Any advice will be gratefully received. I had this in the shopping cart, and I was typing in my credit card info when I thought: "Better check with the ones who KNOW."
My own build, described several weeks ago, is on hold for the time being, so I'm building this for someone else. In this price bracket, it's tempting to just get a Dell Inspiron or similar, but the recipient runs two monitors and that means adding a video card -- at which point, with the Inspirons, you may also need to get a new power supply. So, I'm going to build.
Will purchase Windows 7 separately and use the Antec 450W power supply that was left over from my previous build two years ago (PSU came with my Sonata II case but I bought a larger power supply separately). Will also reuse keyboard, speakers, and mouse.
Base: this isn't really a gaming rig, but to get started I used this recent article at Tom's Hardware, on building a $550 Gaming PC: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/cpu-gpu-overclock,2659.html. I opted for a different video card (see below), different DVD burner (based on my own experience with the last build; my pick was all of $1 more), and a larger hard drive. The RAM they recommended wasn't available at NewEgg, so I picked something else that got good reviews and was in my price range. Kept the case, mobo, and CPU the same.
Goals: the user mainly uses office apps, the web, and streams video online. Some light gaming. This will be a big upgrade from the present machine, a six-year old Dell Inspiron. Should be much snappier and stream video much smoother.
Constraints:
1. Total cost not to exceed $570. (I have some room here, as you can see.)
2. Needs to be quiet (that's one of two reasons I picked this particular version of the Nvidia 9800; it's MSI, and it has low power requirements).
If there's a better mobo/CPU combination in this price bracket, I'd love to know about it. Same for case and memory. (With hard drives I have a somewhat arbitrary rule: NO unless it the average review at NewEgg is five stars.)
Qty.Product DescriptionSavingsTotal Price1
ASUS M4A77TD ATX AMD Motherboard
Item #:N82E16813131603
Return Policy: Standard Return Policy
$84.991
SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 500GB 3.5" SATA 3.0Gb/s Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
Item #:N82E16822152181
Return Policy: Standard Return Policy
$54.991
Pioneer CD/DVD Burner Black IDE Model DVR-118LBK LabelFlash Support
Item #:N82E16827129043
Return Policy: Standard Return Policy
$22.991
COOLER MASTER Elite 330 RC-330-KKN1-GP Black Computer Case
Item #:N82E16811119115
Return Policy: Standard Return Policy
-$5.00 Instant
$44.99
$39.991
AMD Athlon II X3 435 2.9GHz Socket AM3 95W Triple-Core Processor
Item #:N82E16819103724
Return Policy: CPU Replacement Only Return Policy
$70.001
G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10600) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory
Item #:N82E16820231180
Return Policy: Memory Standard Return Policy
$102.991
MSI GeForce 9800 GT N9800GT-MD1G Video Card
Item #:N82E16814127441
Return Policy: VGA Replacement Only Return Policy
-$5.00 Instant
$20.00 Mail-in Rebate
$119.99
$114.99Grand Total:$490.94
My own build, described several weeks ago, is on hold for the time being, so I'm building this for someone else. In this price bracket, it's tempting to just get a Dell Inspiron or similar, but the recipient runs two monitors and that means adding a video card -- at which point, with the Inspirons, you may also need to get a new power supply. So, I'm going to build.
Will purchase Windows 7 separately and use the Antec 450W power supply that was left over from my previous build two years ago (PSU came with my Sonata II case but I bought a larger power supply separately). Will also reuse keyboard, speakers, and mouse.
Base: this isn't really a gaming rig, but to get started I used this recent article at Tom's Hardware, on building a $550 Gaming PC: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/cpu-gpu-overclock,2659.html. I opted for a different video card (see below), different DVD burner (based on my own experience with the last build; my pick was all of $1 more), and a larger hard drive. The RAM they recommended wasn't available at NewEgg, so I picked something else that got good reviews and was in my price range. Kept the case, mobo, and CPU the same.
Goals: the user mainly uses office apps, the web, and streams video online. Some light gaming. This will be a big upgrade from the present machine, a six-year old Dell Inspiron. Should be much snappier and stream video much smoother.
Constraints:
1. Total cost not to exceed $570. (I have some room here, as you can see.)
2. Needs to be quiet (that's one of two reasons I picked this particular version of the Nvidia 9800; it's MSI, and it has low power requirements).
If there's a better mobo/CPU combination in this price bracket, I'd love to know about it. Same for case and memory. (With hard drives I have a somewhat arbitrary rule: NO unless it the average review at NewEgg is five stars.)
Qty.Product DescriptionSavingsTotal Price1
ASUS M4A77TD ATX AMD Motherboard
Item #:N82E16813131603
Return Policy: Standard Return Policy
$84.991
SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 500GB 3.5" SATA 3.0Gb/s Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
Item #:N82E16822152181
Return Policy: Standard Return Policy
$54.991
Pioneer CD/DVD Burner Black IDE Model DVR-118LBK LabelFlash Support
Item #:N82E16827129043
Return Policy: Standard Return Policy
$22.991
COOLER MASTER Elite 330 RC-330-KKN1-GP Black Computer Case
Item #:N82E16811119115
Return Policy: Standard Return Policy
-$5.00 Instant
$44.99
$39.991
AMD Athlon II X3 435 2.9GHz Socket AM3 95W Triple-Core Processor
Item #:N82E16819103724
Return Policy: CPU Replacement Only Return Policy
$70.001
G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10600) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory
Item #:N82E16820231180
Return Policy: Memory Standard Return Policy
$102.991
MSI GeForce 9800 GT N9800GT-MD1G Video Card
Item #:N82E16814127441
Return Policy: VGA Replacement Only Return Policy
-$5.00 Instant
$20.00 Mail-in Rebate
$119.99
$114.99Grand Total:$490.94