SYSTEM ORDERED! [Cheapest build needed] A web browsing machine for my mom.

[Zeze]

System ordered!

I was close to getting that super mini system (ITX whatever), but ended up sticking with the conventional microATX this time.

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/BNqP99

I took your advice and went with MX100 SSD instead (also voted best SSD @ price range by Tom's).

I'll update again once parts arrive and assembly done.


---------------------------

My mom's 10 year old Dell is falling apart. It's time I build her a nice machine.

She IS very active with her PC with 3-4 hours of daily use- she watches lots of youtube, constantly does social things with Google video chat/Kakaotalk/FB with her friends and family.

1. The goal is to build her a nice lag-free machine for daily 1080p youtube and things above at cheapest cost.

2. I don't know the budget, that's why I'm asking the experts. Can you achieve this with $300? $200? $150? SHE ONLY NEEDS A TOWER I'm also open to refurb brand PCs.

3. USA

4. USA

5. Ofc no brand preference

6. The good news is that she'll use good portion of current parts- 1080p monitor, speakers, keyboard, mouse, and wireless adapter. She does need a nice new HD (probably get away with half TB). So basically she just needs a tower.

7. No OCing.

8. Again, she already has a nice 22" 1920x1080 monitor

9. I can build it between now and Christmas.

X. No software needed, I have plenty of Win7 keys from my work.

My side thoughts/Qs:
A. I assume integrated video is more than sufficient these days for 1080p videos/multi tab browsing? Do integrated vids come in mobos now or CPU? I'm totally out of the PC market.

B. I THINK I do want 4 gigs of ram for her though. IMO, RAM is cheap enough not to skimp on it. 2 gig would be laggy I feel in the near future (unless you strongly convince me otherwise).

C. Should I build NOW or wait til Blackfriday? Is there a big price break coming before X-mas? This will be her X-mas gift.

Again, cheap but not too cheap where it'll be laggy

 

[frozentundra123456]

300 dollars is at the low end ow what you would need. Do you need to buy windows as well? For this type of machine, I usually think a pre-built is the best solution, certainly if you must purchase windows.
Stay away from kabini and atom. Probably a haswell Pentium would be sufficient, but I would go with an i3 to be safe. Look for something from dell or Lenovo outlets, or on sale at a local big box store. Maybe find a good deal on a black Friday sale? You may have to pay close to 400.00, but for a heavy user, I think it is worth it to get a nice system that should last several years.you might also consider a laptop. It would give her some mobility, and you could hook it up to your external monitor. I recently bought my wife an i3 laptop for 360.00 on sale at best buy that works quite well.

Btw, no offense meant, but I get concerned when one is looking for the cheapest possible solution. It just seems like false economy to risk getting a system that will not meet the users needs in order to save a hundred bucks or so. A decent system for everyday (non-gaming) use should last pretty much indefinitely these days, so it makes sense to me to get a nice system with a bit of performance to spare.

 

[mnewsham]

CD/DVD
Case
HDD
PSU
MB/APU/RAM combo

Total: $303.95


Promo code for 25% off CD/DVD:
EMCWWPC82

Total with promo: $299.45


Someone else might be able to find something cheaper, but this felt like a solid no frills cheap build that has an AMD APU for 1080p youtube/netflix, while the intel options can likely also do HD playback just fine, the AMD APUs are decently more powerful at similar price points.

 

[Yuriman]

Does she need a DVD drive?

Here's a Haswell Celeron NUC for $120:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16856173102

Just add 4GB RAM and a small SSD, should come out under $250 for just the hardware. The small form factor will probably appeal to her.

EDIT: For $95 more you can get windows preinstalled and 2GB of RAM included.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16883218047

$200 brings you up to an i3 barebones, just add SSD + RAM:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16856164006

EDIT2: If I'm not mistaken, the iGPU in the i3 may be more powerful than what's in the A6-5400K.

 

[Termie]

Does she need a DVD drive?

Here's a Haswell Celeron NUC for $120:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16856173102

Just add 4GB RAM and a small SSD, should come out under $250. The small form factor will probably appeal to her.

You can actually get this with a 64gb ssd, 2gb of ram, and win8.1 for $220. I have one and think it's perfect for browsing.

Don't use a hard drive - an SSD is the only way to go with a low-powered system.

 

[frozentundra123456]

Do you have a best buy within shopping distance? They have a big core Dell pentium on sale for for 329.00 this week with built in wi-fi. I would not want to go any lower than this in CPU performance.

 

[Ken g6]

A $160 ChromeBox, with a Haswell-based Celeron, would probably work for everything except, evidently, KakaoTalk. Never heard of that one before.

 

[Zeze]

Does she need a DVD drive?

Here's a Haswell Celeron NUC for $120:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16856173102

Just add 4GB RAM and a small SSD, should come out under $250 for just the hardware. The small form factor will probably appeal to her.

EDIT: For $95 more you can get windows preinstalled and 2GB of RAM included.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16883218047

$200 brings you up to an i3 barebones, just add SSD + RAM:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16856164006

EDIT2: If I'm not mistaken, the iGPU in the i3 may be more powerful than what's in the A6-5400K.

I don't know if this would be truly lag-free...

 

[guidinggod]

Could throw together something like this with a Haswell Pentium G for $298 or a Core-i3 instead for about $345 - would be very zippy for her with enough storage (1TB) and RAM (8 gigs), should last a while

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/rPc4Jx

 

[ElFenix]

Prebuilt is the way to go for this type of system, just have to watch for a sale

 

[frozentundra123456]

Could throw together something like this with a Haswell Pentium G for $298 or a Core-i3 instead for about $345 - would be very zippy for her with enough storage (1TB) and RAM (8 gigs), should last a while

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/rPc4Jx

That looks quite nice actually. I did not notice in the OP that the poster has access to a Windows license, which makes a build your own more attractive.

Still, this build is very similar the the pre-built I mentioned and only 30.00 cheaper. I suppose it depends on whether one wants to pick their own known quality parts or depend on a prebuilt where psu and mb may be lower quality. OTOH, with a prebuilt you are not responsible for tech support if something goes wrong.

 

[Zeze]

Did RAM price go up vs 2-3 yrs ago?

When I built my budget gaming rig, 8 gigs was about $50. I see that now they're $80-90.

Are these new kind of faster RAM or just price inflated? Man I'm so out of touch.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Look at a Lenovo Q190? It's a really tiny, cute, PC. Comes complete with Windows 8.1, which you may want to replace and put Windows 7 on. Might also want to throw in an SSD.

Another good one is the Asus VivoPC, available in both barebones, as well as complete PC varieties.

Another idea is a Zotac PicoPC, which is coming out hopefully soon. It's an extremely tiny Windows 8.1 PC, with 32GB eMMC (non-removable), with a microSDXC slot (removable), 2GB RAM, and an Atom quad-core.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Did RAM price go up vs 2-3 yrs ago?

When I built my budget gaming rig, 8 gigs was about $50. I see that now they're $80-90.

Are these new kind of faster RAM or just price inflated? Man I'm so out of touch.

No, the prices doubled / tripled over the last few years.

 

[VirtualLarry]

If I were to build one for your mom, I would recommend:

An Intel Haswell i3 CPU, with 4600 graphics (the slightly more expensive i3 models)
8GB of DDR3
cheapest decent mobo. (Currently using a Gigabyte GA-H81M-DS2V with a G3258 OCed to 3.8, it seems decent enough, though no native HDMI output on board.)
Consider either a 240/256GB SSD, or possibly even a 500/512GB SSD (Crucial M500 springs to mind.) If a good amount of space is needed, consider a 1TB/2TB Seagate 7200RPM Hybrid drive (SSHD). They boot fast like an SSD, but are between SSD and HDD performance. I have a 2TB in one of my machines, and it performs pretty decently.

Edit: I built a computer for my mom a few years back, she doesn't do any video chat, but watches some videos online.
I used a G1610, some Biostar H61 board I think, with HDMI output and 4 DDR3 slots, and I put in 4x4GB DDR3-1333 and an 80GB Intel SSD.
Thinking of upgrading her soon to an i3, and a bigger SSD possibly. Or maybe just get her an external USB HDD.

 

[ElFenix]

Did RAM price go up vs 2-3 yrs ago?

When I built my budget gaming rig, 8 gigs was about $50. I see that now they're $80-90.

Are these new kind of faster RAM or just price inflated? Man I'm so out of touch.

A ram maker went out of business a couple years ago and prices have been high since.

Doesn't help that phones are eating a bunch of ram now compared to a couple years ago.

 

[mnewsham]

Did RAM price go up vs 2-3 yrs ago?

When I built my budget gaming rig, 8 gigs was about $50. I see that now they're $80-90.

Are these new kind of faster RAM or just price inflated? Man I'm so out of touch.

http://www.extremetech.com/computin...rock-bottom-prices-will-probably-never-return


I remember the good old days of $50 16GB sales.

 

[guidinggod]

Speaking of a VivoPC, guess someone is hoping for some pre holiday drunk clicks http://screencast.com/t/yenSYx9Xgnbi

 

[Zeze]

Could throw together something like this with a Haswell Pentium G for $298 or a Core-i3 instead for about $345 - would be very zippy for her with enough storage (1TB) and RAM (8 gigs), should last a while

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/rPc4Jx

This is very attractive. Even 4 gigs now, it would be very good.

1. What is Pentium G? How does this compared to my old but quite zippy i3-2120? It's the only CPU I can make a reference by since I own it.

1. Would it make a diff if I bought this later early/mid Dec (just before Xmas as her present)?

 

[Termie]

I have a lot of systems on hand, from Atom-class to Core i7s, and I can tell you that everyone is overestimating the need for something above a Pentium processor, and underestimating the need for an SSD.

Seriously, do not bother building her something with a hard drive unless she has a huge photo collection that she needs to store. And even then, that could be on an external.

And to answer the OP's question, the Pentium G3258 is the first overclockable dual-core since the original Core i3 series. Of course, it's fast enough without overclocking for your mom's purposes. It's about 25% than a Core i3-2120 in most tasks, but lacks Hyperthreading, so it's not great for gaming/video-editing purposes. And no, it won't make a difference waiting a month - these parts are all quite cheap already, and nothing new will be released by then.

 

[Zeze]

You guys are all awesome. I'll pull the trigger on this in few days.

Feel free to chime in more.

[edit]

I presume your in link, http://pcpartpicker.com/p/rPc4Jx, all parts are compatible with each other + PSU has enough wattage?

 

[VirtualLarry]

Yeah, that build looks pretty good. I might substitute the CPU with a G3258 (the overclockable one), just in case you want to OC later on, but otherwise that looks pretty good.

But what about an SSD or Hybrid drive?

At the very least, throw in a 120GB SSD for $60-70, for the OS and programs.

 

[Cerb]

http://www.amazon.com/Lenovo-ThinkSe.../dp/B00F6EK9J2

Then just add an HDD or SSD, and a DP adapter cable, if you have the option for non-VGA outputs.

P.S.
http://pcpartpicker.com/part/toshiba-internal-hard-drive-hdts212xzswa
http://pcpartpicker.com/part/sandisk-internal-hard-drive-sdssdhp128gg25

 

[guidinggod]

You guys are all awesome. I'll pull the trigger on this in few days.

Feel free to chime in more.

[edit]

I presume your in link, http://pcpartpicker.com/p/rPc4Jx, all parts are compatible with each other + PSU has enough wattage?

re the PSU yes, TBH it is more than enough, overkill actually - I included that one because it was on sale today so seemed a great value buy.

All the components in the list are compatible w/ each other.

Re the SSD suggestion above, you could tweak that list to include a cheap 240/256GB SSD and take out the 1TB hdd for about $325

Really, at this point the mix and match for your needs vs value for money is determined by the budget constraint you have - I'm sure if you give a max hard dollar value the folks here can tweak the suggestions even more.

 

[Burpo]

NewEgg Specials..
The IBM comes without hard drive or OS.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-59106529-LM1A

The HP is complete with 1TB drive & OS..
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...83281387-S1A3C