So I think I need to build a new PC fast on a tight budget.

[Cutlass]

I figure I need a case (don't absolutely need, but I don't care for the one I have, and they aren't that expensive) mobo, memory, processor, maybe an SDD. I have HDDs that aren't too old, and a video card that's only a year or so old.

Any suggestions?

 

[illram]

What do you want to do with it and what is your budget? If you just want office/home related stuff (internet, word processing, maybe watching some videos) you're better off buying a cheap Dell or something.

 

[Zelig]

http://www.logicalincrements.com/

 

[Cutlass]

What do you want to do with it and what is your budget? If you just want office/home related stuff (internet, word processing, maybe watching some videos) you're better off buying a cheap Dell or something.

It doesn't need to be too great. I'm certainly not in need of a gaming rig. But I wouldn't trust a Dell. I'd rather build, even if that costs a bit more.

But by the same token something with enough muscle to it that I can get several years use out of it without running into problems.

 

[illram]

Several years doing internet and other stuff only? That shouldn't be a problem.

For this type of thing a Dell, or any other name brand, won't be any less reliable than building your own, honestly.

List the components you have (e.g. model, capacity, etc.) and the actual budget you are looking at and we can probably help you.

edit: Here is a sample. You can go significantly cheaper if you want but the 250 GB SSD or something equivalent is probably worth it.

 

[Cutlass]

Based on past experience, I simply don't trust Dell. And I don't want any maker software installed on my system. As to price, not sure. May spend $500 or so.

 

[illram]

OK then. Check out my edited in hyperlink in my previous post for an idea of what you are looking at then in that price range. Case is whatever, choose a case you don't think is ugly but it can be cheap. Expensive cases do things like maintain good wiring options, airflow, etc. For a cheap build, who cares. Do you need a new OS license or do you have one you can use?

Also we don't know what type of video card you have. This build doesn't need one but even a low end card might be better than the HD-2500 on Ivy Bridge chips. For some extra money though you could do a Haswell i3 on that budget and be under $500 if you don't also need an OS license. I went with the cheapest good chip.

If you need an OS license and absolutely need to be under $500 then sacrifices need to be made. You could go with a Pentium or Celeron, get a smaller SSD, that sort of thing.

 

[Cutlass]

I just bought win8 and have it on the PC that's dying. I certainly hope I can use that. I haven't registered it with MS yet. And it will only be on one PC. If it's not, I'll be seriously pissed.

Graphics card is a SAPPHIRE Radeon HD 5770, which I think is good for a few more years.

 

[Cutlass]

What's the current story on AMD cpus? I know they are behind the cutting edge, but if I can get a decent bang for the buck on one, I'm OK with that.

 

[illram]

AMD has the best APU but other than that they can be ignored. Basically if you want a tiny gaming PC that you can literally hold in the palm of your hand, AMD is your best bet. For anything else, not sure why you would ever get one. If you have a 5770 then you can safely go with whatever Intel chip fits your budget.

 

[Zelig]

AMD is roughly competitive across their entire line, they just don't have anything at the high-end.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-cpu-review-overclock,3106.html

It really depends on what your usage is - I recently put together a new home server with an A10-6800K - no monitor hooked up, so the GPU is completely wasted, but Intel doesn't have any quad-core chips in the same price range (and their cheapest one doesn't have any IGP, so that's no good).

 

[illram]

Well at the low-end, I think you can save money for a roughly equivalent Intel chip. For instance the FX 4130 is $40 more than a Pentium G870. These are both one product cycle old I believe. Anandtech bench shows two similar products (a better AMD chip and a lesser Pentium chip, actually) without much of a difference that you will actually notice in real usage. The G870 is about $40 less though.

Anyway, I think if you're spending over $100, cheaper i3's are cheap these days, and these will be a better bet than the AMD cheap equivalent.

 

[Cutlass]

So far I'm starting with the less critical parts and moving inwards.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817152049

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820721107

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811146075

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835242011

If I reuse HDDS, vid card, peripherals, then I just need to make the important decisions on mobo, cpu, and memory. But I haven't spent too much yet.

 

[Zelig]

Er, I'm not quite sure what you're getting at - a G870 is $90, the closest comparable AMD CPU is the 760K. The G870 is ~10% faster for single-threaded applications, the 760K is ~30% faster for multithreaded applications.

At the $150 price level for the 6800K, it's similar - Intel gives you better single-threaded performance and lower power use under load, AMD gives you significantly better multithreaded performance and GPU.

 

[Cutlass]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819113286

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131874

These are from one of the middle lines in the list Zelig first posted.

 

[illram]

Tremendous waste of money. You don't need any of that.

Get a ~$100 processor if you insist on spending that much, don't spend more than $60 on a mobo, and put more money into an SSD. Personally I would buy a Pentium or a Celeron and call it a day--you don't need anything more--but to each their own. You will not notice much of any difference for everyday usage between a $130 AMD chip and a $90 Pentium. You will notice a huge difference if you don't use an SSD. Don't spend more money for the warm and fuzzy factor.

 

[Cutlass]

Maybe. But I'm also thinking that I don't want a machine that's too slow for the software 5 years from now. I expect to still have it at least that long.

 

[illram]

My Core2Duo E6600 from 6 or 7 years ago still runs everything in Windows 7 like a champ. I have some crappy Optiplex Dell Pentium paperweight under my office desk from 5 or 6 years ago that runs office software with maybe minor slow downs when I have 50 PDFs and 25 .docs and 30 tabs open in 5 different browser windows. And it is probably something other than the Pentium that is slowing this down, e.g. the hard disk or RAM.

A modern, low end Ivy Bridge processor, even a $50 Celeron, will last 5 years for regular internet browsing and office work, easy. You could probably play Minecraft on that thing 5 years from now like a champ with your 5770. People way underestimate the lifespan of PCs for mundane, non power hungry applications.

 

[Zelig]

An SSD is smashingly better than an HDD, but once you're getting enough space, it doesn't matter much which SSD in particular you're getting.

If you're planning on keeping your cpu for a longish time, more cores (well, more than two, I doubt 4->6 will make much of a difference in five years) is very likely more important to longevity than minor speed differences either way.

Also you can run hybrid crossfire with AMD APUs and graphics cards.

 

[Cutlass]

So this is what I've come up with. The questions are, will they work together, will they work with Win8?


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811146075

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139049

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820211795

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820239045

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835118003

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.1419151

$477.52 with shipping. minus a couple of mailins.