Where to cut corners?

[RadiatingLight]

I'm building a pc for my grandma as an upgrade to her windows XP running snail with 1GB Ram.

http://pcpartpicker.com/list/jLR9JV

What can I do to lower the price of this build to under 500USD?

16GB of RAM is a must

SSD + HDD Combo is fine

 

Should I downgrade her processor to an i3? she doesn't upgrade her computer much, and although she only browses the web, checks email, and plays bridge, she's probably not going to upgrade for another 6 years, so I want something future-proof.

 

is this build good?

[Amazingasian]

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i3-6100 3.7GHz Dual-Core Processor  ($110.99 @ SuperBiiz) 
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-H170M-D3H Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard  ($78.95 @ Amazon) 
Memory: Kingston FURY 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR4-2666 Memory  ($34.19 @ Amazon) 
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($90.58 @ Amazon) 
Case: Corsair 200R ATX Mid Tower Case  ($54.99 @ Amazon) 
Power Supply: SeaSonic 350W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply  ($31.99 @ SuperBiiz) 
Optical Drive: Asus DRW-24F1ST DVD/CD Writer  ($13.99 @ Newegg) 
Total: $415.68
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-07-16 15:11 EDT-0400

 

She really doesn't need 16GB of RAM.  An i3 is more than enough for what she does and you don't need a cooler.  The stock cooler should be fine.  

[SageOfSpice]

Why the hell is 16GB of ram a must?

I highly doubt your grandmother is going to make use of even 10% of that.

[DrM]

an i5 is complete overkill for web browsing. you dont need a cpu cooler or z170 chipset on a locked chip. a samsung ssd is overkil for a grandma, since she wont write that much data to the ssd. and i must question the 16gb of ram. unless she constantly has 100+ tbas open at a time, i dont think shell be able  to use all of it

 

PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/list/4JLLJV
Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/list/4JLLJV/by_merchant/

CPU: Intel Core i3-6100 3.7GHz Dual-Core Processor  ($110.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: ASRock H110M-DGS Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard  ($53.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: GeIL EVO POTENZA 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2133 Memory  ($51.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: OCZ TRION 150 240GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($55.99 @ Amazon)
Case: NZXT Source 210 Elite (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case  ($45.99 @ Directron)
Power Supply: Corsair CXM 450W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply  ($49.99 @ Amazon)
Optical Drive: Asus DRW-24F1ST DVD/CD Writer  ($13.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $382.93
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-07-16 15:14 EDT-0400

[RadiatingLight]

2 minutes ago, SageOfSpice said:

Why the hell is 16GB of ram a must?

I highly doubt your grandmother is going to make use of even 10% of that.

she has a shitload of chrome tabs open, and I want to make sure that her pc will be futureproof. as I'm writing this, 5GB of 8 on my computer are being used up, and I only have 5 tabs open. in 4 years or so, programs + the OS will use more than 8gb of ram

[Octavialicious]

5 minutes ago, RadiatingLight said:

she has a shitload of chrome tabs open, and I want to make sure that her pc will be futureproof. as I'm writing this, 5GB of 8 on my computer are being used up, and I only have 5 tabs open. in 4 years or so, programs + the OS will use more than 8gb of ram

Are you tabs calculating pi or something? I could have tons of tabs open and not exceed 4GB easily

[Carl2608]

1 minute ago, RadiatingLight said:

she has a shitload of chrome tabs open, and I want to make sure that her pc will be futureproof. as I'm writing this, 5GB of 8 on my computer are being used up, and I only have 5 tabs open. in 4 years or so, programs + the OS will use more than 8gb of ram

Maybe a last gen Pentium (G3258)? Its cheap and can keep up with chrome (and even more with OC), prices are dropping for last gen mobo's and RAM.

[RadiatingLight]

5 minutes ago, Amazingasian said:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i3-6100 3.7GHz Dual-Core Processor  ($110.99 @ SuperBiiz) 
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-H170M-D3H Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard  ($78.95 @ Amazon) 
Memory: Kingston FURY 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR4-2666 Memory  ($34.19 @ Amazon) 
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($90.58 @ Amazon) 
Case: Corsair 200R ATX Mid Tower Case  ($54.99 @ Amazon) 
Power Supply: SeaSonic 350W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply  ($31.99 @ SuperBiiz) 
Optical Drive: Asus DRW-24F1ST DVD/CD Writer  ($13.99 @ Newegg) 
Total: $415.68
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-07-16 15:11 EDT-0400

 

She really doesn't need 16GB of RAM.  An i3 is more than enough for what she does and you don't need a cooler.  The stock cooler should be fine.  

Yeah, my gamer mind is polluting my low end system picking skills. I overlooked the fact that a stock cooler is an option, since I don't normally even consider it.

however, 16GB of ram is probably still useful.

 

after looking at benchmarks for the i3, you're right. it will be more than enough.

thanks for your help

 

[TheRandomness]

6 minutes ago, RadiatingLight said:

she has a shitload of chrome tabs open, and I want to make sure that her pc will be futureproof. as I'm writing this, 5GB of 8 on my computer are being used up, and I only have 5 tabs open. in 4 years or so, programs + the OS will use more than 8gb of ram

Then something is wrong. 8 Chrome tabs open + Steam + F@H and 4.1GB of RAM being used.

10 minutes ago, Amazingasian said:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i3-6100 3.7GHz Dual-Core Processor  ($110.99 @ SuperBiiz) 
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-H170M-D3H Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard  ($78.95 @ Amazon) 
Memory: Kingston FURY 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR4-2666 Memory  ($34.19 @ Amazon) 
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($90.58 @ Amazon) 
Case: Corsair 200R ATX Mid Tower Case  ($54.99 @ Amazon) 
Power Supply: SeaSonic 350W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply  ($31.99 @ SuperBiiz) 
Optical Drive: Asus DRW-24F1ST DVD/CD Writer  ($13.99 @ Newegg) 
Total: $415.68
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-07-16 15:11 EDT-0400

 

She really doesn't need 16GB of RAM.  An i3 is more than enough for what she does and you don't need a cooler.  The stock cooler should be fine.  

Thisthisthisthisthis or this:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i3-6100 3.7GHz Dual-Core Processor  ($110.99 @ SuperBiiz) 
Motherboard: ASRock H110M-ITX/ac Mini ITX LGA1151 Motherboard  ($67.99 @ SuperBiiz) 
Memory: Crucial 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2133 Memory  ($30.88 @ OutletPC) 
Storage: Crucial BX200 240GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($64.99 @ Adorama) 
Case: Cooler Master Elite 130 Mini ITX Tower Case  ($29.99 @ Newegg) 
Power Supply: SeaSonic 350W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply  ($31.99 @ SuperBiiz) 
Optical Drive: Asus DRW-24F1ST DVD/CD Writer  ($13.99 @ Newegg) 
Total: $350.82
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-07-16 15:21 EDT-0400

[SageOfSpice]

1 minute ago, RadiatingLight said:

she has a shitload of chrome tabs open, and I want to make sure that her pc will be futureproof. as I'm writing this, 5GB of 8 on my computer are being used up, and I only have 5 tabs open. in 4 years or so, programs + the OS will use more than 8gb of ram

They have these things called paging files. Oh god.

 

Why do you assume the requirements for the OS and programs are going to go up? That isn't usually how it works for normal programs, typically they become MORE efficient over time.

 

The SSD is also silly. Just set the PC up to hibernate.

 

 

 

[RadiatingLight]

2 minutes ago, Octavialicious said:

Are you tabs calculating pi or something? I could have 30 tabs open and not exceed 4GB easily

Almost any modern browser uses lots of RAM. I have no idea how you could have 30 tabs open with less than 4GB utilisation.

even so, if the OS uses 2GB, the browser uses 4GB, and some random program in the background uses 1GB, that's getting pretty close to 8

keep in mind i need enough ram for 4 years ahead in the future.

[SageOfSpice]

2 minutes ago, RadiatingLight said:

Almost any modern browser uses lots of RAM. I have no idea how you could have 30 tabs open with less than 4GB utilisation.

even so, if the OS uses 2GB, the browser uses 4GB, and some random program in the background uses 1GB, that's getting pretty close to 8

keep in mind i need enough ram for 4 years ahead in the future.

4 years for what? A browser to instantly quadruple it's ram usage? For bridge to come out in VR? Do you know how old people use their computers?

 

Also, it isn't that the ram is being used perse in the Task Manager, it's that it's being reserved. The OS manages ram dynamically and commits ram to tasks based on usage.

[RadiatingLight]

4 minutes ago, SageOfSpice said:

They have these things called paging files. Oh god.

 

Why do you assume the requirements for the OS and programs are going to go up? That isn't usually how it works for normal programs, typically they become MORE efficient over time.

 

The SSD is also silly. Just set the PC up to hibernate.

 

 

 

SSD is silly? Why?

 

paging files are great when you don't have enough RAM, but it's better to not need them.

 

windows 10 64bit has a minimum RAM requirement of 2GB

20 years ago, having 2GB in your pc was crazy

requirements go up when the average user has more resources, and programs do more things.

 

[RGProductions]

3 minutes ago, RadiatingLight said:

Almost any modern browser uses lots of RAM. I have no idea how you could have 30 tabs open with less than 4GB utilisation.

even so, if the OS uses 2GB, the browser uses 4GB, and some random program in the background uses 1GB, that's getting pretty close to 8

keep in mind i need enough ram for 4 years ahead in the future.

I actually played 30 tabs of big buck bunny at 480p on chrome with skype open in the background and was still only using 4.1 gigabytes

[RGProductions]

4 minutes ago, RadiatingLight said:

Almost any modern browser uses lots of RAM. I have no idea how you could have 30 tabs open with less than 4GB utilisation.

even so, if the OS uses 2GB, the browser uses 4GB, and some random program in the background uses 1GB, that's getting pretty close to 8

keep in mind i need enough ram for 4 years ahead in the future.

also, upgrades exist

[PlayStation 2]

I could still cut the fuck down but I decided on some decent parts.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Pentium G4400 3.3GHz Dual-Core Processor  ($58.99 @ SuperBiiz) 
CPU Cooler: CRYORIG C7 40.5 CFM CPU Cooler  ($29.99 @ Amazon) 
Motherboard: ASRock H110M-ITX/ac Mini ITX LGA1151 Motherboard  ($67.99 @ SuperBiiz) 
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2400 Memory  ($34.88 @ OutletPC) 
Storage: PNY CS1311 240GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($63.99 @ Newegg) 
Case: Cooler Master Elite 130 Mini ITX Tower Case  ($29.99 @ Newegg) 
Power Supply: Corsair CXM 450W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply  ($49.99 @ Amazon) 
Optical Drive: Asus DRW-24F1ST DVD/CD Writer  ($13.99 @ Newegg) 
Total: $349.81
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-07-16 15:29 EDT-0400

[SageOfSpice]

1 minute ago, RadiatingLight said:

SSD is silly? Why?

 

paging files are great when you don't have enough RAM, but it's better to not need them.

 

windows 10 64bit has a minimum RAM requirement of 2GB

20 years ago, having 2GB in your pc was crazy

requirements go up when the average user has more resources, and programs do more things.

 

The reason behind the minimum ram increase is due to the GUI, and App interface. If you disable those, it runs just as lean as it did back then.

 

The SSD is silly because as I said, with hibernation, boot times are irrelevant. Data transfers, we're looking at waiting a few seconds more for pictures to be moved from one file to another. If she's building a video collection or something, then sure, the 5x write speed will help, but most people don't need that for casual usage so it's a waste of money.

 

The more important things you ought to be concerned with are reliability and ease of cleaning. If it fails prematurely due to a shoddy PSU, then it's no good. If she never cleans it and it turns into a mess because it doesn't have filters, then it's no good.

 

A good solid HDD, 4GB of ram, and a multi-core CPU is more than sufficient. If she's as bad at managing her resources as you say she is, then I'm afraid no amount of RAM is going to help that, she'll hit the limit inevitably regardless. The best compromise would be getting a decent large SSD in place of that ram and HDD. With the paging file on the SSD, you'll experience virtually no interruption when it's accessed, and you'd still benefit from the fast transfer rates.

 

Really no reason to go overkill for daily applications.

[RadiatingLight]

2 minutes ago, SageOfSpice said:

The reason behind the minimum ram increase is due to the GUI, and App interface. If you disable those, it runs just as lean as it did back then.

 

The SSD is silly because as I said, with hibernation, boot times are irrelevant. Data transfers, we're looking at waiting a few seconds more for pictures to be moved from one file to another. If she's building a video collection or something, then sure, the 5x write speed will help, but most people don't need that for casual usage so it's a waste of money.

 

The more important things you ought to be concerned with are reliability and ease of cleaning. If it fails prematurely due to a shoddy PSU, then it's no good. If she never cleans it and it turns into a mess because it doesn't have filters, then it's no good.

 

A good solid HDD, 4GB of ram, and a multi-core CPU is more than sufficient. If she's as bad at managing her resources as you say she is, then I'm afraid no amount of RAM is going to help that, she'll hit the limit inevitably regardless. The best compromise would be getting a decent large SSD in place of that ram and HDD. With the paging file on the SSD, you'll experience virtually no interruption when it's accessed, and you'd still benefit from the fast transfer rates.

 

Really no reason to go overkill for daily applications.

SSDs help with much more than boot times and file transfers. (actually HDDs are very good at file transfers)

SSDs are good for the small file reads the OS needs to preform all the time when loading a new bit of GUI, clicking on something, etc.

 

4GB of ram is not enough. no way.

running out of ram is not a good thing, and when information is forced on to the paging file, the system begins to stutter.

[SageOfSpice]

7 minutes ago, RadiatingLight said:

SSDs help with much more than boot times and file transfers. (actually HDDs are very good at file transfers)

SSDs are good for the small file reads the OS needs to preform all the time when loading a new bit of GUI, clicking on something, etc.

 

4GB of ram is not enough. no way.

running out of ram is not a good thing, and when information is forced on to the paging file, the system begins to stutter.

 

HDD's are about 5x slower at regular file transfers, and significantly slower when it comes to random read and writes.

Superfetch should manage any GUI bits fairly well, so there shouldn't be any significant difference, not enough for your grandmother to notice.

 

As stated, 4GB would be sufficient in the presence of an SSD.

 

If you want to play with it, go set your maximum memory to 4GB in MSConfig and try it out for a bit, you might be surprised at how well memory is handled.

[manikyath]

47 minutes ago, SageOfSpice said:

 

HDD's are about 5x slower at regular file transfers, and significantly slower when it comes to random read and writes.

Superfetch should manage any GUI bits fairly well, so there shouldn't be any significant difference, not enough for your grandmother to notice.

 

As stated, 4GB would be sufficient in the presence of an SSD.

 

If you want to play with it, go set your maximum memory to 4GB in MSConfig and try it out for a bit, you might be surprised at how well memory is handled.

i'm not sure how fast your grandma is, but my grandma wouldnt notice the difference between a computer taking 15 seconds for a cold boot or 90 seconds for a cold boot. as long as you get a 7200RPM HDD average grandma wont notice a dang difference.

 

also, i'm not sure what the hell your grandma is visiting, but in college i had a classmate that'd load up something like 40-50 tabs of "roleplay forums" (imagine LTT, but each post to a thread being at least a full A4 page worth of text) and keep those open to read all day. his pentium & 8GB ram laptop sufficed, an i3 and 8GB ram is more than fine.

[manikyath]

1 hour ago, Dan Castellaneta said:

I could still cut the fuck down but I decided on some decent parts.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Pentium G4400 3.3GHz Dual-Core Processor  ($58.99 @ SuperBiiz) 
CPU Cooler: CRYORIG C7 40.5 CFM CPU Cooler  ($29.99 @ Amazon) 
Motherboard: ASRock H110M-ITX/ac Mini ITX LGA1151 Motherboard  ($67.99 @ SuperBiiz) 
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2400 Memory  ($34.88 @ OutletPC) 
Storage: PNY CS1311 240GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($63.99 @ Newegg) 
Case: Cooler Master Elite 130 Mini ITX Tower Case  ($29.99 @ Newegg) 
Power Supply: Corsair CXM 450W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply  ($49.99 @ Amazon) 
Optical Drive: Asus DRW-24F1ST DVD/CD Writer  ($13.99 @ Newegg) 
Total: $349.81
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-07-16 15:29 EDT-0400

why the dunk are you putting a custom cpu cooler on that thing?

[PlayStation 2]

1 minute ago, manikyath said:

why the dunk are you putting a custom cpu cooler on that thing?

y knot

Honestly, that's what I was basically going with. Might as well, it'll keep it a bit cooler, even if it's arbitrarily pointless on a Pentium that won't be doing anything intensive.

[manikyath]

1 minute ago, Dan Castellaneta said:

y knot

Honestly, that's what I was basically going with. Might as well, it'll keep it a bit cooler, even if it's arbitrarily pointless on a Pentium that won't be doing anything intensive.

the thing is, unless he has some kind of supergrandma, i dont think she's gonna notice.

[manikyath]

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Pentium G3240 3.1GHz Dual-Core Processor  ($50.99 @ SuperBiiz) 
Motherboard: MSI H81M-P33 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard  ($42.98 @ Newegg) 
Memory: PNY Anarchy 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory  ($24.99 @ Amazon) 
Storage: A-Data Premier SP550 240GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($54.99 @ NCIX US) 
Case: Rosewill SRM-01 MicroATX Mini Tower Case  ($19.99 @ Amazon) 
Power Supply: SeaSonic S12II 430W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply  ($52.99 @ SuperBiiz) 
Optical Drive: Asus DRW-24F1ST DVD/CD Writer  ($13.99 @ Newegg) 
Total: $260.92
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-07-16 16:38 EDT-0400

 

my take on the party:

- a haswell pentium, she's not gonna notice the difference between that i5 and this.

- stock heatsink, if my grandpa's tv volume is any measure, she's not gonna be bothered if it makes some sound. (also: "billie, is this on? it doesnt make any sound")

- 8GB ram, you can drop in a second stick in the future, not that you'll ever need to.

- 240GB SSD, your old lady isnt gonna notice the speed bump, but it's more "accident-proof" than a mechanical hard drive.

- she does NOT need a $60 case.

- this power supply is overkill, it however is still cheaper than your pick. to be honest this is such a low power system even a chinesium brick will do.

- optical drive, for.. reasons i guess?

[SageOfSpice]

5 hours ago, manikyath said:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Pentium G3240 3.1GHz Dual-Core Processor  ($50.99 @ SuperBiiz) 
Motherboard: MSI H81M-P33 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard  ($42.98 @ Newegg) 
Memory: PNY Anarchy 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory  ($24.99 @ Amazon) 
Storage: A-Data Premier SP550 240GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($54.99 @ NCIX US) 
Case: Rosewill SRM-01 MicroATX Mini Tower Case  ($19.99 @ Amazon) 
Power Supply: SeaSonic S12II 430W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply  ($52.99 @ SuperBiiz) 
Optical Drive: Asus DRW-24F1ST DVD/CD Writer  ($13.99 @ Newegg) 
Total: $260.92
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-07-16 16:38 EDT-0400

 

my take on the party:

- a haswell pentium, she's not gonna notice the difference between that i5 and this.

- stock heatsink, if my grandpa's tv volume is any measure, she's not gonna be bothered if it makes some sound. (also: "billie, is this on? it doesnt make any sound")

- 8GB ram, you can drop in a second stick in the future, not that you'll ever need to.

- 240GB SSD, your old lady isnt gonna notice the speed bump, but it's more "accident-proof" than a mechanical hard drive.

- she does NOT need a $60 case.

- this power supply is overkill, it however is still cheaper than your pick. to be honest this is such a low power system even a chinesium brick will do.

- optical drive, for.. reasons i guess?

Yeah, but what about when laser drives come out? Is a single SSD going to be enough, or should we run a few in raid 0?