Input on Build?

Well my sister is asking me to build her a computer for her usage, however needs the price to be relatively low but at the same time, shall the need arise, be upgradeable. I am not entirely sure what her exact price range is, but I believe it should be around $800 or under. Now I have broken down the components and shall list them below, any input, advice or changes are welcome to fluctuate the price. Now I am deciding for her to go quad core as she enjoys and does a lot of video/picture editing, multitasking, and on occasion, gaming. I am also going to give her a decent graphics card capable of playing the mast majority of the games available that is relatively cheap, yet not overkill for her needs.

The Specs are listed below, with this current setup the computer will run about $750.

CPU -Will most likely overclock, decent price for an exceptional CPU

Motherboard - Asus from my experience is a reliable company and I always had good results. Relatively cheap while offering specs that might be useful in future usage.

Case - Cooler Master, what else can one ask for, my case brand for years and always reliable and offers great ventilation. Relatively cheap. Also cannot have anything flashy with door covers as her 2yr child will rip it off the hinges.

HDD - WD my hard drive choice, cheap, good performance for price although is no SSD. May be able to swap out for the 640gb version.

Ram - Feel free to suggest ram, I choose A-DATA as it is relatively cheap for the price and performance. I figure 4gb would be sufficient as anything really over 6gb in my mind would be wasted $$. Correct me if I'm wrong.

Graphics Card - Made by Sapphire, what else would someone want? I figure for price and performance, this card should be sufficient and provide the power she needs. May provide suggestions here. Would prefer to stick to ATI for the price, however, if there is a better Nvidia choice, please provide input! I am sorta bias when it comes to GPU as I love ATI, but, this is not my PC and I want what is best for her.

PSU - Corsair has been very reliable in terms of PSU and this should provide more than enough power I believe. Only thinking of this one as she may make upgrades later or go CrossFire in which stronger PSU will be needed.

DVD Drive - Cheap DVD RW drive that she wants just to burn DVD's etc. Only deciding on this as she also wants a Blue Ray drive, however a blue ray dvd combo drive cost a lot more $$ than if one was to buy both separately.

Blue Ray - Simple Blue Ray player, however, lacks the ability to burn DVD's etc so that is why I put the cheap $18 DVD RW drive.

And finally some Arctic Cooling Thermal Compound as I do not like the thermal paste certain CPU's are provided with.

So any inputs, suggestions, or modifications are welcome as well as appreciated! I am trying to keep this relatively cheap, yet also upgradable if required. I know there are much better parts available, however, they come at a greater cost. Intel, is out of the question as they are quite pricey for their performance increases and in my opinion all that power that Intel may supply will be wasted $$.

Looks good, but a few points of input.

Motherboard: The main difference between that motherboard and an AMD 870 motherboard is on-board graphics. Since you're buying a GPU, why bother spending the extra cash? I would get the ASUS M4A87T AM3 AMD 870 instead.

RAM: I would get the G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 RAM since it gives more future upgrading options.

Graphics Card: That's a good card for a low-end setup, if you want a better mid-range card, go for the PowerColor AX6850 1GBD5-DH Radeon HD 6850 1GB which is a little more expensive, but offers much better performance. BTW, ATI is gone, AMD has finally retired that moniker. All Radeon cards are now AMD, not ATI. It's sad in a way...

ODD: Have you considered gettting the LG Black 10X BD-ROM 16X DVD-ROM SATA Internal Blu-ray Disc Combo Model UH10LS20? It reads and writes DVD's and CD's, while allowing for Blu-Ray playback. Keep in mind that Windows 7 does not come with native Blu-Ray playback capabilities. You will need to buy software for that. Such software usually comes with the drive itself, but this is an OEM drive so it only comes with the drive and nothing else.

You also need a copy of Windows 7 64-bit.

Looks like a decent build, my only input is you can save 20 dollars by going with a board with the 870 chipset such as this the 870 chipset offers the same performance as the 880, except without the integrated graphics, and since your using a dedicated graphics card, you can save some money there. Dual optical drives can be nice, but if you just want to stay with one to make life easier you can go with a blu ray drive such as this that will burn DVDs and play blu rays. Just a couple suggestions, but overall looks like a solid build.

Ah okay thanks for the input guys didn't spend enough time searching I guess I put all this together rather quickly and tried to keep the prices relatively down. For the drive I will go with that LG you both suggested as well as the Mobo. Since I will be saving 20 dollars from the Mobo change I may as well go with the better GPU anyways and the money saved on the mobo will go and pay for the GPU keeping the price relatively the same. I also will take your advise on the ripjaw Ram and get that. I already have windows 7 Professional 64 bit so I don't need that thankfully And software for Blue ray playback I can get on my own won't be that big of an issue. Thank you guys for the input, greatly appreciated

I got the LG Blu-ray drive listed above (OEM) from the Egg, and it did come with Power DVD 8 that does Blu-ray playback.

Just thought id point out, the boards me and DJB are slightly different, the one I suggested offers crossfire support so you can crossfire another card into it later, DJBs is slightly cheaper with no crossfire support. If you never plan on running dual cards, his would be the slightly better choice. If you want to keep your options open to future expansion, the extra like 6 dollars wouldnt be a bad deal.

Yup I noticed that patriot DJB's only comes with 1 PCI I'll go with the extra $6 because I am almost positive she may want to upgrade later on. Thank you again and Punisher that is good to know it comes with the DVD. How does the that drive perform in your opinion? A worthy investment? I mean I don't expect the greatest for it being fairly cheap but don't want to purchase a drive that people may be having problems with.

Note that with Patriot's motherboard, it comes at x16, x4 when using two graphics cards in a Crossfire setup. It is prefered to have at least x8, such as with the ASRock 870 EXTREME3 AM3 AMD 870, the higher-end GIGABYTE GA-890GPA-UD3H AM3 AMD 890GX or the flagship AMD motherboard, the MSI 890FXA-GD65 AM3 AMD 890FX. It is usually a better idea to use multi GPU setups with higher end cards, something in the 6900 series for instance, becuase you get more bang for your buck.

What is she using the computer for? That's what you should base the hardware off of, you don't really need a Quad-Core unless you're doing video file conversion/hardcore gaming. (etc.)

Though that is a decent price.

I agree with DJB with his RAM suggestion.

Also, I suggest get a small SSD for a low price (I'm sure you could find one) and install the OS onto that so it will boot up quickly. Have all your other files that you need on another HDD, but keep main things on SSD.

What is she using the computer for? That's what you should base the hardware off of, you don't really need a Quad-Core unless you're doing video file conversion/hardcore gaming. (etc.)

Though that is a decent price.

I agree with DJB with his RAM suggestion.

Also, I suggest get a small SSD for a low price (I'm sure you could find one) and install the OS onto that so it will boot up quickly. Have all your other files that you need on another HDD, but keep main things on SSD.

Actually he is building it for his sister which she will use it for video/picture editing, multitasking, and occasion gaming. The SSD might go over the budget.

Killer's post is exactly right. She does intend on using this PC mainly for video/picture editing and multitasking. She is not that big of a gamer but occasionally she plays games like starcraft 2, Civilization V, WoW etc. I could possibly do the SSD option, however, it might go over her budget as I already have to throw in a card reader for her SD cards and what not and I decided to go with this. So a SSD might go over her budget. However, I know that they create a hybrid of a SSD and a HDD that offers speed similar to a velociraptor maybe a tad bit faster, but offers more memory for a cheaper price than a SSD. Does anyone know if these HDD are worth it? I never owned one so I can't really comment on them. And DJB thank you for that information, I will look further into that.

I don't think NewEgg sells them. A normal 7200rpm hard drive should do the job and SSD at the moment are pricey

Edited by killerx525, 17 March 2011 - 12:05 AM.