New computer build for basics

Aug 16th, 2016 4:55 am

#1

bostonontario [OP]: Deal Addict; Nov 26, 2008; 1086 posts; 750 upvotes; GTA

Aug 16th, 2016 4:55 am

Hi,
My 8 year old computer seems to be slowing down and not as peppy for light browsing and downloading.

I pretty much use my wife's laptop but occasionally I like to use my machine.

Anyways I'm so lost and thought about buying new components to replace my cpu, mb, ram as my case is fine and I added a new power supply and SSD two years ago.

My idea train was to buy that ballistic 8gb DDR ram from an earlier Amazon post for 20 and then buy the rest as they go on sale over the coming weeks.

Should I go Am3, i3, z170, integrated video card, gt750 video card....these parts are foreign language to me now.

Aug 16th, 2016 6:32 am

#2

goofball: Deal Guru; Dec 10, 2004; 13090 posts; 6798 upvotes; Kanata

Aug 16th, 2016 6:32 am

What's your budget?
What do you define as "basic" use?

Aug 16th, 2016 6:39 am

#3

coolspot: Deal Expert; Oct 6, 2005; 16859 posts; 2552 upvotes

Aug 16th, 2016 6:39 am

bostonontario wrote: ↑ My 8 year old computer seems to be slowing down and not as peppy for light browsing and downloading.

If it is a basic computer, I would buy a pre-built one. You can get a decent Intel i3 computer for ~$499 or less. The computer will also come with a decent warranty.

Check Dell, they've been having sales lately.

Aug 16th, 2016 7:19 am

#4

nabiul: Deal Addict; Aug 28, 2014; 2633 posts; 787 upvotes; Toronto, ON

Aug 16th, 2016 7:19 am

bostonontario wrote: ↑ Hi,
My 8 year old computer seems to be slowing down and not as peppy for light browsing and downloading.

I pretty much use my wife's laptop but occasionally I like to use my machine.

Anyways I'm so lost and thought about buying new components to replace my cpu, mb, ram as my case is fine and I added a new power supply and SSD two years ago.

My idea train was to buy that ballistic 8gb DDR ram from an earlier Amazon post for 20 and then buy the rest as they go on sale over the coming weeks.

Should I go Am3, i3, z170, integrated video card, gt750 video card....these parts are foreign language to me now.

What are your current specs?

AMD family if you are broke as hell and want underwhelming performance, their top end FX series has no built in videocard on the cpu, their A6,A8, A10 APU nonsense has videocards built in.

Intel family if you're made of money or want mid range/ high end performance, i3's are dual core, i5's are quad core, i7's are sometimes 4, sometimes 6 cores and have hyperthreading (make extra virtual cores), most of them have built in graphics, I think the newest gen does not, if it says intel HD graphics then it's built in.

Videocards:

http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/high_end_gpus.html

Not 100% reliable because people overclock their cards and report higher than normal scores.

Don't worry about chipset numbers, they'll affect the motherboard ports and stuff, just check the motherboard specs.

Aug 16th, 2016 8:07 am

#5

bostonontario [OP]: Deal Addict; Nov 26, 2008; 1086 posts; 750 upvotes; GTA

Aug 16th, 2016 8:07 am

Basic for me would be surfing the Internet, downloading some torrents to usb, some YouTube video playing, and excel/word use.

I built the computer in 2007/08 and I can't remember the specs but it's going on 8 years. I'll post an update later when I get home.

The only part I upgraded was a 128gb SSD and some cosair bronze power supply.

Budget wise under 300 tax in would be great

I'd like to just take the ssd out and plug it into a newer computer and be done with it but if it's cheaper to buy a refurb. And format that hard drive and use my ssd then I will go that route.

Aug 16th, 2016 9:30 am

#6

Gee: Deal Expert; Aug 2, 2004; 37573 posts; 10828 upvotes; East Gwillimbury

Aug 16th, 2016 9:30 am

How much memory is in your current computer?

8 years ago eh? Sounds like you may have a Core 2 Duo if you purchased Intel

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Aug 16th, 2016 9:38 am

#7

coolspot: Deal Expert; Oct 6, 2005; 16859 posts; 2552 upvotes

Aug 16th, 2016 9:38 am

bostonontario wrote: ↑ Budget wise under 300 tax in would be great

I'd like to just take the ssd out and plug it into a newer computer and be done with it but if it's cheaper to buy a refurb. And format that hard drive and use my ssd then I will go that route.

If your budget is $300, you can keep your current case + PSU and buy a new board, CPU, and RAM... you should just come in around $300. But even then, you may want to buy a new computer nevertheless... only to get completely new components, Windows license, and warranty.

Last edited by coolspot on Aug 16th, 2016 9:49 am, edited 2 times in total.

Aug 16th, 2016 9:47 am

#8

Gee: Deal Expert; Aug 2, 2004; 37573 posts; 10828 upvotes; East Gwillimbury

Aug 16th, 2016 9:47 am

An i3 CPU, motherboard and 8 Gigs RAM should run about $300

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Aug 16th, 2016 10:10 am

#9

bostonontario [OP]: Deal Addict; Nov 26, 2008; 1086 posts; 750 upvotes; GTA

Aug 16th, 2016 10:10 am

It's AMD -quad core from my memory

Aug 16th, 2016 10:42 am

#10

Bunkhouse: Deal Addict; Nov 29, 2005; 1290 posts; 184 upvotes; Winnipeg

Aug 16th, 2016 10:42 am

I'd recommend a Dell Refurb. They have sales a few times a year for 30-40% off.

Current Example ($374.00 + tax):
http://dellrefurbished.ca/product/compu ... /si6854288
Dell OptiPlex 7010
Operating System: 64-bit Windows 7 Pro
Chassis Mini Tower
Processor Core i3 (i3-3220) 3.30 GHz
Operating System 64-bit Windows 7 Pro
Memory 8 GB (2x 4GB)
Hard Drive 250 GB

or an older OptiPlex 790 Core i5 Quad 3.10 (i5-2400) for $242+tax
http://dellrefurbished.ca/product/compu ... /si6859123
Model Dell OptiPlex 790
Operating System 64-bit Windows 7 Pro
Chassis Small Form Factor
Processor: Core i5 Quad (i5-2400) 3.10 GHz
Memory: 4 GB (2x 2GB)
Hard Drive: 320 GB
Optical Detail DVD

Last edited by Bunkhouse on Aug 16th, 2016 10:44 am, edited 1 time in total.

+1

Aug 16th, 2016 10:43 am

#11

Jep4444: Deal Fanatic; Nov 15, 2013; 5760 posts; 3915 upvotes; Toronto

Aug 16th, 2016 10:43 am

If you don't game, just stick with the onboard graphics. They're more than capable of powering a basic system(and even the odd game on low settings if you need to). Can always add it later though so no biggie. Just don't get an AMD FX because then you need a video card(though your old one will probably still work just for video output).

Aug 16th, 2016 10:56 am

#12

mr_raider: Deal Expert; Feb 29, 2008; 29927 posts; 5423 upvotes; Montreal

Aug 16th, 2016 10:56 am

bostonontario wrote: ↑ It's AMD -quad core from my memory

What are your exact specs? Maybe we can salvage some components?

Aug 16th, 2016 11:51 am

#13

Gee: Deal Expert; Aug 2, 2004; 37573 posts; 10828 upvotes; East Gwillimbury

Aug 16th, 2016 11:51 am

Bunkhouse wrote: ↑ I'd recommend a Dell Refurb. They have sales a few times a year for 30-40% off.

Current Example ($374.00 + tax):
http://dellrefurbished.ca/product/compu ... /si6854288
Dell OptiPlex 7010
Operating System: 64-bit Windows 7 Pro
Chassis Mini Tower
Processor Core i3 (i3-3220) 3.30 GHz
Operating System 64-bit Windows 7 Pro
Memory 8 GB (2x 4GB)
Hard Drive 250 GB

I have an identical system with a 1 terabyte drive which I'm willing to sell for $375. It is a custom built Asus system with Windows 8.1

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Aug 16th, 2016 12:19 pm

#14

bostonontario [OP]: Deal Addict; Nov 26, 2008; 1086 posts; 750 upvotes; GTA

Aug 16th, 2016 12:19 pm

Does those come with USB 3.0 or 3.1? I didn't see anything in the specs to indicate it

Aug 16th, 2016 12:59 pm

#15

Jep4444: Deal Fanatic; Nov 15, 2013; 5760 posts; 3915 upvotes; Toronto

Aug 16th, 2016 12:59 pm

bostonontario wrote: ↑ Does those come with USB 3.0 or 3.1? I didn't see anything in the specs to indicate it

I'd assume 3.0 since 3.1 is still quite new and uncommon. Depending on if it has a free slot or not, you could likely add it over PCI/PCIe but I don't know if it's that big a deal when the USB 3.0 is rarely a big bottleneck.

Aug 16th, 2016 6:08 pm

#16

hvwkzq: Deal Fanatic; Aug 3, 2014; 6062 posts; 4300 upvotes

Aug 16th, 2016 6:08 pm

G3250 $73
H81M-E34 $67
8GB RAM $40 max

More than enough for browsing, Torrenting, YouTube etc. unless you are going to watch 4K.

You don't need a dedicated GPU.

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Aug 16th, 2016 10:26 pm

#17

bostonontario [OP]: Deal Addict; Nov 26, 2008; 1086 posts; 750 upvotes; GTA

Aug 16th, 2016 10:26 pm

This is what I have in the machine now.

Nvidia GeForce 8300 motherboard with an AMD Phenom 9500 chip and 8gb of ddr2 ram.

The newer parts are a plextor PX 128 gb SSD purchased in Sept. 2012
Cosair cx430m power supply purchased in 2014ish

Aug 16th, 2016 10:38 pm

#18

bostonontario [OP]: Deal Addict; Nov 26, 2008; 1086 posts; 750 upvotes; GTA

Aug 16th, 2016 10:38 pm

am i off on this build or should i spend the extra 100 for a i3-6100

G4400 3M - $77
GIGABYTE GA-H110M-A Core H110 LGA1151 DDR4 - $65
Ballistix Sport LT 8GB Single DDR4 - $18

Aug 16th, 2016 11:20 pm

#19

Gee: Deal Expert; Aug 2, 2004; 37573 posts; 10828 upvotes; East Gwillimbury

Aug 16th, 2016 11:20 pm

I would get the i3 over the Pentium.

Where can you get an 8 Gig Stick of DDR4 for $18?

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Aug 16th, 2016 11:35 pm

#20

coolspot: Deal Expert; Oct 6, 2005; 16859 posts; 2552 upvotes

Aug 16th, 2016 11:35 pm

bostonontario wrote: ↑ am i off on this build or should i spend the extra 100 for a i3-6100

Yes, I would get the I3, it's about double the speed of your current AMD Phenom. The G4400 is only 50% after than the Phenon so the performance gains may not be as noticeable.

Also, you may want to order 2 x 4GB so that you can have dual channel enabled on the RAM - it'll only cost you $6.00 more (or might as well order 2 x 8GB.