>be faceless void >mfw I have no face
I'm building a PC for my dad's company,
and he was thinking about getting a smaller PC. No need for a graphics card or any particular power in the CPU, nor fancy blinken lichts.
For cases, I was thinking of something like the Cooler Master Elite 130.As for RAM, CPU, mobo, and PSU I'm not sure what's current. For hard drive I'll probably get a Samsung EVO SSD.
Also, what should I go for, micro-ATX or Mini-ITX?Worth noting that newegg ships to New Zealand now but their range of products is quite limited (there's a dropdown at the top of the site to select country).
The PC will be used for basically ordinary desktop needs, maybe will run a virtual machine. But basically it doesn't need to be high-end at all.
Post has been edited 3 time(s), last time on Sep 21 2014, 1:40 am by Jack.
Red classic.
"In short, their absurdities are so extreme that it is painful even to quote them."
An artist's depiction of an Extended Unit Death
Super-small, super-quiet, super-efficient:
Super-budget, super-boring, super-opticaldriveincluded:
The first one's a slight variation of what I want to build as a server.
Edit: Changed my mind on the second build. Better CPU (yay, Intel):
Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Sep 19 2014, 11:00 pm by Roy.
>be faceless void >mfw I have no face
Just had a chat to the guy who's going to be using the PC and it's no longer going to be a small form-factor PC, just an ordinary sized tower. My bad, didn't realize. He will need an optical drive.
The Anniversary Pentium is really nice, I've been considering building something with it and overclocking it but I don't have the spare cash.
Red classic.
"In short, their absurdities are so extreme that it is painful even to quote them."
An artist's depiction of an Extended Unit Death
>be faceless void >mfw I have no face
Is ASRock a good motherboard brand? I've always been told that Gigabyte and ASUS are the best, and that recently Gigabyte tends to be a bit better. Reliability is fairly important here. For example, I could get the Gigabyte GA-H81M-S2PV
http://pricespy.co.nz/product.php?e=2101067 for a few dollars more.
For the case, I'd probably swap it out for the Antec One
http://pricespy.co.nz/product.php?p=1078563 unless there's a particular reason to get the NZXT case.
For RAM, there's some Kingston available for a similar price, e.g.
http://pricespy.co.nz/category.php?m=s186694920&o=produkt_pris_inkmoms#prodlista can't say I know much about A-Data RAM.
PCpartpicker for New Zealand doesn't include that many shops, pricespy.co.nz is much better for sourcing parts.
Red classic.
"In short, their absurdities are so extreme that it is painful even to quote them."
An artist's depiction of an Extended Unit Death
ASRock
is Asus (more specifically, a sub-company of Asus). They are considered a good motherboard brand. The B85 has less-than-stellar reviews, though, but the 1-star reviews seem to just be around DOA boards, which the unlucky person will get occasionally with any brand. The H81 board has good reviews. If you feel more comfortable getting the Gigabyte, though, go for it.
The Antec One is a good budget case. Get it.
ADATA is a really undervalued flash memory manufacturer, kinda like Super Flower's PSUs. I don't really care which brand you pick for RAM: just make sure the specs are good (I like to go for 1600-1866 CL9 at 1.5V).
You should post your planned build so we can give feedback on it.
>be faceless void >mfw I have no face
Case: Antec One -
http://pricespy.co.nz/product.php?p=1078563 - $70 AlphaCity
CPU: Intel Pentium G3258 3.2Ghz dual-core -
http://pricespy.co.nz/product.php?p=2681878 - $87.65 AlphaCity
PSU: Corsair CS430M 430W -
http://pricespy.co.nz/product.php?p=1563417 - $89 PlayTech
SSD: Samsung 640 EVO 250GB -
http://pricespy.co.nz/product.php?p=2074414 - $190 AlphaCity
Optical Drive: LG GH24NS95 -
http://pricespy.co.nz/product.php?p=1512258 - $31 Alpha City
RAM: Adata XPG G Series DDR3 PC12800/1600MHz CL9 4GB -
http://pricespy.co.nz/product.php?p=957563 - $60 K-Tech
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-H81M -
http://pricespy.co.nz/product.php?p=2087266 - $79 AlphaCity
Total Price: $606 including tax. $527 without GST, which is not included when companies purchase products.
Also:
Parallel Port Card: Megapower PCI Express Single Parallel Port Card -
http://www.acquire.co.nz/acquire/default.asp?PageID=ProductDetail&pf_id=2393686&dept_id=1700045 - $62
For the motherboard I selected, there are some variations of letters after the initial GA-H81M model number. Is there much difference among them?
The parallel port card is for an old printer that needs supporting.
Red classic.
"In short, their absurdities are so extreme that it is painful even to quote them."
An artist's depiction of an Extended Unit Death
For the motherboard I selected, there are some variations of letters after the initial GA-H81M model number. Is there much difference among them?
Not a significant one for a typical user: mostly just color and layout changes. You may have a better BIOS in the more expensive boards, but if you're not doing serious overclocking or the like, it's not important. The H81 chipset is fairly standardized in feature sets, so you're not losing anything there.
Although I have a cautionary warning for your mobo/CPU selection: it's not gonna work without a BIOS update. The reason being that almost all H81 boards require a BIOS update to work with the Haswell Refresh processors, meaning that you'll need to use another CPU to apply the BIOS update before you can use the G3258 with the motherboard. I'd recommend you avoid the hassle and just get a G3420 instead (virtually the same performance as the G3258).
While I have an 840 EVO myself and love it, you may find
it may not be as great as it's hyped up to be for long-term usage. If it's a good price for you, don't hesitate, but if you can get an MX100, M500/M550, HyperX, or any Intel SSD for a lower price, I'd personally opt for one of those instead.
The OEM on that Corsair PSU is GreatWall, which I'm not terribly familiar with (Corsair usually goes with CWT and sometimes SeaSonic), but a breakdown review on the one you've selected suggests it's a reliable unit. Your selected PSU is a CX (builder) series, not a CS series like I had looked up. The builder is a popular budget PSU; it should be fine.
Everything else looks good.
Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Sep 25 2014, 2:43 pm by Roy.
We can't explain the universe, just describe it; and we don't know whether our theories are true, we just know they're not wrong. >Harald Lesch
If at all possible, get the Corsair CS500M. Electrical components are much better quality. I'll get you the details when I get home.Actually, strike that. Must've confused it with something else.
Turns out the actual difference why I automatically banned the 430 from my recommendations list is because it has only one extra GPU power cord, and fewer sata and molex connectors, but that's irrelevant here.
The 430M will be fine.
Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Sep 25 2014, 2:16 pm by NudeRaider.
>be faceless void >mfw I have no face
I don't see any G3420 in New Zealand stores; should I get a G3440 instead?
Red classic.
"In short, their absurdities are so extreme that it is painful even to quote them."
An artist's depiction of an Extended Unit Death
The G3440 is also a Haswell Refresh CPU, so you'd have the same problem. Try either the G3220 (worse than the G3258) or i3-4130 (better overall but weaker threads): those should be available for you. Alternatively, get a motherboard with a chipset that doesn't require the BIOS update, like the B85. Here are a few boards:
ASRock (mixed reviews):
B85M-HDS $85
Asus (good reviews):
B85M-G $91
Gigabyte (mixed reviews):
GA-B85M-HD3 $98
Gigabyte (good reviews):
GA-B85M-D3H $107
This is the problem with budget Intel builds right now, unfortunately; you'll probably have better luck picking out affordable AMD CPU/Mobo combos. If you want to go that route, here's a quick pick:
CPU:
A6-6400K $81
ASRock (can't find reviews):
FM2A58M-HD+ $66
Gigabyte (mixed reviews):
GA-F2A55M-DS2 $68
Or:
CPU:
Athlon 5350 $81
ASRock (limited but good reviews):
AM1B-M $57
MSI (good reviews):
AM1I $58 (Note: ITX form factor)
Asus (good reviews):
AM1M-A $69
Post has been edited 2 time(s), last time on Sep 27 2014, 12:54 am by Roy.
ASRock's more expensive mobos are good, but their lower end stuff cuts a lot of corners.
None.
