My girlfriend's build.

[Dlaw]

So, for a late mother's day present, I'm going to build my girlfriend a computer. Right now, she's using a 6+ year old laptop with a centrino and 2GB ram. She has a bunch of stuff on it she doesn't want to lose, and never backs up, so a simple reformat is out of the question. It's slow, and it's time. Budget is around $550, sans OS.

So, I've got these parts picked out. None of it is top of the line, and it doesn't need to be. It needs to be small and pretty, while still being able to do what she wants. This should more than accomplish that:

Raidmax Element in Pink
ASRock H81M-ITX
A refurbished MSI 650 - Only because she might want to play L4D.
Corsair CX430
Pentium G3420
250GB 850 EVO
G.Skill NS 2x4GB 1333 CL9
Pink Butterfly Mouse mat
Pink flowery keyboard
Pink flowery mouse
Windows 7 via her stepdad who has a few unused keys from client PCs that were unworking donations. She'll upgrade to 10, so it doesn't really matter anyway.
I have my old HP 1080p monitor that she'll use, but eventually may upgrade her to a touch screen.

Not the gaming beast that I'm typing this on, but more than functional for web browsing, email, office stuff and maybe Left 4 Dead. I checked minimum specs, and everything meets or exceeds them. The only thing I'm a little iffy on is the motherboard. She won't be overclocking, and the CPU is on the list for all bios versions, so there won't be any compatibility issues there, I'm more concerned about quality. If anyone has a better board (must be ITX) at a similar price, please let me know.

Otherwise, what do you guys think? I'm not against APU builds, but I don't think that for the price, this can be beat. Am I right?

 

[ATMINSIDE]

Just to give you a look at the APU side:
http://pcpartpicker.com/p/cb8YBm
Pick a Bitfenix Prodigy M for it and call it a day

That said, the build you have picked out is solid.
Here's some suggestions on the Intel side from me:
http://pcpartpicker.com/p/JjpGMp
CPU is $30 more but gains 0.3GHz and HyperThreading.
Mobo has full size chokes instead of the half size chokes that ASRock board uses.
RAM is faster, for a dollar more.
PSU is better quality.
Toss it all in the ITX case of her choice

 

[Dlaw]

The only issue I see with those builds are no dedicated video. I don't want to limit her as far as gaming is concerned. It's not the plan right now, but I may get her hooked yet.

However, I just noticed that in order for her to be able to put the computer where she wants it, it has to have WiFi.

So now I'm looking at the H97M-iTX/ac. I will probably take that EVGA PSU and the RAM since they will pretty much cost the same as what I've picked out. The i3 will put me over budget, though. And I showed her the prodigies, she wasn't interested. She likes the Raidmax.

I can always upgrade her to an i5 and more ram later on if she needs (or when I upgrade my rig, I can plant this 4790k and my ram in there. I wonder if a 980 will fit...). I'm just trying to get her on something that she'll enjoy playing on before spending real money to sink the hook. I think making it all pink and pretty will do the trick, and the Pentium should hold up fine for a little while.

 

[ATMINSIDE]

On the AMD, the iGPU is strong.

On the Intel I meant to mention that you should use the same 650 you had picked out.

I would take the SeaSonic, it's a better quality unit.

 

[trents]

What about using the G3258 Pentium Anniversary edition and overclocking it? It's only $70 and can be easily overclocked to 4.2 with the stock cooler on a cheap MSI H81M-P33 Micro ATX. Are you stuck on an ITX machine?

 

[Dlaw]

What about using the G3258 Pentium Anniversary edition and overclocking it? It's only $70 and can be easily overclocked to 4.2 with the stock cooler on a cheap MSI H81M-P33 Micro ATX. Are you stuck on an ITX machine?

She really wants a small system, and she wants it on the counter in the kitchen which leaves very little space with anything other than an ITX build. Even a small mid tower would be too big.

I did think about the G3258, but I figured that wouldn't be too much more powerful than the G3420 I found. Plus, with the realization that I'll need a board with WiFi, I have even less funding to work with, and she's pretty set on the peripherals.

@ATMINSIDE: Is the iGPU in that APU strong enough to play L4D at decent settings at 1080p? Also, will it play more demanding games decently? She won't really care about maxing them out, but good frame rates at settings comparable to the Xbox360 would mostly be what she's looking for.

In her mind, if it doesn't look like it does on a system she can get for a fraction of the price, why pay more? As long as it's comparable, and I can get her used to the keyboard and mouse, the way it looks will be that selling point.

Will that Seasonic unit run, say, a 4690K/970 system? If she wants more power later on, I don't want to have to tear the whole thing apart if I can get away with it.