Budget System

[phyrexians]

Hi Everyone,

I've read the Sticky post on the several builds. However, I really prefer at least an Intel i3 and Nvdia graphics due to the poor experience of Raedon's lack of support for their cards after 2 years...

I have a budget of about $600 (of course, lower is better ) without the need for HDD, DVD-Writer, Mouse, Keyboard and Monitor.

It's main use is for surfing net, doing some simple documentation work and view movies with a HDMI output to a 50 inch TV. There will be minimal to no gaming therefore I have placed a GT630 4GB as the alternative card since it basically fulfil the same requirements at a lower price. Need some advice on my choice here...

However, I only have a old Windows XP licence that I've obtained from a few years back from MSDN when I'm a student. Therefore the computer will only have 4GB of RAM...

Another requirement is there must be a PCI card slot to install the Parallel Port card to use that very old printer that you see in school that is loud and print only dos-like words.

I have no experience in building the computer that's why I try to get all the parts from the same shop so that I could perhaps get the shop to build the computer from the parts I purchased...


Lastly, Sorry for the messy table below. You can view it better by copying and pasting the whole thing into Excel.

Parts Model Shops Price Remarks
Mobo + CPU MSI B75MA-45 / 3350P TradePac $304.00
Graphic Card Gigabyte GTX650 Ti TradePac $203.00 "TradePac: Palit on Offer.
Alternate Leadtek Gt630 4GB @ 93"
Power Supply Corsair 430M Bizgram $69.00 TradePac: Corsair 430M on Offer.
RAM Corsair Vengeance 1600.9 4G BizGram $43.00 "TradePac: Kingston 1600 on Offer.
Best Buy: KINGSTON 4GB DDR3 PC12800 1600MHz $41"
Casing Cooler Master RC-K350-KWN1-EN Bizgram $55.00 TradePac: Corsair Carbide 200R on Offer
$674.00

And here is something I try to format to something a little bit more readable...

Parts///////////Model///////////Shops///////////Price///////////Remarks
Mobo + CPU///////////MSI B75MA-45 / 3350P///////////TradePac///////////$304.00///////////
Graphic Card///////////Gigabyte GTX650 Ti///////////TradePac///////////$203.00///////////"TradePac: Palit on Offer.
Alternate Leadtek Gt630 4GB @ 93"
Power Supply///////////Corsair 430M///////////Bizgram///////////$69.00///////////TradePac: Corsair 430M on Offer.
RAM///////////Corsair Vengeance 1600.9 4G///////////BizGram///////////$43.00///////////"TradePac: Kingston 1600 on Offer.
Best Buy: KINGSTON 4GB DDR3 PC12800 1600MHz $41"
Casing///////////Cooler Master RC-K350-KWN1-EN///////////Bizgram///////////$55.00///////////TradePac: Corsair Carbide 200R on Offer
/////////////////////////////////$674.00///////////

 

[nippp0n]

CPU & Mobo: A8-5600K & Asus F2A85M-LE @ $261
Ram: G.Skill 1600mhz value ram 4GB @ $42
Case: Sharkoon MS140 @ $59
PSU: FSP Hexa 300W @ $39

Total: $401
Buy and build at mynextcom.

AMD APU has strong iGP that is capable of playing your movies through HDMI to your TV. If i'm not wrong, GT630 is rebrand of GT440.
http://www.anandtech.com/show/5969/zotac-geforce-gt-640-review-

GT630 costs about $99 yet the performance is slightly behind A8-5600k iGP. Therefore, it make no sense to me to spend so much on a discrete gpu + i3 while you can actually spend lesser and still achieve the same performance through AMD APU.

 

[Maeda_Toshiie]

1. The 4GB on GT 630 is almost brainless in terms of performance. a) It is DDR3, not GDDR5, b) any application that can use 4GB of VRAM will chew up the card and spit out plastic shreds.

2. If you are not gaming, you can use the on-die iGPU on an Intel CPU. Haswell i3s are not yet out though.

HD video playback, GPU vs CPU: Does video playback/decoding use CPU or GPU? - [H]ard|Forum

 

[phyrexians]

CPU & Mobo: A8-5600K & Asus F2A85M-LE @ $261
Ram: G.Skill 1600mhz value ram 4GB @ $42
Case: Sharkoon MS140 @ $59
PSU: FSP Hexa 300W @ $39

Total: $401
Buy and build at mynextcom.

AMD APU has strong iGP that is capable of playing your movies through HDMI to your TV. If i'm not wrong, GT630 is rebrand of GT440.
AnandTech | Zotac GeForce GT 640 DDR3 Review: Glacial Gaming & Heavenly HTPC

GT630 costs about $99 yet the performance is slightly behind A8-5600k iGP. Therefore, it make no sense to me to spend so much on a discrete gpu + i3 while you can actually spend lesser and still achieve the same performance through AMD APU.

Hi,

Thanks for the suggestion!

Didn't realize that integrated graphic card nowadays can be as good as the HD7560. I'm definitely considering that as the replacement for both the i3 and GT630.

But as stated in my original post, I would very much prefer Intel/Nvdia over AMD/Radeon. But if its a $200 difference, I sure wouldn't mind jumping just this once.

1. The 4GB on GT 630 is almost brainless in terms of performance. a) It is DDR3, not GDDR5, b) any application that can use 4GB of VRAM will chew up the card and spit out plastic shreds.

2. If you are not gaming, you can use the on-die iGPU on an Intel CPU. Haswell i3s are not yet out though.

HD video playback, GPU vs CPU: Does video playback/decoding use CPU or GPU? - [H]ard|Forum

This computer isn't actually build for gaming at all. It's more of a Office/Theater PC. I chose the GT630 with 4GB due to the fact that it is the cheapest I found late last night that has a HDMI output. But nippp0n's suggestion is really interesting.

I will be searching around to see if there's any alternative but the integrated option suggested by nippp0n seems to be the way to go. So do let me know if there is any new suggestion.

 

[Thehim]

nippon's suggestion really gel very well with your budget and intended usage.
AMD APUs are really much better compared to budget cheapo discrete graphics.
Just don't get entry level A4 which i'm on.

 

[iKoori]

Just get the new Richland APU for your usage.
I recommend changing your OS too.

APU shares the RAM to compute the graphics. 2x4GB kit at least to take advantage of the dual channel bandwidth.

 

[phyrexians]

Hi,

As a thanks to everyone, this is the final parts that I will be buying.

APU: Chose the A10 instead as I couldn't find the A8 in TradePac.

PSU: Chose the 430W just in case I want to add a discrete graphic card in

As for the OS, I've got a spare Vista 64 bits but I've got a really bad experience with the OS... Maybe I'll wait for the next upgrade offer for Windows 9 before I upgrade the RAM as well.

MOBO: Chose a slightly more expensive one to get the extra RAM slots for the same reason above

Parts|||Model|||Shops|||Price|||Remarks
Mobo + CPU|||ASUS F2A85-M + A10 5800K|||TradePac|||$286.00|||
Power Supply|||Corsair 430M|||Bizgram|||$69.00|||TradePac: Corsair 430M on Offer.
RAM|||Corsair Vengeance 1600.9 4G|||BizGram|||$43.00|||TradePac: Kingston 1600 on Offer. PC3 1600 Corsair Vengence 8GB Kit (4GB *2) Offer
Casing|||Sharkoon MS140|||TradePac|||$52.00|||TradePac: Corsair Carbide 200R on Offer
|||||||||$450.00|||


Thanks everyone for the suggestion. I'm really grateful for the fast input from everyone in barely 3 days

 

[Thehim]

Hi,

As a thanks to everyone, this is the final parts that I will be buying.

APU: Chose the A10 instead as I couldn't find the A8 in TradePac.

PSU: Chose the 430W just in case I want to add a discrete graphic card in

As for the OS, I've got a spare Vista 64 bits but I've got a really bad experience with the OS... Maybe I'll wait for the next upgrade offer for Windows 9 before I upgrade the RAM as well.

MOBO: Chose a slightly more expensive one to get the extra RAM slots for the same reason above

Parts|||Model|||Shops|||Price|||Remarks
Mobo + CPU|||ASUS F2A85-M + A10 5800K|||TradePac|||$286.00|||
Power Supply|||Corsair 430M|||Bizgram|||$69.00|||TradePac: Corsair 430M on Offer.
RAM|||Corsair Vengeance 1600.9 4G|||BizGram|||$43.00|||TradePac: Kingston 1600 on Offer. PC3 1600 Corsair Vengence 8GB Kit (4GB *2) Offer
Casing|||Sharkoon MS140|||TradePac|||$52.00|||TradePac: Corsair Carbide 200R on Offer
|||||||||$450.00|||


Thanks everyone for the suggestion. I'm really grateful for the fast input from everyone in barely 3 days

Can look into PCThemes too if you'd like other APUs.
Scrimp on cheap ram as no need for performance type.
Get reputable PSU, likes of Seasonic/FSP if your budget allows.

On a sidenote, if you get better price for a certain item outside of Tradepac, let them know, maybe you could get a cheaper quote or a matchpoint.

 

[nippp0n]

Hi,

As a thanks to everyone, this is the final parts that I will be buying.

APU: Chose the A10 instead as I couldn't find the A8 in TradePac.

PSU: Chose the 430W just in case I want to add a discrete graphic card in

As for the OS, I've got a spare Vista 64 bits but I've got a really bad experience with the OS... Maybe I'll wait for the next upgrade offer for Windows 9 before I upgrade the RAM as well.

MOBO: Chose a slightly more expensive one to get the extra RAM slots for the same reason above

Parts|||Model|||Shops|||Price|||Remarks
Mobo + CPU|||ASUS F2A85-M + A10 5800K|||TradePac|||$286.00|||
Power Supply|||Corsair 430M|||Bizgram|||$69.00|||TradePac: Corsair 430M on Offer.
RAM|||Corsair Vengeance 1600.9 4G|||BizGram|||$43.00|||TradePac: Kingston 1600 on Offer. PC3 1600 Corsair Vengence 8GB Kit (4GB *2) Offer
Casing|||Sharkoon MS140|||TradePac|||$52.00|||TradePac: Corsair Carbide 200R on Offer
|||||||||$450.00|||


Thanks everyone for the suggestion. I'm really grateful for the fast input from everyone in barely 3 days

For psu, at $69, you can get a certified silver efficiency PSU with FSP 450W Raider from Tradepac.

For ram, no need to get ram kit for a HTPC. Just get a value ram will do. I doubt a HTPC will utilise anything more than 4GB of ram.

 

[Maeda_Toshiie]

On-die/ onboard GPU uses system ram, so higher speed ram benefit graphic performance more than CPU performance.

 

[nippp0n]

On-die/ onboard GPU uses system ram, so higher speed ram benefit graphic performance more than CPU performance.

Agree. Too bad cannot find Crucial Ballistix 1866mhz ram. Used to be able to find it in PCT pricelist but it's gone