LF Desktop Computer

[secol]

Not great at knowing what is a warm/hot/cold deal on various components or I'd go to ME and get them to build it. But I'm looking to buy a desktop for general use and occasional gaming (don't need top of the line video card). Would prefer a brick & mortar in CGY or a place that offers in-house service, but if the price is right online builders like NCIX would be good too. Would also need to get keyboard, mouse and a monitor close to 20". Budget is around $1000 (less would be good obviously) for everything but is flexible though.

Thank you!

[easylistener]

Do you mind prebuilt machines? I'm looking at the dell XPS 8500 myself, even though I could just build a comparable system for a little bit less. The base model ($700) has an i5 processor, 8gigs of ram and a 1TB processor. Comes with a cheap Dell branded mouse and keyboard too, if that's your thing. The only area it lacks in is the graphics performance. The Radeon HD 7570 is a low-end GPU, so you shouldn't expect to play new games at anything above medium settings. You could however, swap in a more capable GPU.

I find NCIX's components a bit expensive unless you price match everything you buy. Don't have any experience with ME myself so I don't know how reliable their system builder system is.

[DavidY]

Here's a sub $1000 build (no overclocking or multiple graphic cards; monitor is 1920x1080...keyboard/mouse is kinda generic)...PC assembly/testing is $70 at ME (they won't price beat NCIX on this service...get price beats on components at ME...beat other competitors by 25%):

PCPartPicker part list (http://pcpartpicker.com/ca/p/dnap) / Price breakdown by merchant (http://pcpartpicker.com/ca/p/dnap/by_merchant/) / Benchmarks (http://pcpartpicker.com/ca/p/dnap/benchmarks/)

CPU: Intel Core i5-3450 3.1GHz Quad-Core Processor (http://pcpartpicker.com/ca/part/intel-cpu-bx80637i53450) ($199.99 @ NCIX)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-B75M-D3H Micro ATX LGA1155 Motherboard (http://pcpartpicker.com/ca/part/gigabyte-motherboard-gab75md3h) ($74.99 @ NCIX)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (http://pcpartpicker.com/ca/part/gskill-memory-f312800cl9d8gbxl) ($42.99 @ Newegg Canada)
Hard Drive: Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (http://pcpartpicker.com/ca/part/western-digital-internal-hard-drive-wd1001fals) ($89.88 @ Canada Computers)
Video Card: MSI Radeon HD 7770 1GB Video Card (http://pcpartpicker.com/ca/part/msi-video-card-r7770pe1gd5oc) ($118.52 @ DirectCanada)
Case: BitFenix Outlaw ATX Mid Tower Case (http://pcpartpicker.com/ca/part/bitfenix-case-outlaw) ($39.99 @ Canada Computers)
Power Supply: Antec 550W ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply (http://pcpartpicker.com/ca/part/antec-power-supply-tp550) ($59.99 @ Memory Express)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-04 DVD/CD Writer (http://pcpartpicker.com/ca/part/lite-on-optical-drive-ihas124-04) ($16.93 @ DirectCanada)
Monitor: Asus VE228H 21.5" Monitor (http://pcpartpicker.com/ca/part/asus-monitor-ve228h) ($133.81 @ DirectCanada)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (64-bit) (http://pcpartpicker.com/ca/part/microsoft-os-gfc02050) ($105.92 @ TigerDirect Canada)
Keyboard: Logitech MK120 Wired Slim Keyboard w/Optical Mouse (http://pcpartpicker.com/ca/part/logitech-keyboard-920002565) ($19.99 @ Amazon Canada)
Total: $903.00
(Prices include shipping and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2012-07-29 20:27 EDT-0400)

Above Gigabyte B75 mobo can do SLI/crossfire in 4x/4x (other more expensive mobos can do up to 8x/8x).

[george__]

Another board is ASRock H77 Pro4-M. It has more SATA

[DavidY]

Another board is ASRock H77 Pro4-M. It has more SATA

Sure, but it will cost another $15-$20.

Dave

[DJDiggler]

Here's a sub $1000 build (no overclocking or multiple graphic cards; monitor is 1920x1080...keyboard/mouse is kinda generic)...PC assembly/testing is $70 at ME (they won't price beat NCIX on this service...get price beats on components at ME...beat other competitors by 25%)...

You can get a much cheaper assembly of just the components and do the OS install yourself. I just built a system for my brother in law and it only cost $40 for assembly and testing of hardware at ME. (SKU: MX1616)

Highly recommend ME to build your system, they did a great job and after pricematching all components I got a $1700 reg. ME priced system down to $1100 or so!

For anyone Interested the build is here: http://www3.telus.net/hansencd/johns%20computer%20final%201.JPG Built it a month or so ago so prices are probably cheaper now!

Not a AMD fan myself but needless to say he's pretty happy (BTW he had his own 560ti video card & OS to put in, you'll need to add those as there is no onboard video)

[secol]

thank you, this is perfect. i'll do some research on the card, but everything looks great.....one question i do have is that is there a case that can help with regards to dust? the desktop i have seems to collect dust like crazy and the dust filter doesn't do a great job so every few months i have to pop it open for a spray down with compressed air. so something that can help keep the dust out orfilters that are easy to clean would be great

[DJDiggler]

You can buy magnetic filters that simply go over fan openings and stick on with small magnets. The trick is to make sure you have more filtered intake fans than output fans... creating positive pressure in the case and preventing dust sneaking into cracks.

2/3 intakes with filters and one exhaust right behind the CPU is a good setup. Don't forget to count the PSU as an exhausted if it draws air from inside the case. (The case in the build above does not)