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Thoughts on Christmas Present Build

TopDollar
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After seeing the poor state of my parent's computer after visiting them this past Thanksgiving, I decided to build them a new one for Christmas. Just looking for some thoughts on the build from some other people.

 

Budget: Less than $500 USD (with OS).

 

Purpose: To build a capable workstation (they don't do any gaming) with potential for limited upgrades in the future.

 

Link: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/h3LKvK

 

Components:

  • CPU: Intel Core i3-4170 (Stock cooler)
  • Mobo: Gigabyte GA-H81M-H Micro ATX LGA1150
  • Memory: G.Skill Value (1 x 8GB) DDR3-1600
  • Storage: Kingston SSDNow V300 Series 120GB
  • Storage: WD Blue 500GB 7200RPM (Retained from their old computer)
  • Case: NZXT Source 210 (Black)
  • PSU: SeaSonic S12II 520W 80+ Bronze
  • OS: Windows 10 Home (Retail)

Total Price: $478.50 (includes OS, some thermal compound, 2 more case fans, and some SATA cables).

 

An optical drive, card reader, and wireless PCIe card will be provided out of my own stockpile.

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Get an Adata or Sandisk SSD,. The Kingston is really slow.

i5-4690k@4.5GHz || MSI GTX 970 || MSI z97 Gaming 5 || NZXT Kraken x61 || WD Black 1TB || Crucial MX100 || 8GB Corsair Vengeance Pro || Corsair RM750 || NZXT H440 || Corsair k70 RGB mx browns || Acer H236HL || ViewSonic VX2255wm-4

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you can get windows cheaper on g2a.com and maybe get like a good peice of software or something, other than that build looks fine

 

 

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After seeing the poor state of my parent's computer after visiting them this past Thanksgiving, I decided to build them a new one for Christmas. Just looking for some thoughts on the build from some other people.

 

Budget: Less than $500 USD (with OS).

 

Purpose: To build a capable workstation (they don't do any gaming) with potential for limited upgrades in the future.

 

Link: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/h3LKvK

 

Components:

  • CPU: Intel Core i3-4170 (Stock cooler)
  • Mobo: Gigabyte GA-H81M-H Micro ATX LGA1150
  • Memory: G.Skill Value (1 x 8GB) DDR3-1600
  • Storage: Kingston SSDNow V300 Series 120GB
  • Storage: WD Blue 500GB 7200RPM (Retained from their old computer)
  • Case: NZXT Source 210 (Black)
  • PSU: SeaSonic S12II 520W 80+ Bronze
  • OS: Windows 10 Home (Retail)

Total Price: $478.50 (includes OS, some thermal compound, 2 more case fans, and some SATA cables).

 

An optical drive, card reader, and wireless PCIe card will be provided out of my own stockpile.

get this ssd instead

http://pcpartpicker.com/part/sandisk-internal-hard-drive-sdssda240gg25

<p>Wish I could have this already!! : http://pcpartpicker.com/p/qTLRjX

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Yup agree with the above. Also for this build you could get a super low wattage PSU, though someone else might have to point you to a good value one.

If you make a post contradicting mine that doesn't directly address my claims, or cites 'facts' without evidence, I'm probably not going to bother responding to it, because you probably didn't bother reading my post properly, and because life is too short. It doesn't mean I don't have an answer for you. It means I'm not dignifying you with a response. 

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This is good feedback, which I appreciate. Thank you for responding.

 

Get an Adata or Sandisk SSD,. The Kingston is really slow.

get a different ssd v300 are so slow

 

Unfortunately I have jumped the gun and already ordered the SSD ($40 Cyber Monday deal). Although after looking at the read/write speeds, I might order a SanDisk like suggested as well and use the Kingston for another personal build I have in mind. 

 

 

you can get windows cheaper on g2a.com and maybe get like a good peice of software or something, other than that build looks fine

 

One of the things I was set on from the start was making sure I provide my parents with a physical version of the retail version of Windows. It's a big hit on the budget (most expensive component in the build lol), but knowing that they shouldn't run into issues regarding licensing if they have to contact MS customer support with anything is worth the cost to me. I live 600 miles away, so I can't really just pop in for tech support lol.

 

For a personal build, I'd definitely be looking for someplace cheaper. 

 

Yup agree with the above. Also for this build you could get a super low wattage PSU, though someone else might have to point you to a good value one.

 

 

Power supply was *the* hardest component to choose. I wanted it to be relatively inexpensive, flexible enough to be able to handle a decent GPU (or other components) down the road, and from a quality OEM (SeaSonic is my preferred). A 350W or 400W PSU might have been fine for this, but I'd rather go higher than not have enough. The price difference for lower wattage SeaSonics was nominal, so I went for the 520W. This particular PSU also scored a 9.7/10 from johnnyguru, so that was a factor too.

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