GPU for donor computer

[Hlong]

About twice a year I build a PC out of my own money and donate it to a family in need in my community.

Last year my first PC went to a family where the father was laid off from work and went back to school to study business and economics. His wife worked part time and they had a 2 year old boy. They were struggling to make ends meet and needed a PC badly as all they had was a gen1 iPad. At the time I had an extra ASUS GTX 750Ti that I put in it.

The second PC went to a family of 5. Husband, wife, 3 kids. Husband too had lost his job and wife was working at a hair salon struggling to make ends meet. One of their kids had a learning disability and required special support and learning help that was offered online. At the time the child was winging it using an iPad mini for her extra studies. Furthermore, the dad needed a computer for job searching, resumes, applying online, etc. This PC I did not put a GPU in and just went with the onboard graphics which was sufficient for what they are doing.

My first donor computer for 2016, I would like to put a gpu in it again. I'm willing to do either AMD or nvidia. But, I would like to keep the price around the $100 mark. At this price point I am wondering if the onboard graphics are just as good or better? Comments?

My donor PC parts are usually Corsair 200r case, 500W evga or corsair psu, Intel core i3-4170 CPU, ASUS H-97 Plus atx motherboard, 2x4 GB DDR3 gskill ram, 120 gb Sandisk SSD, 1 TB Seagate HDD, ASUS cd/dvd r/w drive, Logitech mouse & keyboard, Logitech speakers, ASUS wifi card and a 22 inch LG monitor. I also install on the SSD a legit copy of windows 8.1 on each and upgrade it to win 10.

[angrymoose]

About twice a year I build a PC out of my own money and donate it to a family in need in my community.

Last year my first PC went to a family where the father was laid off from work and went back to school to study business and economics. His wife worked part time and they had a 2 year old boy. They were struggling to make ends meet and needed a PC badly as all they had was a gen1 iPad. At the time I had an extra ASUS GTX 750Ti that I put in it.

The second PC went to a family of 5. Husband, wife, 3 kids. Husband too had lost his job and wife was working at a hair salon struggling to make ends meet. One of their kids had a learning disability and required special support and learning help that was offered online. At the time the child was winging it using an iPad mini for her extra studies. Furthermore, the dad needed a computer for job searching, resumes, applying online, etc. This PC I did not put a GPU in and just went with the onboard graphics which was sufficient for what they are doing.

My first donor computer for 2016, I would like to put a gpu in it again. I'm willing to do either AMD or nvidia. But, I would like to keep the price around the $100 mark. At this price point I am wondering if the onboard graphics are just as good or better? Comments?

My donor PC parts are usually Corsair 200r case, 500W evga or corsair psu, Intel core i3-4170 CPU, ASUS H-97 Plus atx motherboard, 2x4 GB DDR3 gskill ram, 120 gb Sandisk SSD, 1 TB Seagate HDD, ASUS cd/dvd r/w drive, Logitech mouse & keyboard, Logitech speakers, ASUS wifi card and a 22 inch LG monitor. I also install on the SSD a legit copy of windows 8.1 on each and upgrade it to win 10.

 

I think it's a great thing you're doing, and I thought I'd spec out something that would make a great donor computer for a family (ie: not a kids gaming rig). Here's what I've come up with:

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

 

CPU: Intel Pentium G4500 3.5GHz Dual-Core Processor  ($81.89 @ OutletPC) 

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-H110M-A Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard  ($55.99 @ Amazon) 

Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2133 Memory  ($44.99 @ Newegg) 

Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($84.88 @ OutletPC) 

Case: Corsair 200R ATX Mid Tower Case  ($44.99 @ Micro Center) 

Power Supply: Corsair Builder 430W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply  ($22.00 @ Newegg) 

Total: $334.74

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-01-07 03:07 EST-0500

 

Quick explanation:

-The Pentium G4500 includes a really good quality Intel HD530 internal GPU. This will handle 4K video at up to 60hz, so more than enough for a standard family PC. It will also handle very light gaming on low quality settings if there are kids who may end up using it. It's outstanding value for the money, and a big upgrade from the iGPU found in Haswell CPU's like the i3 you had planned (i3 really isn't "necessary" for a lot of really basic users, imo. Skylake pentium's are more than enough for them).

-The mobo is cheap and does the job well.

-The ram just happened to be the cheapest from a reliable brand

-You could replace this SSD with another brand less expensive brand, but I wouldn't even bother with an HDD. 250gb is a lot of space for most folks, especially with cloud storage, large email storage, thumb drives, etc. The EVO 850 will last longer than this family will keep the PC most likely.

-Couldn't find a cheaper case that wasn't just bad.

-This PSU I wouldn't recommend for gamers, but this is just a basic computer, it'll do just fine and it's cheap.

 

All in all it's a solid computer that'll stream all the videos they want, play basic games and even steam games on low quality settings, and it'll be plenty productive for school projects/spreadsheets/documents/etc etc. I hope I've helped.

[Hlong]

 

I think it's a great thing you're doing, and I thought I'd spec out something that would make a great donor computer for a family (ie: not a kids gaming rig). Here's what I've come up with:

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

 

CPU: Intel Pentium G4500 3.5GHz Dual-Core Processor  ($81.89 @ OutletPC) 

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-H110M-A Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard  ($55.99 @ Amazon) 

Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2133 Memory  ($44.99 @ Newegg) 

Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($84.88 @ OutletPC) 

Case: Corsair 200R ATX Mid Tower Case  ($44.99 @ Micro Center) 

Power Supply: Corsair Builder 430W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply  ($22.00 @ Newegg) 

Total: $334.74

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-01-07 03:07 EST-0500

 

Quick explanation:

-The Pentium G4500 includes a really good quality Intel HD530 internal GPU. This will handle 4K video at up to 60hz, so more than enough for a standard family PC. It will also handle very light gaming on low quality settings if there are kids who may end up using it. It's outstanding value for the money, and a big upgrade from the iGPU found in Haswell CPU's like the i3 you had planned (i3 really isn't "necessary" for a lot of really basic users, imo. Skylake pentium's are more than enough for them).

-The mobo is cheap and does the job well.

-The ram just happened to be the cheapest from a reliable brand

-You could replace this SSD with another brand less expensive brand, but I wouldn't even bother with an HDD. 250gb is a lot of space for most folks, especially with cloud storage, large email storage, thumb drives, etc. The EVO 850 will last longer than this family will keep the PC most likely.

-Couldn't find a cheaper case that wasn't just bad.

-This PSU I wouldn't recommend for gamers, but this is just a basic computer, it'll do just fine and it's cheap.

 

All in all it's a solid computer that'll stream all the videos they want, play basic games and even steam games on low quality settings, and it'll be plenty productive for school projects/spreadsheets/documents/etc etc. I hope I've helped.

 

Thank you very much for your input.

 

I will look into this as your PC Partpicker is the USA version and mine is the Canadian version (ca.pcpartpicker.com).

 

KL

[angrymoose]

Thank you very much for your input.

 

I will look into this as your PC Partpicker is the USA version and mine is the Canadian version (ca.pcpartpicker.com).

 

KL

Not sure where in Canada you're located, but I'm in greater vancouver. If there's anything I can do to help out let me know. I've got a lot of expenses (a wedding) this year to pay for, but if I can help in some other way I don't mind.

[Najuno]

About twice a year I build a PC out of my own money and donate it to a family in need in my community.

Last year my first PC went to a family where the father was laid off from work and went back to school to study business and economics. His wife worked part time and they had a 2 year old boy. They were struggling to make ends meet and needed a PC badly as all they had was a gen1 iPad. At the time I had an extra ASUS GTX 750Ti that I put in it.

The second PC went to a family of 5. Husband, wife, 3 kids. Husband too had lost his job and wife was working at a hair salon struggling to make ends meet. One of their kids had a learning disability and required special support and learning help that was offered online. At the time the child was winging it using an iPad mini for her extra studies. Furthermore, the dad needed a computer for job searching, resumes, applying online, etc. This PC I did not put a GPU in and just went with the onboard graphics which was sufficient for what they are doing.

My first donor computer for 2016, I would like to put a gpu in it again. I'm willing to do either AMD or nvidia. But, I would like to keep the price around the $100 mark. At this price point I am wondering if the onboard graphics are just as good or better? Comments?

My donor PC parts are usually Corsair 200r case, 500W evga or corsair psu, Intel core i3-4170 CPU, ASUS H-97 Plus atx motherboard, 2x4 GB DDR3 gskill ram, 120 gb Sandisk SSD, 1 TB Seagate HDD, ASUS cd/dvd r/w drive, Logitech mouse & keyboard, Logitech speakers, ASUS wifi card and a 22 inch LG monitor. I also install on the SSD a legit copy of windows 8.1 on each and upgrade it to win 10.

Well,

 

thumbs up for your mind set! This is amazing!

[Hlong]

 

I think it's a great thing you're doing, and I thought I'd spec out something that would make a great donor computer for a family (ie: not a kids gaming rig). Here's what I've come up with:

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

 

CPU: Intel Pentium G4500 3.5GHz Dual-Core Processor  ($81.89 @ OutletPC) 

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-H110M-A Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard  ($55.99 @ Amazon) 

Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2133 Memory  ($44.99 @ Newegg) 

Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($84.88 @ OutletPC) 

Case: Corsair 200R ATX Mid Tower Case  ($44.99 @ Micro Center) 

Power Supply: Corsair Builder 430W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply  ($22.00 @ Newegg) 

Total: $334.74

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-01-07 03:07 EST-0500

 

Quick explanation:

-The Pentium G4500 includes a really good quality Intel HD530 internal GPU. This will handle 4K video at up to 60hz, so more than enough for a standard family PC. It will also handle very light gaming on low quality settings if there are kids who may end up using it. It's outstanding value for the money, and a big upgrade from the iGPU found in Haswell CPU's like the i3 you had planned (i3 really isn't "necessary" for a lot of really basic users, imo. Skylake pentium's are more than enough for them).

-The mobo is cheap and does the job well.

-The ram just happened to be the cheapest from a reliable brand

-You could replace this SSD with another brand less expensive brand, but I wouldn't even bother with an HDD. 250gb is a lot of space for most folks, especially with cloud storage, large email storage, thumb drives, etc. The EVO 850 will last longer than this family will keep the PC most likely.

-Couldn't find a cheaper case that wasn't just bad.

-This PSU I wouldn't recommend for gamers, but this is just a basic computer, it'll do just fine and it's cheap.

 

All in all it's a solid computer that'll stream all the videos they want, play basic games and even steam games on low quality settings, and it'll be plenty productive for school projects/spreadsheets/documents/etc etc. I hope I've helped.

 

 

I've always struggled with something on pcpartpicker.

When you pick out your components, they are not always from the same vendor.  So if you order one part of vendor A, another part from Vendor B, etc....how can you save when you are paying shipping to all these vendors?  Wouldn't it make sense to order all parts from the same vendor?   Can someone please explain to me how you go about this?

[angrymoose]

I've always struggled with something on pcpartpicker.

When you pick out your components, they are not always from the same vendor.  So if you order one part of vendor A, another part from Vendor B, etc....how can you save when you are paying shipping to all these vendors?  Wouldn't it make sense to order all parts from the same vendor?   Can someone please explain to me how you go about this?

 

What I do is use PCPartpicker to find the best prices, then in the shopping cart at NCIX I use the price match. You have to input each item one at a time and update it, so it's a bit time consuming, but it's worth it.

[Hlong]

What I do is use PCPartpicker to find the best prices, then in the shopping cart at NCIX I use the price match. You have to input each item one at a time and update it, so it's a bit time consuming, but it's worth it.

 

I do the same thing with memory express, but they don't always have the same stock as the others.

[angrymoose]

Yep, shouldn't matter who you use as long as they'll price match. I use Ncix because they have a couple brick and mortar stores in my area, so if there's ever an issue i feel more comfortable dealing with it in person.