schoondoggy 900 Posted March 14, 2016 Share Posted March 14, 2016 Here comes a curve ball,,,, if I had $500 to spend I think I would consider this: Refurb: HP Pavilion 550-126 Desktop, Intel Core i5-6400 2.7GHz Quad-Core, 12GB DDR3, 1TB SATA, 802.11b/g/n, Bluetooth, Win10- $395 with shipping http://computers.woot.com/offers/hp-pavilion-550-intel-i5-1tb-sata-desktop-11?ref=cp_cnt_wp_20_6 and SanDisk SSD PLUS 2.5" 240GB SATA III Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) SDSSDA-240G-G25- $64 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820173072 OS and apps on SSD, video on 1TB, Intel HD Graphics 530 gets good reviews: http://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/three-generations-intel-hd-graphics-tested/ This PC maxes out at 16GB of memory, but this would get him into a well rounded machine for under $500. Link to post Share on other sites
dvn 15 Posted March 14, 2016 Author Share Posted March 14, 2016 Gotcha... ATX - it's an Antec 100 or 200 case. Don't remember the size, but he has one mechanical drive with adequate space for video storage. An SSD is something that will have to wait for now. We're really focused on the 3 parts, not with trying to find a refurb or figure out how to buy a whole system with $500. The reason is that we want to get the most powerful cpu we can afford and still have some of that $500 left over for buying the mobo and RAM. The mobo can't be any old $50 throw-in, either. It has to have the nominal features that we'd expect today - adequate 6GB SATA connections, USB 3 headers, etc. What's caught my attention, mostly because I haven't bought anything in a while, is the price of RAM. Very affordable. So we can afford 16 GB for sure, which is more than we anticipated. The thing about this build is that we're trying to come up with something that will dramatically improve his experience right away. We've talked about adding more RAM and a better video card over time, along with an SSD. His 80 PLUS 500w PSU is fine, so we'll recycle that. We're really only looking at cpu, mobo, and RAM. Of those three, the priority is on the cpu, so something in the i7 series is what we're aiming at. :-) Link to post Share on other sites
dvn 15 Posted March 14, 2016 Author Share Posted March 14, 2016 The mobo Schoon listed looks like it would fit the bill. I'm thinking of going with his original recommendation, substituting a i7-4790K for the i7-4770S. The difference is $15 if I get it from Amazon. I'm liking the idea of maxing out the RAM and being done with it. Any thoughts? Link to post Share on other sites
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