Budget build review

[Dookie]

I'm putting together a low-cost PC for my brother with a budget of $500 for the PC not including display. The machine is going to be used for the normal non-power user sort of things like home videos, pictures, facebooks, and the like. There will be no gaming happening.

So here's what I came up with:

System board: Biostar TZ77B - I plan on using the onboard video to get away with not buying a GPU
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813138352

CPU: Intel i3-2120 - Is this a bit of overkill? Would going to AMD be a better option given the light use the machine is going to see?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819115077

RAM: 8GB G.Skill Value
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...&SID=u00000687

HDD : Seagate 1TB 7200
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...&SID=u00000687

Optical: LiteOn DVD
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...&SID=u00000687

Case: Antec Three Hundred
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811129042

Power Supply: Antec Green 380W - Is 380W sufficient?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817371033

The total comes to around $480 all sourced from Newegg.

 

[Ken g6]

CPU: Intel i3-2120 - Is this a bit of overkill?

Depends how much home video encoding he's doing. And whether he'll use Quick Sync.

System board: Biostar TZ77B

Now that might be overkill - although it's very nice for the price.

I'd like to find a way to stick an SSD in here. Does he know his way around computers enough to handle an OS drive separate from a data drive?

380W is fine for this build.

 

[Dookie]

Now that might be overkill - although it's very nice for the price.

I'm thinking for the price it will give the build a bit of longevity. I like the USB 3.0, 6GB SATA, and gigabit NIC.

I'd like to find a way to stick an SSD in here. Does he know his way around computers enough to handle an OS drive separate from a data drive?

He is currently using an external HDD for storage so I think he should be fine with it. I can always point iTunes to the TB and make obvious shortcuts to where he should store his stuff. I think Windows 7 libraries will be very helpful in this situation.

How does this combo look?
HDD
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136490

SSD
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820233266

 

[Ken g6]

HDD is OK with a good SSD. But I wouldn't go anywhere below a Crucial M4 64GB with that drive.

The place to cut is the processor, to a Pentium G620 say, instead of the drive. Unless he's doing lots of home video encoding.

 

[Dookie]

The place to cut is the processor, to a Pentium G620 say, instead of the drive. Unless he's doing lots of home video encoding.

I don't think there will be much of that going on.

Would this be sufficient?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819116397

 

[the_meatloaf___]

I agree with Ken on dropping the to the Pentium G620 and at least a 64GB SSD. I would also consider a cheaper motherboard. I don't see a need for Z77 in this situation. You could drop it down to an H61 chipset like this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128539

You would have room for an SSD in the budget then.

 

[Dookie]

Thanks for the help guys, I appreciate it.

I think I could go with this mobo
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813157236

and this CPU
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819116397

and still be within budget. I want the board for the HDMI as he has mentioned he'd like to hook it up to his TV to watch movies. And I like the G850 over the G620 for improved graphics or is the difference between Intel HD and Intel HD 2000 not worth the $20?

 

[the_meatloaf___]

I don't have experience with either, but from what I've heard, the Intel HD graphics are good enough to watch YouTube videos and what not. The extra $20 also pays for a faster processor, so it wouldn't be a bad decision either way.

 

[krnmastersgt]

Is there a specific reason you want that motherboard? There are plenty of boards that are cheaper by around $20 and I don't see any particular features that make that board stand out.

 

[Dookie]

Is there a specific reason you want that motherboard? There are plenty of boards that are cheaper by around $20 and I don't see any particular features that make that board stand out.

HDMI, 6Gb/s SATA, USB 3.0

 

[Dookie]

So here is the complete setup:

Mobo: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...&SID=u00000687

CPU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819116397

RAM: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...&SID=u00000687

SSD http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...&SID=u00000687

HDD http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...a-_-na&AID=10440897&PID=3332167&SID=u00000687

Optical: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...&SID=u00000687

PSU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817371033

Case: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811129181

EDIT: New case

 

[krnmastersgt]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813157246

I saw your case is a mid tower ATX so the form factor shouldn't make a difference I think, has all the features you required as well as 2 additional DIMM slots in case you wanted to just add more Ram later on down the road. That and its $5 less, still an ASRock though. It's more board for less money, I don't see anything wrong with it.

 

[Hubb1e]

One thing I saw in this build that stood out. Maybe the motherboard experts could chime in on this, but I was under the impression that the USB 3.0 on Z77 only worked when paired with an Ivy Bridge CPU making your choice of Z77 pretty worthless.

 

[T_Yamamoto]

^no itll work with sb

Pci3.0 won't work with sb

 

[krnmastersgt]

Is this even a relevant point when the OP isn't getting a Z77 board?

 

[darkxshade]

Don't feel like starting own thread so I'll ask here... Any idea how Biostar TZ77B will overclock with the 3570K? I'm not doing it as a hobby, and just want to get best price performance. So it didn't make sense for me to drop ~$150 for a board and try to push to 4.8ghz when I can just spend $80 for the TZ77B and go for say 4.5 or lower? Board features don't appeal to me either, I won't be doing SLI or CF or anything like that... but I will be getting a discrete gpu at some point.

Alternatively, the next step up is TZ77XE3 for $30 more but I don't know what more it gets me that I really need.

 

[Dookie]

It's more board for less money, I don't see anything wrong with it.

I don't see anything wrong with it either, thanks for finding it.

I went back to the seagate TB drive. I think $10 is worth the increase in spindle speed and transfer rate.

 

[mfenn]

So here is the complete setup:

Mobo: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...&SID=u00000687

CPU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819116397

RAM: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...&SID=u00000687

SSD http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...&SID=u00000687

HDD http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...&SID=u00000687

Optical: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...&SID=u00000687

PSU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817371033

Case: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811129181

EDIT: New case

Parts look good to me. Nobody has mentioned a Windows license, so I presume you are good there?