Comments Locked

69 Comments

Back to Article

  • xunknownx - Thursday, December 3, 2015 - link

    no offense but $800 for a pentium or an i3?

    i built an i3 htpc for around $400 and i helped someone build an i7 for around $800
  • mrfou - Thursday, December 3, 2015 - link

    That's fair but you probably didn't go the discreet GPU (and or SSD) way for an HTPC. It's not necessarily a bad idea to include a discreet GPU given that it is the bottleneck in many scenarios (it takes an SLI setup for the CPU to become the limiting factor in games for example). That being said I would really love to see the next iteration of this contest to revolve around HTPCs.
  • xdrol - Thursday, December 3, 2015 - link

    Skylake's GPU is perfectly fine for HTPC, and all Skylake chip has the same GPU config (apart from turbo clock speed, max 10% difference).

    I actually vote for i5s: true 4 cores blast 2 core chips even just browsing JS-heavy sites (hello Facebook..), but don't cost infinite money.
  • _stone13 - Tuesday, December 8, 2015 - link

    While you are correct that many people can get away with Skylake's GPU for a HTPC, it would never, ever be able to handle the load MadVR can put on a graphics card. Heck, even a 980 Ti would probably sweat with all the settings turned up.

    Granted there are only a few people that like to run MadVR but I thought it would be good to throw that out there for the folks that would want to get the most out of their video files.
  • przemo_li - Monday, December 7, 2015 - link

    Dunno. R9 380X are cheaper on lower price range end... So if CPU is Intels, it seam that those GPUs where choosed for brand not for value.
  • Aichon - Thursday, December 3, 2015 - link

    If you don't mind my asking, what were the rest of the specs and what was the i7 build being used for?

    It's easy to put a component like an i7 into a build for dirt cheap, as you pointed out. What's difficult is to balance the rest of the build for dirt cheap so that the i7 doesn't go to waste. For most people (though certainly not all!), an $800 build won't benefit much from an i7 over an i5. And for back-to-school uses, which is what this contest was for, you likely don't need either. They'd both be overkill for the intended use case.
  • xunknownx - Friday, December 4, 2015 - link

    this was last year in october. looking at my newegg invoice

    i7 3790 - $309
    corsair 600 watt psu - $70
    ASROCK|Z97 PRO4 LGA 1150 -- $109
    8GB ram - $75
    corsair carbide 200R case - $70
    DVD burner $20
    this comes to $653 + tax

    at the time, i sold my friend my old 120GB samsung 830 SSD for $50. at todays, prices, you can probably get a 256GB for around $80 +/-?

    thats around $750 total. yes were using onboard GPU, but an i7 at under $800 is still very possible. if you want discrete graphics and still want to keep it under $800, then i would go i5 and spend the extra savings on a discrete gpu. you can play around with prices and add/subtract here and there to fit your needs.
  • xunknownx - Friday, December 4, 2015 - link

    i dont get email notifications so i didnt know people replied. but to my point, prices have came down from last year for ssd and ram atleast. some people may not need a optical drive for example and can save there. there are cheaper mobos. i know i didnt include a standard spinning HD but unless this is your very first desktop, you should have a few HDDs laying around that you can pop in. and for the price of windows, well if you know a friend........ i'll leave it at there.
  • bigboxes - Monday, December 7, 2015 - link

    Yeah, it seems you left out the cost of the OS. Now, I may not pay for Windows, but you have to include the cost of the OS to get a real apples/apples comparison. And yeah, you didn't include an HDD or full retail for the SDD. Then there's your choice of 2-3 year old CPU. So, you're really not building a new computer. You're waiting for a "friend" to hook you up with used parts, free OS and leaving out key components. And that may be perfectly fine in real life, but hardly comparable to the parameters for this contest.
  • xunknownx - Monday, December 7, 2015 - link

    actually the cpu was new when i bought it at the time. the ssd is old at the time but new ssds are even cheaper now
  • bigboxes - Monday, December 7, 2015 - link

    I think my post still stands. It's not that you can't do better. It's the fact that you haven't until you list all your parts and have them comparable to others. I have a 4790k in my main rig. I know that I spent more on my sum of parts than many. However, when I run benchmarks such as PCMark 8 my scores are close to 1k higher than similar builds.

    Anyways, put together a paper build with an i7 with all new parts that are comparable to those in the contest and see what you come up with.
  • tipoo - Thursday, December 3, 2015 - link

    The cheapest i7 on PCPartPicker is almost 300USD. Sure, if you want a good CPU and little else of high performance, that's fine, but if you want a decent dedicated GPU and a SSD the i3 will be better balanced on a tight budget.
  • nathanddrews - Thursday, December 3, 2015 - link

    If you shop at places like Micro Center, you can leave the store with an i7+mobo for $300.
  • tipoo - Thursday, December 3, 2015 - link

    Alright, but that's still leaving you with only 400 for everything else, 200 to match the 960 alone...OPs point is still neither here nor there, if you want CPU performance alone that's fine, but the above are clearly balanced budget gaming rigs.
  • wolfemane - Friday, December 4, 2015 - link

    Right now cheapest i7 is $250, cheapest mobo (and I do mean a cheap board) $40. So you are right you can walk out the door with components... oh wait...

    IN STORE ONLY, and only 18 centers in the country. You actually have to walk in to walk out with those prices. This is not a reliable source of cheap computer components for the general public.

    I wish people would stop using micro center as an example. They have great deals, but only if one is within driving distance.

    ...and we all need to keep in mind that as of Dec. 3rd the price for these systems are considerably less. Using Newegg only (except on the Gigabyte board which isn't offered on new egg anymore, had to use Amazon) the Mighty Milo comes in at $650 ($670 depending on which 960 you get as the one they have is no longer available), and the Bantam is $650.
  • forgot2yield28 - Friday, December 4, 2015 - link

    That limits you to a very small portion of the population, or a road trip where you spend the savings on gas. Not really fair to quote an outlier that a lot of people don't have access to (that said, I live a five mintue walk from one, so you betcha I'm gobbling up those savings).
  • looncraz - Thursday, December 3, 2015 - link

    That's what I was thinking. I just built a custom GAMING PC for $900.26. Did a lot of deal hunting, and bought one used part, with permission, which really gave me room to push the CPU (to an i5 4690k!). And, yes, that included the stupid Windows tax. I used a cheap $18 Cooler Master Hyper TX3 cooler, cheap AsRock mATX z97 board (10% off), 8GB G.Skill Aries RAM ($6 off on sale), 2TB Toshiba HDD(got it $20 off!), used R9 290, and a Cooler Master n200 case. A cheap wireless keyboard and mouse and an HDMI cable completed the build.

    The idea of an $800 system using a Pentium CPU is laughable, though an i3 is more in-line with expectations. The usage of nVidia video cards is also laughable, AMD options in that price range tend to be notably better for the money.

    Of course, the usage of SSDs here is a factor, as that would push the full price of the SSD on top of my build.

    The "Mighty Milo" is a horrible build all around. A dual core Pentium CPU, $40 cooler that will perform worse than many ~$20 coolers, expensive SFX-format case, which uses an expensive SFX-format PSU, tiny 120GB SSD with a slow 1TB HDD as auxiliary storage, overpriced video card (you can buy a similar R9 380, with nearly identical performance, for $30 less)... just pitiful. The choice for motherboard and RAM are acceptable.

    Crucial's build is much more balanced, though the RAM is very much overpriced, and the savings could have been put into a more powerful video card (the same R9 380) while still being an overall cheaper system. I would have definitely have gone with a different power supply for the money. Thermaltake PSU's aren't so great. Many better options for the same general price.
  • wolfemane - Thursday, December 3, 2015 - link

    Gotta keep in mind the time these systems were built. The R9 380 hadn't been released yet. but i do agree the cup cooler was a waste. That's $40 that could have been tacked onto the cpu bringing it to $110.
  • looncraz - Friday, December 4, 2015 - link

    The 380 was absolutely available.
  • wolfemane - Friday, December 4, 2015 - link

    that is correct, the 380x wasn't available at the time. HUGE mistake on my end, thanks for pointing that out.
  • Michael Bay - Monday, December 7, 2015 - link

    Crying about "stupid Windows tax" is beyond stupid, as it literally enbles all of relevant gaming.
    It`s just as indispensable as your CPU.
  • pugster - Friday, December 4, 2015 - link

    Crucial and Silverstone work with Anandtech to make a system around their components. Of course it will cost more. I'm sure that some "value shoppers" wait until there's a sale on parts and wait until you get almost all the parts and you can probably build your own computer for 25% or less than what you would've paid above. Also, does the systems you build account for Windows 10 OS which cost $100?
  • tipoo - Thursday, December 3, 2015 - link

    'Grats to both of you. Also *grumble grumble canadian dollar*, that 800 dollar rig would end up costing closer to 1300 here, converted and taxed. Stupid CAD.
  • Retired Budget Gamer - Thursday, December 3, 2015 - link

    Those are both ridiculously bad deals. I also went Intel and Nvidia this is what I came up with for under $450 all new parts 3 months ago:
    i5-4590, 4X4GB 1600 DDR3, GTX 960 STRIX 2GB OC, XONAR DG 5.1, 250GB BX100, 500GB WD RED, 1TB Toshiba 5400 HDD and rounded off the build with other cheap and necessary components in a nice rolled stell micro ATX case.
  • Retired Budget Gamer - Thursday, December 3, 2015 - link

    Forgot prices. i5-4590 $130, 4X4GB 1600 DDR3 $60, GTX 960 STRIX 2GB OC $100, XONAR DG 5.1 $10, 250GB BX100 $50, 500GB WD RED $40, 1TB Toshiba 5400 HDD $30
  • Mikemk - Thursday, December 3, 2015 - link

    $100 for a 960? You sure about that?
  • Zap - Thursday, December 3, 2015 - link

    How about adding the cost of a case, PSU, Windows and SSD? Why? Because the builds above all included those items.
  • wolfemane - Thursday, December 3, 2015 - link

    Good for you, but your costs are BS. You lucked out, but those prices are not going to be available to the general masses.

    cheapest online price new:
    i5-4560 - $200
    cheap 4x4gig - $85
    GTX 960 - $180
    win8.1/win10 -$100

    I'm not going to bother to continue. These prices are for the average user. Even on teh extreme side of black friday/cyber mondays deals weren't THAT good. You lucked out on getting some great parts at dirt low prices either from ebay, second hand, one time deals, mail in rebates, or through some other means that's not going to be accessible for the general masses (just a select few at the right place/right time). You comments on these builds are pretty much irrelevant.

    Thanks for trolling though. Had to take the bait.
  • jasonelmore - Friday, December 4, 2015 - link

    yeah your prices are all black friday deals or something.. that i5 is $200, 960 is at least $175 on sale, RAM is at least $80 for 16GB on sale.. i question your prices sir
  • genekellyjr - Thursday, December 3, 2015 - link

    I just designed a computer for about $800. Windows was free from the school /cause it's back to school/.
    Case Corsair Obsidion 750D - $100 w. rebate
    PSU SeaSonic SSR-650RM - $60 w. rebate
    GPU Sapphire Nitro R9 390 - $275 w. rebate
    Mobo Asus M5A99FX Pro R2.0 - $80 w rebate (reason for AMD)
    CPU FX-8320 - $120
    CPU Cooler - Hyper 212 Evo - $20 w. rebate
    SSD 850 Evo 250 GB - $78
    HDD Seagate 2 TB 3.5" - $65
    RAM G.Skill 2400 MHz 8 GB - $32

    Total was $845, Windows on a trade site would add maybe $20-30 bucks. W/o rebate $945. If that 750D case was replaced with a cheaper case it would come in at $800 w/ rebate. There's no corners cut and the FX-8320 is not horrible for modern gaming (esp. after OC that the higher quality mobo allows).

    I think the ruiner of this was including Windows as most uni's give out Windows for free. An extra $100 and they could have gotten to a 970/R9 390. Or acknowledged the trade price of Windows that can be had that is less than $100.
  • wolfemane - Thursday, December 3, 2015 - link

    This is a back to school build, so windows 10 education version is free (and should have been considered free int eh build off) like you said. So you save $100 no matter what.

    Could you provide links for your pricing. I'm not seeing G.Skill 2400 2x4g for $32. Cheapest I'm seeing was newegg this past Cyber monday for $50. I did find some 1866 for $29.99.

    I'm also not finding any deals on that R9 390 card. Best I can find is $319 after rebate at newegg. I found a MSI R9 390 @ Microcenter for $305 (no rebate). I found some Nitro R9 380 cards for $250 and less though.

    If there are 390 cards to be had for $275 that's not to bad.

    and $80 bucks for that motherboard is pretty damn good. I'm not finding it under $120!
  • genekellyjr - Thursday, December 3, 2015 - link

    Check PCpartpicker for price history - nice tool!
    https://pcpartpicker.com/part/sapphire-video-card-...
    https://pcpartpicker.com/part/gskill-memory-f32400...
    https://pcpartpicker.com/part/asus-motherboard-m5a...
    The prices were timely as ever. The R9 390 was $290 but my total included that pricing (can't edit)! There's a Gigabyte card kicking around for $280 now but that Sapphire one has impeccable reviews and they make nice hardware by reputation to boot.
    For this build now things would shift - maybe an Intel CPU since the old board's price as risen again or a 970 if it had a better deal for quality.

    Assuming a free OS by taking it out equation and shipping the thing to someone wiped to avoid legality issues would be a great if this type of competition occurs again. For this it's 1/8th the cost and there's a good chance someone can get it for free from their school. Even if someone won it who wasn't a student there are still OS trade sites that will sell keys for less so it's not like sending someone a $100 bill with an OS-less computer.
    Those guys could def have gone farther with $100 more bucks to chunk at stuff.
  • wavetrex - Thursday, December 3, 2015 - link

    - 600W for a CPU that consumes barely 50w at maximum synthetic full load (i3) and an 130w max video card, and pretty much nothing else in the system to load the PSU.
    - An expensive motherboard and expensive case for a "cheap" computer.
    - Quite expensive memory with CL8 which has absolutely no effect for a non-overclockable i3.
    - Portable DVD-RW!!! Who the heck uses DVD's anymore...
    - Windows 8.1 ??? How about Ubuntu or another Linux, saves lots of money.

    Ridiculous "cheap" builds, whoever gives the prizes has no clue what a good build is.
  • wolfemane - Thursday, December 3, 2015 - link

    I think you might have missed the point of the article. This is for a cheap back to school computer with the ability to play games.

    First the memory. $15 difference between the two, big deal. It's still super cheap memory. $40 is cheap

    Linux??? Seriously??? for a back to school PC? Give me a break. In reality, any student can get win8.1 or win10 for free, or dirt cheap. Windows, regardless of how much you hate it, is today's primary operating system for the every day person. It will always take a place over Linux in a generic back to school machine. Both those systems are really $700 systems in a students case.

    The power supply might be a bit much, but it's cheap as well so why not? Your not going to save THAT much money going to a slim 300w.

    As for the case... Well you could go cheaper but not by much. One case is $50 and the other is $80. That's pretty cheap, not bargain basement, but still cheap.

    The motherboard, dude, is not that expensive. Both incorporate pretty decent onboard wifi cards and some nice features on a compact board. $70 for the asrock board is a decent price. Find me a board that has the same specs for less, all of which will probably be used by a person going back to school. Whether a high school kid or college kid. It's a good price for a wifi mini itx board.

    And finally... The portable dvdrw... Such a great idea. Both my wife and I, to this day, use our portable drive but not so much we need to take up space in our computers. Hence the whole reason it's portable. It's a pretty decent idea. But in truth, I'd probably go blu-Ray, specially if it's a college students back to school computer.

    With all your whining, what's a cheap ($800 or less) back to school system that is easy to use and can play games (let's say 720p 60fps max settings). Remember, Microsoft loves giving away their os to students for dirt cheap to free.
  • iLovefloss - Friday, December 4, 2015 - link

    These builds are decent. You aren't going to reach the same result as if you price hunted, but they are serviceable.

    - PSUs are cheap. You're looking at $30 for the cheapest non-junk PSU if you exclude mail in rebates and special deals. The TR2 is a decent enough deal with and without rebate (though something better could've been chosen). The Silverstone is just when one of the few decent units available in its form-factor.
    - The cases aren't expensive by any stretch of the imagination. $50 for a case isn't a lot of money. You can go cheaper and get a POS case, but you get a lot hassle and QC issues for saving, what, $10. The motherboards are fairly cheap for systems with built-in WiFi. WiFi is kind of important for students who can't always access an ethernet cable, and a decent USB adapter will set someone back about $20~$30. I can tell you from personal experience that trying to find a decent WiFi adapter for less than that is not a pleasant experience.
    - The 16000MHz CL8 RAM is probably not a good deal overall, but the other one is okay.
    - I still use DVDs, so does a lot of people. I know this is the Internet, and we are forced to pretend that everyone has the same needs, but please don't act like a dummy. Some students will have frequent need of a CD/DVD, too.
    - As if all software is compatible with Linux. Wine is still not compatible with everything, and if you're going to do gaming with these things, you're going go Windows. (W8.1 can still upgrade freely to Win10, so that's not a big deal either.)

    I nitpicked your nitpicking.
  • tipoo - Friday, December 4, 2015 - link

    Ubuntu or another Linux bars you from a lot of games, which these are partly for. You could use Wine wrappers, but with an i3, emulation performance would be a big hit.
  • Michael Bay - Monday, December 7, 2015 - link

    How about using your system for actual work/study/play, instead of mucking around loonix?
  • Jumangi - Friday, December 4, 2015 - link

    Just cant see not getting a quad core CPU in late 2015. Multi-core support is becoming the norm more and more. Just don't think duel core cuts it anymore for a gaming machine even on the lower end.
  • wolfemane - Friday, December 4, 2015 - link

    Comes down to cost dude. If you are looking at a budget system like this, and you want to focus on gaming, then a decent GPU is what you want to focus on. buying a i5 ($190 - $250) and pairing it with a $200 GPU is going to yield lower performance than pairing a i3 (I'd go with the i3-4360 $140 or the i3-6300) with a ~$275 GPU.

    http://anandtech.com/bench/product/1197?vs=1198
    just a quick link, you can find other results from cpuboss and other benchmark/testing sites

    i3-4360 ($140) vs i5-4690 ($215)

    In gaming, the i5 just doesn't hold a significant lead over the i3 to justify the $75 premium just for gaming. Take that $75 and add it to your GPU budget. hell even in general application usage the i5 doesn't hold THAT big a lead. You can go with a cheaper i5, but I'd be willing to bet performance will be at BEST equal to top i3 (which doesn't clear $150) and you are still paying $40 more for it.

    Even going to skylake yields pretty much the same results at roughly the same costs (i5-6400 @$190 vs is-6300 @$140).

    best bang for your buck is a top end i3 with a good $225 - $275 mid-range gpu.
  • Jumangi - Friday, December 4, 2015 - link

    Simply not true. Several sites have done tests showing multi-threading is becoming much more common and is starting to make a difference. Building a machine in late 2015 that's just duel core/threaded only will be severely hampered in the long run requiring a new CPU well before it should be needed which won't be the case with even the cheapest Core i5. It's called future proofing and a Core i3 doesn't do it.
  • wolfemane - Friday, December 4, 2015 - link

    I'm not discussing that an i5 isn't better, but we are talking about a budget back to school computer. An i5 is to expensive and attaching a low end graphics card will not yield the same results as a top end i3 with a mid range card. I linked one in house benchmark comparing the two, and gave suggestions to cpuboss. There is no giant performance leap for the i5 to justify the increase in cost for a student/budget PC. Post links showing a sub i5 ($180) chip with a $175 - $200 gpu out pacing the top end i3 ($140) with a. Decent mid range gpu ($275 a $300).

    This article isn't about future proofing, why use an 1150 build for future proofing. The concept is ridiculous. If this is the case we would all be discussing 1151 and sky lake (which in price is about the same, hell even performance between the low end i5 sky lake and top end i3 skylake are pretty much identical to their 1150 counterparts). And both chips have a decent performance increase over the 1150 counterparts... And cost damn near the same.

    Still, A 1150 build will last 5 years with a 960 or 380 for gaming purposes. Even if at the end of the 5 year your only running medium settings.

    You have to take the context of the article into this argument.

    Budget
    Back to school

    top end i3 + midrange gpu will smash any game at high settings at 1080p.
  • freeskier93 - Friday, December 4, 2015 - link

    Where are you getting that it's a "budget" build? $800 isn't what I would consider budget, it's pretty midrange for most people. You also seem to be focusing way to much on the gaming aspect, there are plenty of school uses that might warrant a more powerful processor than the i3.
  • wolfemane - Friday, December 4, 2015 - link

    My wife is a photographer who uses photoshop, lightroom, and a lot of different filters along with some kind of sorting program along with the rest of the Adobe package. We just upgraded her from an i5 2600 to the i3 6300 and Its lightning fast. Her complaints about processing time have vanished. And that little i3 makes my old 3770k seem down right ridiculously slow. Photoshop with all the editing and *gargon here* puts a pretty hefty load on the cpu. I threw in one of my older 290 cards for my own gaming preference and I can play every game I have at max settings 1080p with no noticeable frame loses. If it can handle that without any noticeable delay for my every picky wife, and handle any game I can throw at it, then why do I need to consider the i5 for a back to school system build? Why not focus the extra costs on a better gpu for a better gaming experience. I feel the i3 is worth defending in the realm of day to day processing and gaming.

    If it can handle what we throw at it, then its bound to be more than enough for the average student. imo

    ...and you are right, I should not have been using the term budget. Not sure where I got that in my head. My apologies on that front.
  • tipoo - Friday, December 4, 2015 - link

    Many if not most of the newest games can be pushed at at least 60FPS by an i3, if the GPU allows. So that extra cash could go towards a better GPU, which will be a better upgrade for games

    http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-2...
  • geniekid - Friday, December 4, 2015 - link

    Nobody who has criticized the builds so far has posted a better one that follows the rules from the original article.

    "All components must be available at Newegg.com at the time of selection (so no pre-choosing unreleased parts)
    No combo deals will be considered
    No mail-in-rebates will be considered"
  • freeskier93 - Friday, December 4, 2015 - link

    Okay... Since this is a "back to school" build, students can easily get Windows for free, so I'm not including it.

    http://pcpartpicker.com/p/MzRrNG">PCPartPicker part list / http://pcpartpicker.com/p/MzRrNG/by_merchant/">Price breakdown by merchant

    CPU: http://pcpartpicker.com/part/intel-cpu-bx80662i565...">Intel Core i5-6500 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor ($204.99 @ Newegg)
    Motherboard: http://pcpartpicker.com/part/msi-motherboard-z170a...">MSI Z170A PC MATE ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($92.98 @ Newegg)
    Memory: http://pcpartpicker.com/part/kingston-memory-hx421...">Kingston HyperX Fury Black 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2133 Memory ($53.99 @ Newegg)
    Storage: http://pcpartpicker.com/part/samsung-internal-hard...">Samsung 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($77.99 @ Newegg)
    Storage: http://pcpartpicker.com/part/western-digital-inter...">Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($51.99 @ Newegg)
    Video Card: http://pcpartpicker.com/part/evga-video-card-04gp4...">EVGA GeForce GTX 960 4GB SuperSC ACX 2.0+ Video Card ($228.98 @ Newegg)
    Case: http://pcpartpicker.com/part/nzxt-case-s210001">NZXT Source 210 (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case ($52.98 @ Newegg)
    Power Supply: http://pcpartpicker.com/part/evga-power-supply-100...">EVGA 430W 80+ Certified ATX Power Supply ($39.99 @ Newegg)
    Total: $803.89
    Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
    Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-12-04 17:39 EST-0500
  • wolfemane - Friday, December 4, 2015 - link

    This is a good build, and with a modern i5 as well.

    but there are a few things I think could make it better.

    As a back to school budget machine, is a solid state truly needed?

    You can get a 2tb Toshiba drive for $71.99 through newegg (no deals, flat price, 4+ stars)giving plenty of storage for anything school related AND games. So you save an additional $58. Take that and add it to your GPU budget and get an R9 390 8gig card (MSI @ newegg for $289.99)

    You can go even further and get the i3-6300 3.8ghz for $149.99 @newegg, saving you an additional $55. Adding this to your gpu budget puts you in the gtx 970 or R9 390x territory. Both cards which will give better performance with the i3 than the i5 on a 960 or 380 in games, and the average student won't see a performance difference in day to day usage with the i3 vs i5.

    But non the less, a really good modern build.
  • freeskier93 - Friday, December 4, 2015 - link

    Really depends on what type of school use, admittedly vast majority of people actually using it for school would be using Word/PowerPoint. Those of us in engineering, however, benefit greatly from a powerful CPU.

    SSD is personal preference, but personally I could never go back to a HDD for OS.
  • looncraz - Saturday, December 5, 2015 - link

    Modern HDDs are actually pretty decent - still not SSD-like, but certainly tolerable.

    I built a gaming PC with the Toshiba 2TB HDD and was quite surprised that the thing could sustain over 150MB/s, was quiet, and everything was quite responsive. I did my best to try and squeeze an SSD into the system, but the priority was CPU and graphics performance, at a set end price.

    However, even just slightly older HDDs are abysmal. I replaced a 1TB Seagate Barracuda with a 1TB Crucial BX100 and the complete boot times went from 4:52 to 0:47 without a single other change. Complete, here, meaning all storage activity died down and the last boot application was fully loaded and usable. The gaming system I built took only 1:23 to fully boot, and that included most of the same applications loading (both running W7 Ultimate x64) - not SSD fast, but entirely tolerable.
  • iLovefloss - Friday, December 4, 2015 - link

    What about WiFi?
  • freeskier93 - Friday, December 4, 2015 - link

    What about it? I'd sooner slit my wrists then use wifi on a desktop.
  • iLovefloss - Saturday, December 5, 2015 - link

    Not everyone has access to an ethernet cable, and the Internet is kind of important. I don't know if you ever been on a college campus in the 21st Century, but you can't exactly hook your shit up into modem. Hell, getting to a electrical socket can be a pain in the ass. Remember, these builds aren't necessarily for you; they're for college (or high-school) students. WiFi is important!
  • freeskier93 - Saturday, December 5, 2015 - link

    I've lived in 100 year old dorm rooms that had wired Ethernet and currently live in a modern campus apartment where each room is wired for Ethernet.
  • iLovefloss - Friday, December 4, 2015 - link

    Also, you forgot to include the Windows tax! With that, your build would be more than a $100 overpriced. The OS, a Windows OS, is a pretty important part of any semi-gaming machine.
  • wolfemane - Friday, December 4, 2015 - link

    If we take into account that this is a BACK TO SCHOOL computer, students can get a copy of win10 education for free. MS will ship a disk to you for $1.99 I think, or you can create a USB boot stick from another computer. Its a pretty feature rich OS, good for students.
  • freeskier93 - Friday, December 4, 2015 - link

    As I said in my very first sentence, students can easily get a hold of Windows for free.
  • iLovefloss - Saturday, December 5, 2015 - link

    Not every college -- and definitely few high-schools -- is going to have the required license for free Windows. That's why the original builds bought the license separately. Look at Leopard_Jumps' builds for something that's done nearly right (still missing the WiFi).
  • wolfemane - Monday, December 7, 2015 - link

    Has absolutely nothing to do with the schools. its all MS. Go to website, signup as a student, d/l or order windows 10 education version on usb.
  • leopard_jumps - Friday, December 4, 2015 - link

    With Skylake

    PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/w4N8D3
    Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/w4N8D3/by_merchant/

    CPU: Intel Core i5-6500 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor ($199.99 @ SuperBiiz)
    Motherboard: MSI Z170A PC MATE ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($89.99 @ Amazon)
    Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2400 Memory ($52.99 @ Newegg)
    Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($49.98 @ OutletPC)
    Video Card: Zotac GeForce GTX 960 4GB Video Card ($199.99 @ Amazon)
    Case: Enermax ECA3253-BW ATX Mid Tower Case ($40.00 @ Newegg)
    Power Supply: XFX 550W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($55.99 @ SuperBiiz)
    Total: $688.93
    Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
    Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-12-04 16:04 EST-0500
  • leopard_jumps - Friday, December 4, 2015 - link

    XFX 550W from New egg is expensive . From newegg EVGA 500B is not costly but XFX TS 550W is of better quality . Of course there are many other
  • leopard_jumps - Friday, December 4, 2015 - link

    with AMD CPU

    PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/6xMzQ7
    Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/6xMzQ7/by_merchant/

    CPU: AMD FX-8320E 3.2GHz 8-Core Processor ($122.99 @ NCIX US)
    Motherboard: ASRock 970M PRO3 Micro ATX AM3+/AM3 Motherboard ($59.98 @ Newegg)
    Memory: G.Skill Ares Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory ($39.99 @ Newegg)
    Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($49.98 @ OutletPC)
    Video Card: Zotac GeForce GTX 970 4GB Video Card ($319.99 @ Micro Center)
    Case: Enermax ECA3253-BW ATX Mid Tower Case ($40.00 @ Newegg)
    Power Supply: XFX 550W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($55.99 @ SuperBiiz)
    Total: $688.92
    Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
    Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-12-04 19:00 EST-0500
  • wolfemane - Friday, December 4, 2015 - link

    Awesome, thank you!
  • tmr3 - Sunday, December 6, 2015 - link

    Decided I'd give this a go, converting $800 to A$1092, I jumped on PCPartPicker and threw together something. My assumptions for this are:
    - Free Windows 10 due to education
    - Gaming is nice to have but not a priority - overall system speed trumps outright gaming performance.

    CPU: Intel Core i5-6500 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor ($295.00 @ Centre Com)
    Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-H170-HD3 ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($155.00 @ IJK)
    Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2133 Memory ($79.00 @ CPL)
    Storage 1: Samsung 850 EVO_Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($129.00 @ PLE)
    Storage 2: Seagate Barracude 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($99.00 @ Centre Com)
    Video Card: Gigabyte Radeon R9 270X 2GB WINDFORCE Video Card ($215.00 @ Scorptec)
    Case: Deepcool TESSERACT BF ATX Mid Tower Case ($49.99 @ MWave)
    Power Supply: EVGA 500W 80+ Bronce Certified ATX Power Supply ($72.00 @ CPL)
    Total: $1093.99

    This build could be cheaper - I've seen Sapphire 270X OC cards going for around $170 on clearance, but they're harder to get a hold of now that they've been replaced by the 370/380, despite the 270X fitting nicely in between (and for less money than the 370).
    If I were to build a new system these days an SSD is an automatic inclusion, and a 250GB+2TB combo would mean storage issues are almost non-existent. The i5-6500 was chosen for it's four true cores and its decent clock speed, meaning overall system performance should be very good.
    A locked processor means that Z170 is a bit pointless, but many of the cheaper boards only support DDR3. This is the biggest toss up, there's lots of room for change with the motherboard.
    The case and power supply were chosen simply to fit the budget - the Tesseract is a decent case but nothing spectacular, and the EVGA supply at least fits 80+ Bronze certification. The money saved from searching out a good deal on a 270X could go towards a slightly higher wattage/more efficient power supply. For gaming this build targets 1080p on at least high settings, which it should achieve for the most part.
  • geniekid - Monday, December 7, 2015 - link

    Basically what I learned from reading the comments is that not a single person has been able to present a better build unless they assume Windows is free (so they're working with an extra $100) or they shop for at least one component outside of Newegg (against the rules).

    I'm not saying it's impossible to put together a better build than Tony or Jeremy did, but so far no one has presented one while working within the same limitations.
  • wolfemane - Monday, December 7, 2015 - link

    intel i3-6320 2 cores 4 threads $169.99 @ newegg.com
    (http://ark.intel.com/products/90733/Intel-Core-i3-...

    ASRock H170M-ITX/ac Mini ITX LGA1151 $99.99 @ newegg.com
    G.Skill Sniper Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-2400 $64.99 @ newegg.com
    Toshiba 3TB 3.5" 7200RPM $89.99 @ newegg.com
    EVGA SuperNOVA NEX 650W 80+ FULL Modular $54.99 @ newegg.com
    Thermaltake Core V1 Mini ITX $42.99 @ newegg.com
    PowerColor Radeon R9 390 8GB PCS+ $269.99 @ newegg.com
    shipping $2.99

    Total: $795.92 w/shipping System includes Wifi
  • angrypatm - Monday, December 7, 2015 - link

    I would also like to see an HTPC build, but defined as HTPC, not Gaming HTPC--movies and music--audio quality often being overlooked. An a10 with fast ram with a good sound card and quiet would work, with JRIVER Media Center or maybe XBMC, and a blu ray. In a case that would look correct in an entertainment center, no odd dimensions please, and FRONT sd card reader and usb ports especially are really not optional. And no half height cards, they are very limiting and just a pain in the @ss in general.
  • drzzz - Tuesday, December 8, 2015 - link

    So since it was said no one was meeting the rules of all from newegg I took the challenge.

    CPU Intel i5-6500 4C/4T 3.2Ghz 204.99
    Gigabyte GA-Z170-HD3P MB 99.99
    G.Skill 8GB (2x4GB) DDR4-3200 59.99
    Seagate SSHD 1TB 66.99
    EVGA GTX950 02G-P4-2951-KR 159.99
    Enermax ECA3321B-BT Case 39.99
    XFX 550W 80+ Power Supply 68.99
    Windows 10 OEM 99.99

    Total 801.92

    It is not a power house but it is a true 4 core CPU, cost $800, all parts are from newegg and it includes a full OEM version Windows 10. It is not the machine I would build for myself but it does allow gaming and provides a solid CPU to build up around. I included a SSHD vice a SSD/HDD or pure HDD storage option. The SSHD has better response in certain use cases and at 1TB it can be transitioned to a pure storage drive later when an SSD is purchased. The case is bottom of the line and that was where I could save the most for other stuff. The power supply could be cheaper but this is not a place to cut deeply on cost.

    So there is my $800 build staying as close as I could to the rules.
  • Gnarr - Wednesday, December 9, 2015 - link

    How about:
    Intel i5-6400 Quad-Core 2.7GHz
    ASRock H170M Pro4
    Gigabyte GeForce GTX 970
    G.Skill Ripjaws 8GB
    Transcend MTS600 M.2 64GB SSD
    Western Digital 1TB 7200rpm SATA2 HDD
    Thermaltake TR2 430W PSU
    HEC 6K28BB8F Black Chassis
    Intel Retail CPU Cooler
    OS of your choice
    and a total of $818.46 (which could be squeezed down to $798.46 if you would take i3-6320 Dual-Core 3.9GHz CPU)

    https://secure.newegg.com/WishList/MySavedWishDeta...
  • nagi603 - Wednesday, December 9, 2015 - link

    Seriously, a 650W PSU? Talk about overkill... I'm still running an i7/290X combo on my Seasonic X-400.... An i3/pentium with a 950 won't tax even a 400W PSU.

Log in

Don't have an account? Sign up now