Help with building a PC build - budget is flexible

Hey there!

I need a bit of help here. Honestly, it’s been ages since I actually kept up with tech because life just got in the way, and now I’m stuck trying to spec out a new build. I could really use some guidance based on what you guys recommend.

Basically, this is supposed to be my "office PC," but let's be real—it's going to handle pretty much any heavy lifting involving text, graphic design (just nothing in 3D), and audio work. It'll be a daily driver for the long haul.

Budget-wise, we're looking at somewhere between $500 and $2000. I definitely need at least 8 GB of RAM, and two big priorities for me are a solid monitor—at least 24 inches and decent enough for design work—and a good CPU, probably an i7. I wouldn't mind having an affordable graphics card, though I'd honestly prioritize processing efficiency over cranking Tomb Raider to max settings at FHD resolution. But since I always shop with a gamer mindset, I'm feeling a bit lost on what GPU I actually need.

As for everything else, I’ve had some pretty garbage experiences with cheap motherboards (like those under $183) on multiple levels—everything from terrible latency to them just dying on me. So, I'm thinking about stepping up to something more substantial this time. I don't care about overspending on the tower, nor the DVD drive, mouse, or keyboard. For the PSU, I wouldn't go below 600W, though I usually grab something 700W+ just to cover all bases for gaming and various loads, but I have no clue if that's overkill for "office work"—which isn't much different from what I do in my downtime anyway. When it comes to storage, I'm torn between hunting down a hybrid drive or just sticking with a reliable old magnetic hard drive. Given my budget, I doubt I can swing two separate drives?

Anyway, I'd appreciate any build suggestions you guys can throw my way.

George Alvarez3 said:Hey there!

I need a little help. It's been a while since I really kept up with tech because I've been short on time, and now I need to put together a build. Some guidelines or recommendations would be great.

Basically, it's an "office PC" for me, but the reality is I'll be doing all sorts of work on it—text processing, graphic design (nothing 3D), and audio design. It needs to handle daily heavy usage over the long haul.

The budget is somewhere between $500 and $2000. Along with at least 8 GB of RAM, the two big things for me are a quality monitor (at least 24 inches) suitable for design work, and a decent processor—probably an i7. I wouldn't mind having an entry-level graphics card, though I care more about processing efficiency than running Tomb Raider at max settings in HD. But since I usually shop with gaming in mind, I'm not entirely sure what GPU I actually need.

Regarding other parts, I've had pretty bad luck with cheap motherboards (like those under $183) before—everything from terrible latency to quick failures—so I want to try something more solid this time. I don't need to go crazy on the tower, DVD drive, mouse, or keyboard. For the power supply, I wouldn't go below 600W, though I usually buy 700W+ just to be safe for gaming loads, but I have no clue if that's overkill for office work—which isn't much different from what I do in my free time. As for storage, should I hunt for a hybrid drive or stick with a good old magnetic one? I'm not sure if I even have the resources for two drives.

Anyway, any configuration suggestions would be appreciated.

There is no way you're squeezing an i7 and a GPU capable of those tasks into that budget. Forget about it...

An i5 paired with an r7 270 and a solid IPS monitor for color accuracy is basically the ceiling for what you can get on the Intel side.

1 x Asrock B85M Pro3, S 1150, Supports 4th Gen Intel Core i7 / i5
1 x Intel Core i5-4460 (3.20GHz, 1MB, 6MB, 84 W, 1150) Box
2 x DDR3 4GB (1x4GB) Crucial, 1600MHz CL11
1 x Fortron 500W Power Supply, Hyper, PPA5005003, 12cm fan
1 x Toshiba 1 TB, 7200rpm, SATA 6 Gb/s, 32MB, DT01ACA100
1 x MS PHOENIX case without PSU, Midi tower MBO: ATX, mATX
1 x Acer V236HL, 23", IPS panel, Resolution: 1920x1080, Diagonal
1 x XFX R9-270A, R9-270A-CDFC, Double Dissipation Edition 925M Boost

$2010

Best Buy

If you decide to go the AMD route, try something like this:

1 x Acer V236HL 23" LED Monitor
1 x Gigabyte GA-970A-DS3P, AM3+
1 x AMD CPU Desktop FX-Series X8 8300 (3.3GHz, 16MB, 95W, AM3+) box
2 x Crucial 4GB DDR3 1600 Mhz (PC3-12800) CL11
1 x XFX R9 270A 2GB DDR5
1 x Toshiba 1 TB HDD (3.5", 1TB, 32MB, SATA III)
1 x Fortron Hyper 500W, 80+
1 x MS PHOENIX case without PSU
1 x LC-CC-120 CPU Cooler, Intel/AMD, 120mm, PWM
Total: $2021
Micro Center

Hmm. I’d probably try using $2333 before cutting anything. If we're looking at the 7000 series, can we actually bump this whole setup up to an i7?

George Alvarez3 said:Hmm. I'd probably try $2333 first and then cut back. If we look at a $7,000 budget, could we bump it up to an i7?

Nah, you'd have to slash the GPU budget, and I mean significantly...
To hit an i7 build, you're looking at maybe $7,200-$7,300. Plus, an i7 runs pretty hot under load, so you'll need decent cooling, which adds another $150-$67 ... basically, there's no way to do this for under $7,500.

1 x Asrock B85M Pro3, S 1150, Supports 4th Gen Intel Core i7 / i5
1 x Intel Core i7-4790 (3.60GHz,1MB,8MB,84W,1150) Box
2 x DDR3 4GB (1x4GB) Crucial, 1600MHz CL11
1 x XFX R9-270A, R9-270A-CDFC, Double Dissipation Edition 925M Boost
1 x Toshiba 1 TB, 7200rpm, SATA 6 Gb/s, 32MB
1 x Fortron 500W Power Supply, Hyper, PPA5005003, 12cm fan
1 x CoolerMaster Hyper TX3, LGA775/1156 and AMD 754/939/940/AM2/AM3
1 x Acer V236HL
1 x Zalman Z3 mid tower case. 199(W)x432(H)x457(D)mm. ATX

$2517
Anything less than this and you're cutting something important.

I'm not sure if upgrading to an i7 makes sense compared to the i5 given that budget. The i7 is basically twice the price, and I guess the only thing you're really getting is HyperThreading.

Thanks for the tips.

The only "i7" I've actually messed with is on my Asus laptop, a 3610QM, and it handles stuff just fine. On my other two workstations, I’m running Phenom builds with six cores, so I already know the recommended i5 is going to be a better performer regardless. That works for me. I'll try both setups—might tweak them a bit first—and just see which one sticks.

One thing that's bugging me slightly is the monitor. I've never been a huge fan of Acer gear. Honestly, when it comes to newer generations, I tend to trust brands like Samsung, Dell, Asus, or Toshiba more. I'd much rather try to make one of their models work.

One more thing I gotta throw out there: isn't it a fact that Nvidia cards just play better with Intel setups and are way more optimized for graphic design than any Radeon card could ever be?

George Alvarez3 said:One more thing: aren't Nvidia cards a better match for Intel setups and generally better for graphic design than Radeon?

Sure, but it really comes down to which software you're running. In this price bracket, you're basically stuck with the 750Ti if you want Nvidia, and honestly, it gets crushed by the r7 270.

I mean, it’ll probably be fine for what I actually need. It feels like you only really get your money's worth out of Nvidia if you're grinding away at massive files or heavy 3D rendering, and honestly, that’s just not my thing.

George Alvarez3 said:I think it'll be fine for my needs. It seems like you mostly get the edge from Nvidia when you're grinding through massive files or heavy 3D rendering, and that's just not what I do.

With that card, you'll definitely see an advantage in rendering... but if we're talking gaming, you aren't hitting max settings on Tomb Raider at FHD, and honestly, you won't even with an r7 270.

If rendering isn't your full-time gig, go with the r7 270. It's a stronger card and better for actually playing games...

Like I said, it all comes down to the software you're running. Some programs rely on CUDA cores, while others lean on those AMD stream processors...

Since he mentioned he doesn't deal with that kind of stuff, let's leave it alone.

Regarding Tomb Raider—link (take a look at the 7870, which is basically just an R9 270 under a different name), and here is another link

Good news, we managed to push the upper limit up to 9000 during negotiations. 🙂

Anyone got any ideas? 😁

Keep in mind we're probably gonna be processing video files too.

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-H97-HD3 $257
CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K $718
RAM: 2x Crucial DDR3 1600 C11 4GB $173
SSD: Samsung 850 Series $221
HDD: Toshiba 1 TB $148
GPU: XFX R9-270A $457
Monitor: Dell P2214H $474
PSU: Seasonic SS-620GM2 $261
Case: Zalman Z3 $103
Optical Drive: Samsung SH-224DB $43
Keyboard: Genius Luxemate i220 $32
Mouse: Microsoft MSE 4000 $55
Speakers: Logitech Z150 $47

$2988

Getting rid of some stuff.

1 x Logitech Z200, black, 10w
1 x Gigabyte GA-H97-HD3, s1150, ATX, Intel H97
1 x SEASONIC 450G power supply, Haswell ready, G series
1 x Samsung 850 Series, 120 GB capacity, 2.5", SATA
1 x Zalman Z1 mid tower case. 199(W)x432(H)x457(D)mm. Standard MB size
1 x Toshiba 1 TB, 7200rpm, SATA 6 Gb/s, 32MB
2 x DDR3 8GB (1x8GB) Kingmax, 1600MHz, non-ECC, CL9.0, FLGG
1 x Intel Core i5-4460 Processor (3.20GHz, 1MB, 6MB, 84 W, 1150) Box
1 x Gigabyte GTX960 WF2 Overclocked, 2GB GDDR5, DVI-I / DVI-D / HDMI
1 x Microsoft MSE 4000 Wireless Mobile Mouse, BlueTrack, Mac/Win USB
1 x Logitech K120, USB, OEM, brown box
1 x Acer V236HL, 23", IPS panel, 1920x1080 resolution
1 x LG GH24NS DVD burner, DVD±RW, 24x DVD±R, 8x DL, 40x CD-R

$2983

Thanks for the alternatives. I'll probably have something put together by the end of the day. 🙂

George Alvarez3 said:Thanks for the options, I'll try to put something together by the end of the day. 🙂

It makes zero sense to buy an unlocked K-series processor if you're pairing it with a chipset that doesn't allow overclocking...

For $900, here's how it should look:

1 x ASUS Z97-K, 1150, Intel Z97, DDR3, 4 slots
1 x Intel Core i5-4690K (3.50GHz, 1MB, 6MB, 88 W, 1150) Box
2 x DDR3 4GB (1x4GB) Crucial, 1600MHz CL11
1 x Kingston SSD 120GB HyperX Fury, 2.5", SATA 3 6G
1 x Toshiba 1 TB, 7200rpm, SATA 6 Gb/s, 32MB
1 x Zalman Z3 mid tower case. 192(W)x465(H)x430(D)mm. ATX
1 x FORTRON 550W Raider power supply, 12cm fan
1 x COOLERMASTER Hyper 412S, socket 1366 / 1156 / 1155 / 775 / FM1
1 x XFX R9-280A, Radeon R9 280
1 x MS MISSILE gaming mouse, wired, USB, optical, 2500 dpi/cpi
1 x Logitech K120, USB
1 x Logitech Z150, 6w, black
1 x LG 23" monitor, 16:9, 1920x1080, 250 cd/m2

$3010
www.bestbuy.com

Oh, forgot to mention—I’m not messing with overclocking. These are solid suggestions though, especially regarding the motherboard. I’ll probably just mash all three ideas together and see what kind of beast comes out of it. I'm planning on building two versions: one running an i7 and another with an i5. That Intel Z97 is basically king, so is it cool if I use that for the i7 build too?

You don't really need an Intel Z97 if you aren't planning on overclocking, and I guess you aren't 🙂

So, can we get back to talking about the Gigabyte paired with the i7?

Why go for an i7 non-K if you aren't planning on overclocking?

Look, if you want an Intel Core i7, here’s the play: grab an ASUS H97 motherboard—you could opt for a B85 board, but the better-equipped H97 models end up costing nearly the same anyway. Pair that with an Intel Core i7-4770 or a 4790 (the non-K versions), and definitely pick up a decent cooler since that Intel Core i7 is going to run pretty hot during rendering tasks. Something like a Corsair H100i should do the trick, and you're all set.