Cheap-ass $500 Office build.

BiH115

BiH115

Gif Guy
Joined
May 12, 2011
Messages
9,327
Hi all, need to put together a cheap as shit tower (WITH Windows 7), for my office. Currently have a dying old Dell XP machine. Please/Thank you.

Would a pre-built be a better option? Kind of want to do a custom build though, meh. Forgot to mention that I pocket everything below $500, so shooting below 500 would be awesome.


1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
Web Browsing, Microsoft Office, daily office-related shit.

2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
$500. Tax/Shipping included. Striving to be under budget.

3) Which country do you live in? If the U.S, please tell us the state and city if possible.
US. Can do Boston/Cambridge Microcenter for deals. Amazon/Newegg an option as well.

4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, etc. The word
"Everything" is not a valid answer. Please list out all the parts you'll need.
-CPU (Ivy for the good onboard video?)
-RAM
-Motherboard
-Case (good airflow for a dusty environment)
-PSU
-GPU (Probably not; Seems to me IVY HD4000 is pretty dang good)


5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
Not reusing anything.

6) Will you be overclocking?
Hell to the no.

7) What is the max resolution of your monitor? What size is it?
32" Samsung TV I believe...whatever the resolution is on that.

8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
This week, tomorrow, now, yesterday. ASAP basically.

9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI
support? USB 3.0? SATA 6Gb/s? eSATA? Onboard video (as a backup or main GPU)? UEFI? etc.
Whatever's cheapest...

10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If yes, what OS? Is it 32bit or 64bit?
No, need a legit copy. Probably 32bit.


THANK YOU! :D
 
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These days you could probably get away with a Celeron for those basic tasks. Just get 8 gigs of RAM.
 
SilverSliver said:
Earn your money and craft it yourself then?
Click to expand...

I just figured I'd ask, didn't know the Gestapo would pound down on me. I don't need to make a profit, just wanted to see what kind of solutions can come out of a $500 build, without trying to actually get to $500 or higher.

Forget I said anything. Delete the thread please.
 
BiH115 said:
I just figured I'd ask, didn't know the Gestapo would pound down on me. I don't need to make a profit, just wanted to see what kind of solutions can come out of a $500 build, without trying to actually get to $500 or higher.

Forget I said anything. Delete the thread please.
Click to expand...

Actually, you don't have to ask the mods to delete this thread unless you feel that it has gone haywire with excessive off-topic posts and name calling/personal attacks (among other things).

As for your suggestions for a sub-$500 build, I agree with Danny's response: A pre-built is the better value in this range. This is because you have to pay full retail price (or a discount price that's still significantly higher than what the big-name OEMs get them for) for each and every single component in a self-build, and that any software will add additional cost (up to an additional several hundred dollars). At sub-$500 you're limited to low-end, dual-core CPUs in a self-build (this is because Ivy Bridge CPUs with Intel HD 4000 graphics cost well over $200 by themselves; cheaper Ivy Bridge CPUs make do with the lesser HD 2500 graphics). And you did not list a system drive in your list: Figure on another $80 to $100 on a SATA one. That leaves much less than $200 total for the rest of the build. 8GB of RAM costs another $40, and another $20 for a SATA DVD burner, resulting in a budget of less than $125 total for the case, motherboard and PSU combined. And since the least expensive worthwhile motherboard for Intel CPUs cost $90, it's no wonder why $35 gets you an extremely shitty case and PSU that probably won't last even a few minutes (or blows itself up and burns some or all of your PC's new parts), if anything.
 
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Maybe you could go down to a Sandy Bridge Pentium G620 and use a $40 graphics card if you need the extra graphics power (which, for office, I doubt you do). Still much cheaper than an Ivy with HD 4000 (the cheapest Ivy I believe with HD 4000 is the Core i3-3225 and that's $145)

For a prebuilt - maybe a Dell Vostro? My mother has one and it's been pretty reliable for the last 2 and a half years. Maybe upgrade the RAM yourself to save more money.
http://www.dell.com/us/business/p/vostro-desktops
 
You really only have 400$, as Windows is 100$ of that budget.

There is no way you are fitting a HD4000 CPU into that budget, the Core i3-3225 is the lowest model with that IGP and they are 145$ on the egg right now.
Core i3-3220 has HD2500, but that's 130$.
Finally I found the Pentium G2120 with unspecified IGP, and it's only 100$ This is the bottom of the barrel Ivy Bridge model available right now.

CPU - 100$ - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116777
MB - 60$ - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130654
RAM - 34$ - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231422
CASE - 50$ - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811146077
HDD - 60$ - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136771
ODD - 19$ - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827135224
PSU - 45$ - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371029

total without Win, tax or shipping:
368$

If you have extra money:
10$ more gives you a 500 GB HDD, if the added space is needed.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136769

If you need to cut cost:
See if a MC deal can bring down the MB & CPU.
Skip the ODD and reuse and old one, most people only use the ODD for windows and office install.
Using a cheaper Sandy Bridge CPU Pentium/Celeron can reduce cost by 5-50$ depending on what you choose.
 
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runs2far said:
If you need to cut cost:
{snip}
Skip the ODD and reuse and old one, most people only use the ODD for windows and office install.
Click to expand...

Here is the problem with that suggestion:

The OP's existing ODDs, given the age of that system, might be PATA (IDE) drives. Unfortunately, those would not work at all on most newer motherboards, especially since most newer motherboards have absolutely no IDE ports at all, and most ODDs would not work at all with any SATA to IDE converters (most of which do not support ATAPI devices at all).
 
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