Ethereal_Dragon
Fully Optimized
- Messages
- 3,755
- Location
- USA
Hey everyone, it's been a long long time!
I'm planning a build for my parents, as their old P4 Dell is aging, and my old man wants to replace it. I was SHOCKED when we were at lunch yesterday and he asked for my help building a new machine. I've been out of the loop as far as the PC game goes for a while now, so I haven't read much at all in the last 2 or so years.
Anywho, their budget is about $500, possibly a little more, but that's it for now. It will be mostly used for just general things, office, email, things of that nature, but it will also be used for some gaming when my brother and sister aren't away at school.
I think I have a pretty good build at this point, just wanted to get some other opinions.
Shipping: $27
Total: $562 - ($517 after MIR's)
As stated, there won't be any overclocking, so no need for anything other than stock cooling for the CPU.
I like the motherboard, because it has support for some for IDE devices, which allows me to use the HDD and Opitcal drive from the old computer. It also has plenty of SATA 6Gbps ports, 4 DIMM slots, USB 3.0 support, and crossfire, should there be any need to upgrade in the future. I'm not too sure how much longer AMD plans to run with the AM3 socket, but there is an upgrade path available there too, should it be needed.
The case really isn't too important, just has to hold everything together. It will be in a cabinet when not in use, as their current PC is, but the door will be opened when used, so I'm not worried about cooling issues. The front audio and USB is nice for convenience, as well as the large power & reset buttons at the top of the case.
I'm planning a build for my parents, as their old P4 Dell is aging, and my old man wants to replace it. I was SHOCKED when we were at lunch yesterday and he asked for my help building a new machine. I've been out of the loop as far as the PC game goes for a while now, so I haven't read much at all in the last 2 or so years.
Anywho, their budget is about $500, possibly a little more, but that's it for now. It will be mostly used for just general things, office, email, things of that nature, but it will also be used for some gaming when my brother and sister aren't away at school.
I think I have a pretty good build at this point, just wanted to get some other opinions.
- Case: APEX PC-389-C Black Steel ATX Mid Tower - $20
- PSU: Antec BP550 Plus 550W (80 PLUS Certified) - $65
- CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition Deneb - $120
- Cooling: STOCK (no overclocking) - No Cost
- Thermal Paste: I have some extra somewhere.... - No Cost
- Motherboard: MSI 870A-G54 AM3 AMD 870 - $99 ($85 after MIR)
- Memory: Kingston 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR3 1066 (PC3 8500) - $43
- GPU: XFX HD-577A-ZNFC Radeon HD 5770 (Juniper XT) - $130 ($100 after MIR)
- HDD1: Will re-use current Dell HDD - No Cost
- HDD2: Seagate Barracuda ST3500413AS 500GB - $40
- Optical: Will re-use current Dell Optical Drive - No Cost
- Fans: COOLER MASTER R4-SPS-20AK-GP 80mm - $18
- OS: Win XP 32 bit, I should have an extra license or two- No Cost
Shipping: $27
Total: $562 - ($517 after MIR's)
As stated, there won't be any overclocking, so no need for anything other than stock cooling for the CPU.
I like the motherboard, because it has support for some for IDE devices, which allows me to use the HDD and Opitcal drive from the old computer. It also has plenty of SATA 6Gbps ports, 4 DIMM slots, USB 3.0 support, and crossfire, should there be any need to upgrade in the future. I'm not too sure how much longer AMD plans to run with the AM3 socket, but there is an upgrade path available there too, should it be needed.
The case really isn't too important, just has to hold everything together. It will be in a cabinet when not in use, as their current PC is, but the door will be opened when used, so I'm not worried about cooling issues. The front audio and USB is nice for convenience, as well as the large power & reset buttons at the top of the case.
