I've been compiling a parts list for one of my recent friends, and I wanted to see if anyone had any deep and insightful comments to lay against it. Here's the parts list, because most people don't care to read too much if they can just skim the list:
http://pcpartpicker.com/p/3zHQq
So, the explanation: she's really into streaming gameplay from both her computer and her various gaming consoles, and to that end she's already got an external capture device that uses HDMI. The problem is that her laptop, which is her primary computer, is kind of garbage. So she wants to build a desktop that is fairly inexpensive but will last her a considerable amount of time before anything needs changing. I thought that, for this price-point, AMD was definitely the better option to consider, so here are the components that we decided on:
- Bitfenix Prodigy (Black) with the windowed side panel: a relatively small case with room for plenty of components. I decided that this case would be a good size for a system that is aimed squarely at the entry-level components (primarily because, when the time comes to make an upgrade, you basically have to replace what needs upgrading anyway, because they don't usually scale well, especially Nvidia.). The primary consideration at the time when she ordered this case (she's already ordered it, if that is still in question. It was on a considerable enough sale to go ahead and buy) was that she was planning on getting a GTX 750 Ti as her graphics card, and that is incapable of SLI in the first place, so it wouldn't really be detrimental to go ahead and build small. This changed, as I'll show later, but since the case has already been purchased, all comments should keep in mind the mini-ITX form factor.
- AMD Athlon X4 760k: clocked at 3.8GHz, this quad core processor is AMD's alternative to their A-series processors, for those people that already plan on going with discrete graphics. I chose this chip because it is quite inexpensive and it is comparable to their FX 4350, when you clock them the same. So, there isn't any particular reason to bother spending more money on the chip.
- Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus: this is really just the most basic cooler that we could find that would be sufficient for the time being. To be honest, if there were any other half-way decent options out there at this pricepoint, I wouldn't recommend this cooler. It's only okay at cooling and the fan isn't actually that fantastic. I'm waiting to see if Xigmatek's Prime 140mm cooler will ever go on sale, because it's really nice even at the current price.
-
Gigabyte ga-F2A88XN or MSI A88XI AC: a mini-ITX board with what appears to be the standard feature list associated with FM2, backed by Gigabyte's usual flair with their rugged component choices. The primary consideration when choosing this motherboard was that it have very good wireless, since that is her primary form of internet connection. This features wireless AC-850 built in. It also supports up to 2400 MHz RAM, which will prove useful. I probably could have achieved a greater degree of flexibility if I had opted for a full-ATX motherboard, but do you have any idea how difficult it is to find a full-ATX motherboard in the socket FM2+ line that features decent wireless? Well, they don't exist. The cheapest wireless AC card that I could source was $46 and made by Intel. I like the card, I didn't like the price. To drop the price of the motherboard enough to fit that card in would have lowered the quality of the motherboard and the chipset features to such a degree as to be utterly unpalatable. This board features everything necessary.
Another possible option that we're considering the the MSI alternative to this board: the MSI A88XI AC. I prefer the Gigabyte board primarily because of what appears to be a superior power management solution, but feel free to weigh in. - 8GB AMD Radeon R9-series 2133 MHz DDR3 RAM: this was just on too good of a sale to pass up. The other nice thing is the black-on-black color scheme and the fact that AMD says that all 2133 MHz kits should be unlockable to 2400 MHz through the overclocking tools of any motherboard that supports that speed of RAM. If it's still on sale, I'd recommend you go buy some from NCIX.
- 1 TB Western Digital Caviar Blue: much like the cooler, this is the most basic HDD that we could find that would be sufficient for the time being. It's just large enough to be useful for long enough. The cache is sizable, the RPM and random seek speeds are fast enough to not make my head ache from the lag.
- (Edit) XFX Radeon R9 270 Double Dissipation Edition or EVGA Geforce GTX 750 Ti FTW ACX Edition: Since the donation of the graphics card fell through, we're back to the drawing board. It's currently a tossup between this card, which I like, and the EVGA Geforce GTX 750 Ti FTW ACX Edition, which I also like. I do, however, have this OCD desire to match at least something among the components. I would match the brand of the graphics solution to the board, if the Gigabyte card wasn't so... ...unappealing. The motherboard seems to be great, but the graphics card is less so. The XFX card, however, looks very nice and has a sufficiently large cooler with sufficiently large and numerous fans to actually keep it cooling. The EVGA Geforce card has similar features with their ACX cooler. It really comes down the personal preference, here. The AMD solution is slightly more powerful, but it draws more power to begin with. The Nvidia solution has some interesting new technology that might be implemented soon into streaming services, that may reduce the encoding overhead. Still a tossup, but I'm going to side AMD, for my OCD satisfaction.
- Corsair Builder Series 500W Power Supply: much like the cooler, this power supply is sufficient to power the components and that's about it. It's 80+ Bronze certified, so it's somewhat reliable, and it's cheap for the wattage.
- AOC i2367fh 23" IPS Monitor: I actually chose this one for a few reasons, the first of which being the rather shallow appreciation for its appearance. It is a very pretty monitor. The entire thing is covered by glass except for the chin which has a metallized plastic bit that looks incredibly nice. Having seen this display in person, I can attest that the quality is quite good, although the stand can seem a bit wobbly or loose if you feel the need to fiddle with it often. Of course, there is the option to ditch the stand and set it on your desk like a photo frame. This fixes that wobble. The display itself is crisp with a slightly washed-out color saturation from the factory. Delving into the settings is sufficient to fix this, and the color accuracy winds up as appreciable as on any other 24-bit (8-bit per channel, 16.7 million colors) IPS display. The primary reason to go with this specific model, instead of one of the other alternatives, even within the same brand, is the speakers. She doesn't want to have to bother with figuring out a setup for speakers if she wants to play on one of her consoles, and I can't blame her. So I found a monitor that features not only the traditional two 2W speakers, but also multiple HDMI inputs, so that she can switch between her different inputs and only bother with external speakers should she desire to.