Why hello, my fearless readers! My purveyors of the smallest enclosures! And welcome to this month's challenge!
For our second build challenge, three of our four J's had to create a discrete GPU-less computer for the impossibly-low price of just $300 or less! Not including the OS, of course - our audience isn't that crazy!
The rules for this challenge were simple enough: As usual, the three J's could shop at Newegg or Amazon US, and had to prove they could hit below a total price of $300 at or before the air date of the podcast, by providing a PCPartPicker link. Peripherals, OS, taxes and shipping were not to be included, just the desktop. And, as always, the builds assembled by our players must be functional, and must be at or below the 19L mark. (What do you think we are, mere bulky-PC plebeians?)
Finally, you can see the prices and choices on this thread, but to hear all the juicy remarks and attacks, you'll have to listen to the show!
But enough of the rules! Let us see the glorious contenders we have this month! We shall start, as always, in alphabetical order, and begin with James's build to start us off.
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James' build:
Case: Antek ISK 310-150 Mini ITX Desktop w/150W PSU, $68.50
PSU: Included with case, $0
Motherboard: AsRock H110M-ITX/ac, $67.99
CPU: Intel Pentium G4400 3.3GHz, $58.99
Memory: Crucial 8GB DDR4-2133, $26.99
Storage: Crucial BX200 240GB, $64.79
TOTAL: $287.26
John's build:
Case: Apevia X-FIT 100 Mini ITX Tower w/250W PSU, $34.99
PSU: Included with case, $0
Motherboard: MSI AM1I Mini ITX AM1, $14.99
CPU: AMD 5350 2.05GHz, $42.61
Memory: Mushkin Silverline 8GB DDR3-1600, $24.99
Storage: 'White Label' 500GB HDD, $25.88
TOTAL: $143.46
Josh's build:
Case: Raidmax Atomic Mini ITX, $9.99
PSU: EVGA 430W 80+ Certified ATX PSU, $19.99
Motherboard: AsRock H110M-ITX/ac, $67.99
CPU: Intel Core i3-6300 3.8GHz, $136.99
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 8GB DDR4-2400, $30.89
Storage: Team DARK L3 120GB SSD, $33.99
TOTAL: $299.84
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And so there you have it, yearning masses - our three competitors for this month's contest! And what contrasting builds we have this time around... with John and James trading blows between processing and storage, while John provides a build that's just half the price!
However, only one of these machines can win! Only one, in the eyes of you, the community, can be chosen as the best build for this challenge! And to select your choice of victor, all you have to do is vote in the poll at the top!
Do so quickly, however, for voting will end this Friday...
Until next month, my dear readers! May your space efficiency be high, and your decibels low!
