New Build Advice - Office/Very Light Gaming for 70 Year Old Dad

[chedderslam1976]

Approximate Purchase Date: e.g.: this week

Budget Range: $350

System Usage from Most to Least Important: Internet, Big Fish Games, You Tube

Are you buying a monitor: No, Have new 27 inch monitor



Parts to Upgrade: Need CPU, MB, Memory, Optical, Case

Have two 120GB SSD for RAID 1(MB must support), Corsair 430 PSU, WIndows 8.1

Do you need to buy OS: No


Preferred Website(s) for Parts: newegg.com, amazon.com(prime)

Location: New Mexico, USA

Parts Preferences: Looking for best bang for buck, good integrated graphics performance or good cpu with discrete graphics if it can fit budget

Overclocking: Yes

SLI or Crossfire: no

Your Monitor Resolution: Can't remember, think it goes up to 2560

Additional Comments: discreet black or black grey case(no lights/gamers case), as close to quiet as possible, but I don't think we can spend the money on a Noctura cooler. Would like either 2X4 Gigs Memory if MB has 4 slots or 1X8 if motherboard has two.

I have a few parts already I will be using. Trying to keep the other components down to $350. What I came up with is $405 with shipping. I would like this to last a few years, so a slight overbuild if possible. Trying to get away with integrated graphics.

I don't know If I can do better with an Intel setup. I also don't know if I can go better with micro atx. When I selected microatx for cases, the pickins where slim. If I can fit a microatx MB into the case I picked, go for it.

And Most Importantly, Why Are You Upgrading:He has a 10 year old Dell running XP. TIme to put it out of its misery.

Include a list of any parts you have already selected with descriptively labeled links for parts.

AMD A10-7870K 3.9GHz Quad-Core Processor

Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler

Asus A88X-PRO ATX FM2+ Motherboard

G.Skill Trident X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-2400 Memory

NZXT Source 220 ATX Mid Tower Case

Asus DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS DVD/CD Writer

Thank you for any help.

Thanks.

 

[why_wolf]

you might also want to check out refurb deals, for what you want they would be solidly in that price range.

from woot.com http://computers.woot.com/offers/shuttle-xpc-4gb-ddr3-320gb-sata-desktop-1?ref=cnt_wp_1_2

or newegg (I use these guys to supply my work with computers, they're great no nonsense desktops) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883282356

all you need to do is pop a cheap-o GPU in there and your dad will be flying with even the most poorly programmed flash game.

 

[boosted1g]

You don't need good graphics for Big Fish Games, integrated intel graphics is more then adequate.
Since you don't need heavier graphics the intel i3 cpu will perform much better for your needs. You also wont need an aftermarket cooler.

The Raid 1 SSD thing is pointless. Modern SSD drives are very reliable and will outlast any magenetic hard drive thus the probability of a drive failure is very limited. What is much much more probable is a windows or file corruption and RAID 1 does nothing to help this, just gives you an exact copy of the same corruption.

If you don't have a spare magnetic drive to use instead of the second SSD drive, you would be better off just having a full/incremental disk image saved to the second SSD drive.

Here is the build:
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i3-4160 3.6GHz Dual-Core Processor ($112.89 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: ASRock H97M Anniversary Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($51.98 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($39.99 @ Newegg)
Case: NZXT Source 210 (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case ($35.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-04 DVD/CD Writer ($16.88 @ OutletPC)
Total: $257.73
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-10-05 13:44 EDT-0400