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Ultra Ultra Low Budget PC

NikolaeVarius

NikolaeVarius

Lifer
Hi. My computer back home that I created for the first time 8 years ago has finally failed and my family wants me to ship them a new one. I don't really want to get them a Dell or anything because its a pain in the ass/warranty infringing to muck about in them when trying to figure out what broke.


1. What YOUR PC will be used for. That means what types of tasks you'll be performing.

No Games. Web surfing, Korean Drama Watching, iTunes. Running Win 7

2. What YOUR budget is. A price range is acceptable as long as it's not more than a 20% spread.

No more than 300

3. What country YOU will be buying YOUR parts from.

USA

4. IF YOU have a brand preference.

Somewhat of an Intel fanboy, but if AMD offers better bang for the buck, sure.

5. If YOU intend on using any of YOUR current parts, and if so, what those parts are.

Using existing HDD, and disk drives and monitor

6. IF YOU have searched and/or read similar threads.
Yes, but I'm trying to get even cheaper and more cost efficient then the current thread that I saw.

7. IF YOU plan on overclocking or run the system at default speeds.
None at all

8. What resolution YOU plan on gaming with.
N/A

9. WHEN do you plan to build it?
ASAP

Case
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811146061

PSU
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817815007

Memory
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820231310

Mobo and CPU
Been having trouble with this because I'm not familiar with the low end spectrum of CPU's so I have no idea whether its best to pick up a Phenom or a Sandy Bridge based intel proc nor do I know what mobo I want them to go with. Integrated Video is a must, don't need/want dedicated video card.

Thanks in advance.
 
Get a Dell. If you're "mucking about inside to find out what broke" you're not using the warranty anyway.

You can get an Inspiron 560 with a Pentium Dual-Core E5800 at Dell Outlet for $280. Considering the OS itself is $100, I'm not going to be able to price you anything that comes close.

Best I can do:

unledhft.jpg


Edit, oh, I see you have drives already.
If you also have their old OS:

unledlcd.jpg
 
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Expanding a bit, I think I can do better than a celeron. I want this to be a solid low end computer which was the reason why I was debating between a phenom or an i3.
 
Pretty sure his point is that if he can utilise your second suggestion he is $110 under budget and wouldn't mind getting something a little faster for a little more money
 
NikolaeVarius said:
Expanding a bit, I think I can do better than a celeron. I want this to be a solid low end computer which was the reason why I was debating between a phenom or an i3.
Click to expand...

Forget about the Phenom II. If you were considering the Phenom II X2, it's a complete waste of money. The Celeron G530 is faster than the Athlon II X2 and Phenom II X2, but slower than the Athlon II X3 in multi-threaded (however, it's faster in single-threaded). It also consumes a lot less power than all of them, and motherboards can be had very cheaply. Since this is for a low-power system, this is what I would recommend:

Lite-On DVD Burner: $19
Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB: $60
Antec NEO ECO 400C PSU: $45
Crucial 4GB DDR3 1333MHz: $20
Biostar H61ML H61 Motherboard: $60
Intel Celeron G530: $57

Total w/ shipping: $296

If you don't need high storage capacity, you can opt for a 500GB HDD instead and save $20. If you're willing to spend a bit more and need very little storage capacity but would love a more responsive system, get a cheap SSD like a 60GB Corsair Nova 2. The final price would be $320 then.

Also, the Antec NEO ECO 400C is better than the Antec EA-380D and Corsair CX430 V2. It loses a few points against the EA-380D in efficiency, but it's a Seasonic design with good ripple supression and power output. That's not to say the EA-380D is bad in those regards, but the internal design of the 400C is better.
 
Puppies04 said:
Pretty sure his point is that if he can utilise your second suggestion he is $110 under budget and wouldn't mind getting something a little faster for a little more money
Click to expand...

And he could also throw in a 6770, 16GB RAM, or 18 packs of pop-tarts to waste money. What's your point?
 
LOL_Wut_Axel said:
Forget about the Phenom II. If you were considering the Phenom II X2, it's a complete waste of money. The Celeron G530 is faster than the Athlon II X2 and Phenom II X2, but slower than the Athlon II X3 in multi-threaded (however, it's faster in single-threaded). It also consumes a lot less power than all of them, and motherboards can be had very cheaply. Since this is for a low-power system, this is what I would recommend:

Lite-On DVD Burner: $19
Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB: $60
Antec NEO ECO 400C PSU: $45
Crucial 4GB DDR3 1333MHz: $20
Biostar H61ML H61 Motherboard: $60
Intel Celeron G530: $57

Total w/ shipping: $296

If you don't need high storage capacity, you can opt for a 500GB HDD instead and save $20. If you're willing to spend a bit more and need very little storage capacity but would love a more responsive system, get a cheap SSD like a 60GB Corsair Nova 2. The final price would be $320 then.

Also, the Antec NEO ECO 400C is better than the Antec EA-380D and Corsair CX430 V2. It loses a few points against the EA-380D in efficiency, but it's a Seasonic design with good ripple supression and power output. That's not to say the EA-380D is bad in those regards, but the internal design of the 400C is better.
Click to expand...

Cutting out the HDD because I'm salvaging it from an old build, so we still have 60 dollars to work with. I don't really see the need to get an SSD to I want to pump more into the CPU, unless you think that 60 dollars more of CPU won't make anywhere near as much difference as an SSD.
 
NikolaeVarius said:
Cutting out the HDD because I'm salvaging it from an old build, so we still have 60 dollars to work with. I don't really see the need to get an SSD to I want to pump more into the CPU, unless you think that 60 dollars more of CPU won't make anywhere near as much difference as an SSD.
Click to expand...

Going with a Celeron G530 and a cheap SSD will make a MUCH higher difference in system responsiveness than going with a Core i3-2100 and an HDD. The Pentium G620 is only around 6-7% faster than the G530 and costs $20 more, so I don't recommend it. From the G530, the next step-up is either the Athlon II X3 and then the Core i3/Phenom II X4. The Athlon II X3 will consume a considerable amount more power under full load, but it'll be faster overall and can be had for a decent price. Under low load and idle, they're comparable in power consumption.

Given that, I think it's also a good choice if you have the budget to go for an Athlon II X3 and a cheap 880G motherboard like the Biostar A880G+ with an SSD. If you want to choose between the Core i3 2100 and HDD or Celeron G530 and SSD, go with the Celeron and the SSD. It's easily a better choice for day-to-day use.
 
LOL_Wut_Axel said:
Going with a Celeron G530 and a cheap SSD will make a MUCH higher difference in system responsiveness than going with a Core i3-2100 and an HDD.
Click to expand...

This.

LOL_Wut_Axel said:
The Athlon II X3 will consume a considerable amount more power under full load, but it'll be faster overall and can be had for a decent price.
Click to expand...

Pretty sure the Celeron beats the Athlon single-threaded, and he's not looking at any usage that's going to put a third or fourth core to use.
I'd say the Athlons have all been made obsolete by Sandy Bridge and the price drops to the Phenoms. The only instance I can see suggesting an Athlon II is an ultra-budget upgrade to an existing AM2.
 
DominionSeraph said:
Pretty sure the Celeron beats the Athlon single-threaded, and he's not looking at any usage that's going to put a third or fourth core to use.
I'd say the Athlons have all been made obsolete by Sandy Bridge and the price drops to the Phenoms. The only instance I can see suggesting an Athlon II is an ultra-budget upgrade to an existing AM2.
Click to expand...

Yeah, but if he wants the system for a long time, having that extra core could definitely be useful. In any case, the two cores of the Celeron are much faster than the three on the Athlon II X3, so it shouldn't be much of an issue.

NikolaeVarius said:
Also, is there a reason you went for the Biostar over others? I notice it says it has UEFI (which I have never used but should be interesting), but why that over something like this

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813157241
Click to expand...

That motherboard only has VGA. The ones I linked have both VGA and DVI, and if you're using a modern monitor it's more likely to have DVI, and on a digital (LCD) monitor DVI will most times look better. Also, the UEFI BIOS interface is MUCH better than the old blue BIOS once you get used to it. If you get a cheap H61 motherboard you have the possibility of upgrading in the future to a similarly priced CPU with lower power consumption and higher performance without having to replace anything else.
 
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So, currently I'm looking at this. Anything else I should change? Maybe the SSD? My family won't need much space.

Edited with Mobo



Final Price of 350 dollars. 50 bucks over budget but I can get the hit if the SSD will provide that much extra awesomeness.
 
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Pop Tarts add more than $100 to the build and they won't add much performance. The Crucial M4 64GB is only gonna be a bit faster than the Corsair Nova 2 if you use it on a SATA 3Gbps motherboard. If you're not gonna go SATA 6Gbps, I suggest you save and get the Nova 2 instead. It's $35 cheaper.
 
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LOL_Wut_Axel said:
Pop Tarts add more than $100 to the build and they won't add much performance. The Crucial M4 64GB is only gonna be a bit faster than the Corsair Nova 2 if you use it on a SATA 3Gbps motherboard. If you're not gonna go SATA 6Gbps, I suggest you save and get the Nova 2 instead. It's $35 cheaper.
Click to expand...

I was heavily considering it but I was reading the feedback and it seems extremely all over the place. Do you have an opinion on the particular drive?

Or from a company I haven't heard of

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...a-_-na&AID=10440897&PID=3332167&SID=u00000687
 
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NikolaeVarius said:
I was heavily considering it but I was reading the feedback and it seems extremely all over the place. Do you have an opinion on the particular drive?

Or from a company I haven't heard of

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...&SID=u00000687
Click to expand...

It's $10 cheaper than the M4, but alas, it's SandForce 3. I wouldn't touch anything with it with a ten foot pole because of the reliability issues it's presented. It's a tiny bit faster than the M4, but less reliable.

The Nova 2 is based on an updated Toshiba controller, which is also reliable, but you do lose performance unless you're on SATA 3Gbps. Since you won't be, you'll only lose a bit. Corsair issued a new firmware that speeds up the drive to avg 270MB/s sequential reads and around 200MB/s sequential writes, IIRC. The reads are already at the limit of what SATA 3Gbps can do, but write performance is actually higher than the 64GB M4 but lower than SF 3. You won't be gaining anything significant on SATA 3Gbps going from the Nova 2 to any of those.
 
Also, most of the bad reviews on Newegg are from people that are clueless. For example, a lot of them don't correctly set the SSD to ACHI instead of IDE in the BIOS and complain about lower performance, some mention things that aren't wrong with the drive itself (like someone that mentioned it has Asynchronous NAND and lowered the rating because of it, even when almost all SSDs use that and the effects of it are greatly exaggerated since SSDs have features like Garbage Collection and TRIM to help minimize its effect). Others give low ratings because they have old ass systems with compatibility issues, etc. In short, if it's not an acknowledged issue, it's probably PEBKAC. You should still note, though: the grand majority of reviews are four or five stars. The OCZ and other SandForce drives in particular get more than 60% bad ratings because they're unreliable and they themselves have asserted the issues exist (many times they don't bother fixing it, unfortunately).

The only thing I'd recommend doing with the Nova 2 is upgrading to the newest firmware, since it brings good performance upgrades.
 
LOL_Wut_Axel said:
It's $10 cheaper than the M4, but alas, it's SandForce 3. I wouldn't touch anything with it with a ten foot pole because of the reliability issues it's presented. It's a tiny bit faster than the M4, but less reliable.

The Nova 2 is based on an updated Toshiba controller, which is also reliable, but you do lose performance unless you're on SATA 3Gbps. Since you won't be, you'll only lose a bit. Corsair issued a new firmware that speeds up the drive to avg 270MB/s sequential reads and around 200MB/s sequential writes, IIRC. The reads are already at the limit of what SATA 3Gbps can do, but write performance is actually higher than the 64GB M4 but lower than SF 3. You won't be gaining anything significant on SATA 3Gbps going from the Nova 2 to any of those.
Click to expand...

Good points, but reading through the feedback, it seems that DOA/Faulty Nand drives are more common that I would like, but that may just be the people who have bad drives complaining over the people who get good drives.

Not attempting to be difficult, but I'm trying to be careful around SSD's.
 
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You definitely want to be careful with SSDs, but I wouldn't rule them out either. Just keep your SSD as a boot drive and your other hard drives for storage and backup. Always keep one of your regular hard drives bootable so if something happens to the SSD, you're still OK while you wait for the replacement.

The SSD technology itself aside, there's probably something to be said on the topic of compatibility per motherboard or controller. Regular hard drives have been around so long we sort of take for granted that we can pair pretty much any hard drive with any computer. It will take some time for SSDs to get to that point.

If the SSD will be your ONLY drive in the system, I'm sure it'll work out fine but don't forget to backup once in a while to a different drive just in case.
 
NikolaeVarius said:
Good points, but reading through the feedback, it seems that DOA/Faulty Nand drives are more common that I would like, but that may just be the people who have bad drives complaining over the people who get good drives.

Not attempting to be difficult, but I'm trying to be careful around SSD's.
Click to expand...

Read the comment I made above if you can. I addressed it there. As for DOAs, again, that's a problem mostly with SandForce. As a matter of fact, most of the bad rep SSDs have gotten is SandForce's and OCZ's fault. Avoid OCZ at all costs for now is all I'll say.

zCypher said:
You definitely want to be careful with SSDs, but I wouldn't rule them out either. Just keep your SSD as a boot drive and your other hard drives for storage and backup. Always keep one of your regular hard drives bootable so if something happens to the SSD, you're still OK while you wait for the replacement.

The SSD technology itself aside, there's probably something to be said on the topic of compatibility per motherboard or controller. Regular hard drives have been around so long we sort of take for granted that we can pair pretty much any hard drive with any computer. It will take some time for SSDs to get to that point.

If the SSD will be your ONLY drive in the system, I'm sure it'll work out fine but don't forget to backup once in a while to a different drive just in case.
Click to expand...

True. Always advised that you at least have a backup including applications, media and what not in an HDD in case anything happens.
 
Seems great, but interestingly enough, when you look at the product page of the Nova 2 on Newegg it's $90 and when you look from the sorting menu it lists the price as $80. If you want to save $10 you can get it from Amazon with free shipping.
 
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