Building a PC for my Granny

[Clanscorpia]

I'm doing a PC build for my Granny and I've been waiting 2 months for Black Friay/Cyber Monday prices so if people could recommend parts in the probable Black Friday/Cyber Monday price. Because of DX 12 using multiple cores I was planning on putting an overclocked FX-8320 for the CPU. I've written up a plan but Im not sure how good it is. I still want to keep the FX-8320 for my main but if you can recommend a better one I'll take a look but if you do give me a recommendation, please base it around the FX-8320. My budget is $600 CAD and here is my current plan.

Component   Current Price Probable Black Friday site Shipping                   CPU: FX-8320   $200   $150     $6                   Mobo: MSI-970A-G43 $60   $60     $6                   RAM: Crucial RAM   23   15-23                         GPU: Gigabyte R7 360 $140   $110     $9                   CPU Cooler: CM Hyper 212 Plus $21   $21     $5                   Case: NZXT Source 210 $65   $45     $15                   PSU: CougarA500   $60   $45     $10                   OS: Windows 8.1   $60   $40                         HDD: WD AV 360 GB   $50   $30     $8                   Shipping:                                         Total Probable Black Friday price: $578    

 

This is what I've written up so far and if you think the prices and the components are good, please tell me or recommend new ones. This is my first build as well so I'm super excited . Thank you!

[NeatSquidYT]

Wait, so what does your granny do on her PC? Does it justify a 360 and an 8320?

[The_Stig]

Please, use PCpartpicker

[CydiaDash]

Is your gran a gamer or something? Why are you not just giving her an iGPU and generally try and save a whole lot of money?

[Clanscorpia]

Sorry about the table, here it is again:

 

Component                       Probable Black Friday Price       Shipping

CPU: FX-8320                   $150                                           $6 

GPU: Gigabyte R7 360      $110                                           $9

Mobo: MSI-970A-G43        $60                                             $6

RAM: Crucial RAM 4gb      $23                                             Not sure

Case: NZXT Source 210    $45                                             $15

PSU: CougarA500             $45                                             $10

HDD: WD AV 360GB          $30                                             $8

OS: Windows 8.1               $40                                             Not sure

 

My Granny does a lot of multi-tasking (Hence the 8 core CPU and that fact it's cheaper than an i5), she uses Photoshop 7 (She learned how to use it in university), and she does a lot of office work and web browsing and maybe some light gaming. Thanks for the super quick reply!

[Clanscorpia]

And please try to put all the prices in what you'd think the black friday prices would be so I guess the budget could go up to $700 since it would go down to at least to $600 with all price.

[Clanscorpia]

And my main reason for the 8 core is future proofing. She just had a PC with a Pentium 4 and XP so she doesn't want to upgrade for a while

[Clanscorpia]

Ok, thanks for all the amazingly quick reply's! I feel like I'm in a chat room! If you find any deals right now that would be awesome!

[Fictionvl]

8 cores on a 8320 isn't future proofing, a quad core is more that enough for her, although I suggest an i3

[Clanscorpia]

I just find that for her multi-tasking, and overlclocking, I pay 50 dollars more for 6 more cores and .8 more GHz. I know Intel has better single core performance but I think what shes going to be doing doesnt rely on that to much

[Djole123]

Please do not use Windows 8 for your granny. She will probably have hard time learning it.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD Athlon X4 860K 3.7GHz Quad-Core Processor ($91.98 @ NCIX)

Motherboard: ASRock FM2A88X PRO3+ ATX FM2+ Motherboard ($84.50 @ Vuugo)

Memory: Crucial 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($52.75 @ Vuugo)

Storage: Crucial BX100 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($109.99 @ NCIX)

Video Card: Diamond Radeon HD 5450 1GB Video Card ($39.99 @ Vuugo)

Case: Logisys CS301BK ATX Mid Tower Case w/480W Power Supply ($46.99 @ NCIX)

Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-14 DVD/CD Writer ($18.02 @ DirectCanada)

Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 OEM (64-bit) ($124.98 @ DirectCanada)

Total: $569.20

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-10-31 10:41 EDT-0400

[Clanscorpia]

I'm planning on upgrading straight to Windows 10. But wow, you guys are finding amazing deals. I realize now that the FX deffenitly isnt the right CPU. And I'm planning to buy the OS from G2A to cut the price in half. I really like Djole's idea but the Case needs changing as it's gotten bad reviews and I dont really like the look but everything else looks ok except for the GPU. I'm also thinking of looking at a higher end Athlon to. If you could improve on that it would be awesome. Remember the budget is $700 becuase of Black Friday sales.

[Guest]

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

 

CPU: Intel Core i5-4460 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($163.99 @ SuperBiiz) 

Motherboard: Asus H81M-D PLUS Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard  ($44.00 @ SuperBiiz) 

Memory: Kingston HyperX Fury Red 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory  ($46.99 @ Newegg) 

Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($47.66 @ SuperBiiz) 

Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 750 Ti 2GB Video Card  ($94.99 @ SuperBiiz) 

Case: Corsair 100R ATX Mid Tower Case  ($37.99 @ Micro Center) 

Power Supply: EVGA 500W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply  ($39.99 @ Newegg) 

Optical Drive: Asus DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS DVD/CD Writer  ($15.98 @ OutletPC) 

Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Home OEM (64-bit)  ($89.88 @ OutletPC) 

Total: $581.47

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-10-31 10:54 EDT-0400

[Andrew420]

maybe an Athlon X4 860K with a decent GPU

[Clanscorpia]

Wow, I'm never just browsing newegg with the build you guys are making.

[Clanscorpia]

I'm deffinitly looking at yours Hydra with a newer 960 becuase my budget is 700

[Clanscorpia]

Wait Hydra, are those prices American?

[Djole123]

Wait Hydra, are those prices American?

Yes. It's about 800CAD.

[Clanscorpia]

Oh, thats to much. Maybe going back to the Athlon. I dont want a dual core but I want a decent CPU. Maybe an A8 or A10?

[Clanscorpia]

Is the Athlon X4 760K a good CPU? I'm looking at it and it looks decent.

[jimakos234]

this will do for you granny

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i3-6100 3.7GHz Dual-Core Processor  ($121.99 @ NCIX US)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-B150M-D3H-GSM Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard  ($72.00 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2133 Memory  ($54.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Crucial BX100 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($72.00 @ SuperBiiz)
Case: Fractal Design Core 1000 USB 3.0 MicroATX Mid Tower Case  ($29.70 @ SuperBiiz)
Power Supply: Antec 450W ATX Power Supply  ($29.70 @ SuperBiiz)
Optical Drive: LG GH24NSC0 DVD/CD Writer  ($13.89 @ OutletPC)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Home OEM (64-bit)  ($89.88 @ OutletPC)
Total: $484.15
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-10-31 11:10 EDT-0400

[Clanscorpia]

Doing a bit of research (again ). I think the FX with be good for me with a little tweaking. A lot of people have said it's amazing and the ppp is really good so please try builds with this cpu. thanks!

[Clanscorpia]

I made this list up and I think it's pretty good.

PCPartPicker part list: http://ca.pcpartpicker.com/p/WhGNMp
Price breakdown by merchant: http://ca.pcpartpicker.com/p/WhGNMp/by_merchant/

CPU: AMD FX-8320 3.5GHz 8-Core Processor  ($184.98 @ DirectCanada)
Motherboard: MSI 970A-G43 ATX AM3+ Motherboard  ($84.99 @ Newegg Canada) ($60 refurbished from Newegg)
Memory: Crucial 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory  ($52.75 @ Vuugo)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($57.71 @ Vuugo)
Video Card: MSI Radeon R7 360 2GB Video Card  ($149.75 @ Vuugo)
Case: Cooler Master Elite 350 ATX Mid Tower Case w/500W Power Supply  ($49.50 @ Vuugo)
Optical Drive: Asus DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS DVD/CD Writer  ($25.04 @ DirectCanada)
Wireless Network Adapter: TP-Link TL-WN781ND 802.11b/g/n PCI-Express x1 Wi-Fi Adapter  ($21.99 @ Newegg Canada)
Total: $626.71
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-10-31 11:48 EDT-0400

The OS will be Windows 8.1 Pro which I'm upgrading straight to Windows 10 from G2A for $60

[jimakos234]

-snip-

if you dont get a 990fx for the 8320/8350 that is recommened, you are going to have overheat issues if you will overclock.

Get either a 990fx mobo, or a 970 mobo paired with a 8320E. Keep in mind that you are investing in a 2012 cpu, it is not going to be that futureproof...

[Clanscorpia]

I've done some research and expertreviewer.co.uk oced the 8350 on it to 4.2 GHz with OC Genie. I just feel that she's going to benefit from an 8-core CPU. Does everything else look to you?