Have Parts, Need More; Flexible $300 Budget

[athlom]

Need advice on a desktop build for family use (i.e. web surfing/web gaming). The budget I'd prefer to spend is roughly $300 which I think is more than possible considering I have the following:

• All peripherals (Monitor/Speakers/Keyboard)
  Antec EarthWatts Green 650W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX PSU
  PNY GeForce GTX 260 Core 216 896MB 448-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP/SLI Ready
  Windows 7 Professional x64

Brands don't matter and they don't have to be the absolute cheapest as long as it fits into/around the budget... however I would like to incorporate:

• Possibility of just using the current optical drive on present PC
  SSD for the OS (Unsure about running along side secondary HD for storage*)
  Steel Mini Tower
  The more quiet the build the better

*402GB/449GB Free space on present PC of 5+ years if this helps with any decisions.

 

[bluejayek]

So to be clear, you need:
Case
CPU
Motherboard
RAM
Storage

Total under 300$?

This build would do it

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/JsLFCJ

The storage space is low, but if you really are only using 98GB of a 500GB hard drive and don't intend to increase a lot in the near future, it will work.

The RAM is also low, but its a single DIM and can be upgraded in the future up to 16GB using all 4 slots of the motherboard.

The only part of my suggestions I am sketchy on is the case. I don't know too much about it but it seems like it is made somewhat cheaply, and I can't find a straight answer about what the GPU maximum length actually is. I picked it because it is inexpensive, is a mini-tower as requested, and has an external 5.25" bay for your optical drive.

A Fractal Design Core 1000 would be a better choice. Not 'officially' a mini tower, but it is only marginally larger then the Rosewill, and doesn't cost too much more. With 2 of the HDD bays removed, it will fit your GPU, and your PSU size is within specs to fit. The cooling is also better on this case, and it supports an optical drive.

All of this being said, I would bid you up to this build, which is 60$ overbudget, but I would think it fits your requirements better.

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/tjH7Mp

Another option would be to keep the 128GB SSD and tack on a HDD, but that would end up costing more, and if you are only using ~100GB now, 256 should be fine.

 

[Teemi]

I'm confused. I don't see any 500 gb drives in blue's build. Imo an ssd is pointless on such a low end build. Might as well get one of those 1 tb hybrid drives instead.

 

[bluejayek]

The 500GB I was referring to was his current hard drive usage (Presumably the 449GB is the usable space of a nominal 500GB drive). He did specify that he wanted an SSD which is why I included it.

A 1TB hybrid drive would be fine, but a 256GB SSD only costs 10$ more than a 1TB hybrid from seasonic. If he is only going to be using ~100GB of hard drive space, I would say he is better off paying the 10$ extra for the better performance a full-on SSD will give. If there is an expectation of a lot of photos and such being stored in the future, a 1TB hybrid makes more sense.

 

[Teemi]

Ic, but he didn't list the hdd as one of the things he wanted to bring over to his new build.

 

[athlom]

So to be clear, you need:
http://pcpartpicker.com/p/tjH7Mp

Thank you Jay! I know I'm using parts out of an old gaming computer for a 'family use' PC but otherwise they're just laying around, and you never know it may come into use down the line... This last build looks good, I wasn't sure whether to go with the bigger SSD and skip an extra HD or vice versa. With the amount of storage being taken up on the desktop that's been in use for years being so minimal I think it's safe to say I'll be more than okay.

Imo an ssd is pointless on such a low end build.

Ic, but he didn't list the hdd as one of the things he wanted to bring over to his new build.

I want the SSD so the OS will boot fast, as well as everything else that goes with using an SSD. A main issue with the PC in question to be replaced is sluggishness so this will naturally eliminate that worry.

My list of items I wanted to incorporate were just things I could personally think of wanting to buy/use. In general I need the rest of the components to have a functional desktop.

 

[bluejayek]

Teemi, I was presuming that he was, in some sense, just going to be copying everything over from the old PC to the new. If the old PC only uses 100GB of storage, then the new PC only need that much + some extra margin, hence a 256GB SSD would be fine.

With the old PSU and graphics card, you will have what you need to build a new PC. The only exception would be an optical drive, but if you have a large
USB drive you can install windows from it rather then a disc/DVD anyways.