (who has built many in his life).

I was looking at APU's because of the integrated graphics and to keep cost down.

I was looking at the AMD A8 5500, A10 5800k, FX 4130, Phenom II X4 945, and Athelon II X4 760K. I want a processor that has more than 3 ghz. Can't do intel due to being to expensive.

If anyone have any other ideas as to CPU and possibly a good board to go along with it that would be great. Oh and minimal gaming will be done on the computer, I would just want it good enough to play a game on medium or so setting if I wanted to play a game. Thanks.

 

[DComander1x]

I am in the thinking process of building a computer for my wife and I (may eventually become hers) and I don't know where to begin on what CPU or APU to use. I have never built a computer before and will be doing this by myself. It doesn't seem hard at all; if anything my dad can help (who has built many in his life).

I was looking at APU's because of the integrated graphics and to keep cost down.

I was looking at the AMD A8 5500, A10 5800k, FX 4130, Phenom II X4 945, and Athelon II X4 760K. I want a processor that has more than 3 ghz. Can't do intel due to being to expensive.

If anyone have any other ideas as to CPU and possibly a good board to go along with it that would be great. Oh and minimal gaming will be done on the computer, I would just want it good enough to play a game on medium or so setting if I wanted to play a game. Thanks.

This build should be a great starting board, and CPU.
It should also game fine on medium settings.
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD Athlon II X4 645 3.1GHz Quad-Core Processor ($74.34 @ SuperBiiz)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master V6 GT 93.7 CFM CPU Cooler ($9.99 @ Mwave)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-78LMT-S2P Micro ATX AM3+ Motherboard ($44.98 @ OutletPC)
Memory: Kingston Black Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($49.98 @ PCM)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 250GB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($37.94 @ Amazon)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GT 630 1GB Video Card ($44.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Rosewill FBM-01 MicroATX Mini Tower Case ($22.49 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: Rosewill 350W ATX Power Supply ($29.99 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-04 DVD/CD Writer ($14.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $329.69
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-11-17 15:31 EST-0500)

 

[mattives29]

Is that a good CPU to overclock on if wanted to try it? Could I potentially get a different CPU around $100 instead of the one you posted and be closer to the $350 mark? Other than that thank you for your answer!

 

[mattives29]

Oh and I have been using pcpartpicker to try and get below the $350 mark and I have been above it every time. Glad to know I can actually be below it.

 

[DComander1x]

Is that a good CPU to overclock on if wanted to try it? Could I potentially get a different CPU around $100 instead of the one you posted and be closer to the $350 mark? Other than that thank you for your answer!

Oh and I have been using pcpartpicker to try and get below the $350 mark and I have been above it every time. Glad to know I can actually be below it.

Yeah, and if you want to spend some, the FX 4300 is better then that Athlon II, as its unlocked, meaning you can mess with the multiplier, rather then the Hyper-transport speed and overclocking the memory.
http://pcpartpicker.com/part/amd-cpu-fd4300wmhkbox
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD FX-4300 3.8GHz Quad-Core Processor ($99.99 @ Amazon)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master V6 GT 93.7 CFM CPU Cooler ($9.99 @ Mwave)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-78LMT-S2P Micro ATX AM3+ Motherboard ($44.98 @ OutletPC)
Memory: Kingston Black Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($49.98 @ PCM)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 250GB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($37.94 @ Amazon)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GT 630 1GB Video Card ($44.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Rosewill FBM-01 MicroATX Mini Tower Case ($22.49 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: Rosewill 350W ATX Power Supply ($29.99 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-04 DVD/CD Writer ($14.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $355.34
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-11-17 18:52 EST-0500)

 

[gizmo j]

Delete

 

[DComander1x]

This would be just as good as the PS3 and Xbox360

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Celeron G1610 2.6GHz Dual-Core Processor ($39.97 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: Biostar B75MU3B Micro ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($49.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: Crucial 1GB (1 x 1GB) DDR3-1333 Memory ($12.98 @ NCIX US)
Storage: Western Digital AV-GP 500GB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive ($42.94 @ Amazon)
Video Card: MSI Radeon HD 6570 1GB Video Card ($54.99 @ Amazon)
Case: Rosewill FBM-01 MicroATX Mini Tower Case ($22.49 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: Antec Basiq 350W ATX Power Supply ($29.99 @ NCIX US)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-04 DVD/CD Writer ($14.99 @ Newegg)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (OEM) (64-bit) ($89.00 @ Amazon)
Total: $357.34
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-11-17 19:09 EST-0500)

1 GB?!?!?! Who on earth would run a windows 7 computer, especially one for light gaming on that little memory? :lol: And the OP also said he wants an overclockable chip, not a locked one.

 

[gizmo j]

This would be just as good as the PS3 and Xbox360

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Celeron G1610 2.6GHz Dual-Core Processor ($39.97 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: Biostar B75MU3B Micro ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($49.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: Crucial 1GB (1 x 1GB) DDR3-1333 Memory ($12.98 @ NCIX US)
Storage: Western Digital AV-GP 500GB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive ($42.94 @ Amazon)
Video Card: MSI Radeon HD 6570 1GB Video Card ($54.99 @ Amazon)
Case: Rosewill FBM-01 MicroATX Mini Tower Case ($22.49 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: Antec Basiq 350W ATX Power Supply ($29.99 @ NCIX US)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-04 DVD/CD Writer ($14.99 @ Newegg)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (OEM) (64-bit) ($89.00 @ Amazon)
Total: $357.34
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-11-17 19:09 EST-0500)

1 GB?!?!?! Who on earth would run a windows 7 computer, especially one for light gaming on that little memory? And the OP also said he wants an overclockable chip, not a locked one.

I originally used 2gb but it was over budget so I had to skim down some parts. Besides he can add another RAM stick if 1gb is not enough.

Also I wanted it to be at least just as good as an Xbox 360 so I didn't want to skim on the GPU or CPU.

 

[DComander1x]

This would be just as good as the PS3 and Xbox360

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Celeron G1610 2.6GHz Dual-Core Processor ($39.97 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: Biostar B75MU3B Micro ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($49.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: Crucial 1GB (1 x 1GB) DDR3-1333 Memory ($12.98 @ NCIX US)
Storage: Western Digital AV-GP 500GB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive ($42.94 @ Amazon)
Video Card: MSI Radeon HD 6570 1GB Video Card ($54.99 @ Amazon)
Case: Rosewill FBM-01 MicroATX Mini Tower Case ($22.49 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: Antec Basiq 350W ATX Power Supply ($29.99 @ NCIX US)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-04 DVD/CD Writer ($14.99 @ Newegg)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (OEM) (64-bit) ($89.00 @ Amazon)
Total: $357.34
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-11-17 19:09 EST-0500)

1 GB?!?!?! Who on earth would run a windows 7 computer, especially one for light gaming on that little memory? And the OP also said he wants an overclockable chip, not a locked one.

I originally used 2gb but it was over budget so I had to skim down some parts. Besides he can add another RAM stick if 1gb is not enough.

Also I wanted it to be at least just as good as an Xbox 360 so I didn't want to skim on the GPU or CPU.

The XB360/PS3 and the PC are two different designs, PCs run more then one thing even during gaming. 4GB is the new minimum for Windows 7, especially when memory is this cheap.

 

[gizmo j]

I know that....I just wanted him to have a similar experiences to the X360.

The 360s GPU has 240 Gflops and it takes about x2 the performance to match console hardware on a PC so I looked for a cheap GPU that's above 480 Gflops and I found the 6570.

As for the CPU it was the cheapest dual core+motherboard I can find that was decent.

After this the price was above $350 so I skimmed some parts to make budget...

 

[DComander1x]

I know that....I just wanted him to have a similar experiences to the X360.

The 360s GPU has 240 Gflops and it takes about x2 the performance to match console hardware on a PC so I looked for a cheap GPU that's above 480 Gflops and I found the 6570.

As for the CPU it was the cheapest dual core+motherboard I can find that was decent.

After this the price was above $350 so I skimmed some parts to make budget...

Ah, alright.

 

[gizmo j]

Now that I think about I can skim the HDD and he can have 2GB of RAM

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Celeron G1610 2.6GHz Dual-Core Processor ($39.97 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: Biostar B75MU3B Micro ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($49.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: Pareema 2GB (1 x 2GB) DDR3-1333 Memory ($19.98 @ OutletPC)
Storage: Seagate Pipeline HD 160GB 3.5" 5900RPM Internal Hard Drive ($30.48 @ Amazon)
Video Card: MSI Radeon HD 6570 1GB Video Card ($54.99 @ Amazon)
Case: Rosewill FBM-01 MicroATX Mini Tower Case ($22.49 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: Antec Basiq 350W ATX Power Supply ($29.99 @ NCIX US)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-04 DVD/CD Writer ($14.99 @ Newegg)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (OEM) (64-bit) ($89.00 @ Amazon)
Total: $351.88
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-11-17 20:04 EST-0500)

 

[mattives29]

I will be running linux on this machine. Never used it before and figured why not? I came up with this set up.

PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/23VNt
Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/23VNt/by_merchant/
Benchmarks: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/23VNt/benchmarks/

CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor ($91.98 @ SuperBiiz)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master V6 GT 93.7 CFM CPU Cooler ($9.99 @ Mwave)
Motherboard: MSI 760GM-P21 (FX) Micro ATX AM3+ Motherboard ($47.98 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: Kingston Black Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($49.98 @ PCM)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 250GB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($37.94 @ Amazon)
Video Card: XFX Radeon HD 6450 1GB Video Card ($36.60 @ Amazon)
Sound Card: Encore ENM232-8VIA 24-bit 96 KHz Sound Card ($8.98 @ OutletPC)
Wireless Network Adapter: Rosewill RNX-N150HG 802.11b/g/n USB 2.0 Wi-Fi Adapter ($7.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Rosewill FBM-02 MicroATX Mini Tower Case ($22.49 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: CoolMax 400W ATX Power Supply ($22.98 @ OutletPC)
Optical Drive: Asus DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS DVD/CD Writer ($18.98 @ OutletPC)
Total: $355.89
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-11-17 21:27 EST-0500)

Anything I should change? I sort of based it off of the first build post that was posted here.

 

[mattives29]

Heck, I told my wife that this would be primarily hers (even though I will use it a lot). How about the AMD Phenom II X4 945? It's $10 cheaper and would probably suit all that i need?

 

[DComander1x]

I will be running linux on this machine. Never used it before and figured why not? I came up with this set up.

PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/23VNt
Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/23VNt/by_merchant/
Benchmarks: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/23VNt/benchmarks/

CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor ($91.98 @ SuperBiiz)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master V6 GT 93.7 CFM CPU Cooler ($9.99 @ Mwave)
Motherboard: MSI 760GM-P21 (FX) Micro ATX AM3+ Motherboard ($47.98 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: Kingston Black Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($49.98 @ PCM)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 250GB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($37.94 @ Amazon)
Video Card: XFX Radeon HD 6450 1GB Video Card ($36.60 @ Amazon)
Sound Card: Encore ENM232-8VIA 24-bit 96 KHz Sound Card ($8.98 @ OutletPC)
Wireless Network Adapter: Rosewill RNX-N150HG 802.11b/g/n USB 2.0 Wi-Fi Adapter ($7.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Rosewill FBM-02 MicroATX Mini Tower Case ($22.49 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: CoolMax 400W ATX Power Supply ($22.98 @ OutletPC)
Optical Drive: Asus DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS DVD/CD Writer ($18.98 @ OutletPC)
Total: $355.89
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-11-17 21:27 EST-0500)

Anything I should change? I sort of based it off of the first build post that was posted here.

For Linux, you should try Linux Mint, its super easy of all of the Linuxes to use, and everything is alright, minus the power supply, Id recommend a name brand, like corsair or Antec just be on the safe side.

Heck, I told my wife that this would be primarily hers (even though I will use it a lot). How about the AMD Phenom II X4 945? It's $10 cheaper and would probably suit all that i need?

That CPU is actually the best out of all of the ones that were posted, for price/performance ratios and its not to mention its performance/watt ratios. Also, remove the sound card, onboard sound is more then plenty, unless you get a pricy one.

 

[mattives29]

The 955 or the 945?

 

[DComander1x]

The 955 or the 945?

The 945, but the 955 does good too.

 

[mattives29]

Ok cool. Can it be overclocked if i desire to try it? And do all the other parts listed seem to be good?

 

[gizmo j]

When making a build for gaming your GPU should NEVER cost less then the CPU.

Ideally if your CPU is $100 your GPU should be $200.

 

[mattives29]

Well...this will more than likely never get gamed on, but in the case that it is It doesn't really matte how dated it is. Just needs to be good quality/brand/cost. That and I don't have the money to go way over budget.

 

[gizmo j]

Well...this will more than likely never get gamed on, but in the case that it is It doesn't really matte how dated it is. Just needs to be good quality/brand/cost. That and I don't have the money to go way over budget.

Ohh....-_-

Well then, if I were you I would just get this laptop

http://www.amazon.com/VivoBook-X200CA-DB01T-11-6-Inch-Touchscreen-Laptop/dp/B00CPIF4G0/ref=sr_1_23?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1384729923&sr=1-23

 

[mattives29]

Thanks but no thanks! Been wanting to build a computer for a couple years now and am about ready to do it!

 

[gizmo j]

Thanks but no thanks! Been wanting to build a computer for a couple years now and am about ready to do it!

Then you should get this.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD FX-4300 3.8GHz Quad-Core Processor ($99.99 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: Asus M5A78L-M LX PLUS Micro ATX AM3+ Motherboard ($54.98 @ Amazon)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($38.99 @ NCIX US)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($59.99 @ Microcenter)
Video Card: PowerColor Radeon HD 5450 512MB Video Card ($27.99 @ Amazon)
Case: Rosewill FBM-01 MicroATX Mini Tower Case ($22.49 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: Antec Basiq 350W ATX Power Supply ($29.99 @ NCIX US)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-04 DVD/CD Writer ($14.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $349.41
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-11-17 23:13 EST-0500)

 

[mattives29]

You actually gave me a good idea. I might buy my wife a chromebook considering she doesn't do much but internet. I might build this computer myself but keep it as if it were hers...meaning still not really build for gaming but if I wanted to game on it it would do well.

 

[Paulm222]

AMD FX6350
GIGABYTE GA-78LMT-USB3 Motherboard
8 gig Crucial Ballistix ram

Lol I don`t know a great deal but used these items on my very first build and have no complaints, its all very stable so far, the board has pretty basic graphics built in, fine for basic pc task.

As for the other items I`m not sure, but maybe strike the cooler off your initial list and use the stock cooler to begin with, for the first couple of weeks you may not feel like over clocking anyway and you can always add one later, use this cash elsewhere.

The FX6350 runs at 3.9 Ghz at base level and I`ve found it to be pretty nippy at video editing and other processor hungry task.