$200 budget for CPU/Mobo/RAM/Case & maybe PSU

[Paladin3]

My head hurts from looking at all the deal sights, so I'm throwing in the towel and asking for help. I'm looking for the best CPU, motherboard, 8gb ram and case I can get for $200. I wouldn't mind squeezing in a new power supply if possible.

Used/refurb is okay.

I'll be reusing a couple of hard drives, Windows license, and an Nvidia Geforce 1GB 9800GT that I already have until more money comes along. I also have an older 400w PSU that works if a new PSU is out of the question.

I mostly run Photoshop CS5 and a bit of light gaming (WoT, WoW, Skyrim) on a 22" monitor @ 1440x900. Right now I'm using an Athlon 64 X2 4800+, the 9800GT and 4GB of ram, but the motherboard has taken a beating and only has one working USB port left. I just ordered an internal USB hub to plug into the mobo to get me by until I upgrade, but I digress.

I'm nowhere near a Micro Center or Fry's, and will most likely have to mail order. I don't mind rebates if I must.

I'd consider one of the AMD A10 processors if that is a good bang for the buck and will do what I want. I'm not sure if you use a graphics card with those processors or not.

Thanks for your time and knowledge, folks.

 

[MongGrel]

$200 bucks is pretty sparse to do all that.

I'm not trying to be overly critical, but that is asking a lot.

 

[Hugh Jass]

You're pretty much asking for a miracle and those don't happen too often.

 

[VirtualLarry]

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2444569

 

[LTC8K6]

It's a little over, though:

http://www.newegg.com/Special/ShellShocker.aspx?cm_sp=Homepage_SS-_-P1_2489390-_-09082015

 

[crashtech]

Reuse your old stuff until you have more money, Here is a bare platform upgrade that will allow you you move to a much faster CPU in the future:

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/YLybD3

There's no reason to buy slow, old junk even if you only have $200 right now. Just upgrade in increments.

If you really have to have a case for that money, you could drop down to a Pentium:

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/c9fWqs

But Pentiums are what I use for basic office machines, not gaming and content creation.

 

[Crono]

Here's what I would go with. I like to use Newegg to price out builds because it's easier, but you can get these parts from wherever the pricing is the same or lower:

You can get other parts (especially RAM) cheaper from a sale by checking a deal site like Slickdeals to easily bring the total cost just under $200. You can also spend a little more to get the 500W version of that PSU to allow for additional upgrades in the future.

AMD's Kaveri APUs are fine for light Photoshop work and light/retro gaming. An A10 is ideal versus the A6 in the above build, if you can find one going for that price new or used. If you are working with very high resolution images with many layers (or 3D layers) or trying to run intensive games like GTA V, obviously you'll need to upgrade or rebuild in the future. You could possibly add a compatible AMD graphics card later on to give you dual graphics, for a modest upgrade, or just disable the integrated graphics entirely and use the 9800GT (still better performance than the APU alone) or a different card later on.

A6 and A10 review (benchmark pages especially useful):
http://www.anandtech.com/show/9287/the-amd-a10-7700k-and-amd-a6-7400k-cpu-review

Alternatively: You could get a socket 1150 motherboard and compatible low-end Haswell chip (like the Intel Pentium G3258, or a cheaper lower clocked Celeron) instead of the AMD APU and motherboard, for about the same price, which will give you more powerful upgrade options in the future should you decide you want a Core i series (i3, i5, i7) chip. HD graphics on a Celeron isn't as good as the Kaveri APU graphics, but if you go that route you can stick with your current discrete card.

I'm not biased toward either Intel or AMD, it comes down to what you want at this budget. Go AMD if you plan on getting/building an entirely new computer next time around. Or go Intel if you want to be able to upgrade piecemeal to a good system in the near future, as currently socket 1150 provides more powerful options.

 

[Yuriman]

Frankly, I would not buy a Kaveri dual core. Even if you go $40 over budget (and thus have to wait), get a quad.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Frankly, I would not buy a Kaveri dual core. Even if you go $40 over budget (and thus have to wait), get a quad.

I agree.

I recently built a couple of A4-6300 rigs, and even though it cost more, I kind of wish I had gone for the A8-7600.

 

[Crono]

I agree.
I recently built a couple of A4-6300 rigs, and even though it cost more, I kind of wish I had gone for the A8-7600.

I had that A4. I had it sitting on a shelf for a while and recently put it into a build... it has not aged well (my main desktop is an overclocked FX-8350). The Kaveri A6 is better, but yes, the OP should get something better if his budget can allow for it or if he can wait. For dual core performance, the Haswell Pentiums are surprisingly good, though.

It all comes down to whether he needs to buy those parts right now.

 

[Paladin3]

Thanks for all the advice. I finally got a chance to look at prices and benchmarks. This is what I came up with. Any thoughts on the build? I only game at 1440x900 on a 22" monitor.

I would be reusing my old hard drives and the 9800GT video card. Later I would probably add an SSD and just use the HDD for storage.

https://pcpartpicker.com/user/rshveyda/saved/#view=79d2FT

 

[VirtualLarry]

The 860K lacks an IGP. What video card are you going to pair up with it?

 

[Paladin3]

I have a 9800 GT that I'm going to reuse . it will have to do until I can afford better around Christmas time

 

[minigig]

I have a build from PCPartPicker that is just under the 200 Mark. http://pcpartpicker.com/p/gLMpP6

I have build a few builds with this list and find it to be a nice little package. Now I am not saying that this is the best motherboard or case. But I have had no issues after build 6 with this same build.

You can overclock the G3258 to 3.8 if its a bad clocker to 4.2 if you have a good one.Out of the 6 built I only had one that did not do 4.2.

The case is cheap and thin metal. I have had no issues but I may have gotten lucky. I do urge to try to save up a bit more for a better case or make that your next purchase down the road.

I like this build since you can upgrade to a better cpu , when you have the money.

If you could hold off on the case , you could get a ECS Z97-PK (V1.0) and not get the Gigabyte GA-H81M-S1 Then you can get the cpu to 4.6 to 4.9 and then drop in even a broadwell down the road.

I have one of those configs at home and made 3 like that and the G3258 really flys for a dual core at 4.7 .

I had one person even upgraded to the i7-5775c already and he got a good overclock on that ECS Z97-PK (V1.0) and watercooler and is very happy with it for the price he paid to get his foot in the door. He is saving up for a more feature rich Z97 and then he will now have a motherboard and a cpu to do another build on.

 

[crashtech]

What will you do with the extra junk PSU that comes with that case, throw it in the trash?

 

[minigig]

If you are referring to my post , That case does not have an PSU.

 

[LTC8K6]

What will you do with the extra junk PSU that comes with that case, throw it in the trash?

Spare for testing?

That's what I keep one or two of them around for...

 

[crashtech]

I keep known good parts as spares or test equipment, but, speaking from hard earned experience, trusting expensive parts to a ten dollar PSU is not something that should be recommended.

 

[VirtualLarry]

I have a build from PCPartPicker that is just under the 200 Mark. http://pcpartpicker.com/p/gLMpP6

I have build a few builds with this list and find it to be a nice little package. Now I am not saying that this is the best motherboard or case. But I have had no issues after build 6 with this same build.

Not a bad build, and I am a fan of the G3258's capabilities, especially in cheaper H81 OCing boards, but ... $45 in rebates is too much for me. Plus, I don't know how you do 6 builds with these parts, with rebates, if they are limit one per household. Maybe you space out your builds? Otherwise, pretty decent.

 

[minigig]

I don't know how you do 6 builds with these parts, with rebates, if they are limit one per household. Maybe you space out your builds? Otherwise, pretty decent.

I have not always have build these with those rebates available and so it was more expensive , but still a good build for the money. Then the other times when these rebates have been available they order it and they fill them out. I just do the build for them when they get the parts.

 

[sm625]

At dellrefurbished.com you can use code POWERSAVE. Code expires soon though. You can get an i3-2120 machine for $170. This comes with win 7 pro 32 bit. There is a T3500 on there for $250 which imo is a lot better. It has a Xeon W3550 @ 3.06 GHz. It would easily take a GTX970, and the card that is in it is roughly on par with a GT640, which is something you could sell for a decent price.

 

[LTC8K6]

I keep known good parts as spares or test equipment, but, speaking from hard earned experience, trusting expensive parts to a ten dollar PSU is not something that should be recommended.

Well, I have had inconsistent results with PSU's over the years. Some that were supposed to be poor, turned out okay, some that were supposed to be good, turned out not to be.

These days, that seems to the case with just about everything. It's hard to tell if you will get a quality board, card, psu, etc.

 

[monkeydelmagico]

ebay dell optiplex i3 for around $120.-

ebay dell optiplex i5 for around $180.-

If you really really need to build your own

Raidmax case for AR $10.- shipped coupon code "0915TXTBK12"

ECS mobo for for $43.- shipped

i3 4160 for $113.- shipped

team elite 2x4 gb for $35 shipped

$201.- total

 

[MrTeal]

At dellrefurbished.com you can use code POWERSAVE. Code expires soon though. You can get an i3-2120 machine for $170. This comes with win 7 pro 32 bit. There is a T3500 on there for $250 which imo is a lot better. It has a Xeon W3550 @ 3.06 GHz. It would easily take a GTX970, and the card that is in it is roughly on par with a GT640, which is something you could sell for a decent price.

I have a Precision T3500 (with 2.8GHz W3530) sitting beside me right now as my work desktop. It's a larger case and comes with a 500W PSU which ran dual HD5770s no problem.

The Xeon won't blow the 860k out of the water by any means, especially if you overclock the 860k. The build quality on it will be considerably better than that Apevia case though.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/RMWrbv

It'll be a bit faster than what you have now, shiny and new. Drop in an i5 later when you have cash and people are unloading their Haswell kit for cheap.