trs96
Moderator
- Joined
- Jul 30, 2012
- Messages
- 25,510
- Motherboard
- Gigabyte B460M Aorus Pro
- CPU
- i5-10500
- Graphics
- RX 570
- Mac
- Mobile Phone
You can save a lot of money by buying a compatible pre-built HP or Dell. In general they are very good values. The downside of these is that the onboard audio is not compatible and the PSU is not able to be upgraded without jumping through many hoops.
They may have a 1 year warranty at best if they are professionally refurbished, so after that you'll need to replace any parts that may fail. With a refurb desktop you also miss out on the fun and satisfaction of having built your own personal computer.
If you want closer to 100% compatibility of your hardware and have more to spend, buy a new budget system like the one below. You'll be getting all brand new parts that are fully covered under a 3 year or more warranty. With a few upgrades later on you can use it for photo or video editing and even use it as a capable mid-level gaming rig.
Some important features of this motherboard. It's got two PCI-e x1 slots, one will be necessary for your wifi/BT card. Has an M.2 connector for a next gen NVME SSD. Also has some valuable USB 2 ports on the back panel which help a lot in setting up your hackintosh. You can run dual monitors off of the HD530 graphics without needing a discrete graphics card. You have 4 ram slots instead of the 2 you get on a mini-itx motherboard and some mATX boards. All this for around 70 USD AR. Wow !
The GA-H170M-DS3H is selling for $69.99 after rebate. (not shown below) The Seasonic 520W PSU also has a rebate. There is an 11 dollar shipping charge for the whole package of components. Sales tax would depend on which state you live in.
This is an example of a general purpose build on a limited budget. Features the very capable Core I5-6500 CPU. Leaves plenty of options for future upgrades when you have more money to spend. Skylake motherboards are being phased out to make room for Kaby Lake. Prices this low will be hard to find after they run out of stock. If you want to game @1080P from a Windows install, simply add in a GTX 960 or better graphics card. Make sure to get at least a 1TB 3.5" mechanical HDD to store all your games on.
https://www.newegg.com/
They may have a 1 year warranty at best if they are professionally refurbished, so after that you'll need to replace any parts that may fail. With a refurb desktop you also miss out on the fun and satisfaction of having built your own personal computer.
If you want closer to 100% compatibility of your hardware and have more to spend, buy a new budget system like the one below. You'll be getting all brand new parts that are fully covered under a 3 year or more warranty. With a few upgrades later on you can use it for photo or video editing and even use it as a capable mid-level gaming rig.
Some important features of this motherboard. It's got two PCI-e x1 slots, one will be necessary for your wifi/BT card. Has an M.2 connector for a next gen NVME SSD. Also has some valuable USB 2 ports on the back panel which help a lot in setting up your hackintosh. You can run dual monitors off of the HD530 graphics without needing a discrete graphics card. You have 4 ram slots instead of the 2 you get on a mini-itx motherboard and some mATX boards. All this for around 70 USD AR. Wow !
The GA-H170M-DS3H is selling for $69.99 after rebate. (not shown below) The Seasonic 520W PSU also has a rebate. There is an 11 dollar shipping charge for the whole package of components. Sales tax would depend on which state you live in.
This is an example of a general purpose build on a limited budget. Features the very capable Core I5-6500 CPU. Leaves plenty of options for future upgrades when you have more money to spend. Skylake motherboards are being phased out to make room for Kaby Lake. Prices this low will be hard to find after they run out of stock. If you want to game @1080P from a Windows install, simply add in a GTX 960 or better graphics card. Make sure to get at least a 1TB 3.5" mechanical HDD to store all your games on.
https://www.newegg.com/
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