Prebuilt Asus?

[Aniallation]

My friend is looking into getting a new PC. His current Athlon X2 and 8800GT are becoming not enough for his needs. He was looking at this Asus prebuilt from Best Buy, and I was genuinely surprised at how cheap it is for the specs ($480). It also looks really nice.

 

http://www.bestbuy.ca/en-CA/product/asus-asus-m32ad-pc-brushed-metal-intel-core-i5-4460-1tb-hdd-6gb-ram-uma-graphics-windows-8-1-m32ad-ca002s/10322691.aspx?path=f9a15c74a257579df7167a068a3c13b0en02&SearchPageIndex=1

 

Especially considering it'd take almost $200 more to build (including OS)

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

 

CPU: Intel Core i5-4460 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($211.75 @ Vuugo) 

Motherboard: MSI H81M-P33 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard  ($54.50 @ Vuugo) 

Memory: A-Data XPG V2 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory  ($79.99 @ NCIX) 

Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($57.98 @ DirectCanada) 

Case: Silverstone PS09B MicroATX Mid Tower Case  ($42.99 @ NCIX) 

Power Supply: SeaSonic 300W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply  ($43.98 @ Newegg Canada) 

Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 (OEM) (64-bit)  ($99.98 @ DirectCanada) 

Wireless Network Adapter: Intel 7260HMWDTX1 802.11a/b/g/n/ac PCI-Express x1 Wi-Fi Adapter  ($59.99 @ Memory Express) 

Total: $651.16

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-01-15 12:25 EST-0500

 

He was thinking of getting the Asus, then adding in a 750 Ti. The computer will be used for some gaming like TF2 and CS:GO but mostly schoolwork, Photoshop, and some 720p video editing. What do you guys think?

[the jolly roger]

 

My friend is looking into getting a new PC. His current Athlon X2 and 8800GT are becoming not enough for his needs. He was looking at this Asus prebuilt from Best Buy, and I was genuinely surprised at how cheap it is for the specs.

 

http://www.bestbuy.ca/en-CA/product/asus-asus-m32ad-pc-brushed-metal-intel-core-i5-4460-1tb-hdd-6gb-ram-uma-graphics-windows-8-1-m32ad-ca002s/10322691.aspx?path=f9a15c74a257579df7167a068a3c13b0en02&SearchPageIndex=1

 

Especially considering it'd take almost $200 more to build (including OS)

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

 

CPU: Intel Core i5-4460 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($211.75 @ Vuugo) 

Motherboard: MSI H81M-P33 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard  ($54.50 @ Vuugo) 

Memory: A-Data XPG V2 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory  ($79.99 @ NCIX) 

Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($57.98 @ DirectCanada) 

Case: Silverstone PS09B MicroATX Mid Tower Case  ($42.99 @ NCIX) 

Power Supply: SeaSonic 300W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply  ($43.98 @ Newegg Canada) 

Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 (OEM) (64-bit)  ($99.98 @ DirectCanada) 

Wireless Network Adapter: Intel 7260HMWDTX1 802.11a/b/g/n/ac PCI-Express x1 Wi-Fi Adapter  ($59.99 @ Memory Express) 

Total: $651.16

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-01-15 12:25 EST-0500

 

He was thinking of getting the Asus, then adding in a 750 Ti. The computer will be used for some gaming like TF2 and CS:GO but mostly schoolwork, Photoshop, and some 720p video editing. What do you guys think?

 

for TF2 and CSGO it would be perfect

[JeffreyEagan]

Upgrade the PSU if you're going to add a video card.

[Aniallation]

Upgrade the PSU if you're going to add a video card.

The PSU that comes with it is plenty for adding a 750 Ti.

[ZetZet]

Go ahead. Make sure you search for 750ti which does not even need psu connector, even less problems can occur that way  :lol: You should also convince him to get an ssd on sale, those things are amazing for general usage.

[RichardsD]

Here's the thing with prebuilts.

 

Despite what some say, no they are not the mother of all evil.

 

Infact, Acer, Lenovo and Asus generally comitt the least amount of cardinal sins in their pre-built PCs.

 

Even Asus has included proper ROG boards in their higher end gaming pre-builts; and the Acer gaming machines are generally not terrible.

 

Dell's usually have just pathetic cooling with very proprietary and difficult to expand designs.

 

This PC is just fine, it has go GFX as far as I can tell, but with a random seasonic aftermarket PSU and a card she'll be right.

[othertomperson]

The PSU that comes with it is plenty for adding a 750 Ti.

 

Which I wouldn't recommend doing. The GPU is way more important than a CPU for gaming, it doesn't make sense to have such a weak GPU in that build.

[Sauron]

 

However I know where the money was spared. Unfortunately cheap prebuilts usually come with terrible, TERRIBLE motherboards and terrible, TERRIBLE psus. As well as generally bad cases and cheapass ram (admittedly ram performance isn't very important but still).

 

As @RichardsD pointed out though, asus usually does things pretty well compared to a lot of competitors so getting this wouldn't be such a bad choice. Be aware you might have to replace the motherboard or psu in a couple of years though.

 

Final verdict: in your shoes I'd buy it, the price is really good and a 750ti is perfect to make sure the psu isn't stressed too hard. you might want to add 2gb of ram too though, and an ssd.

[Sauron]

Which I wouldn't recommend doing. The GPU is way more important than a CPU for gaming, it doesn't make sense to have such a weak GPU in that build.

 

Bare in mind a good cpu contributes more to the longevity of a pc than a good gpu, We (me included) often recommend yolo builds where the cpu is just the bare minimum in favour of the gpu when we get asked a budget build, but realistically in 3 years, when a gpu upgrade will be due, the cpu will probably need to be upgraded too in order not to bottleneck the new card. Both approaches make sense if you don't need to play at very high resolutions or extremely demanding games (remember it's dota 2 and tf2 we're talking about)

[H4X3R]

Put a decent GPU in it like an r9 270 or 280.