1000$ build for girlfriend.

[Daygard]

Well the girlfriend's been using an ancient p4 with AGP and a 17" CRT for too long, I'm looking to put together a build for her, based on bang for the buck, as well as some future proofing.

She gave me a tentative budget of $1000 in total, including shipping & taxes.

She already has a Case that was given to her by someone local, and she can use her current monitor for the time being as well. I would guess any new monitor would be 1680x1050, or perhaps 1900x1080.

She's pretty much computer illiterate, she mainly uses it for playing World of Warcraft. She watches movies on her TV with DVD player. Rest is just email, websurfing. She may play other MMO's in future. She doesn't play any other types of games that I know of.

She'd likely run at stock speeds, perhaps later on I'd pick out a proper cooler and get it overclocked for some extra oomph. The i3-530 is said to have a lot of OC room even on stock voltage. So that should be fairly safe for her.


Here are the parts I've been considering.

Core i3 530

Gigabyte P55A-UDP4

XFX Radeon 5770

Kingston HyperX 4GB DDR3-1800

Corsair Pro HX650W

WD Caviar Black 640GB

Samsung DVD writer

Pricematching current prices puts this build at just under $825.40 before shipping/taxes, and 988.15 afterwards.

I think this would do quite well for a long while, and even has some upgrade room for CPU, Memory. USB3 and SATA6Gbps is also good for futureproofing.

Any critiques, suggestions, anything I missed?
Thanks.

[Rison]

I agree with your selection. It would work great.

However for the computer-illiterate they will not care how fast a processor goes or how much ram is in the system.. what they see is a new shiney box *and* monitor.
If I were rebuilding a computer for my girlfriend - the first thing i'd start off with is a decent 22" monitor, and build within budget from there. You can usually pick up an LG or Benq for $170 range.

I think of it like selling a car - you can clean the interior up (what the person will see / use) but if the outside is old, scratched up and dirty.. it's not a good sale.

I would probably cheap-out a bit more on the PSU, there are other good manufacturers making PSU's other than corsair (and your girlfriend wont know the difference) OCZ, Thermaltake even Corsair has a cheaper non-modular line. I'd be in the $70 range, instead of $140 for that. To each his own though.

Perhaps buying used from the forum for the other goodies? I've seen a few 1156 boards kicking around, not so much the i3 cpus yet tho. Lots of ram deals for sure.
For overclocking, getting a Hyper 212 is the most cost effective, and could be done during the initial build, you can price match for around $22.

Remember to pricematch everything else also, you can save a good 10-20% on most items if you look around. It's the reason I use NCIX - most of the time they are cheaper than local computer distributors (not retailers - distributors)

That's just my opinion, good luck!

[MarkOne]

the build look good. I will like to have comment from reviewer about this new mic mac off H55 , H57 and P55 board versus the CPU , what I want to say.. the I3 have inboard gpu that you will not use with the P55 and the P55 . Is an inboard GPU affect the performance of a CPU when use in a strait board like the P55 ? . or we just ignore it. if it affect on some level the performance and you want to use a 5770 , I will say get a I5-750 , but I don't know....

[Babrbarossa]

NCIX.com - Buy ASUS P7H55-M Pro mATX H55 LGA1156 DDR3 PCI-16 PCI-E1 2PCI SATA2 HDMI DVI VGA GBLAN Motherboard - P7H55-M PRO In Canada.

If she doesn't game, you could skip the dedicated GPU and use a motherboard (above) that takes advantage of the graphics processing on those i3 CPUs.

[rapmaster]

I would put a graphic card in this built since she play WoW and maybe other MMO in the future. A HD5750 or HD5770 should be more than enough.

[MarkOne]

Originally Posted by Babrbarossa

NCIX.com - Buy ASUS P7H55-M Pro mATX H55 LGA1156 DDR3 PCI-16 PCI-E1 2PCI SATA2 HDMI DVI VGA GBLAN Motherboard - P7H55-M PRO In Canada.

If she doesn't game, you could skip the dedicated GPU and use a motherboard (above) that takes advantage of the graphics processing on those i3 CPUs.

agree ...and he can even start with the onboard GPU of the i3 and add the dedicated later. the board suggested here will do the thing perfectly.. I Guess that no Xfire or SLY will be use in this build anyway


I would address my question on the first post in a dedicated tread, I don't think the results will affect the performance of this build. I ask it in case the Op plan a more demanding use in the future...

[15Down]

Originally Posted by rapmaster

I would put a graphic card in this built since she play WoW and maybe other MMO in the future. A HD5750 or HD5770 should be more than enough.

Have you considered a cheaper AMD option with a AM3/Phenom II X3/4 combination?
Perhaps combined with an Asus M4A-785TD-EVO (very solid AM3 board) or Gigabyte GA-770TA-UD3 (USB3.0&SATA3.0), a HD 5770 and a WSXGA 22", she'll have a decent gaming rig that will last here some years and can be upgraded with a thuban and new GPU in the future.

[rapmaster]

How about going AMD with an Athlon X4 and with the saved money from the motherboard and CPU, get a decent SSD.

[Raserei408]

...You can't get a decent SSD for $50.

[Sushi Warrior]

I would stick with i3 but downgrade to a VX550 for a PSU. The HX650 is major overkill due to the high price for the modularity. I would suggest a nice case and nice monitor, maybe a case without a window. Hell, the V351B from Lian Li would be awesome, no? And as far as a GPU goes, maybe a 9600GSO or 4770. Something sub $100.