Cheap But Solid-Reliable PC to be used only for Accounts

[Max Tractor]

Biostar TF7025-M2 £41
http://www.cclonline.com/product-inf...&tid=tf7025-m2

1GB (2x512MB) Corsair Value Select, DDR2 PC2-5300 £20

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=202604

Antec NSK4000/Mini Tower case without PSU , Black/Silver £28

or

AOpen Case Miditower ES45C Black 350w PSU £37
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/121280
AOpen psu are usually fsp oem, but no guarantee

psu

Antec Basiq Power 350W ATX 12V PSU £23.96

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/114928

AMD Athlon 64 X2 4000+ (2.1GHz) Socket AM2 Energy Efficien £42.25

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/125199


hd

Western Digital WD800JD Caviar SE 80GB 7200RPM SATAII 8MB Cache - OEM £26.31
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/59556

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Think I'm gonna go for this:

AMD AM2 Sempron 3800+ Manila Core, 2.2GHz, 256KB Cache, Retail £32.90

512MB Corsair XMS2, DDR2 PC2-5400 (667), 240 Pin, Non-ECC Unbuffered, CAS 4-4-4-12 £12.91

80 Gb Western Digital WD800AAJS Caviar SE, SATA300, 7200 rpm, 8MB Cache, 9 ms £27.73

Gigabyte GA M61SME-S2, NF405, AM2, PCI-E (x16), DDR2 400/533/667/800, SATA II, ATX, On board VGA £33.95

Asus TM982 Black MicroATX Case with 400w aPFC PSU £32.31

350W FSP ATX-350PNF aPFC PSU £25.84

TOTAL £165.64


I think I should sell him a decent PSU, so I'll keep the 400w from the case for myself for a non-critical machine.

Put another 512mb as it is definitely will make a difference. A Celeron M is definitely not rubbish as some are saying. Many cheaper notebooks have these and they will run most things like Excel really well.

The new Celeron M are basically the dual core Pentium E series but cut in half!! They use the Core architecure as opposed to the NetBurst architecure of previous Celerons.

A Celeron M at 2ghz is faster than the old style P4 based Celeron at 3.6ghz:

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu...w_3.html#sect1

http://www.dailytech.com/Intel+Conro...rticle6882.htm

http://www.legionhardware.com/document.php?id=651&p=2

http://forum.***********.net/showthread.php?t=9621

The bit with stars is "overclock" followed by "3d"

The last review shows that for business applications the Celeron M430 is slighly faster than the Sempron despite being cheaper. It is faster in Paintshop,Winrar and SuperPi.The PCMark05 score for the CPU is also slightly faster too!!

Hexus seems to block this site for some reason??

The Sempron is better for 3D stuff but since this pc is NOT being used for this why spend the extra money on the Sempron?? I specified a slightly more expensive motherboard but your could something like a Gigabyte GA 945GCMX-S2 for 34 quid.

It also runs cooler and consumes less power too as the sempron is made using a larger 90nm process and the M430 a 65nm one.

[Andaho]

But a 2GHz Celeron M costs £85! and even the M430 @ 1.73GHz you mention costs £53

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Sorry I meant to write Celeron 430 and NOT Celeron M430!!

The last link compares the Sempron 3800 and the Celeron 430

Here they are:

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...Thumbnails=yes

The Celeron 430 is £28.87 and the Celeron 420 is £23.49. I even think that the latter will be fast enough for office work as long as you run XP. What version of Quickbooks is he running??

Even the celeron 420 would be faster than a 2.2ghz to 2.4ghz pentium 4.

Remember that quite a few notebooks have the same processor and that they are adequate for office work.
I just wanted to show you that the new Celeron is competitive in both price and performance.

If you want to stick with AMD Scan seem to be also doing the Athlon 64 3500+ in their Shop Offers section for £32.24.This is better than the Sempron by far as it has twice the cache.

[kungpo]

I know this is unthinkable, but you could get a Dell Vostro PC with a Pentium Dual Core and 1GB ram - £154 ex VAT and del. I presume you don't need a monitor and XP Home would suffice? Swap the processor for a Celeron 420 and it's even less at £119 + vat and del.

Plus you get the advantage of 1 years warranty...

[Andaho]

If you want to stick with AMD Scan seem to be also doing the Athlon 64 3500+ in their Shop Offers section for £32.24.This is better than the Sempron by far as it has twice the cache.

well spotted, I'll get that instead

[this_is_gav]

I know this is unthinkable, but you could get a Dell Vostro PC with a Pentium Dual Core and 1GB ram - £154 ex VAT and del. I presume you don't need a monitor and XP Home would suffice? Swap the processor for a Celeron 420 and it's even less at £119 + vat and del.

The problem with Dell is their delivery is £50 (well, it is with the Vostro laptops anyway - assume the desktops would be the same). Otherwise, yeah - a good deal.

IPlus you get the advantage of 1 years warranty...

All the components would have an individual 1 year warranty minimum anyway, unless you were buying refurbished, B-grade or 2nd hand.

[d19z]

Think I'm gonna go for this:

AMD AM2 Sempron 3800+ Manila Core, 2.2GHz, 256KB Cache, Retail £32.90

512MB Corsair XMS2, DDR2 PC2-5400 (667), 240 Pin, Non-ECC Unbuffered, CAS 4-4-4-12 £12.91

80 Gb Western Digital WD800AAJS Caviar SE, SATA300, 7200 rpm, 8MB Cache, 9 ms £27.73

Gigabyte GA M61SME-S2, NF405, AM2, PCI-E (x16), DDR2 400/533/667/800, SATA II, ATX, On board VGA £33.95

Asus TM982 Black MicroATX Case with 400w aPFC PSU £32.31

350W FSP ATX-350PNF aPFC PSU £25.84

TOTAL £165.64


I think I should sell him a decent PSU, so I'll keep the 400w from the case for myself for a non-critical machine.

f

Speding £40 or more, can get you a system that performs many times better than that, and gives you more headroom in case of software advances, needing a better system, a sempron is Very, very substandard, as mentioned before e2140 is the one to go for, you can get a decent ASUS C2D motherboard for just £37 delivered, I've got it, and it's never given me any trouble

http://www.amazon.co.uk/ASUS-P5VD2-M.../dp/B000NVSJTK

[mycarsavw]

I finished doing the same thing a few months ago for my main accounts machines.

I ended up buying four (even thought I only needed two!) HP dx5100 MT, specifically the EU382ET model. They're discontinued now but there are a few around and if you can't find any I'd still recommend a pre-built low end HP desktop. They've been solid and one has been running constantly for a few months.

Specs are here - http://www.microwarehouse.co.uk/catalogue/item/Y979929 - saves cluttering up the thread.

[Lucio]

I know this is unthinkable, but you could get a Dell Vostro PC with a Pentium Dual Core and 1GB ram - £154 ex VAT and del. I presume you don't need a monitor and XP Home would suffice? Swap the processor for a Celeron 420 and it's even less at £119 + vat and del.

Plus you get the advantage of 1 years warranty...

Dell are better value ONLY if you have to purchase the Operating system. Even with their high delivery charge, you can get close to a Dell's price until you add in the OS costs...

[Andaho]

Well, I ordered it from scan on Wednesday @ 13:05, and rang them yesterday to ask why it hadn't been despatched, and they assured me everything was in stock and it would be delivered to me today. Today has come, and their order tracking still says it hasn't even been picked yet!

Read more or respond here: http://forums.hexus.net/showthread.php?t=120881

I spent the extra to get 1gb ram, a 160gb hd, and replaced the Sempron with the Athlon 64 3500+.

[Lucio]

Well, I ordered it from scan on Wednesday @ 13:05, and rang them yesterday to ask why it hadn't been despatched, and they assured me everything was in stock and it would be delivered to me today. Today has come, and their order tracking still says it hasn't even been picked yet!

Read more or respond here: http://forums.hexus.net/showthread.php?t=120881

I spent the extra to get 1gb ram, a 160gb hd, and replaced the Sempron with the Athlon 64 3500+.

Ah, if you'd said you were using Scan, could have warned you that they use estimated delivery dates, whilst they do have excellecent service and can get the odd item out the day you order (like my Wii *grin*), large orders do tend to miss their delivery dates (I suspect because half the stock is one warehouse and half is in the other).