HELP ME BUILD A PC FOR MY WIFE

kentona
What I am looking for is something along the lines of:
cost-effective CPU

I know how to help with this. Next paragraph.

compatible motherboard w/ onboard sound + ethernet (do any NOT come with this these days?)

I swear by Gigabyte. I love these motherboards. They start at $80 USD, so not the cheapest, but not really too expensive either, and they're water resistant and shock proof. If that's too expensive, you might be able to find an ASUS motherboard for $40 USD. You should be able to go 8 gig RAM. Here's a Gigabyte for $90 USD. Here's an ASUS for $30. Here's a Celeron processor that'll fit them for $35 bucks.

8GB of RAM minimum

GET THIS WHILE IT EXISTS! It's DDR3 and it is two sticks! Motherfucker! 3 months ago I couldn't find 8 gigs for under $150. Where the hell was this when I needed it?

(ideally) 120GB or 240GB SSD

This is an external. Can't you get this after you've got the computer? Other than that, this size shouldn't be very expensive.

ideally a PS that could support a higher end videocard in the future
a case

Don't know. I never really worried about it and my computers usually handle my cards just fine.

(optional) 1TB HDD (I plan on scabbing the HDD of the old PC eventually)

Cheapest I could find.

(ideally) a videocard that's better than that 5450 radeon

Describe better. This, unfortunately, is the very video card I usually get. Though I know at most of those links above, you can find the next higher end Radeon up to 2 gig HD for about $70 USD. If you're wondering, Microcenter has 24 physical locations in the US, and I recently discovered them because one is near me. I can't believe the prices I found there. I am now sharing them with you.

Some areas where I have little clue or have not followed recently are cooling, decent videocards, motherboard specs, and RAM specs.

Coolers are easy to get cheap, even freon ones.

I do have access to Windows 7, so don't worry about OS.

If you ever feel like getting a really reliable OS, Linux is free.

Does it have to glow with over 20000000 color options to choose from?

Personally I think for what your doing your better off going with an AMD processor. I normally find the AMD stuff you get from people like HP to be lower quality overall but for building a pc it should be fine.
Hard drives are so cheap these days too so that isn't really a problem either.

I am double posting to make sure you get this. I found a wonderful Canadian computer site! It's as good as Microcenter!

Here's an ASUS at a Canadian Newegg site for 68.

Here's a Celeron processor for 60. Not as cheap as I previously found for you, but Canadian prices seem to be REALLY inflated. Yes, I know the exchange rate from USD to CAD. I know the differences. That 35 USD Celeron would have been just under 50 for you.

Fuck! I found a cheaper deal on 8 gig ddr3 for you! Okay, only a little cheaper, but still. This is 57 CAD. The other memory I found for you would have been 61.

I just found a 1TB HDD for exactly the same price as Microcenter. You're welcome.

I can't find an SSD for under 250 CAD...well, you can't win them all.

Spent a moment refreshing my knowledge and the lovely discovery that the latest Intel budget CPUs haven't progressed much (but that isn't really surprising all things considered).

So for a core there's two choices: The i3 4170 for $150 or the Pentium Anniversary Edition G3258 for ~$90. The i3 has more power out of the box and hyperthreading so it has two physical and two virtual cores which aren't too bad. The Pentium is weaker but it has an unlocked multiplier and can overclock pretty well with a Z97 chipset motherboard (which does have a price premium). It is limited to two cores and some fuckers (EA and Ubisoft afaik) won't let their latest games even launch if it doesn't detect four cores and overclocking is required to really get the best bang for your buck out of it. Here's the two with an appropriate motherboard:

i3
i3 4730 CPU: $150
MSI H87 Motherboard: $80 (on sale)

Total: $230

(There should be a bit of give room on the mobo too but I need to review the differences between the H81, B85, H87, and H97 chipsets. If you miss the sale don't worry about it, there's plenty of other compatible motherboards and the key specs are the obvious ones)


Pentium Anniversary Edition:
Pentium G3258: $87
ASRock Z97 Motherboard: $113 (On Sale)

Total: $200

One thing to note is to overclock the CPU you need a Z87 or Z97 chipset motherboard. The super give can combine a non-OC motherboard with the Pentium but I think that's getting into fire sale territory and not worth considering.


So $30 difference between the two. Personally I'd just get the i3 to skip the headache of overclocking the Pentium (which is at least super simple nowadays) but it's your call.


Memory is super easy. Find DDR3 memory in an appropriate kit (# of sticks and GB per stick, there's probably some dumb kits that are 8 GB over 4 sticks and that's dumb). You can look at the numbers but you'll only really get artificial improvements on benchmarks. Go with what's cheap, fits the motherboard, and isn't dumb.

If you were getting a more souped up machine with an aftermarket CPU cooler then I'd warn against sticks with redundant heatsinks and they can get in the way of other components. I had to remove the heatsink on one of my RAM sticks in my own machine for similar reasons. The price scaling is pretty simple, you'll save $5 / GB or so getting more RAM but that means spending more overall on RAM. You can always add more later and the mobo is smart enough to sync them together (to the slowest RAM).

There's also a case that RAM should use at most 1.5V since more can cause issues to the CPU since that's where the memory controller is. I'm not sure if that's still an issue though.

16GB RAM for $107 (on sale)
alt
8GB RAM for $60 (on sale)

Don't spend more for some 1600 vx 1866 RAM, save that two bucks and buy a coffee or something. You'll get more out of that coffee.

I'll post more later, probably tomorrow.


e: If you want a SSD the 850 EVO is the current king

author=kentona
is the celeron a decent CPU? because I remember it being the shitty kid on the block back in the 90s. tbh I havent followed cpus in forever.

E:
TigerDirect.ca has several SSDs ranging from $89 to $110

I don't know, actually. This is the next best I can find. A G-3250 Haswell Dual-Core for 75 CAD, and there's also the I-3 dual core for 160. Personally, if your worried about Celeron, then definitely don't go with AMD. Admittedly, AMD Athelon 6x has worked fine for me, but it's considered lower quality than Celeron. I might also skip the Haswell, and just bite the bullet on the I3. A shame you can't get it from American stores. I'm finding I5s for 80 USD (roughly 100 CAD).

And...while experts say that the AMD Athelon 4x and 6x are halfway decent processors, the particular processor you just posted is among those everyone says to avoid like the plague.

Edit: They have overclocking issues, overheating issues, and have to be constantly monitored. Even though I haven't had a problem with my Athelon, I know their reputation, and I have AMD's monitor installed for it. (Yes, they have a monitor for their processors because they know how much trouble they are.)

I would probably go for that I3 at 122 CAD. That's the best Canadian price I've seen yet.

Edit: Yeah, I really wish I had known about Microcenter sooner. Their prices are amazing.

If you know local forums on your country to buy/trade computer hardware i seriously recommend looking at them. desktop hardware in general drops price around 50% and the performance is just not a major issue (from sandy bridge to present day, the core i7 performance is around 15% faster)
Also, you can get a really good computer at even better discount price if you buy the whole thing from a single person instead of just getting parts. Just make sure you can check the computer in person.

Since you already have a small graphic card, i recommend looking for a core i5 or i7 with 4-8gb ram, with a good power supply 80+ bronze for future vga upgrade.

That's the more cheap that i go to upgrade my computer,hope it helps.

author=kentona
it does help! maybe I can find something decent locally - though I do live in the middle of the Canadian prairies so I am not going to hold out much hope...

E:
http://www.usedregina.com/p/ry12

a FX-6300 + MB for $205

Doest seem like a bad start and itd give your wife more than she needs for sure.