Build stuff, conversation.

Quest · July 8, 2014

Storytime and useless banter, you must go deeper for a tl:dr.

So, my girlfriend gets her first paycheck this coming Friday.

She currently uses an HP laptop that she got from Best Buy for a not-so-good-price a little over a year ago, and it doesn't even serve it's purpose as an extremely budget solution. Like, it started locking up and such due to heat after two months (while she's an OCD, stingy little freak and won't let dust near it), then went through a hard drive failure after her brother knocked it off the kitchen counter (understandable, but they wouldn't cover it under the year warranty she payed $40 for).

I ended up replacing the thermal paste, putting a new fan in it, cutting through some plastic for better airflow (CPU was drawing air from a plate of plastic pressed against it by default, and exhausting it, the air was always cool coming from the bottom while the area at the bottom left of the keyboard was almost smoldering), and cleaning it thoroughly. Way better temps, still extremely crappy.

Shitty laptop aside, her first paycheck will be $610 (USD) and as she's still living with her parents and doesn't have to worry about bills as of yet, and I'm well-set enough to put the down payment on a house during holiday season most-likely, I want her to put it towards a computer that will let her play her Sims 3 with tons of mods, emulators, and other light gaming (Skyrim, Left 4 Dead 2, etc).

She's not too nitpicky about graphical fidelity, she's coming from consoles (shots fired, yo), and really doesn't mind much of anything about what goes into it, but she really hates what she has now. She's also going to be going to community college soon and pursuing graphic design, which, she uses Photoshop and various other things, no video editing.

tl:dr: Girly got money, computer want soon, light gaming, small preferred, give me your best for $600.

Here's what I came up with; http://pcpartpicker.com/p/fYTH7P

This was put together very quickly, just to link to her within a few minutes of her saying "I'm really starting to want to drown my laptop in mercury", followed by, "What could you do with my first paycheck?"

I'd personally assume this would last her a couple years, as again, only light gaming and everyday use with some photo editing a bit later on. I don't expect the rig to be completely snappy with the photo editing; That's fine, better than BSOD's from saving a jpeg.

The mouse was just a little touch, you don't need to include it in your solution, she's using a ball-mouse now and I just wanted to squeeze it in to replace that.

But yeah! The purpose of this post is to see what each of you would do with $610 (at most). I know there have been dozens if not hundreds of "$500-600 budget build to last me 10 years!" posts on this forum, but have another. Let's try to make the perfect build for $600 in this moment. Also take into account, that this truly is a "the cheaper the better" scenario.

What comes out on top may be turned into a build in the next month or so.

ps: We all know whatever solution we come up with won't keep up to snuff for two years adequately, that's fine.

Quest · July 8, 2014

note: I am wanting it to be overclockable if it's going to be something like the G3258, and I'm pretty sure you can overclock with the H97 motherboards now. If not, please let me know.