Need quiet, small size, budget build

[mtl514]

Hey guys, this will be my 2nd build that I'm really excited for. My first build for which I sought advice from you guys was a $2000 gaming rig that is working just fine aside from some little hiccups.

Right now I need a budget pc for the family room. The tasks are everyday homework, regular browsing, movies/music... Since this will be in a family room, it will be used everyday for 5-10hours straight by everyone. Also don't want to replace it for a good 2-3 years down the road.

Here's what I'm looking into:

Small form factor (maybe mATX maybe not), dual core, 2-4gb ram, 500-640gb hdd, 450w psu or even 500~... Case should be nice looking but unnoticeable, something on which a 19-20inch monitor looks good.

The budget is MAX $300 CDN after PM'd. I'll be pulling the trigger at NCIX online or Newegg depending.

I already have a cd/dvd drive, keyboard/mice, and monitor. The O/S will be Ubuntu.

[_dangtx_]

so 300 for the whole thing minus keyboard,mouse and lcd?

try a celly 3300 vs an amd regor 240/250. the first is a bit slower at

stock, but can clock nicely.

difference in power figures, thus acoustics is there as well.

you can go fanless on it with a half decent sink, if you wish

ga41-s2h or the like should prove a decent board. go for the ddr3 version.

for video maybe onboard first, add something later on on the pci-e bus?

ram, 4 gigs aplenty and youll probably use up to two anyway

corsair,gskill.etc. whatevers cheaper and good name(not ocz)

edit. case wise im not sure. small,unoticeable...hmm...

psu wise maybe a fortron 400 watter? or cx-400 from corsair?

[Arinoth]

For that price you should either be looking at an AMD system or since it doesnt sound like it needs a massive amount of power you could easily get away with 300$ system with an Atom based system. They are surprisingly powerful and i imagine the D5xx series are even more powerful then their N2xx/N3xx previous generation.

You'd be able to do a prebuilt one which includes a case such as
NCIX.com - Buy Shuttle XS35GT Intel Atom D510 DDR2 SATA2 NVIDIA ION 2 LAN Card Reader HDMI Fanless Barebone Mini PC - XS35GT In Canada. (example doesnt have everything you want).

Or pick a board which comes with the processor and are designed to either run fanless or with very low rpm low sound fans.

[proxy]

If you're pricematching everything to NCIX how about this for a build:

AMD Phenom II x2 555 BE - $88.67
Buy AMD [HDZ555WFGMBOX] AMD Phenom II X2 555 Dual Core Processor AM3 3.2GHZ 6MB L3 Cache 80W 45NM Retail Box

Gigabyte GA-880GM-D2H AMD880G mATX AM3 DDR3 - $75.25
Buy Gigabyte [GA-880GM-D2H] Gigabyte GA-880GM-D2H AMD880G mATX AM3 DDR3 1PCIE CrossFireX Video Sound GBLAN HDMI Motherboard

Mushkin Silverline 4GB (2X2GB) DDR3 1333 CAS 9 - $45.99 before $10 M.I.R.
Newegg.ca - Mushkin Enhanced Silverline 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Desktop Memory Model 996768

Hitachi Deskstar 7K1000.C 7200RPM 1TB Hard Drive - $54.99 ($34.99 in-store this weekend!)
Hitachi Deskstar 1TB 3.5" SATAII 7200rpm 32MB Cache OEM (0F10383) | Canada Computers

Corsair Builder Series CMPSU-500CX 500W - $56.66 before $20 M.I.R.
Buy CORSAIR [CMPSU-500CX] Corsair Builder Series CMPSU-500CX 500W ATX Power Supply Active PFC 120MM Fan *2 Year Wrty*

Coolermaster Elite 310 Black W/ Blue Trim ATX Mid Tower - $36.30
Buy COOLERMASTER [RC-310-BWN1-GP] Coolermaster Elite 310 Black W/ Blue Trim ATX Mid Tower Case 4X5.25 6X3.5INT 1X3.5EXT No PSU Window

Depends on what case you want of course, and I know it's a bit more powered than you'd want. If you live near an NCIX as well I'd grab a $36 1TB and save $20

Subtotal - $357.86
HST 13% - $46.52

Subtotal - $404.38
Stamps - $2.00
Rebates - $(30)

Final (excluding environmental fees) - $376.38

Of course you save another $22.60 with a 500GB HD or if you get that Hitachi 1TB on sale, and you can get a 400W or 430W PSU and save another $11.30 to bring it down to $342.48. If you go with a cheaper CPU like an AMD Athlon II x2 250 for $59 or something that'll bring the total down to $308.58.

Personally I'd be tempted to spend the extra $33.30 and get the x2 555 BE, but that's because I like the idea of a possible core unlock. However, of the three 555s I've had my hands on, one didn't unlock at all, one had one core unlock, and the third had both cores unlock. All three could do about 3.6GHz on stock with only a muliplier increase though, and the last one did 3.9GHz.

[jcmaz]

Originally Posted by draemn

$326 before $20 MIR.
CX430w Corsair PSU
Nvidia 7025/630a chipset IGP mATX AM3 gigabyte mobo
2GB 1333Mhz CAS-9 DDR3
Athlon X3 450 3.20 Ghz unlocked 4th CPU quad core
LG Multi-DVD/CD burner (does ALL formats)
500GB seagate HDD
random case off newegg (actually a pretty nice case)

There you go! Pretty damn sweet! Now, if someone will pay for it, just throw in some extra RAM, my GT 240, wifi adapter, and slap on a keyboard+mouse+monitor w/speakers and you have yourself a full computer that can play almost any game for under $500 with taxes. Heck, under $400 if you don't need a monitor/keyboard/mouse. I successfully installed windows Vista Home Premium and, against Microsoft's advice, installed both standalone SP 1&2 installs (which saved me at least 10 hours). My "windows experience index" (which isn't as comprehensive as that found in Win7) for vista is 5.9/5.9 for CPU, RAM, HDD, and the IGP actually got 3.7/5.9 windows Aero graphics and 3.0/5.9 for gaming graphics. My GT 240 got 5.9 and 5.6 respectively on graphics. Too lazy to run any real benchmarks :D

This ^.

Just swap out the X3 for an X2. Get one of those el cheapo cases like this (NCIX.com - Buy Apex SK-393-C Mid Tower ATX Case Black 4X5.25 1X3.5 5X3.5INT 4 X Front USB 2 X Front Audio No PSU - SK-393-C In Canada.)

[Reyzac]

I actually like that Atom idea previously mentioned.

Try this board -- this guy is a real scorcher @ 1.8GHz Dual-core but no PCIe x16 slot...
RAM -- really your only option with this board.
HDD
Case -- I think this fits your bill.

Agreeing with Dan on the CX 400.