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Cheap PC for my parents

beerdude111
By beerdude111
in New Builds and Planning
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Sooooo, my parents' desktop recently went up in smokes (yes, there really was smoke coming out of it) and instead of going to walmart or best buy to get a new one, they came to me to build them one. Their daily computer routine is:

  1. Check the weather
  2. Check their emails
  3. Facebook stalk my cousins and silently judge their life choices/friends/SOs

So obviously it won't be needing a Titan X and an i7 and I am not very knowledgeable when it comes to cheap computer parts (i.e. what's a steal and what's going to burn your house down, the latter being important since one of their PCs already took that route)  So could someone help me out on computer parts, new or used (if used, what to look out for), that'll get my parents off my back and back to cyber stalking my family?

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Grab a cheap laptop and call it a day.

Archangel (Desktop) CPU: i5 4590 GPU:Asus R9 280  3GB RAM:HyperX Beast 2x4GBPSU:SeaSonic S12G 750W Mobo:GA-H97m-HD3 Case:CM Silencio 650 Storage:1 TB WD Red
Celestial (Laptop 1) CPU:i7 4720HQ GPU:GTX 860M 4GB RAM:2x4GB SK Hynix DDR3Storage: 250GB 850 EVO Model:Lenovo Y50-70
Seraph (Laptop 2) CPU:i7 6700HQ GPU:GTX 970M 3GB RAM:2x8GB DDR4Storage: 256GB Samsung 951 + 1TB Toshiba HDD Model:Asus GL502VT
Windows 10 is now MSX! - http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/440190-can-we-start-calling-windows-10/page-6

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Decent PSU.

 

250GB SSD.

 

APU.

 

Modern, yet subtle case.

 

8GB of RAM.

Intel Core i7-6700K | Corsair H105 | Asus Z170I PRO GAMING | G.Skill TridentZ Series 16GB | 950 PRO 512GB M.2

 

Asus GeForce GTX 980 Ti 6GB STRIX OC | BitFenix Prodigy (Black/Red) | XFX PRO Black Edition 850W

 

 

My Build | PCPartPicker | CoC

 

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CPU: Intel Core i3-6100 3.7GHz Dual-Core Processor  ($129.89 @ OutletPC) 

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-H110M-A Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard  ($53.99 @ SuperBiiz) 

Memory: Crucial 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR4-2133 Memory  ($36.99 @ Amazon) 

Storage: A-Data Premier SP550 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($39.99 @ NCIX US) 

Case: Rosewill FBM-05 MicroATX Mini Tower Case  ($24.99 @ Newegg) 

Power Supply: Antec Basiq 350W ATX Power Supply  ($26.99 @ SuperBiiz) 

Total: $312.84

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-01-05 18:26 EST-0500

i5-4690k@4.5GHz || MSI GTX 970 || MSI z97 Gaming 5 || NZXT Kraken x61 || WD Black 1TB || Crucial MX100 || 8GB Corsair Vengeance Pro || Corsair RM750 || NZXT H440 || Corsair k70 RGB mx browns || Acer H236HL || ViewSonic VX2255wm-4

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I'd go for a i3, that should be enough to last 3 years.

4-8GBs of ram

A cheap seasonic or XFX PSU

FractalDesign Core series for the case

Depending on how much storage they use, a 240GB SSD should be plenty

Any B85-B150 mobo depending on which Gen i3

I'm on my phone or I'd use PCPP

 

 

i7-6700k  Cooling: Deepcool Captain 240EX White GPU: GTX 1080Ti EVGA FTW3 Mobo: AsRock Z170 Extreme4 Case: Phanteks P400s TG Special Black/White PSU: EVGA 850w GQ Ram: 64GB (3200Mhz 16x4 Corsair Vengeance RGB) Storage 1x 1TB Seagate Barracuda 240GBSandisk SSDPlus, 480GB OCZ Trion 150, 1TB Crucial NVMe
(Rest of Specs on Profile)

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PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Pentium G3258 3.2GHz Dual-Core Processor  ($64.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: MSI H81M-P33 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard  ($44.89 @ OutletPC)
Memory: Kingston HyperX Fury Blue 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory  ($34.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($49.98 @ OutletPC)
Case: NZXT S340 (Black/Blue) ATX Mid Tower Case  ($63.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Power Supply: EVGA 500W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply  ($38.98 @ Newegg)
Total: $297.82
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-01-05 18:37 EST-0500

 

maybe something like that. or this

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Pentium G3258 3.2GHz Dual-Core Processor  ($64.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: MSI H81M-P33 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard  ($44.89 @ OutletPC)
Memory: Kingston HyperX Fury Blue 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory  ($34.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($49.98 @ OutletPC)
Case: Apex SK-393-C ATX Mid Tower Case  ($25.97 @ NCIX US)
Power Supply: SeaSonic 300W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply  ($35.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Total: $256.81
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-01-05 18:40 EST-0500

New: PCPartPicker part list

Old:Intel® Core2 Quad CPU Q8400 @ 2.66GHz, GIGABYTE GA-EP43T-UD3L, 4 GB Elixir PC3 ddr3-1333,  ASUS RADEON R7 260X, Thermaltake M9, 1TB HDD, GreatWall GW550SEL 550 WATT, BENQ GW2255, Hyper T4, Samson SR950 Headphones, fiio ek10.

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Recertified - DELL Desktop Computer 790 Intel Core i5 2400 (3.10 GHz)

 

Just go OEM. Cheapest thing for ya and the least hassle.

COMPUTER: Mobile Battlestation  |  CPU: INTEL I7-8700k |  Motherboard: Asus z370-i Strix Gaming  | GPU: EVGA GTX 1080 FTW ACX 3.0 | Cooler: Scythe Big Shuriken 2 Rev. b |  PSU: Corsair SF600 | HDD: Samsung 860 evo 1tb

 

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raspberry pi!

Mine can watch youtube, but Its buggy.... BUT IT WOULD WORK

Any PSU is modular if you try hard enough....

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CPU: Intel Pentium G3250 3.2GHz Dual-Core Processor  ($53.99 @ SuperBiiz) 

Motherboard: ECS B85H3-M9 (1.0) Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard  ($30.98 @ Newegg) 


Storage: Crucial BX200 240GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($64.99 @ Amazon) 

Case: Xion XON-310_BK MicroATX Mid Tower Case  ($25.98 @ Newegg) 


Total: $238.91

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-01-05 18:48 EST-0500

 

The only time a CX will be allowed. Ever

USEFUL LINKS:

PSU Tier List | F@H stats

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CPU: Intel Pentium G3250 3.2GHz Dual-Core Processor  ($53.99 @ SuperBiiz) 
Motherboard: ECS B85H3-M9 (1.0) Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard  ($30.98 @ Newegg) 
Storage: Crucial BX200 240GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($64.99 @ Amazon) 
Case: Xion XON-310_BK MicroATX Mid Tower Case  ($25.98 @ Newegg) 
Total: $238.91
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-01-05 18:48 EST-0500
 
The only time a CX will be allowed. Ever

 

 

Sooooo, my parents' desktop recently went up in smokes (yes, there really was smoke coming out of it) and instead of going to walmart or best buy to get a new one, they came to me to build them one. Their daily computer routine is:

  1. Check the weather
  2. Check their emails
  3. Facebook stalk my cousins and silently judge their life choices/friends/SOs

So obviously it won't be needing a Titan X and an i7 and I am not very knowledgeable when it comes to cheap computer parts (i.e. what's a steal and what's going to burn your house down, the latter being important since one of their PCs already took that route)  So could someone help me out on computer parts, new or used (if used, what to look out for), that'll get my parents off my back and back to cyber stalking my family?

Blue Jay

CPU: Intel Core i7 6700k (OC'd 4.4GHz) Cooler: CM Hyper 212 Evo Mobo: MSI Z170A Gaming Pro Carbon GPU: EVGA GTX 950 SSC RAM: Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB (1x8GB) SSD: Samsung 850 EVO 250 GB HDD: Seagate Barracuda 1TB Case: NZXT S340 Black/Blue PSU: Corsair CX430M

 

Other Stuff

Monitor: Acer H236HL BID Mouse: Logitech G502 Proteus Spectrum Keyboard: I don't even know Mouse Pad: SteelSeries QcK Headset: Turtle Beach X12

 

GitHub

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CPU: AMD A10-5800K 3.8GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($92.99 @ Directron) 

Motherboard: ASRock FM2A78M-ITX+ Mini ITX FM2+ Motherboard  ($56.98 @ Newegg) 

Memory: Corsair 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1333 Memory  ($39.99 @ Newegg) 

Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($62.69 @ OutletPC) 


Power Supply: Silverstone 300W 80+ Bronze Certified SFX Power Supply  ($48.99 @ SuperBiiz) 

Optical Drive: Asus DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS DVD/CD Writer  ($15.88 @ OutletPC) 

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

Wireless Network Adapter: Gigabyte GC-WB867D-I 802.11a/b/g/n/ac PCI-Express x1 Wi-Fi Adapter  ($29.89 @ OutletPC) 

Total: $492.28

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-01-05 22:10 EST-0500

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I've built my roommate's parents a few APU based systems. 860Ks, 8GB RAM 240GB SSD, for $450. Go with an i3 or a A8 APU, 8GB of RAM and a decent SSD. For one of the PCs, we added an additional 1TB WD Blue drive to store all her pictures. They do exactly what you listed your parents as doing.

Another option is a cheap i3 laptop. I always suggest the SSD, regardless. It gives any system that "wow" factor and I know they've recommended me to others because of it.

CPU: Core i7 4970K | MOBO: Asus Z87 Pro | RAM: 32GBs of G.Skill Ares 1866 | GPU: MSI GAMING X GTX 1070 | STOR: 2 X Crucial BX100 250GB, 2 x WD Blk 1TB (mirror),WD Blk 500GB | CASE: Cooler Master HAF 932 Advanced | PSU: EVGA SUPERNOVA G2 750W | COOL: Cooler Master Hyper T4 | DISP: 21" 1080P POS | KB: MS Keyboard | MAU5: Redragon NEMEANLION | MIC: Snowball Blue | OS: Win 8.1 Pro x64, (Working on Arch for dual boot) |

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No, this is one of the rare occasions where such a low power system can use a shitty PSU :P

Could've at least gone with a better PSU for maybe $15 more.

http://pcpartpicker.com/part/evga-power-supply-100b10500kr

I've heard too many bad things about the CX series, I'm sorry xD

Blue Jay

CPU: Intel Core i7 6700k (OC'd 4.4GHz) Cooler: CM Hyper 212 Evo Mobo: MSI Z170A Gaming Pro Carbon GPU: EVGA GTX 950 SSC RAM: Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB (1x8GB) SSD: Samsung 850 EVO 250 GB HDD: Seagate Barracuda 1TB Case: NZXT S340 Black/Blue PSU: Corsair CX430M

 

Other Stuff

Monitor: Acer H236HL BID Mouse: Logitech G502 Proteus Spectrum Keyboard: I don't even know Mouse Pad: SteelSeries QcK Headset: Turtle Beach X12

 

GitHub

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CPU: AMD A10-5800K 3.8GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($92.99 @ Directron) 
Motherboard: ASRock FM2A78M-ITX+ Mini ITX FM2+ Motherboard  ($56.98 @ Newegg) 
Memory: Corsair 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1333 Memory  ($39.99 @ Newegg) 
Power Supply: Silverstone 300W 80+ Bronze Certified SFX Power Supply  ($48.99 @ SuperBiiz) 
Optical Drive: Asus DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS DVD/CD Writer  ($15.88 @ OutletPC) 
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Home OEM (64-bit)  ($89.88 @ OutletPC) 
Wireless Network Adapter: Gigabyte GC-WB867D-I 802.11a/b/g/n/ac PCI-Express x1 Wi-Fi Adapter  ($29.89 @ OutletPC) 
Total: $429.59
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-01-05 18:54 EST-0500

 

Just saying, the SSD doesn't have a price and the case already comes with a PSU

USEFUL LINKS:

PSU Tier List | F@H stats

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Pretty much any half-decent CPU will work.  Even a C2Q would still be sufficient for that usage case.  I'd go 8 GB of RAM since it's cheap and it will be plenty, but even 4 GB would be enough.  Get a good quality PSU, but it doesn't have to be powerful; 400 W should be plenty.  get an SSD though - that's what is going to make the machine feel and stay fast for a number of years to come.  Obviously any integrated graphics will be enough here.

Solve your own audio issues  |  First Steps with RPi 3  |  Humidity & Condensation  |  Sleep & Hibernation  |  Overclocking RAM  |  Making Backups  |  Displays  |  4K / 8K / 16K / etc.  |  Do I need 80+ Platinum?

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Just saying, the SSD doesn't have a price and the case already comes with a PSU

PSUs included with cases are usually crap.

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Here you go.

 

It's an AM1 system. It's still gonna be good enough for the internet. I build my parents this EXACT PC for them last year and they think it is great:

 

(You can get a windows key from the microsoftsoftwareswap subreddit for $20)

 

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/kZR7K8

 

note on the PSU:

 

An over-the-top 500w 80+ gold PSU isn't even needed for this build. When I measured how much the system pulled it was drawing ~80 watts. That is well within the range of the 400w power supply even if it is not 80+ certified.

 

If you are on a budget this is a really good option of you don't want to go with a more expensive intel i3 build.

man beat me to it... I'm still going to make one...

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PSUs included with cases are usually crap.

Good point

 

REMADE MY LIST

 

 
CPU: AMD A8-7600 3.1GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($81.99 @ SuperBiiz) 
Motherboard: ASRock FM2A88X-ITX+ Mini ITX FM2+ Motherboard  ($71.98 @ Newegg) 
Storage: Crucial BX200 240GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($64.99 @ Amazon) 
Case: Xion XON-310_BK MicroATX Mid Tower Case  ($25.98 @ Newegg) 
Power Supply: SeaSonic 300W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply  ($37.98 @ Newegg) 
Total: $318.91
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-01-05 19:09 EST-0500

USEFUL LINKS:

PSU Tier List | F@H stats

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Except yours will use Crucial memory LOL.

how did you know... JK the cheapest 4gb stick I did choose the crucial one out of the three, but realized it was laptop memory... Also why do you all recommend 8gb for a web pc.. old people actually close tabs...(my dad never has more then like 3), and I if did go with 8gb it would be the muskin 2x4gb one

 
CPU: AMD 5350 2.05Ghz Quad-Core Processor  ($45.99 @ SuperBiiz) 
Motherboard: MSI AM1I Mini ITX AM1 Motherboard  ($33.89 @ OutletPC) 
Memory: Kingston 4GB (1 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory  ($17.99 @ SuperBiiz) 
Storage: A-Data Premier SP550 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($39.99 @ NCIX US) 
Total: $230.73
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-01-05 19:15 EST-0500
 
Yes the psu is 200w but I doubt this processor can use more then power then a flash light... and a hard drive for all the pictures I know your parents have of you...
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Because google chrome LOVES RAM. My PC uses ~6GB of RAM just trying to run a few tabs of google chrome. On top of that 8GB doesn't cost much more compared to buying a 4GB stick.

yes thats true(4gb to 8gb not costing that much more $17 to $32 atm usually 15-30), and I have 20+ tabs open, and I'm only at 2.7gb, but I have never seen how people get the ram up so high from chrome I have had 60+(with actual websites) tabs open and I still never have gotten it to go above 6gb(tested it out opend a bookmark with 38 more pages (+the 20 i have open), so it totals to 58 and it spiked at 5.8 then leveled off at exactly 5gb), and also I said that no old person used more then 4 tabs...

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Grab a cheap laptop and call it a day.

 

Yup.

 

Pretty much what I did.

DAYTONA

PROCESSOR - AMD RYZEN 7 3700X
MOTHERBOARD - ASUS PRIME X370-PRO
RAM - 32GB (4x8GB) CORSAIR VENGEANCE LPX DDR4-2400
CPU COOLING - NOCTUA NH-D14
GRAPHICS CARD - EVGA NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 980Ti SC+ ACX 2.0 w/ BACKPLATE
BOOT and PROGRAMS - CORSAIR MP600 1TB
GAMES and FILES - TOSHIBA 2TB
INTERNAL BACKUP - WESTERN DIGITAL GREEN 4TB
POWER SUPPLY - CORSAIR RM850i
CASE - CORSAIR OBSIDIAN 750D

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