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So, after my wife saw me build my computer, Onyx, she decided that she wanted me to build one for her too, instead of buying another laptop or a pre-built system, much to my extreme delight.
She just wanted it small, "cute-ish", and more significantly more powerful than the old Intel Core Duo T2300 laptop she
currently has. She will only use it for web-surfing, HD movies, music, Photoshop, Office and other general use stuff. She is not a gamer, AT ALL, so graphics performance is not a concern.
I was first thinking mini-ITX, but after she heard the sound performance of my new Xonar DG, she wanted to have it too, so Micro-ATX was the only way to go.
I will have $550~ish for hardware to work with, so this is what I've come up with:
Case: SILVERSTONE Sugo SG01-BF - $99~ish (it floats around this price. Amazon has it for this price).
She loved the classy look of this case. She thinks cases with glossy surfaces look tacky. I tend to agree.
Motherboard: ASRock H67M (B3) - $79.99
Biggest reason for this is SATA III interface. Since H61 doesn't support SATA III, this is the cheapest H67 I could find, and I love ASRock.
CPU: Intel Core i3-2105 - $134.99
More than enough power for what she'll use it for and the HD3000 graphics will suffice if she ever needs to do something more intensive.
RAM: CORSAIR 4GB (2 x 2GB) - $24.99
Again, this will keep her system happy for her uses for quite some time. If she ever needs more later, the upgrade is easy and cheap.
SSD: Crucial M4 64GB - $94.99
This is the part that's gonna make her little system awesome and wow the hell out of her.
Optical: Pioneer CD/DVD Burner - $18.99
She does a lot of DVD burning to archive all of her television programs and anime and stuff.
Sound Card: ASUS Xonar DG - $29.99
"Because I SAID SO!" -wife
PSU: Corsair CX430 v2 - $44.99
Quality-proven Corsair unit.
Wireless NIC: Rosewill Wireless Apapter - $11.99
She's kinda far from the router.
TOTAL: $540.91. Oh, yeah. I'm good.
I'll be getting a lot of these parts from Amazon. Free shipping + no tax = WIN.
For now, I'll make do with the stock Intel HSF until: a) it gets too hot, b) she starts complaining about the noise, or c) all of the above. After that, I'm thinking on getting one of these:
Cooler: Scythe SCKZT-1000 80mm Kozuti - $39.99
So yeah, this is my plan so far. I, personally, think it's a pretty damn solid build. It should meet and exceed her needs and should last her for many years to come. It also gives me the satisfaction of building an SSF system. Also, you don't see an HDD listed because I already have one from an unused external ready to go. Luckily, I bought one, along with my 2TB Green, before the prices of HDDs skyrocketed last year, and kept it unused in case she wanted me to build something or if I were to need it in an emergency.
If any of you have any suggestions or comments for improvement, let me know. Sometimes there may be a great part out there not listed on Newegg that I may not know about, like BitFenix. God, I wish I knew about their cases before I built my system. I would've easily put that little extra down for one of their cases.

She just wanted it small, "cute-ish", and more significantly more powerful than the old Intel Core Duo T2300 laptop she
currently has. She will only use it for web-surfing, HD movies, music, Photoshop, Office and other general use stuff. She is not a gamer, AT ALL, so graphics performance is not a concern.
I was first thinking mini-ITX, but after she heard the sound performance of my new Xonar DG, she wanted to have it too, so Micro-ATX was the only way to go.
I will have $550~ish for hardware to work with, so this is what I've come up with:
Case: SILVERSTONE Sugo SG01-BF - $99~ish (it floats around this price. Amazon has it for this price).
She loved the classy look of this case. She thinks cases with glossy surfaces look tacky. I tend to agree.
Motherboard: ASRock H67M (B3) - $79.99
Biggest reason for this is SATA III interface. Since H61 doesn't support SATA III, this is the cheapest H67 I could find, and I love ASRock.

CPU: Intel Core i3-2105 - $134.99
More than enough power for what she'll use it for and the HD3000 graphics will suffice if she ever needs to do something more intensive.
RAM: CORSAIR 4GB (2 x 2GB) - $24.99
Again, this will keep her system happy for her uses for quite some time. If she ever needs more later, the upgrade is easy and cheap.
SSD: Crucial M4 64GB - $94.99
This is the part that's gonna make her little system awesome and wow the hell out of her.

Optical: Pioneer CD/DVD Burner - $18.99
She does a lot of DVD burning to archive all of her television programs and anime and stuff.
Sound Card: ASUS Xonar DG - $29.99
"Because I SAID SO!" -wife

PSU: Corsair CX430 v2 - $44.99
Quality-proven Corsair unit.
Wireless NIC: Rosewill Wireless Apapter - $11.99
She's kinda far from the router.
TOTAL: $540.91. Oh, yeah. I'm good.
I'll be getting a lot of these parts from Amazon. Free shipping + no tax = WIN.
For now, I'll make do with the stock Intel HSF until: a) it gets too hot, b) she starts complaining about the noise, or c) all of the above. After that, I'm thinking on getting one of these:
Cooler: Scythe SCKZT-1000 80mm Kozuti - $39.99
So yeah, this is my plan so far. I, personally, think it's a pretty damn solid build. It should meet and exceed her needs and should last her for many years to come. It also gives me the satisfaction of building an SSF system. Also, you don't see an HDD listed because I already have one from an unused external ready to go. Luckily, I bought one, along with my 2TB Green, before the prices of HDDs skyrocketed last year, and kept it unused in case she wanted me to build something or if I were to need it in an emergency.
If any of you have any suggestions or comments for improvement, let me know. Sometimes there may be a great part out there not listed on Newegg that I may not know about, like BitFenix. God, I wish I knew about their cases before I built my system. I would've easily put that little extra down for one of their cases.
