Pc build - £250 - £350

[bigpun69]

True enough but it also makes sense to spend the extra £40 on a better system that will last longer.

That said a good compomise may be AMD X2's which are also quite cheap and then use a cheap AM2 motherboard.

Spending £40 more for a system that'll last longer wont really be the case if he's going to overclock the nuts off it Which he won't based on what hes said...

And besides, just because its C2D theres no reason it'd last longer. If it were me i'd go for the C2D system, but based on their needs id go for a 939 type system and save the cash.

For someone who's just using the net, and word processing shes never going to need a more powerful pc....ever

[s_kinton]

For the use its gonna get, you wouldnt be able to tell whether its dual or single core. Fact is an old AMD XP would scream through this type of work. Dual core for the internet and word is just a plain waste.

[staffsMike]

I'm not suggesting that because it intel it will physically last longer..i mean a dual core (amd or intel) will be able to handle applications that may benfit them in years to come. Spending £10 less on a sempron doesn't make sense.

Think how long this PC is going to have to last...they will expect it to work for everything they want for the next 5+ years i would imagine.

[this_is_gav]

Plus he Didn't say xp or vista so 2gb wouldn't be overkill at all if its using vista

Yeah it would. Vista x86 works just as well as XP did with 512mb on the testing I did. Have more bloat it may do, but it manages memory far, far better.

[staffsMike]

I used vista with 1gb and was pulling my hair out..maybe there was something wrong with the laptop.. Time will tell on that one lol

[s_kinton]

I used vista with 1gb and was pulling my hair out..maybe there was something wrong with the laptop.. Time will tell on that one lol

I run Vista on my HTPC with 1Gb of PC3200 with a P4 3Ghz and memory usage sits at around 35-40% coinstantly. Its a lean install granted, but shows that you dont need to go ott with the ram. Media centre is perfectly smooth.

2Gb is only needed for gaming on Vista.

Spending £10 less on a sempron doesn't make sense..

I hear what you're saying there, but the other thing to consider is that AM2 mobos are alot cheaper that c2d ones. You can pick up a AM2 board for under £30 with onboard vga.

[staffsMike]

I have already agreed amd would be a better route

its the best compromise for sure

[Lanky123]

Amazon have a £300 laptop if having something portable would be at all useful.

I know you said you want to build it but it does get the OS and monitor costs out of the way...

[Lucio]

Well, I must admit, my setup was probably a little overboard as it was more than capable of running most games ~1yr old

I'd recomend as much RAM as you can fit into your budget, it does make a difference in the long run (most systems tend to bloat over time).

[master811]

Antec NSK4400 ATX MiniTower, inc Hi-Efficiency 380W ATX12v v2.0
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=509820
You could save another £15 easy by getting a combined case/PSU and cos its Antec, you know it will be good quality

[McPhee]

Yeah it would. Vista x86 works just as well as XP did with 512mb on the testing I did. Have more bloat it may do, but it manages memory far, far better.

Exactly. Im posting this from a laptop with 512MB PC-2700 DDR RAM and it's running fine, the rumour comes from people enabling all of Vista's memory hungry features on 1GB RAM and then trying to play games (which is dumb)

£48.47 - Antec NSK4400 Super Mini-Tower Case Black/Silver - With 380W SmartPower PSU (1 @ 48.47ea.) [112648]
£17.65 - NEC Optiarc AD-7170S-0B 18x DVD±RW/DL/RAM Serial ATA Black - OEM (1 @ 17.65ea.) [125208]
£27.82 - Hitachi Deskstar 7K80 80GB 7200RPM SATA/150 8MB Cache - OEM (1 @ 27.82ea.) [087673]
£32.3 - MSI K9N6SGM-V GeForce 6100 Socket AM2 onboard VGA and 8-channel audio mATX (1 @ 32.30ea.) [126138]
£39.99 - AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ (2GHz) Socket AM2 Energy Efficient L2 1MB (2x512KB) Cache Retail Boxed Processor (1 @ 39.99ea.) [125200]
£26.31 - Crucial (CT2KIT6464AA667) 1GB kit (512MBx2) DDR2 PC2-5300 CL=5 UNBUFFERED NON-ECC DDR2-667 1.8v 64Meg x 64 (1 @ 26.31ea.) [106130]
£20.27 - Microsoft Business Hardware Pack - Black/Silver Wired Keyboard with Black Wired Optical Mouse - PS/2-USB (1 @ 20.27ea.) [108204]
£93.99 - HANNS.G HW173DB 17" Widescreen (1440 x 900) 250 cd/m2 500:1 8 ms DVI, VGA (HD-15) Black & Silver TFT Monitor 3 Years Warranty (1 @ 93.99ea.) [126874]
Net Total: £N/A
VAT: £N/A
Gross Total: £306.80

Includes 17" Monitor, Keyboard and Mouse

Try that. Maybe an X2 is a bit much? The extra power would be a bonus though, call it insurance room against her needs changing, and it's only adding an extra £20