Budget Build

[Hufigyed]

I might be building a PC for a friend. It will used mostly for general stuff (no gaming). Most importantly he wants it to be really quick and responsive because he is sick of his current computer which is a Compaq with a single core Pentium running Vista and he has had nothing but issues with it.
Budget is $450 CDN not including peripherals. All parts must be available in Canada.

I took a stab at it and this is what I came up with. Please evaluate.

AMD Athlon II X4 640
Asus M4A785TD-M
Kingston ValueRAM 4GB DDR3 1333
WD Caviar Black 640GB
Sparkle ATX-400PN 400W
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit OEM
I'll see if I can reuse his current case, if not I'll grab some cheap one.

I realize that he may not quite need the Athlon 640 but I went for it because at 3Ghz it'll be good with single threaded software and 5 years from now it should run the software he has then quite well. Also it is $5 off and you get $20 off if bought with that Asus motherboard which I like because it has the Radeon 4200 graphics as well as HDMI out and is mATX w/4 ram slots for future use if needed. Nevertheless I'm open for suggestions of course.

I built this PC a while back and the rear case fan always seems to run at max rpm even though I have it plugged in on the motherboard. I would like it if the board controlled the speed with the computer I'm building for my friend, does the board I have listed above have this ability?

[Nikon]

those fans generally run at full speed, but the fan can be controlled with a fan controller.

[Hufigyed]

But the old HP board that was in there used to have it running slower and if the case vents were clogged for a while you'd hear it revving up frequently until someone removed the dust.

So it's only the boards in prebuilt computers that control the speed based on temperature? (whether mobo or cpu temp I'm not sure)

[Nikon]

you may be thinking of the cpu/heatsink fan, those are controlled by the mobo based on cpu temp. they throttle up/down depening on the heat generated by the cpu. some can be quite loud.

there are mobos that let you control other fans speed, but afaik, and in general, most intake/exhaust fans in the case just run at 100%

i cant follow your links. make sure the items are on a public wishlist or link them directly. thanks.

[Hufigyed]

Yes, I am aware of the cpu fan speeding up but it seemed to me right away when I first started it up on the new motherboard that the rear fan was louder. However now that I think about it, that computer is now in a different place than it was when it was still a HP so maybe it just seems like it. Well I'll leave this issue for now, if I build and it's a problem then I'll deal with it then.

Not sure why my links aren't working for you, they work for me and they link directly to the product page.

[David M]

Your links work for me.

[Hufigyed]

Hmm.. that's wierd, they worked for me before but now they don't. For example, the first link turns into this when you I click on it Newegg.ca - Computer Parts, PC Components, Laptop Computers, Digital Cameras and more! and it just goes to the homepage.

However I'm sure the problem is on Pcmech's side not Newwegg because if I right click and click "copy link address" and paste it into the address bar it works.


So the Radeon 4200 graphics should be all he needs to run Windows 7 if he's not gaming, right?

[David M]

Originally Posted by Hufigyed So the Radeon 4200 graphics should be all he needs to run Windows 7 if he's not gaming, right?

Yup, for word processing, surfing the internet and doing emails it should be fine.

Your computer will not be producing much heat. A single 120mm fan on the back should work. What you were probably hearing before was a much smaller fan whining away at a high speed.