Help me slim down this build

[kitkat12012]

By "slim down" I mean make it cheaper lol. Although I think that I'm pretty much at the best bang-for-buck stage for the given budget.

Basically I'm trying to plan a build for my mom's new home office. I'm at around $350 right now and she's still saying stuff like "but I can get this dell for cheaper" so I'm trying to make sure I didn't overlook something.

I also don't necessarily have to get it cheaper. Improvement suggestions for $10 or so more than my selected components would be great too. As long as the final price is somewhat close to my budget.





Approximate Purchase Date: in a week or two


Budget Range: less than $350 if possible


System Usage from Most to Least Important: home office, internet sufring, web design/development, movies, music


Parts Not Required: keyboard, mouse, speakers, monitor


Preferred Website(s) for Parts: newegg


Country of Origin: US


Parts Preferences: AMD (heard this is the best bang-for-buck for this price range), DDR3 for future upgradability, micro atx form factor


Overclocking: no


SLI or Crossfire: no


Monitor Resolution: dual at 1080p


Additional Comments: my mom is getting into web development so something that can run dreamweaver/photoshop smoothly (but not necessarily swiftly) would be ideal. Future upgradability is a plus. Micro-ATX tower is required since my mom already has a table bought and I think my antec900 mid-atx tower doesn't fit. Dual monitors at 1080p is a must because I kinda sold her into the idea of dual monitor productivity boost, so maybe a gpu with 1 hdmi and 1 dvi would work great. gigabit nic is also a plus because I'm planning on streaming media from her pc to other media extenders


What I have so far:

Athlon II X3 450 Rana - $80
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103886&cm_re=athlon_x3-_-19-103-886-_-Product

ASRock 880GM-LE - $60
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157199&cm_re=as_rock_880-_-13-157-199-_-Product

G.SKILL NS 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) - $40
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231396

Antec Earthwatts 380 - $45
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371033&Tpk=earthwatts%20380

WD Caviar Blue 500GB 7200 RPM 16MB - $40
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136073

GIGABYTE GV-R435OC-512I Radeon HD 4350 - $35
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125251

APEX TX-381-C Micro ATX Tower - $25
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811154094

ASUS Black 24X DVD+R - $18
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827135204

Total $343


(credits to batuchka and ScrewySqrl for the build suggestion)



It looks good to me, just wondering if I overlooked something

Thanks

 

[batuchka]

The HD 4250 IGP on that 880G can already do dual displays so no need for HD 4350 and $40 hdd hit the 7200.12 500 for better performance

In fact Toms ran a 780G chipset in '08 for dual/quad displays (addition of a Radeon class GPU for the latter)
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/amd-780g-chipset,1785-5.html

 

[kitkat12012]

The HD 4250 IGP on that 880G can already do dual displays so no need for HD 4350 and $40 hdd hit the 7200.12 500 for better performance

In fact Toms ran a 780G chipset in '08 for dual/quad displays (addition of a Radeon class GPU for the latter)
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/amd-780g-chipset,1785-5.html

yeah I saw that the mobo had a dsub and a dvi but I was unsure if the dsub can handle 1080p and also if it can view hdcp encrypted stuff. I guess I'll have to do some more reading on this

 

[aznshinobi]

You could check out my 350$ build in my siggy. It's an HTPC build so I'm sure it'll run just fine. That or check out the 300$ office build in the same general area.

 

[kitkat12012]

You could check out my 350$ build in my siggy. It's an HTPC build so I'm sure it'll run just fine. That or check out the 300$ office build in the same general area.

nice guide

I think I pretty much have the same stuff except for the cpu. I basically took $20 off of your antec case and got a $24 case instead, then replaced your x2 with an x3 using the $20 saved

although I do like the style of the case you chose better than the one I chose

 

[JDFan]

Do you already have the OS ?? as that will add quite a bit to the build price if you do not have it making a prebuilt possibly the better option (plus with a pre built you get at least a 1 year warranty that it will all work correctly) -- while I'm personally a self builder and would normally suggest putting a system together yourself - in this situation a pre built might just be the better choice for the type of usage the system is going to be used for.

 

[kitkat12012]

Do you already have the OS ?? as that will add quite a bit to the build price if you do not have it making a prebuilt possibly the better option (plus with a pre built you get at least a 1 year warranty that it will all work correctly) -- while I'm personally a self builder and would normally suggest putting a system together yourself - in this situation a pre built might just be the better choice for the type of usage the system is going to be used for.

I'm not getting an OS

I have an old XP I'm trying to retire, so I'll just use that license and grab a win7 upgrade license. Or I could get my mom to use Ubuntu


But you're right though. The OS part and the warranty is actually one of her considerations for getting a prebuilt

 

[JDFan]

I'm not getting an OS

I have an old XP I'm trying to retire, so I'll just use that license and grab a win7 upgrade license. Or I could get my mom to use Ubuntu


But you're right though. The OS part and the warranty is actually one of her considerations for getting a prebuilt

Yeah - for most uses putting a system together yourself from parts that you choose is the way to go but in this case with the uses being pretty much what the prebuilts are designed for you can only come close to the pricing that can be found on the pre-builts if you're reusing an existing OS license or a few other parts when building the system -- you just can't match the discounting they get with their bulk purchasing. Used to be that a builder could save a good amount over what a pre-built system had to offer but since there is quite a bit of competition now in the segment the pricing if you look around is hard to beat at times (I've even resorted to buying pre built units and removing\adding specific parts at times to keep costs lower than a complete scratch build.)

 

[kitkat12012]

Yeah - for most uses putting a system together yourself from parts that you choose is the way to go but in this case with the uses being pretty much what the prebuilts are designed for you can only come close to the pricing that can be found on the pre-builts if you're reusing an existing OS license or a few other parts when building the system -- you just can't match the discounting they get with their bulk purchasing. Used to be that a builder could save a good amount over what a pre-built system had to offer but since there is quite a bit of competition now in the segment the pricing if you look around is hard to beat at times (I've even resorted to buying pre built units and removing\adding specific parts at times to keep costs lower than a complete scratch build.)

true true

I'll skim through a few prebuilts when I get some time.

Thanks

 

[JDFan]

Got the Specials frrom Newegg today in my E-mail and they have this combo pack that would work well for your build @$279 - $10 MIR it has a decent Gigiabyte 880GM MOBO - 1 GB. Seagate HDD - Phenom II X4 820 CPU - 4GB.RAM -Case w 480W PSU and a decent aftermarket CPU cooler so pretty much everything you were looking at and the MOBO has onboard 4250 video chipset that would work for your needs as well. Figured I'd post the LINK here in case you wanted to take a look and for $279 does shave a bit off your build with a better CPU. Only thing is the $67 Special discount expires at the end of the day !

 

[kitkat12012]

Got the Specials frrom Newegg today in my E-mail and they have this combo pack that would work well for your build @$279 - $10 MIR it has a decent Gigiabyte 880GM MOBO - 1 GB. Seagate HDD - Phenom II X4 820 CPU - 4GB.RAM -Case w 480W PSU and a decent aftermarket CPU cooler so pretty much everything you were looking at and the MOBO has onboard 4250 video chipset that would work for your needs as well. Figured I'd post the LINK here in case you wanted to take a look and for $279 does shave a bit off your build with a better CPU. Only thing is the $67 Special discount expires at the end of the day !

that is sweet

you're the best dude



/update

out of stock