First time build - advice/recommendations required

antomack

Having always just bought pre-built PC's in the past, generally Dell's, I've decided that I'd give a go at building one this time seeing as it seems to be the best value option.

My first attempt is going to be for a PC for my father-in-law which he uses mainly for photo editing and general everyday stuff. He's currently slogging away with a Dimension 9200 from back in 2007.

Ideally if it suited, a smaller case than the 9200 but regardless a fairly plain one, no led lighting, etc. required. At least two front USB. Some possibles from Amazon that he approves of
Sharkoon CA-M Micro
Antec VSK-3000BU3U2
Antec 0.7mm NSK3100 Micro
Fractal Design Core 1100 Series
Corsair CC-9011077-WW Carbide Series 100R
Corsair CC-9011086-WW Carbide Series 88R
Zalman R1 Mid Tower
ZALMAN Z3 Plus
ZALMAN T4 Mini

1. What is your budget? €500 or so, want something that lasts a few years even if not quite as long as his current one.

2. What will be the main purpose of the computer? Mainly photo editing (Photoshop) nothing professional just family stuff that he scans in, cleans up and tinkers around with. He's not very mobile so he spends quite a bit of time on the PC to pass the day.

3. Do you need a copy of Windows? Yes

4. Can you use any parts from an old computer? Not really unless the DVD-RW.

5. Do you need a monitor? No, currently using Dell ST2320L and no plan to change

6. Do you need any of these peripherals? No

7. Are you willing to try overclocking? Not particularly interested

8. How can you pay? Paypal, Credit card

9. When are you purchasing? Within the next month

10. If you need help building it, where are you based? Have no issue opening up PC and changing HDD, RAM, graphics card, etc. but not confident on motherboard and CPU stuff. Based in Bray midweek and Roscommon for weekends if anyone able to help.

Digital Solitude

CPU is dead simple so you'll be grand

Pentium G3220 €60
8gb RAM €40
1tb HDD €50
250gb SSD €90
case €50
H81M board €50
300w PSU €40
Total €380

No need to spend more imo

antomack

Finally getting a chance to get back to this.

Having looked at the recommendations Digital Solitude gave I've picked out some parts as below, would these suit?

A few questions as well
1) I assume the onboard graphics would suffice since there is no GPU mentioned
2) Would it be worth going for the G3258 rather than G3220, only about €8 in the difference or could there be issues in that I've found reference that a BIOS update may be required for Haswell chips?
3) My father in law was over at my place at the weekend and I was playing Borderlands The Pre-Sequel and he wondered would he be able to play it on his new PC. As such I was wondering would an upgrade to an i3-4170 and a GTX 750 Ti be sufficient to play this and possibly the likes of Arkham Knight or Fallout or would it need to go to an i5?
4) I presume extra fans wouldn't be required?
5) Do I need to order any other parts, thermal paste, sata cables, etc.. or will I get sufficient included?

Parts for basic build I've gone with Amazon for everything for simplicity and it seems just as cheap as mindfactory when delivery accounted for. Comes in around €360 and while PSU might be a bit overkill it should simplify cable management and future proof a bit.
Intel Pentium G3258
ASus H81M-Plus
Crucial Ballistix Sport XT 2 x 4GB
Samsung 850 Evo 250GB SSD
Corsair Carbide 88R
Corsair CX 430W Semi-modular

I've left off a second hard drive for now as I have a 320GB sitting around that will suffice for now.

TerrorFirmer

If you do want to play those games mentioned, the G3258 won't cut it, you will need an i3-4160 really at a minimum, and the GTX750Ti is a good budget level card. Arkham Knight unfortunately on the PC is a disaster of a port and runs like garbage even on many decent gaming PCs.

The G3258 can be overclocked which is what separates it from the cheaper processor, at stock they're more or less the same. No point buying it for that reason though, as to overclock it you would have to spend 30 euro on a decent cooler, and at the end of it all it would still perform worse than an i3-4160.

Digital Solitude

If he wants to play a few games then yeah, an i3 with a 750Ti is grand.

Leave Arkham Knight out though, it's a pig of a game on systems with three times this budget.

Not sure about the G3258, I think it should be grand without the BIOS update

antomack

Okay I've finally gotten it down to the following two options with only a €57 price difference, one a Haswell and one a Skylake.

Common items
PSU: Corsair CX 430W semi-modular
Case: Corsair Carbide 88R
SSD: Samsung Evo 850 250GB

Haswell - €415
CPU: i3-4170
Motherboard: Asus H81M-Plus
RAM: Crucial Ballistix Sport XT DDR3 1600Mhz 2 x 4GB

Skylake - €473
CPU: i3-6320
Motherboard: Asus H110M-Plus
RAM: Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR4 2400Mhz 2 x 4GB


Q: Is the extra €57 worth it for the newer configuration?
Q: If going for the Skylake would there be much benefit in going for 3000Mhz RAM for an extra €10?

TerrorFirmer

The board doesn't support ram beyond 2133mhz natively. You don't need to worry about the ram speed at all (unless you were rocking a high-end i7 and a GTX980Ti...then you could have a look).

I'd just go the extra 50 for Skylake unless money is desperately tight.