First time PC Build. 350$-500$

[dittotl]

Hallo,

 

     I am finished with Apple for my OS i plan on using Linux/Ubuntu. I realize there are a lot of computer experts on the boards so i thought i might entreat you to impart some technical suggestions. I am trying to start the year with a brand new PC, put together from scratch. optimally i'd like to have a unit with a 500$ value. I'm curious if any of you experts out there would know what would be a good deal I plan on using computer for playing online games like minecraft and wurm as well perhaps some FPS's like rainbow six and rainbow six vegas. Now i also would like to do some video editing / animation if possible and litecoin mine-ing. Below is a list of what i have so far any positive recommendations are welcome. 

 

Inventory so far:

 

Case: Rosewill CHALLENGER Black Gaming ATX Mid Tower Computer Case, comes with Three Fans-1x Front Blue LED 120mm Fan, 1x Top 140mm ... 49.99$

 

Motherboard: GIGABYTE GA-970A-D3P AM3+/AM3 AMD 970 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard ...89.99$

 

Possible GPU's: ASUS R7250-1GD5 Radeon R7 250 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready Video Card 89.99$

or a  SAPPHIRE 100358L Radeon HD 7770 GHz Edition 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 CrossFireX Support Video Card ... 99.99$

 

Power Supply: EVGA 500 B 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified 500W Active PFC ATX12V v2.31/EPS 12V v2.91 3 Year Warranty 100-B1-0500-KR Power Supply  49.99$

 

CPU:AMD Athlon X4 740 Trinity 3.2GHz Socket FM2 65W Quad-Core Desktop Processor AD740XOKHJBOX ...74.99$

 

RAM: G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Desktop Memory Model F3-10666CL9D-4GBXL  ...48.99$

 

I will also be purchasing a 1TB blue drive or 1.5TB if possible.

Thanks again for any help, please remember this is my first build so please excuse any rookie mistakes.

 

Danke!

[FriendlyHacker]

Depends, what is it going to be used for?

 

Best tip you can have on building your pc from scratch: Build the entire thing on top of a cardboard box or something, only after it's working fine you move inside the case. Make sure you have your Hard drives already inside the case before adding the motherboard and GPU, and that the memory/processor are already connected to the motherboard, saves you the trouble of adding that later inside the case.

[cynicist]

Congratulations, I'm a Linux veteran (10+ years now) currently running Ubuntu and you couldn't have picked a better time to start using it. This current release is very stable and performs well, and the next one will polish it further. So I'm happy to answer any questions you have if you run into any issues and am glad I can help you with optimizing your current build. So to get started: I'm not going to touch the case since that is mostly a choice of aesthetics. That's an excellent choice for a budget cpu, but since it's actually an apu (processor + integrated graphics) you'll need a compatible FM2 socket motherboard to go along with it. (on the plus side this ends up being cheaper too) I would also upgrade it to the 750k, which gives you an extra 200Mhz clock boost for $4. As far as gpu's go, the HD7770 costs a bit more but is a lot better so I would stick with that. You can keep the same psu if you'd like but your system won't use anywhere near 500W so I'd save some money there and recommend this Seasonic psu instead. (they are well known for making quality hardware) I'm a huge fan of G.Skill for memory but we can bump up the speed for the same price so let's do it

 

And finally we end up with:

 

Case: Rosewill CHALLENGER Black Gaming ATX Mid Tower Computer Case, comes with Three Fans-1x Front Blue LED 120mm Fan, 1x Top 140mm  ...49.99$

 

CPU: AMD Athlon X4 750K Trinity 3.4GHz Socket FM2 100W Quad-Core Desktop Processor - Black Edition AD750KWOHJBOX ...79.99$ Motherboard: MSI FM2-A75MA-E35 FM2 AMD A75 (Hudson D3) HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Micro ATX AMD Motherboard ...59.99$ GPU: SAPPHIRE 100358L Radeon HD 7770 GHz Edition 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 CrossFireX Support Video Card ...99.99$

 

Power Supply: SeaSonic SS-400ET Bronze 400W ATX12V V2.2/EPS12V 2.91 SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Active PFC Power Supply ...39.99$

 

RAM: G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9D-4GBRL ...47.99

 

Looks like a good build to me. There is one thing I would recommend, however, which would give you a more noticeable upgrade than a shinier graphics card or faster cpu, and that's an SSD. Solid state disks are essential for lowering boot times and making your applications launch instantly and now that the prices have fallen quite a bit it's much more affordable than it used to be. This is totally optional but if you get one it will change how you use computers and you will never want to go back to using only slow hard drives lol. Having stuff come up as soon as you click it is how computers should work.

 

SSD: SAMSUNG 840 EVO MZ-7TE120BW 2.5" 120GB SATA III TLC Internal Solid State Drive ...89.99$

 

The total price not including the SSD or shipping charges is $377.94. I do honestly think this is the best PC you can build within your price range and I hope your first build experience is as good as mine was. (I can't see myself buying a desktop ever again) Good luck

[FriendlyHacker]

You will find you don't need much hardware to run a Linux based system, even though Ubuntu is one of the slowest. So if you have a good GPU that should be enough.

 

Am building a Distro myself and one of the versions of it will be called "ultimate gaming", where you have the option to play Windows, Android, Wii, Xbox, Playstation and Linux/GNU games or apps.

 

Should take me a few more weeks to get a release out and will need people to test the thing.

[Lians]

To me, Mint is the best distro for Linux beginners. It's Ubuntu/Debian based and comes pre-packaged with most of what you'll need. If you go for the XFCE desktop environment, you'll have a pretty light yet functional OS.

 

I'll also second the SSD recommendation. It really makes a difference.

[Wesley]

I upped cynicist's recommendations.

 

I would briefly look at the games you want to play and make sure there are solutions for playing them on a linux system. I have had issues with games on linux in the past, not because it is linux's fault but because the main game companies only produce for Windows. There are ways to run Windows inside of Linux, so it could be fine, but I figured I would give you a heads up as it would be a bit silly to build a gaming computer that had trouble playing the games you wanted to play.

 

I think RAM is pretty cheap right now, and I would throw in a bit more RAM, but that is just my preference. I am not sure exactly where your budget will lie. After all, there can be all the little sneaky things that add cost at the end like a mouse, a headset, a keyboard, a monitor, an extra HDD for storage, etc that always seemed to throw me over budget on my builds.

 

Regardless, happy building!

[Corbin]

I'm partial to the Ripjaws X 8 GB set: It's also cheaper by $1.38/GB. G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9D-8GBXL

[MrAnon]

I'm not an expert but my advice would be to look at the setups on this website: www.logicalincrements.com/

The website is created and updated by people from the tech community. Your setup is very close to to the $448 build on the website but you may want to upgrade to the $504 build.

 

It also has a section called 'Assembling a PC' with links to videos and articles on how to build a PC.

 

Have fun building it and playing on it.

[dittotl]

I just wanted to thank Everybody for their suggestions and advice i have assembled my first build and it is awesome, ubuntu is 10x better than Mac -OSX. I ended up spending more than I initally calculated for, but i had more funds availble because of a x-mas bonus. I will upload pictures and the final list shortly, I just wanted to give a giant thank you for their time and willingness to help.   I am so excited.

[cynicist]

I just wanted to thank Everybody for their suggestions and advice i have assembled my first build and it is awesome, ubuntu is 10x better than Mac -OSX. I ended up spending more than I initally calculated for, but i had more funds availble because of a x-mas bonus. I will upload pictures and the final list shortly, I just wanted to give a giant thank you for their time and willingness to help.   I am so excited.

 

Awesome, I missed this post but I'm glad it worked out for you. I know it's been a while but I'm curious how you feel now that some time has passed. How has your experience been? What kind of issues did you run into and have they been fixable?

[domehouse]

Hallo,

 

I am finished with Apple for my OS i plan on using Linux/Ubuntu. I realize there are a lot of computer experts on the boards so i thought i might entreat you to impart some technical suggestions. I am trying to start the year with a brand new PC, put together from scratch. optimally i'd like to have a unit with a 500$ value. I'm curious if any of you experts out there would know what would be a good deal I plan on using computer for playing online games like minecraft and wurm as well perhaps some FPS's like rainbow six and rainbow six vegas. Now i also would like to do some video editing / animation if possible and litecoin mine-ing. Below is a list of what i have so far any positive recommendations are welcome. 

 

Inventory so far:

 

Case: Rosewill CHALLENGER Black Gaming ATX Mid Tower Computer Case, comes with Three Fans-1x Front Blue LED 120mm Fan, 1x Top 140mm ... 49.99$

 

Motherboard: GIGABYTE GA-970A-D3P AM3+/AM3 AMD 970 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard ...89.99$

 

Possible GPU's: ASUS R7250-1GD5 Radeon R7 250 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready Video Card 89.99$

or a  SAPPHIRE 100358L Radeon HD 7770 GHz Edition 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 CrossFireX Support Video Card ... 99.99$

 

Power Supply: EVGA 500 B 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified 500W Active PFC ATX12V v2.31/EPS 12V v2.91 3 Year Warranty 100-B1-0500-KR Power Supply  49.99$

 

CPU:AMD Athlon X4 740 Trinity 3.2GHz Socket FM2 65W Quad-Core Desktop Processor AD740XOKHJBOX ...74.99$

 

RAM: G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Desktop Memory Model F3-10666CL9D-4GBXL  ...48.99$

 

I will also be purchasing a 1TB blue drive or 1.5TB if possible.

Thanks again for any help, please remember this is my first build so please excuse any rookie mistakes.

 

Danke!

 

 

www.pricewatch.com see pc no os

then www.freebsd.org

freebsd is awesome, since it has ZFS free

ubuntu is nice

I use iceWM and firefox and pidgin for chat.

nice deck setup for net and youtube

 

I prefer the AMD 8 core with 8-16g ram, 2 1t disk, and cd/dvd player, stock nic and audio/vid.

 

for gaming you might need more....not pc gamer hard here...

 

building your own box can be fun but I have found its not worth the trouble.....you might have different experience....depends on your time value