Help me build a 350 dollar pc

[Theocnoob]

I'd personally go with a higher end board with a higher chipset. Also, getting a K sku (unlocked) CPU and not getting a board with decent VRM and no aftermarket cooler is sort of silly IMO. But understandably, you have to keep within budget. Still... my experience with "hella cheap" motherboards has never been spectacular. They work... (sometimes) but... meh.

 

[bob4933]

Zero need to oc that cpu ocnoob. Any generic board will do fine on that. If anything the cpu is a bit much for the requirements.

 

[jveneziano]

I'd personally go with a higher end board with a higher chipset. Also, getting a K sku (unlocked) CPU and not getting a board with decent VRM and no aftermarket cooler is sort of silly IMO. But understandably, you have to keep within budget. Still... my experience with "hella cheap" motherboards has never been spectacular. They work... (sometimes) but... meh.

That's exactly what I was thinking but I am having a hard time finding a good non K CPU with build in graphics.

I think I am getting closer to what I want the build is a little over budget but I think I could talk him into it since they look like quality parts

Updated list
http://pcpartpicker.com/p/LbrrLk

 

[Theocnoob]

That's good but you went backwards 2 generations on the APU. You want a 7XXX APU not a 5XXX. That's a decent motherboard.
The performance level of integrated graphics on a CPU where the onboard graphics are using system memory, is determined by the speed of that system memory.
The newest APUs can handle some pretty darn high speed RAM.

You can get Team Xtreem 2400Mhz Cas 3 @ about $80/2x4GB from Newegg. I'd look into that. Especially if you won't be using an aftermarket cooler, as it is "tall" RAM.

 

[jveneziano]

That's good but you went backwards 2 generations on the APU. You want a 7XXX APU not a 5XXX. That's a decent motherboard.
The performance level of integrated graphics on a CPU where the onboard graphics are using system memory, is determined by the speed of that system memory.
The newest APUs can handle some pretty darn high speed RAM.

You can get Team Xtreem 2400Mhz Cas 3 @ about $80/2x4GB from Newegg. I'd look into that. Especially if you won't be using an aftermarket cooler, as it is "tall" RAM.

Well I have narrowed it down even more I went back to the 7XXX series APU and dropped the case to stay in budget I have a corsair 200r laying around I can give him. I will look into the ram just didnt included it on the parts picker. How do you know if the ram is compatible with the motherboard? also how does the A10-7700k compare to a intel i3 or i5 haswell ?

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/RvcTD3

 

[Itachiii]

also I am not totally set on that motherboard if you guys have a better suggestion let me know

You spend a lot of money on a CPU and RAM without a reason. If you want it that way, fine for me. But 8gb of 1866MHz RAM for an office pc is overkill. You could save money from the cpu and Ram and get a monitor or a good mechanical keyboard. Just saying..

 

[Theocnoob]

http://pcpartpicker.com/user/mistersprinkles/saved/XYbdnQ

I highly suggest you switch to this power supply. Same price. Better quality. Also, I added a Hyper 212 cooler. It's optional, but it'll make a difference if you overclock, which you should always do on AMD due to inferior IPC performance vs Intel.

How does it compare to an i5? Not at all. It may have a bit more graphics horsepower than the integrated graphics on the i5, but in raw compute power it gets crushed by the i5. Compared to an i3, you could get similar performance in some tasks, but generally speaking I would expect the i3 to be faster. 2 powerful cores > 4 weak cores.

A cursory glance at some comparos in google showed the 4430 (i3) crushing the 7850K (a higher end APU than the one you plan to buy) across every game tested in raw CPU power (both chips were using discrete graphics). Sadly gaming is all I could find and that may not translate to "daily use" or office work but it sort of backs up my earlier point so I'll leave it in this post.

 

[jveneziano]

Thanks theocnoob I think we are on the same page about this build. I really like the build that you linked along with the power supply that is what I will be ordering it seems like it will be more then enough for him to surf the web/youtube , look at his photos and take his vids off his gopro and deer stand camera thank you for all the help man and setting me in a good direction. I kind of had a feeling that intel would crush it you get what you pay for in most cases.

 

[Theocnoob]

Thanks theocnoob I think we are on the same page about this build. I really like the build that you linked along with the power supply that is what I will be ordering it seems like it will be more then enough for him to surf the web/youtube , look at his photos and take his vids off his gopro and deer stand camera thank you for all the help man and setting me in a good direction. I kind of had a feeling that intel would crush it you get what you pay for in most cases.

Well, why don't you go Intel then?

i3, 2x4GB, B85 mobo

 

[jveneziano]

do you think I can stay around this price point with a intel build ? and does a i3 have integrated graphics ?

 

[Theocnoob]

do you think I can stay around this price point with a intel build ? and does a i3 have integrated graphics ?

Yes it does and yes you can.


Intel Core i3-4330 3.5GHz Dual-Core Processor

ASRock B85 Anniversary ATX LGA1150 Motherboard

No need for an aftermarket cooler since you can't overclock the i3.

Option B is Pentium G3258, ASRock Z97 Anniversary, and either the uber cheap Arctic Freezer 7 Pro ($15) or the Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo ($25-30). And you would overclock the G3258 as high as possible without going nuts on the voltage.

The main difference between the i3 and the Pentium is hyperthreading- the ability for a single CPU core to handle 2 threads at once. But overclocked, for this kind of work, the G3258 would, if running fast enough, outpace the i3. It'll cost you a bit more to build it though and tweaking will be required.

 

[bob4933]

Ocnoob, this is for surfing the web. My grandmother's Athlon X2 still does this job very very well.

 

[Theocnoob]

Ocnoob, this is for surfing the web. My grandmother's Athlon X2 still does this job very very well.

I have 2 PCs that are essentially for "Surfing the web". They are my HTPC and my Mom's PC (see sig). I assure you the OC'd 3258 system, despite having a similar primary drive speed to the 5150 system, and a similar memory configuration, is much snappier. Think of all the precious seconds the OP's friend will lose out of his life waiting for Google Crome to start, or that torturous extra 500ms it'll take for the Windows splash screen to go away. Or the 4 extra seconds it'll take to load Skype when Windows starts. These differences are real. I've seen it. Those are seconds you can never get back.

 

[bob4933]

I have 2 PCs that are essentially for "Surfing the web". They are my HTPC and my Mom's PC (see sig). I assure you the OC'd 3258 system, despite having a similar primary drive speed to the 5150 system, and a similar memory configuration, is much snappier. Think of all the precious seconds the OP's friend will lose out of his life waiting for Google Crome to start, or that torturous extra 500ms it'll take for the Windows splash screen to go away. Or the 4 extra seconds it'll take to load Skype when Windows starts. These differences are real. I've seen it. Those are seconds you can never get back.

Like the seconds I took to read this post eh?

I do agree, g3258 is probably the way to go here, but lets not be dramatic. My dual core htpc @3.7ghz loads up chrome about as fast as my 8 core @ 5.0ghz, and remains "snappy" all day. All computers feel "snappy" until you load them up with junk.

 

[Theocnoob]

I stand by my previous post.