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new budget build recommendations

K

koolh

Member
Hi guys,

It's been a while since I built my last box - May08 E8400/P35/8800GT - so I've been kinda out of the loop.

This time I'm looking at building a budget system for general use (family computer). It will be used mostly by my parents (for movies and internet surfing and such) and occasionally by me/brother for casual gaming (old games like WC3 etc).

Was thinking whether i would need a i5/i7 (seems to be more for the overclocking enthusiast) or would a C2D be more than sufficient / worth the lower cost. I'm looking at a budget of not more than $1k, which I suppose is pretty generous for the requirements, but should I be able to shave off a couple of hundred off that without really sacrificing on quality (considering my lower requirements), that would be great.

Any recommendations for a mobo/chip combi?

Thanks in advance.
 
If all it is doing is family computing and light gaming such as WC3, the Athlon X3 line would do well. A rough guide would be something like this.

Athlon X3 425 $79
4GB DDR3 $70
Any decent AM3 motherboard $90
Radeon 4670 512mb $65
Any 1TB drive (i.e. cheapest) $80

And really, the rest is up to you. This build would easily run every game a few years old maxed out without issues. Choose your own case/PSU, optical and you'll be set.
 
koolh, when you do finish your new build, can you post it here and tell us how it's performing? That would be a great reference for a lot of people.

Thanks.
 
GodlessAstronomer, that icon of yours looks satanical.

koolh, with that budget you can get the top of line stuff, although doesn't look like your parent will need it at all. I recommend an x4 620 based build + 785G chipset, made to do multitasking work and can do a little gaming as well although not great there. nice and cheap system. can save the rest of the cash and get 'em a new digital camera or something else for xmas.
 
koolh said:
Hi guys,

It's been a while since I built my last box - May08 E8400/P35/8800GT - so I've been kinda out of the loop.

This time I'm looking at building a budget system for general use (family computer). It will be used mostly by my parents (for movies and internet surfing and such) and occasionally by me/brother for casual gaming (old games like WC3 etc).

Was thinking whether i would need a i5/i7 (seems to be more for the overclocking enthusiast) or would a C2D be more than sufficient / worth the lower cost. I'm looking at a budget of not more than $1k, which I suppose is pretty generous for the requirements, but should I be able to shave off a couple of hundred off that without really sacrificing on quality (considering my lower requirements), that would be great.

Any recommendations for a mobo/chip combi?

Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...

The new 32nm dual Intel Dual cores are coming out pretty soon. The versions with hyperthreading are actually supposed to be faster at four threaded programs than some Core 2 quads.

As far as mainboards go......ATX will be offered but Intel also plans to release a mini-itx version also (with one PCI-E 2.0 X16 slot).

http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=3648&p=3

Plus this....

http://www.silverstonetek.com/products/p_contents.php?pno=SG05&area=

Plus something like HD5750 (when the price drops)....or something stronger if you plan multiple monitors.
 
Last edited:
Phenom 550BE / Asus 790x AM3

Probably more jam than you are looking for but at $182 AR is hard to beat.

My 550BE unlocked to a quad with a 0.05 undervolt. Not sure if you want to go there --- yer parental units might decide to get their swerve on with an HD 5850 😛

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Computer Bottleneck said:
The new 32nm dual Intel Dual cores are coming out pretty soon. The versions with hyperthreading are actually supposed to be faster at four threaded programs than some Core 2 quads.

Plus something like HD5750 (when the price drops)....or something stronger if you plan multiple monitors.
Click to expand...

Dude, this is a budget build is for his family and he said they will only play older games. Why would his parents need multiple monitors?
 
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