New Budget Build

[Drosenthal]

Hey guys, you helped me build a great mid to high end build a couple months back. Now my mom wants me to build her a new machine (as her current PC is pretty old and failing). She's looking to spend around $400. I only need the tower, no monitors or peripherals. My first build was an AMD, so that's what i've been looking at, but I'm not set in that. Meaning, if you can recommend an intel build that's as good (or better) for the same price, i'll go with that.

So, here's what I have right now.

Mobo: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131626
CPU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819103687
Ram: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820148194
HD: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822136075
PSU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817371033
Optical Drive: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16827136167
Case: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811233062
OS: Windows 7 Home Premium (32-bit)

So, what do you guys think? My parents seem to think I'm an expert after building my first rig, but I know you guys are the real masters.

[mjkovis]

I think it looks solid for a budget build.

My only suggestion would be that you may want to look into putting a cheap video card in that system to help with the performance on Win7. You would be looking at around $40-50 more. That motherboard does allow you to upgrade to a video card later and that PSU should easily handle an ATI 4650.

[glc]

Technically, the PSU is 20 watts shy for a 4650, but it can handle a 4550 with 80 watts to spare.

[mjkovis]

Originally Posted by glc Technically, the PSU is 20 watts shy for a 4650, but it can handle a 4550 with 80 watts to spare.

Very true.

The system specs for minimum wattage are usually for peak performance though. I was figuring with the build being used for non-gaming purposes, no video editing or other GPU intensive software that it should run without a hitch. But, with that being said you shouldn't leave that to chance and risk damaging your system. Sounder advice would be to go with the 4550.

[Khalil]

I would go with a 5450 it is DX11 and that is more inline with Windows 7, aslo the 5000 Series cards use less power than the 4000. The 5450 will out perform the 4650 in the windows 7 environment.

[glc]

It should run okay, but a 400 watt PSU is recommended with a 5450. 5 bucks more gets you this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817371023

[Drosenthal]

Thanks for the advice guys. I've changed a few things around. First of all, I found this mobo/cpu combo. It's a slightly cheeper motherboard, and the came cpu. Does the mobo look okay? I don't really think a 5000 series card is worth it for this machine, even if it is only a little more expensive. I found this GPU bundled with the same PSU. Do you think this will serve well? The biggest uses for this will be simple word processing, email, photo storage (and maybe some very minor photo editing), and streaming video from the internet. She doesn't game whatsoever, so that's not really a concern. Finally, I want to consult the Motherboard's QVL to make sure the ram I selected is compatible, but I've been unable to download it from ASUS's site. Can any one confirm that this ram will work, and if not, recommend a 2X1 gb set?

Thanks,
Drosenthal

[Khalil]

Sorry to say it but the AM is a terrible motherboard, I ordered a bunch of them last year for a large build and ended up sending them all back due to failures and they don't even bother to put in a case fan header on it. Here is a low priced excellent motherboard to go with the CPU you picked http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131608
The GPU link you posted is not correct. The RAM you are looking at is good quality and is compatible with AM2/AM2plus motherboards.

[Drosenthal]

Well that's too bad (that the AM is such a bad board I mean). Would you still recommend a video card with that board? Sorry about that link not working, had an extra "\". It was to this http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814125251

Thanks again

[glc]

Khalil is recommending a video card for *ANY* Windows 7 box. A 4350 is fine, but if you can get a 4550 for close to the same price it's worth it. 4550 only requires 300 watts.

[Khalil]

That Gigabyte video card will work, I don't recommend Gigabyte motherboards anymore but their video cards rarely ever fail.
I agree with glc, you never know when the needs may change I would be a few bucks more and get http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-250-_-Product
after the rebate it ends up cheaper than the inferior 4350

[Drosenthal]

So I'm going to be buying the components pretty soon. And I've changed things around a little.
The motherboard I've settled on is http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131595

The last thing I need is some RAM. I'm looking at the QVL, but I can't find any of these sets on Newegg. I'd like to get 2gb of DDR2 800. Can someone recommend me a set? Thanks.

[Khalil]

Originally Posted by Drosenthal So I'm going to be buying the components pretty soon. And I've changed things around a little. The motherboard I've settled on is http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131595 The last thing I need is some RAM. I'm looking at the QVL, but I can't find any of these sets on Newegg. I'd like to get 2gb of DDR2 800. Can someone recommend me a set? Thanks.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-188-_-Product

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-238-_-Product

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-641-_-Product

Any of the above will work nicely for you!!

[Drosenthal]

what about http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-174-_-Product ?
I only wanted a 2X1gb set...

[Khalil]

yep those should work great