TR Forums

Ok so my friend wants him to build an equivalent to this:

http://www.shopping.hp.com/en_US/home-o ... Desktop-PC

but obviously for a cheaper price. He's got a big TV he has his current gaming/HTPC hooked up to, so it has to be able to handle those duties. I would sit down and figure out better replacement parts for everything (and I'm sure using Newegg I could get it cheaper than what HP is selling it for), but I'm a little strapped for time. What do all my fellow gerbils think? What would you use to make an equivalent build?

Build him/her a TR Sweet Spot. That HP machine has a horrible GPU and a grossly overpowered CPU. The TR build will run circles around that HP for the same price. Rumor is, the system guide will be refreshed soon. So maybe wait until early next week to start buying things. I don't see much changing from what's already up though.

What kind of form factor are we looking at here? Small mATX or mITX?

Oh yeah, the HP is horribly mis-configured, and it would probably overheat too.

It would be a standard ATX. He's got plenty of room and doesn't care about the form factor.

I was about to say...current Sweet spot is pretty close to the HP price, and would be easy to trim and adjust to meet pricing w/ OS, and would probably result in better performance.

What is this "cheaper price" we're trying to slip under? Not sure if you get over near Yonkers, NY much, but you could save roughly $70 on a CPU + mobo combo at Microcenter.

Knowing how much the budget is would really help. I agree that that GPU on that HP is crap and the CPU is a tad bit obsessive depending on what he may do with the build. I think a combination of a 3rd Gen Core i5 and a Radeon 7850 or GTX 660 may be in order. With how cheap SSDs are becoming I would throw one of those in as well for a boot drive. I noticed it came with a wireless NIC, does he need the wireless card inside or will he be using ethernet? What kind of PC user is he? (eg. PC Gamer, video editor, casual user, etc...)

I don't mind helping. I just need a few questions answered first.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6811112238
LIAN LI Lancool PC-K58W Black
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6817182082
Rosewill FORTRESS Series FORTRESS-550 550W Continuous@50°C,80 PLUS Platinum
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6820148561
Crucial Ballistix 16GB (2 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 cas 8
Intel Core i5-3570K Ivy Bridge 3.4GHz (3.8GHz Turbo) LGA 1155 77W Quad-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics 4000 BX80637I53570K
bundled with:
• 1x ASRock Z77 Extreme3 LGA 1155 Intel Z77 HDMI SATA ...
In stock.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDeal ... bo.1081367

SAMSUNG 830 Series MZ-7PC256B/WW 2.5" 256GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6820147164



These are today's sales from above:
$50 case
$80 PLAT 550 Watt PSU
$170 256 SSD
$85 Memory
$325 CPU MB Combo

$710

Pick your favorite $300 graphics card and $100 OS, and sundries and you are quickly at and above the HP price.

However, everything will be far superior quality and far superior balance...

You really have a hard time beating the builders on cost. But you can build much better quality for the same price.