First timer about to buy making a mid range for browsing and photos

[maco144]

Hows this for a hack that is meant for lots of browsing and running adobe suite? Wanted to test out onboard graphics before buying a chip. Main goal is ease of installation / compatibility and seeing as this is practically all tonymac recommended I hope it's a go. Thanks for looking!

CPU: Intel Core i5-4460 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-H81M-HD2 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard
Memory: Crucial Ballistix 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory
Storage: Samsung 840 EVO 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive
Case: Rosewill Line-M MicroATX Mini Tower Case
Power Supply: Corsair CSM 550W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply
Wireless Network Adapter: Rosewill N900PCE 802.11a/b/g/n PCI-Express x1 Wi-Fi Adapter

 

[maco144]

Decided to change the HDD to a WD Green 1TB and the SSD to a SanDisk Ultra 128 GB.

 

[maco144]

This is a bump much later looking for some advice on a graphics card. Ive added a second monitor and the onboard no longer cuts it. Would you share a recommendation if you have one please?

 

[trs96]

A GTX 950 is a good basic card for dual monitors. See the Buyer's Guide for links.

 

[maco144]

The 950 doesnt appear to be based on Kepler architecture which would give me installation difficulties with Mavericks.

 

[trs96]

The 950 doesnt appear to be based on Kepler architecture which would give me installation difficulties with Mavericks.

What is the reason you want Mavericks instead of Yosemite or newer ?

 

[VioletDragon]

Hows this for a hack that is meant for lots of browsing and running adobe suite? Wanted to test out onboard graphics before buying a chip. Main goal is ease of installation / compatibility and seeing as this is practically all tonymac recommended I hope it's a go. Thanks for looking!

CPU: Intel Core i5-4460 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-H81M-HD2 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard
Memory: Crucial Ballistix 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory
Storage: Samsung 840 EVO 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive
Case: Rosewill Line-M MicroATX Mini Tower Case
Power Supply: Corsair CSM 550W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply
Wireless Network Adapter: Rosewill N900PCE 802.11a/b/g/n PCI-Express x1 Wi-Fi Adapter

If you're planning on going with Mavericks you can use Intel HD 4600 or find yourself a nice second hand GTC 760.

 

[maco144]

Main user of computer doesnt see the need to upgrade, they have been happy with mavericks. Im fine with not spending the time upgrading it for them. Now that a second monitor doesnt reliably work I need to add in a gpu.

I'm limited to a single slot on the PCI and the only geforce kepler that I can find that fits that profile is the GTX 645. So I'm gonna keep doing some research and perhaps look into upgrading the OS as buying a 4 year old GPU isnt appealing (but it is cheap!).

 

[CaptainKernelPanic]

Main user of computer doesnt see the need to upgrade, they have been happy with mavericks. Im fine with not spending the time upgrading it for them. Now that a second monitor doesnt reliably work I need to add in a gpu.

I'm limited to a single slot on the PCI and the only geforce kepler that I can find that fits that profile is the GTX 645. So I'm gonna keep doing some research and perhaps look into upgrading the OS as buying a 4 year old GPU isnt appealing (but it is cheap!).

Don't go with Mavericks, you will regret it. Everytime I get a real Mac that can't run Sierra, I realize how crippled I am, as most apps require Yosemite or greater. Do yourself a favor and go with Sierra.

 

[maco144]

I appreciate the concern but Mavericks is already working fine and as the main function is browsing and adobe suite still, those programs run great on 10.9.