How cheap can you do it?

[Kekewy]

I have a friend that wants to 'upgrade' their desktop. And by upgrade I mean replace everything but the OS. He likes to play games on the machine but isn't what I'd call a hard core gamer. He likes spore, eve, second life, things like that. He's also into drawing and while the heaviest thing the machine would be running now is Photoshop, he would like to be capible of running more. He challenged me to build him a machine for as inexpensive as possible that would not only run what he wants now but one that he could upgrade to better later when he had more money.

My thought was to go high end on the processor, since that's one of the more expensive pieces and also can be the biggest pain to replace. I'm not sure about the graphics card though. So my question to you all is how cheaply could you build a machine for him and what would you put in it? He's using Windows XP.

 

[mnewsham]

Can you give us a rough estimate on price range? I can give you a base build but depending on your price range I would go for cheaper proccesor, also what resolution?

 

[DominionSeraph]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811156237
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822152185
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817139017
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820231396
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboD...t=Combo.581123

Promo Code HARDOCP112C

http://www.frys.com/product/6434002?...H:MAIN_RSLT_PG

Athlon II X3 455 + 880G, 4GB DDR 1333, 1TB Spinpoint F3 (only $8 cheaper to go 500GB), 768MB GTX 460, CX430 PSU, RAIDMAX Hurricane ATX-248WB case.

$441 with $70 in MIR.

Hope you have a Fry's near you with that GTX 460 in stock. It's $18 more from Newegg.

 

[mnewsham]

unless you are in desperate need to cut corners dont go for amd another 100-150 you can get SB with 50% better performance.

 

[DominionSeraph]

unless you are in desperate need to cut corners dont go for amd another 100-150 you can get SB with 50% better performance.

It would be closer to $200 more than that Athlon II X3 combo. $230 with i5 2500k which would be stupid not to get over the 2300.

 

[mnewsham]

It would be closer to $200 more than that Athlon II X3 combo. $230 with i5 2500k which would be stupid not to get over the 2300.

If you don't need a true quad core just wait for the new i3's on feb. 20th, most games only use 2 cores anyway. The i3's will spank a phenom as the phenom ii's quad cores are negated by the i3's hyper threading.

 

[DominionSeraph]

If you don't need a true quad core just wait for the new i3's on feb. 20th, most games only use 2 cores anyway. The i3's will spank a phenom as the phenom ii's quad cores are negated by the i3's hyper threading.

Hyperthreading != cores. And the i3's will be in the same position the Phenom II X4's are: It's just too close in price to the i5's.

If ultra-budget AMD isn't good enough there is just no reason to stop anywhere before hitting i5 2500k with its 4.4GHz+ of Sandy Bridge quad goodness.

 

[mnewsham]

Hyperthreading != cores. And the i3's will be in the same position the Phenom II X4's are: It's just too close in price to the i5's.

If ultra-budget AMD isn't good enough there is just no reason to stop anywhere before hitting i5 2500k with its 4.4GHz+ of Sandy Bridge quad goodness.

So lets review, op asked for upgradability, socket am3 is dead, 1155 is new, he wants cheap, athalon II is $90, SB i3 is ~$130, op also wants good performance, i3 is going to be on par or better then phenom II x4, why then would you suggest the athalon? It fits none of op's requirements except cheap and for $40 more you get sandy bridge, the newest socket and arguably the most upgradable.

 

[DominionSeraph]

So lets review, op asked for upgradability, socket am3 is dead, 1155 is new, he wants cheap, athalon II is $90, SB i3 is ~$130, op also wants good performance, i3 is going to be on par or better then phenom II x4, why then would you suggest the athalon? It fits none of op's requirements except cheap and for $40 more you get sandy bridge, the newest socket and arguably the most upgradable.

Have you ever heard of motherboard costs? Turns that $130 i3 into $220. Looking at adding $110 to a $370 build.
Upgradability? Because there's no reason AT ALL to go with an i3 the 1555 has no real upgrade because he'd just be getting the i5 2500k. If the Phenoms drop to rock-bottom prices when Bulldozer comes out then the Athlon will have an worthwhile upgrade.

There are only two builds: Ultra budget AMD and i5 2500k. Quit trying to shoehorn nonsense in between.
And get over your fascination with hyperthreading. There's a reason we rarely spec the i7.

 

[mnewsham]

Have you ever heard of motherboard costs? Turns that $130 i3 into $220. Looking at adding $110 to a $370 build.
Upgradability? Because there's no reason AT ALL to go with an i3 the 1555 has no real upgrade because he'd just be getting the i5 2500k. If the Phenoms drop to rock-bottom prices when Bulldozer comes out then the Athlon will have an worthwhile upgrade.

There are only two builds: Ultra budget AMD and i5 2500k. Quit trying to shoehorn nonsense in between.

When BD comes out they will not go to rock bottom prices, try to buy a core 2 quad recently? Just because the next best thing comes out doesn't mean it will drop prices, there is nothing better for that socket so prices will stay the same or even climb if there is enough demand. Buying a newer socket makes sense. the i5-2500k is a good cpu, but not for everyone, this isn't go big or go home. The i3 is $100 cheaper then the i5. Fact is BD is unlikely to lower current amd prices. Why should it? Its in a new socket after all and not going to be competing directly against the phenom's as they should just be veiwed as upgrade cpu's at the moment.

 

[Davidh373]

I have a friend that wants to 'upgrade' their desktop. And by upgrade I mean replace everything but the OS. He likes to play games on the machine but isn't what I'd call a hard core gamer. He likes spore, eve, second life, things like that. He's also into drawing and while the heaviest thing the machine would be running now is Photoshop, he would like to be capible of running more. He challenged me to build him a machine for as inexpensive as possible that would not only run what he wants now but one that he could upgrade to better later when he had more money.

My thought was to go high end on the processor, since that's one of the more expensive pieces and also can be the biggest pain to replace. I'm not sure about the graphics card though. So my question to you all is how cheaply could you build a machine for him and what would you put in it? He's using Windows XP.

First, we need to know what the old build has under the hood, then we can tell you how cheap you can get a significant upgrade for. I think this will be the best approach. For all we know, he could have a Q9650.

 

[DominionSeraph]

When BD comes out they will not go to rock bottom prices, try to buy a core 2 quad recently?

AMD != Intel. (And Micro Center had C2Q's for under $100)

Buying a newer socket makes sense. the i5-2500k is a good cpu, but not for everyone, this isn't go big or go home. The i3 is $100 cheaper then the i5.

The i3 will be unsalable because no 1555 board will be bought with less than that. It's an upgrade for nobody. So his upgrade path consists of spending a total of $360 for an i5 2500k. There's a market for the Athlon X3, though, because it is an upgrade for AM3 dual cores and AM2/AM2+ processors. And the AM3 board will remain highly salable because it's such a great foundation for budget builds -- no basic Mom & Dad PC will need more than an AM3 proc for years and years.

Saving $110 now and having ~$100 in salable proc+mobo leaving open paths to Ivy and Bulldozer seems better than having a $130 processor you can't unload with a limited upgrade path through a chipset with no interesting features.

Ivy looks to combine SSD and spindle. Who knows what Bulldozer will bring?
No reason for i3 1555.
If you need insane processing power now, i5 2500k. If you do not, cheap AMD leaves you wide open to future upgrades -- Phenom II, Ivy, Bulldozer, even i5 2500k.

CPU + mobo swap is really no harder than CPU to someone who's already building his own.

 

[DominionSeraph]

First, we need to know what the old build has under the hood, then we can tell you how cheap you can get a significant upgrade for. I think this will be the best approach. For all we know, he could have a Q9650.

True. Of course, EVE plays just fine on an Athlon XP 3000+ and 320MB 8800GTS, so if he's gaming at that level and needing an upgrade, I'm kinda thinking Q9650 is unlikely.

 

[IGemini]

True. Of course, EVE plays just fine on an Athlon XP 3000+ and 320MB 8800GTS, so if he's gaming at that level and needing an upgrade, I'm kinda thinking Q9650 is unlikely.

"Need" wasn't anywhere in the OP, just want. So it'll probably be nice to know. Speaking of the Q9650, it's pretty insane how average price of those has actually gone UP $20 on the egg since Sandy Bridge's release . Doesn't make me feel bad about getting it for 305.

I also hope that the friend has a retail XP copy. Otherwise you'll be jumping through some hoops to activate XP on the computer with all new hardware.

 

[mfenn]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811156237
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822152185
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817139017
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820231396
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboD...t=Combo.581123

Promo Code HARDOCP112C

http://www.frys.com/product/6434002?...H:MAIN_RSLT_PG

Athlon II X3 455 + 880G, 4GB DDR 1333, 1TB Spinpoint F3 (only $8 cheaper to go 500GB), 768MB GTX 460, CX430 PSU, RAIDMAX Hurricane ATX-248WB case.

$441 with $70 in MIR.

Hope you have a Fry's near you with that GTX 460 in stock. It's $18 more from Newegg.

:thumbsup: Looks good to me.

I agree that Sandy Bridge is probably too far outside of the OP's price range to consider (remember TPC kids!).

 

[Kekewy]

The old build was an ancient dell. I think it has an 80 gig HDD. We upgraded the ram to 512 about a year ago. The processor is either just under or right at 1 ghz. The GPU is integrated and about what you'd expect from a dell of that age.
As for the price, as close to 500$ as possible. I haven't had a chance to look through all the suggestions yet, but I did see those two questions.

 

[DominionSeraph]

Here's an i5 2500k.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboD...t=Combo.575882

With everything else the same as above, it's $649 with $60 in MIR. ($590 is kinda close to $500, right?)
The Intel mobo I don't know about. I know in the ancient past Intel had server-slow POST, limited overclocking options, and only supported Intel officially supported memory speeds, but with Sandy Bridge having only multiplier overclocking it should be supported, and it mentions memory overclocking. Both are official parts of P67.

If he could swing the money it would be pretty sweet. It's $220 more than the AMD build but... full Sandy Bridge unlocked quad. *drool*

This would be better but it busts the already-busted budget by another $15.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.575883
(ud3)

 

[Davidh373]

Here's an i5 2500k.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboD...t=Combo.575882

With everything else the same as above, it's $649 with $60 in MIR. ($590 is kinda close to $500, right?)
The Intel mobo I don't know about. I know in the ancient past Intel had server-slow POST, limited overclocking options, and only supported Intel officially supported memory speeds, but with Sandy Bridge having only multiplier overclocking it should be supported, and it mentions memory overclocking. Both are official parts of P67.

If he could swing the money it would be pretty sweet. It's $220 more than the AMD build but... full Sandy Bridge unlocked quad. *drool*

This would be better but it busts the already-busted budget by another $15.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboD...t=Combo.575883
(ud3)
___________

If he can afford the $600 (or even close to $700 with the UD3 mobo) he would have one of the most advanced processors on the market for under $700? Forget about it .

 

[DominionSeraph]

If he can afford the $600 (or even close to $700 with the UD3 mobo)

$605 after MIR's.

 

[jackofalltrades]

Why not buy a Dell inspiron 580 desktop all that you might still need is the video card but I doubt it from what you are talking about doing with it. it does have a pci-express x16 slot

 

[Davidh373]

$605 after MIR's.

That is a fantastic deal. I mean... it's the most powerful gaming proc on the market .

Why not buy a Dell inspiron 580 desktop all that you might still need is the video card but I doubt it from what you are talking about doing with it. it does have a pci-express x16 slot

The $605 i5 2500k build is why lol.

 

[Blain]

The old build was an ancient dell. I think it has an 80 gig HDD. We upgraded the ram to 512 about a year ago. The processor is either just under or right at 1 ghz. The GPU is integrated and about what you'd expect from a dell of that age.
As for the price, as close to 500$ as possible. I haven't had a chance to look through all the suggestions yet, but I did see those two questions.

* The old Dell case may not accept a standard form factor MB.
* The old Dell PS will need to be upgraded.
* The old Dell doesn't run DDR3 memory, correct?
* The old Dell is scrap...
The only thing I'd use from it would be the power supply cord, maybe.

 

[Kekewy]

* The old Dell case may not accept a standard form factor MB.
* The old Dell PS will need to be upgraded.
* The old Dell doesn't run DDR3 memory, correct?
* The old Dell is scrap...
The only thing I'd use from it would be the power supply cord, maybe.

I know that, that's why I said in my first post the only thing he's keeping from the dell is the operating system. And that's because the OS isn't the one that originally came with the dell. There is a very nice N wireless card that never worked properly in the dell but ran beautifully in my machine that we're keeping, but I don't really count that as part of the machine because it's sitting on top of it in an anti-static bag right now.

 

[Blain]

Is the Windows XP an OEM version tied to the original Dell hardware?

 

[Kekewy]

Is the Windows XP an OEM version tied to the original Dell hardware?

Please refer to my above post: "And that's because the OS isn't the one that originally came with the dell."