Help with build, llano a good choice for the money?

[sprtfan]

I'm helping a friend put together a system. After talking with him, he will be doing no gaming, probably no video transcoding, and will use it for email and working with excel and access. He does want USB 3.0, onboard USB3.0 headers to hook up the the front of his case, and sata3. He has a SSD and will be using built in video.

I can get a F1A75-V pro for $55 and I have seen A8-3850 for for under $90 on ebay. Even at neweggs price, it would be $175 total. A similar Z68 motherboard is in the $130-$140 range. Since he would be using the built in video, I thought he should at least get HD3000 and would put him between $135 and $210 for a cpu.

So I guess my question is, would an intel setup be worth the extra money in this case? Would he see any real difference between the two? The intel looks like it would have a better upgrade path in the future but the money saved could be put towards a faster future upgrade from the llano system as well.

I just keep asking myself, if the llano is not a good fit for him who would it be a good fit for? Thanks for any help.

 

[AtenRa]

Since he doesn't want it for games, I would get the A6-3670K, it is a unlocked 4-core like A8 but with lower performance iGPU (320 vs 400SPs).

Also, get a nice 80-120/128GB SSD and it will be fine for years.

 

[sprtfan]

I'll look into the A6-3670K as well. He has a 120GB Kingston Hyperx SSD.

 

[tulx]

I'll look into the A6-3670K as well. He has a 120GB Kingston Hyperx SSD.

The Llano is indeed a very good choice in this price/performance segment.

PS - you might even want to look for some mothreboards with the CPU on-board already. I know Asus sells some. I'd immagine that's a good deal, though haven't exactly compared the prices.

 

[sm625]

No transcoding, no gaming? Pentium G8x0 would be fine.

 

[Rvenger]

+1, go for the Llano. No need for better graphics too, it can even play BF3 on low if ever wanted.

 

[blckgrffn]

No transcoding, no gaming? Pentium G8x0 would be fine.

Heck, g6x0 would be fine, too. Same HD graphics as the i3/i5/i7 just branded a bit differently.

That said, the llano sounds like a good deal in this particular case.

Now, if you just had access to a Microcenter...

 

[dma0991]

You don't need a Z68 motherboard to be using the IGP, a cheaper H61 or H67 motherboard will do. I got my parents an Intel G620 + ASRock H61M-GS which totals up to $135 at Newegg. It gets even cheaper if you get the Intel G530 which I did not get due to out of stock but performs almost similar to the Intel G620.

 

[sprtfan]

You don't need a Z68 motherboard to be using the IGP, a cheaper H61 or H67 motherboard will do. I got my parents an Intel G620 + ASRock H61M-GS which totals up to $135 at Newegg. It gets even cheaper if you get the Intel G530 which I did not get due to out of stock but performs almost similar to the Intel G620.

He wants Sata3, USB3.0, and USB 3.0 outs onboard to hook up to the front of his case. I really didn't see much other than Z68 boards that has all of this.

The closest Microcenter is a 3 hour drive and would be the obvious choice if I had one closer.

 

[dma0991]

He wants Sata3, USB3.0, and USB 3.0 outs onboard to hook up to the front of his case. I really didn't see much other than Z68 boards that has all of this.

All of that I/O can be substituted with a PCI card if needed. Try looking for some H67 motherboards, they do come with USB 3.0 and SATA 6GB/s support. As for the internal USB 3.0 header, there are PCI cards to do that, I've seen it somewhere.