Best "budgetish" Intel computer build - what parts to buy?

[tami]

Regarding speakers, I'm actually not looking to spend more than $100. I have the Logitech Z323s and find them pretty good for my purposes. I didn't pay much at all. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16836121033

 

[tami]

Cerb, never seen Max before. So if my keys fail, I can buy something like this? http://www.maxkeyboard.com/cherry-mx-metal-zinc-keycap-set-for-esc-and-w-a-s-d-keys.html assuming I get a G710?

Or not... http://www.reddit.com/r/MechanicalKeyboards/wiki/keycap_guides#wiki_logitech_g710.2B_.2F

So what's available then?

 

[tami]

Got it. Interesting. Never realized that replacement keys even exist.

 

[Charlie98]

@Cerb: buttons and ports on top or on the front would be ideal. And steel is fine then

Then the Core 1100... buttons on front and less than 8"

 

[Cerb]

So what's available then?

This, for all the keys: http://www.maxkeyboard.com/max-univ...nt-clear-black-full-keycap-set-top-print.html

 

[OlyAR15]

Ok, here is my choice:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($209.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: Asus Z97M-PLUS Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($126.79 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1866 Memory ($121.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Crucial MX100 512GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($211.98 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital Green 6TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive ($239.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: Asus Radeon R9 270 2GB DirectCU II Video Card ($109.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Silverstone TJ08B-E MicroATX Mini Tower Case ($94.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: SeaSonic 520W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($75.98 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: Samsung SH-224DB/BEBE DVD/CD Writer ($19.99 @ Newegg)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 (OEM) (64-bit) ($102.98 @ Newegg)
Total: $1299.67
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-11-27 19:01 EST-0500

Case: I've built a computer for my neighbour using the Silverstone TJ08 and I really like this case. Compact, pretty quiet, yet good room for stuff inside.

CPU: For what you are doing, I didn't see a need for an i7 4790k, but you could include it if you want and still fit in your budget.

Drives: A big SSD is just nice to have, and I went with a single 6TB mechanical drive for reasons of noise: mechanical drives make noise (and a bit of heat) so limiting the number of drives would be worth the slight cost penalty.

PSU: I've used Seasonic for pretty much all of my PC builds. They are quiet, reliable, but a touch expensive.

Video card: This is a tough one. You can go cheaper or more expensive, depending on what kind of games you play. Given that you have a 1440p monitor, I would rather get something like a Nvidia 770 or better yet, a 970GTX. Will probably blow your budget though.

Now, this system will more than likely be faster than your current one, but that will be almost exclusively due to:
1. An SSD.
2. A fresh install of Windows.
3. The video card (in games, maybe).

Honestly, the CPU isn't going to make much, if any difference in terms of performance, but it is more energy efficient, so that will help keep things cool and quiet.

As for speakers and keyboards, that is such a personal choice. And one person's good sound quality is another's "how can you listen to that." One thing you might think about is getting a compact stereo system and hooking it to the computer. That way you have a volume knob, mute button, and chances are the speakers would sound better than most cheap computer speakers.

 

[mfenn]

To be clear, I would want to replace keys that were rubbed off. I wouldn't replace one key that doesn't match with the current design.

Ah OK, so you want to be able to replace the keycaps, not the actual keys. Replacing a key on your standard membrane keyboard is pretty hard because the key itself is really just a contact on a circuit board.

Replacing keycaps is easy, and nearly every keyboard has keycaps which are removable. If you really like a certain model, you can always just buy a second one (perhaps broken for cheap) and swap keycaps over.

 

[mfenn]

Ok, here is my choice:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($209.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: Asus Z97M-PLUS Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($126.79 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1866 Memory ($121.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Crucial MX100 512GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($211.98 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital Green 6TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive ($239.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: Asus Radeon R9 270 2GB DirectCU II Video Card ($109.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Silverstone TJ08B-E MicroATX Mini Tower Case ($94.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: SeaSonic 520W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($75.98 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: Samsung SH-224DB/BEBE DVD/CD Writer ($19.99 @ Newegg)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 (OEM) (64-bit) ($102.98 @ Newegg)
Total: $1299.67
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-11-27 19:01 EST-0500

:thumbsup: Very nice! The case is 8.27", which should fit into the 8.3" that the OP has based on her existing case.

I would say to swap the RAM out for this Team DDR3 1600 16GB kit for $107 to save a little and get shorter heatspreaders.

I definitely agree with going for extra money on the big SSD and high RAM, as well as leaving ample budget for a nice keyboard and decent speaker system. That's a much better resource allocation for an office PC than spending a ton on an i7 which provides dubious benefit for the OP's tasks.

 

[mfenn]

btw would the i5s suggested here be better than the i7 2700k I had? I know I was told I'll see zero difference, but how do they actually perform?

Here's the benchmarks. I used one model down from the top in each category because the Bench doesn't have the i7 2700K refresh. You can also plug in the i7 4770K (again going one model down) to see that the actual top end performance hasn't changed much from the CPU that you have.

They're all in the same neighborhood, and you're not doing anything particularly intensive. The biggest gains for an i7 come from applications which can take good advantage of HT, but you're not using any applications like that (at least that we know about). As OlyAR15 suggested, the biggest improvement you will see will be from the faster, bigger SSD and a fresh Windows install.

All in all, I think you should go in to this build with the expectation that the new PC isn't going to be massively faster than what you have, even if you do get the i7. Processor performance hasn't changed much since Sandy Bridge, and you aren't making heavy use of it anyway. You already have an SSD, so unless it is severely degraded, your current machine's performance in normal office tasks (w/ a clean OS) is going to be very similar to any new build.

 

[OlyAR15]

One thing you can do to decrease wear on your keyboard keycaps is to cover them with a clear adhesive lining.

I had some leftover Con-Tact clear shelf liner, which I cut up into small squares and covered up my WASD keys since those are the keys I find wear out very quickly. But you could cover the entire keyboard with it.

 

[tami]

One thing you can do to decrease wear on your keyboard keycaps is to cover them with a clear adhesive lining.

I had some leftover Con-Tact clear shelf liner, which I cut up into small squares and covered up my WASD keys since those are the keys I find wear out very quickly. But you could cover the entire keyboard with it.

Smart. Thanks.

 

[tami]

Bump if anyone else has any suggestions

btw, what do you folks think about the Rosewill Challenger U3 case? I may want something bigger.

 

[nsafreak]

Bump if anyone else has any suggestions

btw, what do you folks think about the Rosewill Challenger U3 case? I may want something bigger.

It's a nice case, but it's also steel which you had initially stated that you didn't want. I think that's been changed though so if that's the case then there are others I would recommend over the Rosewill. Such as:

Corsair Carbide 400R $79

Antec Sonata Solo II $109

These both the width requirement as well.

 

[tami]

Yup, am open to steel if it is lightweight. I'm sure my A60 is also a lightweight steel.

 

[mfenn]

Bump if anyone else has any suggestions

btw, what do you folks think about the Rosewill Challenger U3 case? I may want something bigger.

If you're the type of person who builds once and then doesn't open up the machine again, I think that having a smaller case that might be a littler harder to work in is a net win. That's subjective though.

 

[tami]

All right, so I settled on a build and considered a lot of what everyone said, in fact flip-flopping from the i7 and finally listening to reason and settling on the i5. In case anyone is curious, here's what I went for:

Case: Rosewill Challenger U3 - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811147060 - $59.99

RAM: G.SKILL Sniper 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 2133 because I was too impatient and the Team Vulcan stuff sold out before I had a chance http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820231661 - $124.99

Keyboard: Logitech G710 in Cherry MX Blue - because I've always wanted to try mechanical keyboards. But I'm a bit concerned that there's no headphone jack on this one http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-377-_-Product - $99.99

Heatsink: Zalman CNPS7000 Silent Cooler - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16835118139 $14.99

Got these at MicroCenter for a better deal:
Motherboard: ASUS Z97M-PLUS LGA1150 Motherboard http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813132130 $94.99
CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz LGA 1150 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-372-_-Product $179.99

And finally, for my drives:
SSD boot disk: they had a Samsung 840 EVO Series 250GB SATA III hard drive on sale via Adorama on eBay yesterday for $99.99 and I couldn't pass that up. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820147248

I also picked up 5 OEM Seagate Barracuda 7200 RPM 3TB SATA data drives for $89.99. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822148844
(I'm sticking 1 3TB in my work rig and the remaining 4 in the backup rig where my current 2700K is going into.)

Total: with tax, less than $1200

I've decided to use an old Antec 900W PSU that I removed from my current build for some troubleshooting I did earlier (there's a thread on that here in case anyone wants to dig into my old posts--it was a hell of an issue). I'm also going to keep my Radeon HD 6950, optical drive since I might as well, and my Performance MX mouse. I'm sticking with my Z323 speakers for the time being too.

Hopefully this will be built to last. Once one computer of mine dies, I usually know to upgrade the one I most frequently use and move the hardware down to my other rigs (I have two "servers," a Windows multimedia server and a Linux box. My Linux box is going to go to an Athlon BE2350 2.1GHz from some 1.4GHz Athlon processor, ha, which is long overdue, and my Windows rig is, well, taking my current config. In this move, I've basically upgraded 3 boxes so I'll be busy.)

Thoughts?

Thanks for everyone's help on this. It's been quite valuable for me.

 

[meeshu]

. . . for my drives:
SSD boot disk: they had a Samsung 840 EVO Series 250GB SATA III hard drive on sale via Adorama on eBay yesterday for $99.99 and I couldn't pass that up. . .

I also picked up 5 OEM Seagate Barracuda 7200 RPM 3TB SATA data drives for $89.99. (I'm sticking 1 3TB in my work rig and the remaining 4 in the backup rig where my current 2700K is going into.) . . .

Hopefully this will be built to last. . .

Thoughts? . .

That SSD is a good choice as it is generally considered to be a fairly reliable drive!

Better choice for the HDD's would have been Western Digital Black as they are more reliable and have longer warranty.

 

[tami]

I tried to work out the pricing. The Seagates worked for less and I don't really have many issues with them. Meanwhile, I'm sitting here trying to do data recovery on a Maxtor though and it's a PITA as the drive isn't being detected. meh.

I also read that the WDs have some issues requiring some BIOS tweaks and I'm not a fan. I hope this works for me.

 

[nsafreak]

The Seagates should be just fine. I've had drives fail from every manufacturer, there is no manufacturer that is exempt from it (and these were drives kept in well ventilated cases where SMART showed they never hit above room temperature). Are you planning on running them in RAID array or just as single drives?

 

[Cerb]

WD Green drives, when combined with Linux, make for a bad combo (but for which there are work-arounds). Otherwise, any drive that isn't an "AV" type will be as good as any other (video drives tend to do almost no read retries, much like RAID drives only will try for ~7 seconds, while normal drives will try for a minute or more). A WD Green with Windows will be slower than 7200 RPM, but cheaper for the space, and you've got a half terabyte SSD for stuff you need to access really fast.

I personally find Seagates to be more problematic than WD, but none are really reliable or unreliable, these days. 2 Seagates is still better than 1 WD Black or RE, assuming they really are more reliable. The old days, of getting months worth of warning before a desktop drive failed you, are long gone, no matter the maker, with the ever-increasing platter densities. Getting a clue something is wrong, and then losing data while trying to copy it, is becoming the norm, more than the exception, IME.

 

[mfenn]

I personally find Seagates to be more problematic than WD, but none are really reliable or unreliable, these days. 2 Seagates is still better than 1 WD Black or RE, assuming they really are more reliable. The old days, of getting months worth of warning before a desktop drive failed you, are long gone, no matter the maker, with the ever-increasing platter densities. Getting a clue something is wrong, and then losing data while trying to copy it, is becoming the norm, more than the exception, IME.

Agree 100%. The WD Black may or may not be more reliable (who knows?) but it's certainly not going to be as reliable as two drives in a RAID set.

 

[tami]

The Seagates should be just fine. I've had drives fail from every manufacturer, there is no manufacturer that is exempt from it (and these were drives kept in well ventilated cases where SMART showed they never hit above room temperature). Are you planning on running them in RAID array or just as single drives?

Probably single drives, in all honesty, with a robust backup plan in effect.

And yep, I have had failures from every manufacturer too. I have no real brand loyalty but I do read reviews to weigh in on my decision.