Basic multimedia rig under 28k

[Harsh Pranami]

Friends please suggest a basic multimedia rig under 28k. Exclude graphic card, keyboard,ups and mouse.
1. What is the purpose of the computer? What all applications and games are you going to run?
Ans:Mainly movies, games like counter strike once a month.

2. What is your overall budget? If you can extend a bit for a more balanced configuration, then mention this too.
Ans:28k

3. Planning to overclock?
Ans:Hell no

4. Which Operating System are you planning to use?
Ans: DOS

5. How much hard drive space is needed?
Ans: At least 500gb. But 1tb will be nice if possible

6. Do you want to buy a monitor? If yes, please mention which screen size and resolution do you want. If you already have a monitor and want to reuse it, again mention the size and resolution of monitor you have.
Ans: At least 1600x900

7. Which components you DON'T want to buy or which components you already have and plan on reusing?
Ans:Graphic card,keyboard,mouse,ups

8. When are you planning to buy the system?
Ans:In a week

9. Have you ever built a desktop before or will this be done by an assembler?
Ans:I've assembled before

10. Where do you live? Are you buying locally? Are you open to buying stuff from online shops if you don't get locally?
Ans:Bangalore.Open to online.

11. Anything else which you would like to say?
Ans: Try to get me the best processor in that price range.

 

[harshilsharma63]

i3 3220 (7000)
Intel dz75ml 45k (4500)
WD Blue 500 GB (3000)
Antec VP450P (2600)
NZXT Gamma (2500)
Dell S2240L (8800)
2 120 mm fans (800)

total: ~29k

 

[Harsh Pranami]

Thanks for the reply bro. But you missed out the RAM. Adding a 4gb ram, +2500inr. Total cost goes up to 31.5k. It's a bit over my budget.

How about putting in this monitor. Dell in2030M. Tjhe resolution is not full hd though. But it should Suffice.

 

[ankush28]

IN2030 is good too
RAM :- corsair value select 1600mhz 4GB (1.9k)

 

[whitestar_999]

don't compromise on monitor if main usage of this system is going to be movies.S2240L is much better than IN2030.get a cheap intex/zebronics cabinet for ~600(for this system you don't need gamma) & getting 2 fans for such system is just waste of money.

 

[ankush28]

Get cheap cabby but add case fans atleast 3 for cooler operation

 

[whitestar_999]

^^unless you are living in a desert in a room with only one ceiling fan you don't need more than 1 cabinet fan with intel pentium/i3 system with no graphics card.

 

[ankush28]

^^unless you are living in a desert in a room with only one ceiling fan you don't need more than 1 cabinet fan with intel pentium/i3 system with no graphics card.

i've used i3-3220
many time even watching videos
its temprature hits >50°C with only one fan
then i upgraded to gamma with 2 more fans temp ~ 40
so for good health of pc being on safer side add case fans (Or atleast buy local case fans ~80-100rs)

 

[whitestar_999]

quality over quantity.i meant 1 good branded case fan is more than enough or for the same price you can get 2-3 cheap local fans.the point was not to spend more than 300 on case fan.as for temps it is perfectly normal for a processor to run at even 60-70C for long durations with current generation of processors.only hdd temps above 50 are a reason for worry but for rest of the pc parts anything below 80C is fine.even my ancient intel pentium 4 3Ghz processor didn't had any issues while running at ~75C for almost 4-5 years with average 8 hours daily usage.

 

[Cilus]

BTW, with an i3, you don't need an Z75 motherboard as I3 does not have any Turbo Core functionality. With Z75 or Z77 chipset, only non K series i5 Processors can be partially overclocked by increasing the BCLK and Turbo Multiplier.

However, since OP wants an multimedia rig with occasional gaming, how about an AMD APU based configuration?
AMD A8-6600K @ 7.9K
MSI FM2-A75MA-P33 @ 4.05K
Rest are same.

Total cost will be more or less same but OP will get better Graphics performance due to the powerful IGP.

 

[ankush28]

what about this
Pentium G2020 ~ 3.3k
Gigabyte H61m-D2H ~ 3k
Corsair value select 4GB. ~ 1.9k
Antec BP300 ~ 1.7k
Dell S2240L ~ 8.5k
Sapphire 6670 DDR5 ~ 5.3k
WD blue 500GB

 

[Cilus]

I think Pentium G2020 is little under powered now a days considering multi-threaded nature of workloads. Even day to day applications like 7z, winzip, simple video converters for converting videos for your Ipod and portable devices, browsers like Firefox and Chrome... can use multiple cpu cores efficiently.

 

[ankush28]

I think Pentium G2020 is little under powered now a days considering multi-threaded nature of workloads. Even day to day applications like 7z, winzip, simple video converters for converting videos for your Ipod and portable devices, browsers like Firefox and Chrome... can use multiple cpu cores efficiently.

Afaik now aa days every common app supports multicore and works great with it...
so does it mean FX is must :'D
G2020 can handle home applications easily...
For graphics cheaper option is GT630

 

[Cilus]

Buddy, Don't get me wrong. Here GPU performance is not required much and a good CPU is always welcome in any build. Don't just compare the entry level processors with the highest end processors of that series. I have an 3rd Gen i3 laptop with windows 8 and I know how I feel lags sometimes when not using any intensive apps but a lots of applications together, like 8 tabs opened in Firefox, running Itunes and converting some viedos while performing some excel operations.
I also has experience with an AMD A8-5550M APU based laptop which is far smoother in those cases. At OP's budget if we can provide a better CPU with reasonable graphics performance which exceeds OP's needs, is there any requirement of getting a weak CPU but more powerful GPU?

 

[Harsh Pranami]

^^ True.I'm just looking towards CPU performance. Gaming is not on my mind now. But i'll stick with intel.You see, I also own an APU powered laptop (a8-4500m).When compared with an equivalent i3 model, processing power of my laptop sucks. Believe it or not sometimes my lappy underperforms in gaming. I'm not talking about IGP here. I'm talking about a dedicated graphic card+amd processor. Though I don't know what is the scenario in desktop segment, but in laptop I've seeen enough.

 

[Cilus]

Well, laptop Trinity based APUs does have some issues with performance due to poor load balancing between the CPU cores and the integrated GPU. As a result, none of the Trinity based APUs can reach their maximum Turbo level duing high workload, resulting poor performance. In Richland series of APU which is a tweaked Trinity, AMD has addressed this issue. However, in Desktop segment, the performance is comparable to i3 3210. Check the anandtech CPU comparison between i3 3220 and A10-5800K (A8-6600K is not available but it performs same as a 5800K with little lower power consumption) here:
AnandTech | Bench - CPU and you will find the answer. Avoid the Sysmark reasults which only favors Intel processors and any other brands like Nvidia, AMD or VIA don't support it officially. + You will be getting far far better graphics than Intel HD 4000.

 

[Harsh Pranami]

Saw the anandtech benchmark. I've decided to go for intel processor. The i3-3220 is about 1.5k cheaper than amd a10-5800k and does a little better than the AMD one in most benchmarks. In future if plan on gaming, I'll buy a graphic card. So the IGP will be of no use to me. So I'm going for this:
i3 3220 (7000)
Intel dz75ml 45k (4500)
WD Blue 500 GB (3000)
Antec VP450P (2600)
Cabinet (800)
Dell S2240L (8800)
2 120 mm fans (800)
Corsair 4gb 1600mhz (1.9)
Total= 29400
Tell me the final thoughts. Will buy it tomorrow.

 

[harshilsharma63]

Saw the anandtech benchmark. I've decided to go for intel processor. The i3-3220 is about 1.5k cheaper than amd a10-5800k and does a little better than the AMD one in most benchmarks. In future if plan on gaming, I'll buy a graphic card. So the IGP will be of no use to me. So I'm going for this:
i3 3220 (7000)
Intel dz75ml 45k (4500)
WD Blue 500 GB (3000)
Antec VP450P (2600)
Cabinet (800)
Dell S2240L (8800)
2 120 mm fans (800)
Corsair 4gb 1600mhz (1.9)
Total= 29400
Tell me the final thoughts. Will buy it tomorrow.

I will vote for a10 5800k or a8 6600k. But still, if you buy this config, get 80 mm fans not 120 mm. No local cabinet has room for 120 mm fans.

 

[Cilus]

Buddy, i3 3220 is not available at 7K. In fact, i3 3210 with HD 3000 IGP, available at 7.8K. And I was suggesting A8-6600K which is available at 7.9K. (AMD A8-6600K Richland 3.9GHz Socket FM2 100W Quad-Core Desktop Processor - Black Edition AMD Radeon HD AD660KWOHLBOX)
On the other hand, Core i3 3210 is available @ 7.8k

 

[whitestar_999]

at current prices it is better to get amd quad core compared to an i3 & as for benchmarks unless you are counting few seconds difference using a stop watch it won't matter much in real life usage scenario.