PC Build for parents

[evilarceus]

My parents were looking for a new PC since their current one is pretty slow. Athlon II X2 240, 6150SE, that kind of stuff. I decided to build one for them so they don't have to spend as much money.

This is what I'm thinking of for them:

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4460 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($181.83 @ Amazon) 
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler  ($29.44 @ Amazon) 
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-B85M-DS3H-A Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard  ($71.97 @ Newegg) 
Memory: Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory  ($37.94 @ Amazon) 
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($53.99 @ Newegg) 
Case: Corsair 200R ATX Mid Tower Case  ($59.99 @ Amazon) 
Power Supply: Corsair CX 430W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply  ($48.99 @ Amazon) 
Optical Drive: Asus DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS DVD/CD Writer  ($20.98 @ Newegg) 
Total: $505.13
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-02-21 16:53 EST-0500

 

They do pretty light multitasking, but I wasn't sure to put a quad core or dual core. The most tabs they would have open in Chrome would be 4 and some other programs running, like Mozilla Thunderbird and OpenOffice.

I chose the Gigabyte motherboard because it has USB 3.0 headers.

And yes, they do use an optical drive.

 

Would I need to make any changes to this build or any way to make it cheaper? They prefer a price of $400-$500.

[TheRandomness]

An i3 would be perfectly fine for their uses.

[tataklee]

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i3-6100 3.7GHz Dual-Core Processor  ($123.88 @ OutletPC) 
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-H110M-A Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard  ($51.89 @ OutletPC) 
Memory: G.Skill NT Series 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR4-2133 Memory  ($30.99 @ Newegg) 
Storage: A-Data Premier SP550 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($39.99 @ Amazon) 
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($49.89 @ OutletPC) 
Case: Fractal Design Core 1000 USB 3.0 MicroATX Mid Tower Case  ($24.99 @ NCIX US) 
Power Supply: EVGA 500W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply  ($19.99 @ Newegg) 
Total: $341.62
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-02-21 17:07 EST-0500

 

Added a SSD for extra snappiness.

[OpticFusion]

Do you have monitors already?

[evilarceus]

Just now, OpticFusion said:

Do you have monitors already?

Yes, and a keyboard and mouse.

[OpticFusion]

You could get that build cheaper if you went with AMD.

[Savir]

5 minutes ago, tataklee said:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i3-6100 3.7GHz Dual-Core Processor  ($123.88 @ OutletPC) 
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-H110M-A Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard  ($51.89 @ OutletPC) 
Memory: G.Skill NT Series 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR4-2133 Memory  ($30.99 @ Newegg) 
Storage: A-Data Premier SP550 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($39.99 @ Amazon) 
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($49.89 @ OutletPC) 
Case: Fractal Design Core 1000 USB 3.0 MicroATX Mid Tower Case  ($24.99 @ NCIX US) 
Power Supply: EVGA 500W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply  ($19.99 @ Newegg) 
Total: $341.62
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-02-21 17:07 EST-0500

 

Added a SSD for extra snappiness.

Your way under the budget. You could go for a cheap 500gb SSD or an 850 evo 250gb+HDD to replace the HHD and SSD combo. 

[Sat1600]

Overkill. If nobody is gaming on this rig you can go AM1. If you have a microcenter near you you can get an athlon 5350 for $40 with a free motherboard. 

[tataklee]

2 minutes ago, Savir said:

Your way under the budget. You could go for a cheap 500gb SSD or an 850 evo 250gb. 

True. I think I just thought I'd do something that gets the job done no problems. Fair point, though.

[TopDollar]

Just now, OpticFusion said:

You could get that build cheaper if you went with AMD.

I got an A10-7850K a couple weeks ago for $100. That's quite a bit of power for the price. Definitely good for a workstation.

 

As far as the power supply concerned, The Seasonic S12II 520W PSU is my go-to for budget builds. I really won't go any cheaper than that.

[OpticFusion]

CPU AMD A6-6400K- http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00LUH1N4O/?tag=pcpapi-20

Motherboard Gigabyte AMD FM2+-  http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00T7XTT6C/?tag=pcpapi-20

[Sat1600]

Btw I don't know what your parents are like, but if they are like most parents, if YOU build it YOU are tech support and YOU have to come over because the Facebook is not working.

 

If that's not ok with you you may want to consider a cheep dell.

 

You can get an off lease optiplex 7010 with an I5 3740 for $275 shipped.

 

Like this one

http://dellrefurbished.com/product/systems/desktops/cat61198/dell-optiplex-7010-4gb-ram-250gb-hdd/si6820766

 

Use code: 45DELL$400

[BurblingBarbacoa]

• Go for a cheaper, lower end skylake chip like a Pentium g4400 or an i3 6100 
• get a b170 board as they are usually the cheapest
• get a smaller quieter cooler for the cpu. The 212 evo will just be unnessisary and loud. Look at the Noctua nhl9i. It is a low profile 92mm cooler. It offers good cooling for a stock chip and is near silent (cheap as well) 
• maybe look at a quieter case. 

I know im putting a emphasis on silence but that is one of the things that will be noticeable to non-enthusiast non-power users 

 

[Frame Drops]

It is more than enough for your parent PC,120 GB SSD for fast read write speed will help in copying , moving files or documents of office much faster, 1TB extra storage to store large documents, video , movie etc. In case of Intel 2 cores is enough and with hyper threading it will perform much better ( single core performance of Intel is better than AMD and AMD gives better performance and feature per price) ( still today some games use only 2 cores). You can cut more price by going to cheap PSU and Case or choosing a case which already has PSU but i didn't like to cut price there. That's why i added Corsair Carbide case and 550W 80+gold power supply. If you add a budget  GPU like GT X 960 or R9 380 you can even play some AAA titles at 720 to 1080p at medium setting.For your parents stock cooler is more than enough.

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/WCqC3C