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budget build for a friend

S

shadenone

Member
I'm building a budget build for a friend and I'd like everyone's feedback on what they think of the system so far. I'm trying to keep the entire thing well under $1K (this includes monitor and stuff as this will be his first desktop). He doesn't game much (Starcraft 2 and League of Legends are his main two), but I want it to be able to impress him with how well it can run those and be able to last for a while. I've checked out mfenn's mid-build thread and got some ideas from there, but this is where I'm at so far:

Monitor: ASUS VS 23' $150 AR
PSU: Rosewill Green 630W, 80 Bronze $65
Case: Rosewill Challenger Mid-Tower (It comes with a 1TB 7200 WD Blue HHD) $105
Processor/MoBo/RAM Deal: i5 3570k/AS Rock Z77/8G Corsair 1600 $348
GPU: Sapphire Radeon HD 7850 $185 AR
DVD : Lite-On Burner $17


I figure keyboard, mouse and speakers can be easily found, so I'm not concerned with them. I'd like to add in a SSD for him, but, again, budget first, then extras. Everything said and done, that's sitting at $850, so not to bad.

His current system is (this is what he sent me):
"Processor: 2 GHz (Quad core)
Video Card: AMD Radeon HD 6720G2
RAM: 4 GB
Motherboard: K53TA AMD (basically a shitty laptop motherboard)
Hard Drive: Not an SSD, just a plain ole HDD. 500GB"

What do you guys think? Is it a decent upgrade? Is there anything I'm just plain wrong on? Any better deals out there I should check out? How long do you think this would last before needing something upgraded?
I need to find him a wireless card too, so any help on that would be great (I'm not sure what's good out there for wireless adapters right now, as I hardwire my comp to my Netgear).

Any help or suggestions you guys have would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!
 
If you are looking to impress him, you can skimp on the CPU and even GPU a bit, both will be many times more powerful than what he currently has, instead spend money on that SSD as it will be the most impactful on "everyday" tasks.


Also remember to budget in the OS, unless you or him have a key already.
 
mnewsham said:
If you are looking to impress him, you can skimp on the CPU and even GPU a bit, both will be many times more powerful than what he currently has, instead spend money on that SSD as it will be the most impactful on "everyday" tasks.


Also remember to budget in the OS, unless you or him have a key already.
Click to expand...
I second that
 
Good point. I need to ask him about his options as far as OS goes. If he has a copy, great, but if not, I'm going to have to add that in.
Also, I'll have to see what I can do about the SSD. Thanks for the advice!
 
shadenone said:
What do you guys think? Is it a decent upgrade? Is there anything I'm just plain wrong on?
Click to expand...

It should be a great upgrade from what he has, though I would try to get an SSD. You've still got $150 to go before you hit $1K, so I think something like the Samsung 840 120GB would still be within budget.

shadenone said:
I need to find him a wireless card too, so any help on that would be great (I'm not sure what's good out there for wireless adapters right now, as I hardwire my comp to my Netgear).
Click to expand...

I've had good luck with these dual-antenna Rosewill 802.11n adapters.
 
Thanks for the vote of confidence, Mfenn and thanks for the link to the wireless card! That looks to be almost exactly what I was looking for and the price is pretty good too!
 
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