Building a PC for a Co-Worker - Looking for 2nd or 3rd Opinions

[Fedelesa]

So earlier this year I put something together for someone, looking to put something for another. I put this build together hoping that it'll meet all the needs seeing as some of the parts from that other build have gone up $30 to $50 so substituted some at around same price as other build. Will be utilized for some albums, school work, grading school work as she teaches. Will be also utilized for some students to do some research as well. She has a continuing education type of class and it will be located in the location she uses for that. I believe she has a copy of 2007 office in her old PC, I am not 100% sure if we would be able to just throw that in there with it being registered to her old PC.

Like the other build, I want to make sure it gives her a few years run and I'll always be there for continued maintenance upgrades etc. Please let me know if this is a good build, with the new chipsets that launched I doubt she'd need it.

Microcenter has the Intel Core i3-3245 3.4GHz LGA 1155 Boxed Processor and Gigabyte GA-B75M-HD3 LGA 1155 B75 mATX Intel Mother Board for $164.98 with that combo build special so about $10.00 less there, the site doesn't have that in there.

Appreciate your thoughts as always and if there is a way to bring the price down. More towards $400 since it is out of her pocket that she does this.


PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i3-3220 3.3GHz Dual-Core Processor ($118.99 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: ASRock B75M-DGS R2.0 Micro ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($57.98 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: Kingston Blu 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($58.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($59.98 @ Outlet PC)
Case: Silverstone PS08B (Black) MicroATX Mid Tower Case ($29.99 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: XFX 550W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($29.99 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: LG GH24NS95 DVD/CD Writer ($15.99 @ Microcenter)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8 (OEM) (64-bit) ($88.90 @ Amazon)
Total: $460.81 (Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-08-12 15:33 EDT-0400)

[chazus]

Would she consider a laptop an option? I have seen decent laptops in the the $350 range. My current 'travel/gaming' laptop is a 15" that can play wow (Not that she needs to, but just indicative of power capability), and ran me 300 after tax and rebates.

[slasher0161]

When talking rigs down this end of the spectrum that need nothing more than basic browsing and research rigs prebuilt is almost certainly a better route to go. That rig will serve her well, you could actually reduce the psu some more as unless there is any intention of rending using opencl being done I can't see that machine ever getting a dedicated gpu.


This was about as low end as I could get it and still be happy with. 8gb of ram probably isn't needed for it but 4gb is barely cheaper so why skimp I guess. You could knock it back a touch if they were happy to run Ubuntu or hunt around for a win 8 pro upgrade kit (I know I jagged a hard copy for $50) and use the registry hack to install it. Also I wouldn't even bother with microsoft office and instead would opt for open office.

I played and without dropping below and i3 this was the best I got.
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i3-3220 3.3GHz Dual-Core Processor ($118.99 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: MSI B75MA-E33 Micro ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($57.23 @ Outlet PC)
Memory: Patriot Signature 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($52.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($59.98 @ Outlet PC)
Case: Rosewill FBM-02 MicroATX Mini Tower Case ($19.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Corsair Builder 500W 80 PLUS Certified ATX12V Power Supply ($29.99 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-04 DVD/CD Writer ($14.99 @ Newegg)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8 (OEM) (64-bit) ($88.90 @ Amazon)
Total: $443.06
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-08-12 18:48 EDT-0400)

[Fedelesa]

When talking rigs down this end of the spectrum that need nothing more than basic browsing and research rigs prebuilt is almost certainly a better route to go. That rig will serve her well, you could actually reduce the psu some more as unless there is any intention of rending using opencl being done I can't see that machine ever getting a dedicated gpu.


This was about as low end as I could get it and still be happy with. 8gb of ram probably isn't needed for it but 4gb is barely cheaper so why skimp I guess. You could knock it back a touch if they were happy to run Ubuntu or hunt around for a win 8 pro upgrade kit (I know I jagged a hard copy for $50) and use the registry hack to install it. Also I wouldn't even bother with microsoft office and instead would opt for open office.

I played and without dropping below and i3 this was the best I got.
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i3-3220 3.3GHz Dual-Core Processor ($118.99 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: MSI B75MA-E33 Micro ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($57.23 @ Outlet PC)
Memory: Patriot Signature 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($52.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($59.98 @ Outlet PC)
Case: Rosewill FBM-02 MicroATX Mini Tower Case ($19.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Corsair Builder 500W 80 PLUS Certified ATX12V Power Supply ($29.99 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-04 DVD/CD Writer ($14.99 @ Newegg)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8 (OEM) (64-bit) ($88.90 @ Amazon)
Total: $443.06
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-08-12 18:48 EDT-0400)

Ty sir. The PS definitely is higher than needed, doesn't seem to be many 80 Plus Certified with less wattage at any additional cost savings. At Microcenter there was a i3 3245, with motherboard I listed which would reduce cost by another $10 or so, is the 3245 a slight upgrade to the 3220? They only seem to run the combo discount on that version versus the 3220, seemed strange but a discount is a discount. Again thanks for your time. Looks like if I get the go ahead from my friend, I may be ordering two to three of these to build.

As for the OS, yea I think they will stick to just purchasing the Windows 8, I'm actually starting to play around with Ubuntu and Arch Linux. Well taking some online tutorials as it were, but will be working to install on my Hyper V on Windows 8. Do you have a preference one over the other?

[Deleted]

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD A10-5800K 3.8GHz Quad-Core Processor ($109.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: MSI FM2-A55M-E33 Micro ATX FM2 Motherboard ($48.98 @ Outlet PC)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($56.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($59.99 @ NCIX US)
Case: Rosewill R363-M-BK MicroATX Mid Tower Case w/400W Power Supply ($39.99 @ Amazon)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-04 DVD/CD Writer ($14.99 @ Newegg)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8 (OEM) (64-bit) ($88.90 @ Amazon)
Total: $419.83
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-08-13 10:07 EDT-0400)

[tielknight]

You can grab a Rosewill case+PSU(400w) for $40 and their PSU's are generally pretty good, save ya $10.

Here's a AMD build (processor is at least on-par if not a little bit better than the i3-3220 according to some benchmarks i found) with 4gb of ram and the case mention above if you want to give it a look-over. Picked the Barracuda over the WD due to the $18 discount given.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD FX-6300 3.5GHz 6-Core Processor ($119.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: ASRock N68C-GS FX Micro ATX AM3+ Motherboard ($44.97 @ Outlet PC)
Memory: Kingston XMP Blu Red Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($32.98 @ PCM)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($69.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Rosewill R363-M-BK MicroATX Mid Tower Case w/400W Power Supply ($39.99 @ Amazon)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-04 DVD/CD Writer ($14.99 @ Newegg)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8 (OEM) (64-bit) ($88.90 @ Amazon)
Total: $393.81
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-08-13 09:58 EDT-0400)

I also second using Open Office instead of MS Office. Wider variety of file-types available and the interface is similar enough that you can pick it up easily.

[Deleted]

Didn't the FX line lack the APU?

[tielknight]

Didn't the FX line lack the APU?

Yes, the Mobo has onboard though so that should suffice for what they are saying it will be used for.

Will be utilized for some albums, school work, grading school work as she teaches. Will be also utilized for some students to do some research as well

[Deleted]

Sure, but the APU is pretty much a bargain.

The setup ought to last couple of years so I think the layer of future-proofness is worth it.

[Fedelesa]

Thanks for the additional builds, I wonder why I have a distaste for AMD processors though...maybe has to do with marketing or maybe the way I that last couple AMD PC's had some bottle necks and when changing to Intel chipsets they went away. Amazing how that happens.

And I am under the assumption that Iooz is talking about the Video Card? Getting an external instead for AMD where Intel has HD part of MoBO?

[Deleted]

Some AMD CPUs have a built-in graphics card which is miles ahead anything Intel has made. But, of course, it still doesn't make it a gaming card.

[Fascinate]

Dude if you are going the microcenter route you HAVE to go AMD in the low end range. YOu can get the 4130 i believe its called with an asus 760g MB for 107.00 bucks after tax. This is in fact the only time i will ever recommend an AMD chip, the i3 is simply not worth the price premium over the 4 core fx at these prices.

Microcenter FTW : )

[slasher0161]

I believe the i3-3245 has a slightly higher clock speed so if it is cheaper go nuts, amd builds aren't bad at all the only reason I hesitate with them is the lower thermal limit, I have seen quite a few people having "computer issues" that was simply the case was full of dust and the chips were throttling due to heat (intel chips pretty well need to have the fan completely dead and then might still boot for a while before the chip throttles (from memory amd has a thermal limit of 73c and intels is 105c [don't quote those figures]).

I like ubuntu on light weight machines but I think that is mostly due to the fact that the open source platform makes getting hold of certain tools an absolute breeze and its light weight so even a little apu system with 4gb of ram using a HDD will just cruise along (then again I have more hands on in that department I built a 3220 build for a mates old man and he loves that to pieces [upgraded from an athlon x2]).

I wouldn't recommend someone who is new to linux using something more than ubuntu unless they had a drive to learn it as they will probably just want to throw it out the window after a while. With the OS check out the windows family packs as well not sure what they are worth but could be worth your time.

[Deleted]

slasher0161: Mint is mint for people inexperienced with Linux. Ubuntu isn't really something you want for a desktop PC.

[Biernot]

For the work this computer is going to be used, any half-way modern dual core cpu will do fine for a few years. If you want to put a few bucks more into a quad core, that's also ok, but probably not necessary. (Look into the build-help-sticky: there is even an AMD E-350 recommended for this sort of work, and that cpu is slower than a 5 year old 2.5GHz dual core Athlon or C2D). One thing i really recommend is to get a SSD, because that will make this computer so much faster.


PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD A6-6400K 3.9GHz Dual-Core Processor ($79.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: MSI FM2-A75MA-E35 Micro ATX FM2 Motherboard ($59.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws Series 4GB (1 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($35.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Samsung 840 Series 120GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($90.99 @ Amazon)
Case: Rosewill R363-M-BK MicroATX Mid Tower Case w/400W Power Supply ($49.99 @ Amazon)
Optical Drive: Asus DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS DVD/CD Writer ($17.98 @ Outlet PC)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8 (OEM) (64-bit) ($88.88 @ Outlet PC)
Total: $403.81
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-08-14 14:22 EDT-0400)

- The same CPU/MB combo can be bought at Microcenter for about $15 less.
- If you want a quad-core, Microcenter has the A8-6600k with the same board for $140 ($20 more than the above build)
- If there is need for more storage, just get a normal hdd later on.
- 4GB is plenty for now. Upgradeable later on with a second stick.

[Fedelesa]

Thanks all again for the builds, they all look great, I may build one with AMD and the other with Intel. I finally downloaded Unbuntu into my own Hyper-V Windows 8 last night and it runs pretty smooth. Only issue I am having is that it doesn't recognize the NIC card, LAN, for some reason. Tried Bridging etc but still not connecting or even detecting it. Just googled a few remedies while at work, hoping to clear that up, however if anyone can shed any light that'll be great. Based on needs maybe I can get one of these PC's running with it versus having to buy Windows.

The OS runs really good and the free LibreOffice looks good.