Building 2nd PC

[doubledeluxe]

1. Using it for: Mostly for malware analysis. A second rig to tinker around with VM.

2. $600 USD or less.

3. USA

6. I have an old, dead, Core-2 Duo rig that I'm going to pull the following out of:

• DVD-RW
• 40GB HD. If it doesn't use SATA I have a 320GB laying around.
• I have an old GTX 260 lying around that I think I'll throw in there

7. I don't plan on overclocking it. I want to keep it simple. I have my main 2500K system for games.

8. Monitor is a 20" Dell 2005FPW

9. Now. Been watching prices and the spread seems to be at most $50.

10. Some concerns I have:

• Since I'm not really interested in OC'ing then I would think that a $50 H81 board would be fine. The two SATA 6GB/s ports would drive me crazy on a main rig but for this one there will be at most 2 hard drives. Is there any other benefit to me spending more on a H87 or Z87 board, not to mention the newer ones?
• I'm not reusing the old case. I want to make sure I get a case that's big enough to fit most videocards. I have run into problems with previous builds where the case is just a little bit too small.
• Spec wise I'm looking at 8GB of memory on it I think. If anyone has any input on I3 vs I5 for this purpose I'm all ears. I'd consider other processors as well.

 

[Cerb]

By malware analysis, do you mean scanning other people's HDDs on it? If so, that will basically not matter, as far as CPU performance goes. Some bits of scanning can use some CPU for heuristics type scanning, but you'd have to go down to Celeron and Kabini performance levels for that to be a problem.

10-I: more USB ports, and more total SATA ports. You will notice, for example, that most H81 boards do not have front USB headers. I prefer B85 as a low mark. One reason for H97, now, is that the prices have compressed enough that H97 is so little over B85, that you might as well buy a H97 and get a couple more USB ports, even if you won't use RAID or anything else.

10-II: Fits most video cards...why, might I ask, do you need to care about fitting >$200 video cards...?

 

[mfenn]

How about an off-lease OEM desktop? You can get complete Core2 machines for not much money at all, for example this refurb HP is $100.

 

[doubledeluxe]

Hmmm. I'm not the one doing the malware analysis. From what I understand it's just downloading malware and then tinkering with it. VMware and Sandbox type stuff. You do it on a seperate rig just incase the malware gets naughty in which case you format the rig and start over.

So with that said I do not know how much horsepower I need for the machine. I'm just not too worried about spending on an i5 if needed. However if a i3 or a pentium or anything else for that matter would do the job I'd save the money.

Motherboards: I hadn't even considered a B85.
H81: $45-$55
B85: $50-$65
H87: $85-$100
H97: $75-$90

As far as the videocard I was just thinking that I'd use my old card. The GTX260. It's not small. For all I know I can use onboard.

 

[Cerb]

I wouldn't go with a Pentium if better can be afforded, but i3 v. i5 .v E3-1231V3 or i7 is entirely a matter of CPU performance across cores, and money.

Will the OS need to be in the $600?

 

[Cerb]

Right at budget, realistically:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4460 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor ($177.98 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: ASRock H97M PRO4 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($81.98 @ Newegg)
Memory: Mushkin Stealth 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($65.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Sandisk Ultra Plus 256GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($105.04 @ Amazon)
Case: Corsair 200R ATX Mid Tower Case ($38.98 @ NCIX US)
Power Supply: Corsair Builder 430W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($19.99 @ Newegg)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 (32/64-bit) ($94.99 @ B&H)
Total: $584.95
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-10-10 14:09 EDT-0400

An i3 would do just as well, if you don't really need 4 cores:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i3-4160 3.6GHz Dual-Core Processor ($119.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: ASRock H97M PRO4 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($81.98 @ Newegg)
Memory: Mushkin Stealth 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($65.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Sandisk Ultra Plus 256GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($105.04 @ Amazon)
Case: Corsair 200R ATX Mid Tower Case ($38.98 @ NCIX US)
Power Supply: Corsair Builder 430W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($19.99 @ Newegg)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 (32/64-bit) ($94.99 @ B&H)
Total: $526.96
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-10-10 14:11 EDT-0400

Going with the latter, you'd have some leeway in getting a nicer case, if desired. But, even that one gets USB 3.0 front ports, which many cheap ones still lack.

 

[mfenn]

:thumbsup: to using the IGP. From the sounds of it, you don't need a discrete GPU at all.

 

[doubledeluxe]

Yeah I don't need the os and I'm definitely going to go with an i5.

 

[Cerb]

Then, IMO, do one of (a) get a nicer case, if you plan to be messing with it a lot, or (b) add a storage HDD, or (c) get a bigger SSD.

The system is likely to need <100W from the wall, if you use IGP (which will likely be more than sufficient). If IGP doesn't cut it for some reason, you would do better to buy a $60-100 newer card. New Forcewares don't support below the 400 series, and even they could be on the way legacy support, soon.

 

[doubledeluxe]

Well I have a lot of hard drives sitting around so I don't need another but for a better case any suggestions?

I think I'll start with the IGP regardless since I'm overseas and want to keep this build simple. I'm going to be "building" this thing over Skype lol. I'm almost considering just finding a mom and pop shop to do it for me. What's the going rate on that? If anyone knows.

 

[mfenn]

The 200R is pretty solid for an inexpensive case. It's easy to work in with a straightforward while keeping reasonable build quality. My next step up would be something like a Fractal Design R4 for $105.