Need Help: Which system would you spend your hard earned money on.

[Captain Marshmellowz]

I have noticed a bit of a gap in the market for pre-built PC's here in South Africa, and decided to start building some myself to resell for a bit of profit. They are going to be leaning towards the budget side, Just please also bear in mind the crazy shipping costs, tax and exchange rates I have to pay over here.

 

Now to the point, I have been throwing these 2 builds around in my head for ages now, and cant seem to settle my mind on which one would be better. This is the system:

 

Case: Zalman T4 MATX.

Mobo: MSI Intel H81 P33.

GPU: R9 260x.

Ram: 8gb 1600mhz.

PSU: EVGA 500w 80 Plus.

HDD: 1TB WD Blue.

 

Here is the part I cant decide on. Should I go with the i3 4160 which is at 3.6ghz with hyperthreading for $120 or do I go with the i5 4430 at 3.0ghz for $180?

 

Points to consider:

- This system is going to probably be sold to people who really dont know much about PC's.

- Over here, and most places in the world, i3's are looked at as cheap and weak chips, even though the i5 BARELY beats that i3 out in benchmarks.

- These systems are being sold as new, and I need it to be enticing to the buyer, ignorant or not, even at the cost of what I know is better price to performance.

- The price of the systems is i3: $650 and the i5: $730.

- I will make slightly more profit off of the i5 system, or I could drop my selling price to make equal amounts of profit.

 

Which system would you guys buy? Maybe even looking at it through the eyes of the Sheeple. Any help and thoughts would be greatly appreciated!

 

Edit: I also wouldn't mind hearing your guys thoughts on putting an EVGA GTX 750ti in instead of the R7 260x. The 260x performs identically to the 750ti, but is $20 cheaper. Again though, Nvidia has already proven how much bigger of a following they have. Brand names sell I guess Thoughts?

[Arwanell]

i once was like "those" people you described

like: meh, i3 , cheap weak and shitty

but now i have an i3 and i love it

i will upgrade in a year or 2, but for now it's gr8

[Oshino Shinobu]

The i5 will do better in most cases, and even better in applications that don't use HT. I'd go for the i5, then you can add quad-core i5 to your selling points. 

[iJarbus]

If it was me I would go for the i3 since at that budget it is the better choice, Since like you said your trying to sell it to people who don't know much about PC's and think all i5 are much better than all i3's (I still remember the days when this was me) I would say go with the i5, just to add as a selling point.

[Captain Marshmellowz]

The replies so far are great, seems you have confirmed my thoughts that purely being able to put "i5" on the specs list will help these PC's sell better, even though us enthusiasts know that the difference between them is marginal. I look forward to seeing more peoples thoughts

[Kamina]

If you give them an FX 6300 you might make more money and it'll perform better than an i3 in some games. Also, it has 6-cores which sounds cool on paper.

[Captain Marshmellowz]

If you give them an FX 6300 you might make more money and it'll perform better than an i3 in some games. Also, it has 6-cores which sounds cool on paper.

Very true, the FX6300 was actually my first choice, the problem though is the availability of motherboards for it here in South Africa. By the time I found a motherboard for it and a case to put it into it blew the budget like crazy.

[ShadowCaptain]

Why not offer both systems

 

I would pick the i5 one , but its worth seeing how your customers find the price and adjust then

[Molten]

Why not offer both systems

 

I would pick the i5 one , but its worth seeing how your customers find the price and adjust then

I agree, more options can't hurt, right?

[Captain Marshmellowz]

Why not offer both systems

 

I would pick the i5 one , but its worth seeing how your customers find the price and adjust then

 

 

I agree, more options can't hurt, right?

I would love to do both, and probably will at some point, but unfortunately for now I only have enough start up capital for one

 

Thanks for your input guys, much appreciated.

[Arwanell]

yes, go with i5

in my country 80% of people just look at: i3,i5,i7

for them numbers are everything

they think that every i7 is better than i5, but in fact there are i3's that are better than some i7's

[JaSoN_XzIoN]

Very true, the FX6300 was actually my first choice, the problem though is the availability of motherboards for it here in South Africa. By the time I found a motherboard for it and a case to put it into it blew the budget like crazy.

Check takealot.com and wootware.co.za, they both have a few AMD mobos. Also if I may ask, where do you buy your parts from? I need to do a build for someone who is a bit price sensitive and my build is similar to yours but more expensive

[Captain Marshmellowz]

Check takealot.com and wootware.co.za, they both have a few AMD mobos. Also if I may ask, where do you buy your parts from? I need to do a build for someone who is a bit price sensitive and my build is similar to yours but more expensive

Thanks for the reply, I have actually taken a look at those sites, Im going to be using Takealot for the Mobo and case, and then the Amazon US store for all the rest, that is by far the cheapest way of doing it Unfortunately the cheapest AMD mobo for that socket on those sites is sitting close to R1000, where as this MSI one is R600 with free shipping Good luck my friend.

[Hero7750]

The i5 is always better but I have an i3 4360 (costs a little bit more than the 4150) and I love it. I willupgrade to an i5 later but I love it and it gets the job done.

[JaSoN_XzIoN]

Thanks for the reply, I have actually taken a look at those sites, Im going to be using Takealot for the Mobo and case, and then the Amazon US store for all the rest, that is by far the cheapest way of doing it Unfortunately the cheapest AMD mobo for that socket on those sites is sitting close to R1000, where as this MSI one is R600 with free shipping Good luck my friend.

seems good, how long does Amazon take to deliver to us? If you have a friend or someone you know well that's registered at places like rectron you could try that route, they are the biggest retailer here, but you have to have a register CC business to register with them. But they should be the cheapest.

[Captain Marshmellowz]

seems good, how long does Amazon take to deliver to us? If you have a friend or someone you know well that's registered at places like rectron you could try that route, they are the biggest retailer here, but you have to have a register CC business to register with them. But they should be the cheapest.

Ive ordered from Amazon quite a few times now, they say it could take up to 3 weeks, but the longest its taken so far was 10 days. Unfortunately I dont have any friends who would be able to order from Rectron. But between Amazon and Takealot/bidorbuy i've managed to find really good deals and a balance between shipping costs and buying local. I will be able to beat out Evetechs prices, so im happy (They are the biggest pre-built PC retailer here, so they are my competition I guess )

[JaSoN_XzIoN]

Ive ordered from Amazon quite a few times now, they say it could take up to 3 weeks, but the longest its taken so far was 10 days. Unfortunately I dont have any friends who would be able to order from Rectron. But between Amazon and Takealot/bidorbuy i've managed to find really good deals and a balance between shipping costs and buying local. I will be able to beat out Evetechs prices, so im happy (They are the biggest pre-built PC retailer here, so they are my competition I guess )

10 days will be too long for me, might check them when I order something for myself again. Takealot delivers within 2days usually, and shipping is mostly free for orders above r250. I see evetech is pretty close, always good to get more suppliers to compare prices

[Lmp]

Why not offer both?