New Build ~$600 Gaming/Music and Video Editing

[ultrattacker]

Approximate Purchase Date: April 30th

Budget Range: $600

System Usage:
Music Editing 50%
Gaming 20%
Picture Editing 20%
Video Editing 5%
General Use (E-mail, Facebook etc.) 5%

Purchasing Monitor: No

OS Needed? Yes, Buying Windows 10 Home

Preferred Website(s): Amazon because of free shipping through Prime, but other than that any website is fine, free shipping isn't a requirement either.

Location: Morro Bay, CA

Parts Preferences: None

Overclocking: Maybe in the future, but not for some time.

SLI or Crossfire: No

Upgrade Reasoning: This is a build for my roommate. Her previous PC was a Dell pre-built from 2002. It has stopped working, but she requires a computer for her college courses. After seeing some of the games I play like Left 4 Dead 2 she asked me to build her a computer so she could join me when she is done with the day's class work.


My rough draft of her build:

CPU: Intel Core i3 6100

MOBO: ASRock Z170M

RAM: Kingston HyperX Fury Black 2 x 4GB

Storage: Crucial BX100 120GB SSD

GPU: Zotac Geforce GTX 750TI 2GB

PSU: EVGA 500W 80+

KB/M: The previous PC's USB Keyboard and Mouse

Monitor: 47" Samsung TV via HDMI

Case: BitFenix Micro ATX Green

OS: Windows 10 Home OEM

Current Total: $623.43


Additional Comments: She will not compromise on the case. It's her favourite color and she loves the style of it haha. Other than that I'm a little over budget which she is tolerant of, but if possible, I'd like to go cheaper without compromising too much. This is the first version of the build, a rough draft if you will, and I plan to tweak it when I get more time. I figured you guys might have better insights though. Most importantly, THANK YOU FOR YOUR TIME! Have a good day.

 

[Archaic59]

Some tough choices to make here. The case and OS use up 30% of the budget. The small SSD is never going to be enough storage and quickly becomes an unaffordable luxury with such a low budget. The power supply you picked is bottom rung quality and simply not reliable and has to be upgraded. So, the Z170 board has to go also it's just too expensive and offers no benefit to this build. An i5 CPU would be nice but the budget only supports an i3. If you really want an SSD you need to increase the budget another $50 and you'll still need the hard drive.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i3-6100 3.7GHz Dual-Core Processor ($112.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-H110M-A Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($51.89 @ OutletPC)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws 4 series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2133 Memory ($37.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($49.74 @ Directron)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 750 Ti 2GB Video Card ($99.99 @ NCIX US)
Case: BitFenix Prodigy M Vivid Green MicroATX Mini Tower Case ($92.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Power Supply: SeaSonic 520W 80+ Bronze Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($63.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Home OEM (64-bit) ($86.99 @ Amazon)
Total: $596.57
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-03-19 16:43 EDT-0400

 

[damric]

If you have any future desire to overclock the i3, I would get this motherboard, but don't update the BIOS to the latest BIOS. Also the RAM I chose will make sure there is enough headroom for base clock adjustment. This motherboard also has a superior audio, ALC 1150.

For editing you really need the SSD I included. For bulk files just use Windows One Drive (or other cloud storage). HDDs are eww.

Use a free OS like Linux/Steam OS until you can afford the $100 for the Windows key.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i3-6100 3.7GHz Dual-Core Processor ($112.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: ASRock Fatal1ty Z170 Gaming-ITX/ac Mini ITX LGA1151 Motherboard ($139.99 @ Micro Center)
Memory: Team Vulcan 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-3000 Memory ($39.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: OCZ TRION 150 240GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($61.99 @ Amazon)
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 750 Ti 2GB Video Card ($98.29 @ Newegg)
Case: BitFenix Prodigy (Green) Mini ITX Tower Case ($91.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Power Supply: Silverstone 300W 80+ Bronze Certified SFX Power Supply ($48.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Total: $594.23
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-03-19 16:54 EDT-0400

 

[ultrattacker]

I apologize because I forgot to mention I will be giving her a 500GB HDD I've had in my computer for years that I've never really used. So that handles her bulk storage. That being said do you still think I should switch SSD's for a performance gain damric?

Also great idea on the Steam OS, that never crossed my mind!

 

[damric]

I apologize because I forgot to mention I will be giving her a 500GB HDD I've had in my computer for years that I've never really used. So that handles her bulk storage. That being said do you still think I should switch SSD's for a performance gain damric?

Also great idea on the Steam OS, that never crossed my mind!

For editing, SSD is pretty much a must have. You can even get a 480GB for like $110 or so now. She will thank you for that.

 

[ultrattacker]

Thanks again for all your time and input!