Best VC under $100?

[Dragon]

I haven't been in the build arena for several years and now and am a bit out of touch.  A buddy of mine is looking to upgrade his current system but it's looking more like a new build.  He is not a gamer so I'm looking for a solid VC in the 50-100 range.  So far the pieces are:

ASUS M5A99FX Pro R2.0
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3184372&CatId=7246

AMD FX8320
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=4904560

8GB Kingston HyperX 1866
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=7447450&CatId=4534

120GB Kingston SSD
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2416662&CatId=5298

Seagate 2TB spinner
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=744345&CatId=139

650W Ultra PS
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3276573&CatId=1483

[MrRiplEy[H]]

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-graphics-card-review,3107-2.html

But you're not going to have much more than a slideshow for under 100 bucks.

[Denniss]

Please stay away from this cheap PSU, get a 400W Seasonic or a similar known brand and you have the same power capabilities at a far better efficiency (500W if you want to buy a more power-hungry GFX card).
Nobody is able to verify this 80% efficiency statement, the 38A at +12V are just a bad joke for a 650W PSU. For a 650W PSU you expect an 80+ Silver or Gold certification for efficiency close to 90% but not nothing.
Even the manufacturer does not really believe this PSU is able to deliver 650W or they would have supplied an 8-pin and a 6-pin GFX power connector instead of just two 6-pin.

For memory try to get memory of the same speedgrade withouzt the fancy but useless heatsinks.

[eagl]

If he's not a gamer, get one of the newest AMD cpus (just released yesterday) and skip the add-on video card completely.  The new AMD cpus have good enough graphics to run almost anything at low quality settings, and some simpler games at fairly reasonable settings.

I would skip AMD and go with a new intel i5 cpu though.  I've just had so much more luck with intel than AMD over the last several years, even though I was a fairly rabid AMD fan until the switch to AM2 sockets.  And even with the i5 intel cpu, the onboard graphics is far more than good enough for someone who doesn't play games.

Either way, don't waste money on a sub-$100 video card until he complains that something doesn't work, and then convince him to get a "real" vid card in the $150-$200 range, like NVidia 660 GTX series or the AMD equivalent.

[eagl]

I also agree about getting a quality psu like seasonic.  Lots of reasonably priced options there.  Also agree about the memory.  I've had luck with gskill brand memory and they have some very good quality stuff at decent prices.

I can't get over the choice of AMD cpu though.  I'd go with an i5 cpu and whatever happens to be the not-quite-cheapest ASUS mobo at newegg, based on the nearly flawless string of successful builds I've had building systems with those components.  Seasonic psu.  Asus mobo.  Intel i5 cpu.  GSkill ram.  I've also had awesome luck with western digital black hard drives, but everyone has their favorite there and performance between brands is very very close, so if you like your HD choice then go with it.  I prefer to get WD black drives because they're fast, have a good warranty, and the price is within $20 or so of lower quality or slower competitors.

Last, I think you might be doing your friend a disservice using that small of an SSD boot drive.  I've had hassle after hassle keeping my laptop running well with an 80GB SSD for boot drive.  I'd go with 256gb minimum.  Maybe if you skip the cheapo worthless video card for now, you can spend the extra $50 on a 256GB Samsung 840 EVO or crucial M500, my current favorites for bottom-line value (price + performance) in SSDs right now.  A computer geek can get away with a small boot SSD but a casual user will find it very frustrating having to constantly move stuff over to the spinner HD and fiddling with stuff to keep it running right.

[gyrene81]

If he's not a gamer, get one of the newest AMD cpus (just released yesterday) and skip the add-on video card completely.  The new AMD cpus have good enough graphics to run almost anything at low quality settings, and some simpler games at fairly reasonable settings.

sorry Eagl, but...why on earth would you recommend that then turn around and say this...

Either way, don't waste money on a sub-$100 video card until he complains that something doesn't work,...

even the best embedded graphics chip is worse than any $100 graphics card you could buy...aside from the gpu computing capabilities, the onboard memory is far faster than a chip trying to utilize the small amount of dedicated cache memory and system memory. the embedded chips are great for many things but not for any video games more complex than browser based flash games.

for $102 he could get an amd r7 250 1gb video card...
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150682

[Dragon]

for $102 he could get an amd r7 250 1gb video card...
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150682

Since checking the link provided by Ripley I decided to 1 up the r7 and go with the 7770 below.  Also, I can't dissuade him from 16GB of RAM although I think it's overkill so went with the G Skill below. 

I have several comps with Cooler Master PSU's going on 10 years now so I'll give them another try.

Also, did bump up to 240 GB version of the Kingston SSD.




VC
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2652129&sku=A455-7772

PS
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817171052

RAM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231503

[Denniss]

650W is still overkill and quality is rather mediocre.
Better get this:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817151126

[Bizman]

Find the true manufacturer of your Cooler Master here: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/power-supply-oem-manufacturer,2913.html
Enhance doesn't seem to be among the worst manufacturers, so your choice of Cooler Master might well last beyond the warranty time.

[eagl]

Aren't the 2x8gb kits for ram the same price or cheaper than the 4x4gb?  I was parting together a kit just a month ago and some decent 2x8gb gskill stuff was only about $160.  Less parts to fail, and if you're only using 2 sticks of ram there's less of a chance that an upgraded cpu HSF will interfere with the first stick or two closest to the cpu socket.  I don't think there is any performance difference between 4x4gb and 2x8gb, and the price ought to be very similar.  And then any future upgrade of ram could just drop into the empty slots instead of having to pull some out first.

[Debrody]

for $102 he could get an amd r7 250 1gb video card...
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150682

That card is really slow. He might get better ones on the used market, hd6870, gtx560, etc.

[MrRiplEy[H]]

Aren't the 2x8gb kits for ram the same price or cheaper than the 4x4gb?  I was parting together a kit just a month ago and some decent 2x8gb gskill stuff was only about $160.  Less parts to fail, and if you're only using 2 sticks of ram there's less of a chance that an upgraded cpu HSF will interfere with the first stick or two closest to the cpu socket.  I don't think there is any performance difference between 4x4gb and 2x8gb, and the price ought to be very similar.  And then any future upgrade of ram could just drop into the empty slots instead of having to pull some out first.

There is a small performance difference, the smaller modules are a bit faster. But the end result varies with the type bought and more components are always more error prone.

[Dragon]

Final build, thanks for the advise.

VC
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2652129&sku=A455-7772





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[MrRiplEy[H]]

Fax modem? 

He doesn't have a chance for anything else?

[Dragon]

Fax modem? 

He doesn't have a chance for anything else?

Seriously, don't ask.  He's peculiar, just leave it at that.