$500 budget build...

[Josef]

Building a computer for a friend and will try to answer these questions based on what he told me...

1. What YOUR PC will be used for. That means what types of tasks you'll be performing.

General use such as internet browsing, light gaming (nothing too intense nor a high resolution screen. He told me he only plays RTS games such as CIV4 but said he might get new RTS games ), movies...

2. What YOUR budget is. A price range is acceptable as long as it's not more than a 20% spread

$500 (before shipping) for: Case, Mobo, CPU, GPU, SPU, HDD, RAM.

3. What country YOU will be buying YOUR parts from.

Canada!

4. IF YOU have a brand preference. That means, are you an Intel-Fanboy, AMD-Fanboy, ATI-Fanboy, nVidia-Fanboy, Seagate-Fanboy, WD-Fanboy, etc, etc, etc, you get the picture.

Personally I've owned all those brands at one point in my life. Neither me or my friend care what brand.

5. If YOU intend on using any of YOUR current parts, and if so, what those parts are.

No spare parts.

6. IF YOU have searched and/or read similar threads.

Searched and checked some out but most $500 budget threads already had some parts before the $500 budget.

7. IF YOU plan on overclocking or run the system at default speeds.

Unsure, but I doubt he will overclock right away. Maybe later on.

8. WHEN do you plan to build it?

Soon!

Now that you guys know what I'm aiming for here is what I came up with:

Build 1:

CPU + GPU:

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.171731

MOBO:

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128357

RAM:

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231122

PSU:

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371006

HDD:

Newegg.ca - Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST3250410AS 250GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - Internal Hard Drives

CASE;

Newegg.ca - Antec Three Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Computer Cases

DVD:

Newegg.ca - SAMSUNG Black 22X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 16X DVD+R DL 22X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 12X DVD-RAM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM 2MB Cache IDE 22X DVD±R DVD Burner - CD / DVD Burners


$512.43

Handling: $66.77
Shipping: $55.11

Grand Total: $634.31


Build 2:

CPU + GPU:

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.171728

MOBO:

Newegg.ca - GIGABYTE GA-EP43-UD3L LGA 775 Intel P43 ATX Intel Motherboard - Intel Motherboards

RAM:

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820146731

PSU:

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139008

HDD:

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136218

CASE:

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129042

DVD:

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827151175


$650.92

Handling: $84.78
Shipping: $55.11

Grand Total: $790.81



I came up with the two so he can decide if he wants the little bit extra performance or if he wants to stick to the budget. We can obviously upgrade certain parts of build one if he wants to spend a little bit extra but not entirely to the point of build 2.

Any input is appreciated!

P.S. Any trusted hardware dealer is fine. I just chose newegg since these parts were no cheaper on NCIX or other sites.

[Liu Kang]

Run those parts through DirectCanada.com, they almost always have the best prices... plus if you live out of province, you only pay one tax :)

[CanadaRox]

I would recommend using NCIX and price matching using PriceCanada.com: Search. Compare. Buy. - Canadian Online Shopping Search and Comparison! or Compare prices - Canada - Price Comparison - Comparison Shopping or something similar. That generally cuts off a decent chunk of the price.

It would probably also be easier for us to help you if you posted the names of each component, or at least make all the links as links. I personally would pick the second PC because the HDD will be a fair amount faster, and the size of the 250GB will probably be a bit limited later. I would definitely recommend overclocking, as both of those budget CPUs will get a fairly large speed increase even with stock cooling. You could get the E5200 and a better heatsink and overclock it at least as far as the E7400 I expect. I also think the P43 will overclock better than the G31, so if you don't plan on ever overclocking yu might as well just step down to the G31.

[Mr. Gruntsworthy]

instead of just simply posting links, can you list the actual parts as well? it would just make things a little easier. :)

[Realityshift]

Buying anything lower then a 500gb hard drive these days is just a waste, as the price per gb goes down the more you buy. For the same price or may a tad more you could get a WD 640gb 16mb blue which is a great drive and costs alot less if you factor it at gb\$

Other then that im to lazy to copy and paste links, so like grunts said please post part names and working links so we can tell what we are looking at easier.

[ImmaPC]

I would take the E5200 and the EG31, some guy on the NCIX forums managed to get his CPU to 4ghz on air with that board, so if you ever decide to OC that would definitely be the way to go

I dunno why you would pay extra money for the P43 board just for OCing when the G31 does it great to begin with. Quite frankly if you're going to use all those PCI-E x1 ports, THEN get the P43, otherwise I would stick with the G31.

The Mushkin RAM is the same thing as the GSkill one, is more durable (hey, it's Mushkin), and it's cheaper (slightly. GO with that.

Definitely the WD Caviar Black 640GB, great drive for the money

3870 I am a bit bleh on, I dunno the performance of it vs. say, a 9800GT or a 4670, 9600GT, you know...

The Earthwatts is 30W more than the CX400 and is cheaper, I would go with that one. If you want the looks of the CX400, just paint the Earthwatts black

The case, Antec 300 you chose is fine. Personally, I would be more inclined to spend some extra money and get a more skookum case like the CM 590, mainly because it has more fans/places for fans.

E5200 or E7400 both OC great, but me being the somewhat frugal person I am, I would get the E5200 and then just OC it or something.

[Realityshift]

G.SKILL F2-6400CL4D-4GBPK PC2-6400 4GB 2X2GB DDR2-800 CL4-4-4-12 240PIN Dual Channel Memory Kit - DirectCanada

Mushkin ram is cheaper then that? and theres no durability difference between mushies and G.Skill their both great moduals.

My E7400 hit 3.6ghz easily at 1.36v which believe it or not is quite high voltage for that overclock on my cpu, alot of people are getting 4ghz at the same volts. Regardless the E5200 is a much better budget CPU and overclocks nearly as well as the E7400 for a fraction of the price.

I second the CM 590 case, much nicer to work with then a 300. and 3870s arent bad my old 3850 ran pretty well any game I threw at it besides crysis at medium - high settings at 1400x900, so id expect a little more then that out of the 3870. That being said it would make more sense to grab a 4830 or a 9800GT as the price/performance is a little stronger there.

[snoosebum]

Like reality shift mentioned maybe try a bigger drive. NCIX has this one on for a $1 more but its a much better drive and almost 3X the size.

NCIX.com - Buy Western Digital Caviar SE16 640GB SATA2 7200RPM 16MB Hard Drive OEM 3YR MFR Warranty - WD6400AAKS In Canada.

The Gskill is probably better ram but for a budget build maybe this 4GB corsair kit for 35 bucks after MIR (it was 15 bucks last night).

NCIX.com - Buy Corsair XMS2 TWIN2X4096-6400C5 4GB DDR2 2X2GB PC2-6400 DDR2-800 CL 5-5-5-18 240PIN Memory Kit - TWIN2X4096-6400C5 In Canada.

or these patriots for $35 bucks

NCIX.com - Buy Patriot Viper Extreme Performance 4GB DDR2 2X2GB PC2-6400 DDR2-800 CL 4-4-4-12 Memory Kit - PVS24G6400LLK In Canada.


You can save a few bucks on the optical here

NCIX.com - Buy Samsung SH-S223F/BEBN 22X Speedplus DVD+-RW SATA DVD Writer OEM - SH-S223F/BEBN In Canada.

Theres a BFG power supply in the "Hot Deals" sections as well maybe you'd be interested in instead of the antec.

http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/forum...s-550-psu.html

[Realityshift]

Mushkin XP PC2-6400 4GB 2X2GB DDR2-800 CL4-4-4-12 240PIN DIMM Dual Channel Memory Kit - DirectCanada

Mushkins ram with the same speeds/timings...

[Realityshift]

Hey nice price on that BFG PSU snoose, BFG have made really good progress in their PSU technology, and that one being one of their newer builds I would expect a good quality PSU out of it.