Budget PC Spec Check

[Cornholio]

Building a budget pc for mrs sister, after many hours of searching through products ive come up with this :

AMD AM2 Athlon 64 BE-2300 Brisbane Core, Dual Core 1.9GHz, 1mb Cache, Energy Efficient £51.24

Gigabyte GA MA69VM-S2 AMD 690V, SAM2, PCI-E (x16), DDR2 533/667/800, SATA II, SATA RAID, uATX, VGA £33.31

2GB (2x1GB) Corsair TwinX XMS2, DDR2 PC2-5400 (667), £27.24

320 Gb Samsung HD321KJ Spinpoint T166, SATA300, 7200 rpm, 16MB Cache, 9 ms, NCQ
£48.00

400w Silverpower SP-400P2C thermal controlled cooling fans £24.43

Gigabyte Triton GZ-XX1CA Black Midi Tower Case w/o PSU £44.54

Keysonic ACK-5000HL Flat XType Wired Keyboard, BackLit Keys, USB 1.1/2.0 / 2x USB Hub 1.1/2.0, Black £27.03

Logitech Wheel Optical Mouse, 800dpi, PS2, 3 Buttons, Black £5.04

19" Asus VW193S £121.01

Samsung SH-S203B/BEBN 20x DVD±R, 16x DVD±DL, DVD+RW x8/-RW x6, SATA, Black, OEM inc. Nero £17.03

1GB DaneElec 'Blue Pill' USB2 Pen Drive 19mpbs - Retail £5.86

Logitech S120 Black Speakers 2.0 2.3W RMS £5.28

Total £410.01

Originally was going for a low end C2D system like a 2140 but the motherboards cost more and didnt have the upgradeability ( that even a word? ) i was after, seeing as its 2x1gb sticks of ram going in it meant no more sticks could be added at a later date so with the am2 option the mobo has 4 dimm slots meaning could always stick some more in in the near future.

Read a few reviews on the case and it looks like it'l be up to the job. Was going to get the LG: 19" wide but as i already have one in the house i thought ide try the asus instead.

Any thoughts/changes please feel free to say. Don't want to go over that budget though...cut into my christmas profit too much

Edit --- if any changes are made please either have onboard vga or a uber cheap gfx card.

[acrobat]

Whats it for? Very limited gaming with only onboard graphics, so I'm assuming she isn't much into gaming. And if that means all she is really going to do is MS Word and internet/mp3's and stuff, then I don't think 4gig of ram is worth worrying about for the future. But its nice to have that option I suppose. I think if you decided you didn't need the 4 gig option, you might be able to make an intel Core 2 Duo PC for a wee bit more. But if that is your strict budget, then it might not happen.

But it looks good to me though anyway. Everything seems to fit. The only thing that really stood out to me, is that cheap PSU, because usually, everyone suggests you should avoid cheap PSU's like the plague. That might still be true in this case, but there are good cheap PSU's and not good cheap PSU's, so maybe that one is ok. I don't suppose it matters as much either when there isn't a whole lot at stake. Its not exactly a high end quad core and stuff. But potentially a flaky PSU could take out anything or even everything, and £410 is still a chunk of cash I wouldn't want to see go up in smoke.

So its up to you. Basically, if I was to want to improve anything, thats what I would try to improve - but it would cost more. (about £20 odd quid more I guess).

I don't know anything about that screen, but generally all screens are pretty much the same at around that price, so its probably as good as any.

Looks good. Nice that you can get a full working PC for a bit over £400 including a widescreen monitor! Its got everything you need, a good size hard disk, good amount of RAM, dvd burner and even a usb pen

[Thorsson]

I'd say the KB (Logitech have a range of reasonable and cheap ones) and case (maybe of of Scan's XClio range) were expensive compared to the rest of the kit, and I too would prefer a PSU from a reliable manufacturer. Maybe the "400W FSP ATX-400PNF pPFC PSU ATX 2.01 ATX12V upto 85% Eff' PCI-E SATA Ready" at 32.49. I'd also go for a better mouse (far more important to spend extra on this than a KB), maybe a Logitech MX610 (cordless) or G5 (now ridiculously cheap).

Reasons are simple - Gigabyte case you are paying for the name, it's still a cheap case. It's important to have a solid PSU. And IMO you'll feel the difference between a cheap mouse and a decent one much more than you will a keyboard.

[&roo]

Hi

I've built 2 systems similar to this in the last month. I cannot imagine you'd need any extra cooling for this system (SP-400P2C thermal controlled cooling fans). I'd suggest you look at an Antec NSK 4480 case for this setup. The case is very well made, it has a 3 speed (switchable) 12cm fan in the rear and includes an excellent Antec EarthWatt 380W PSU, all for around £55. The EarthWatt PSUs are made by Seasonic and get very good reviews.

My own system is in an NSK 3480 case (smaller than above and a bit of a squeeze), with the rear fan on it's slowest setting it is quiet and cool running an 85W Athlon 64 X2 5600+ processor.

HTH Andy

[Sprite]

I;d go for the PSU Thorsson said, that Silverpower is OK quality but it's 20 pin I think and quite old now.

A lot of people also recommend the Akasa Zen case which is slightly cheaper than that Gigabyte case. Doesn't look quite as nice though

[Lu-tze]

I agree &roo about the antec nsk series. Perfect for budget and mid-range builds:

Antec NSK 4480B Mini Tower Case (Black) - 380W Earth Watts PSU

The included fan will cool your system well on its slowest and very quiet setting.

Perhaps look at spending less on a hdd if you dont need 320gb. the 160b samsung is sold for £32ish.

I also agree about the mouse and keyboard commments. Better to spend more on a better mouse, and a cheaper keyboard like the logitech ultra flat for £10.

For a couple £ more, look at a 690G chipset:
Computer hardware and software at amazing prices, available online from Scan Computers UK

[kungpo]

Yep - I have an NSK4400 and it's a good case for the money. The PSU and Fan are dead quiet on normal use. And it powers my 8800GTS and Q6600 no bother at all.

[freddie]

lu-tze is right on the money. i'm going to build a light use machine and this case inc psu is what i was looking at antec 4480, it looks alright as well.

judgment on amd being be upgradeable is sound, the socket will last far longer than 775 on intel. i'd check on the gigabyte website to see it's compatibility though and maybe send a few extra depending on what it says re compatibility/upgrade.

[Cornholio]

Hi all, appreciate the responses, reason i chose that case really was due to the fact it looks ok and that i don't have to order from OCUK lol, had so many probs in the past with " lost " deliveries and ive only ever bought from scan's shop never mail ordered. Basically i can go to scans retail shop and buy over the counter.

Ok motherboard, reason i opted for

Gigabyte GA MA69VM-S2 AMD 690V, SAM2, PCI-E (x16), DDR2 533/667/800, SATA II, SATA RAID, uATX, VGA

over

Asus M2A-VM AMD 690G, SAM2, PCI-E (x16), DDR2 533/667/800, SATA II, SATA RAID, uATX, On Board VGA

Is not because of the £2 or so difference its because the gigabyte will take up to 16gb of ram wheras the asus will only take 8gb ( see, thinking ahead )

She will never game on it, its for uni work/ebay and listening to music through the poxy speakers in the budget. But obviously have opted for a mobo with a pci-e incase she does want a gfx card in the future.

The psu i have used in a budget build before and was amazed at the build quality when i removed it from its excellent packaging it was the same build quality imho as that of an low watt tagan ( which i also have in the house in a pc )

The spec of the PSU is more than enough for what this pc will be used for :

1 x 4pin ATX 12V
6 x 4pin Molex
2 x 6pin PCI-E Power
2 x FDD Power
2 x SATA Power

And it does have : 20+4 Pin.

The other option for the psu i have seen is :

350W Silverstone ST35F Silent PSU 120mm Fan Dual +12V

Also has the 20+4 and :

1 x 4pin ATX 12V
6 x 4pin Molex
2 x FDD Power
4 x SATA Power

So more sata which could be useful i suppose to avoid having splitters on.


Was trying to look at new keyboard and mice but scans website is just kicking up loads of 505 internal server errors.

[Cornholio]

Ok just managed to have a look, does she really need a better mouse ? i use a razer but thats because i game/photo edit for using ebay and doing some uni documents i think the budget logitech will suffice, its better than most of the others in its price range.

Oh and another thing is she doesn't want a wireless mouse, nor am i happy to give her one i hate the damn things. Much prefer corded as with the keyboard.

[Thorsson]

What do you have against a cordless mouse? Certainly older or cheaper models are no good for gaming, but anything half decent should be fine for her use, and they are convenient. Otherwise a good mouse is just a joy to use, bot in terms of comfort and usability.

Silverstone generally make OK PSUs, so I'd trust that over the "Silverpower" one (maybe an attempt to cash in on Silverstone's name?). Myself I'd go for the Corsair 450W, but that's a wee bit expensive. The Antec suggestion seems to make solid sense from a cost and PSU perspective.

On the speakers I'd suggest the Logitech 2.1s. I've tried the X230s and the X240s (which Scan don't seem to have for some reason) and they give a far better sound than their cost would suggest. The 2.0s are cheap, but they're just not in the same league. If she has an iPoD the X240s are particularly good. You could afford them with the Antec case and a cheaper keyboard. If she ever listens to music or watches videos then she'll appreciate the difference.

[staffsMike]

I have the Asus 690g board, it's very nice Don't really trust gigabyte but i'm sure they are fine.

[Cornholio]

Ok i have listened to all your advice and taking some of it in

Pretty sure you will all agree this is much better ( i know i do )



AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 4200+ 2.20GHz (Retail AM2) £48.12

Gigabyte GA MA69VM-S2 AMD 690V, SAM2, PCI-E (x16), DDR2 533/667/800, SATA II, SATA RAID, uATX, VGA £33.31

2GB (2x1GB) Corsair TwinX XMS2, DDR2 PC2-5400 (667), £27.24

320 Gb Samsung HD321KJ Spinpoint T166, SATA300, 7200 rpm, 16MB Cache, 9 ms, NCQ £48.00
or
320GB Hitachi Deskstar SATA2 16MB 8.5ms @ £46.35

Antec NSK 4480B £50.47 ( Just hope the psu it comes with is ok )

Keysonic ACK-5000HL Flat XType Wired Keyboard, BackLit Keys, USB 1.1/2.0 / 2x USB Hub 1.1/2.0, Black £27.03

Microsoft Laser Mouse 6000 £16.39

19" Asus VW193S £117.44

Samsung SH-S203B/BEBN 20x DVD±R, 16x DVD±DL, DVD+RW x8/-RW x6, SATA, Black, OEM inc. Nero £17.03

1GB DaneElec 'Blue Pill' USB2 Pen Drive 19mpbs - Retail £5.86

Logitech S220 2.1 Speaker System Black 17W RMS £13.62

Total £404.51 INC vat !!!
+ Fuel to travel to scan/aria and home again about £10

£414.51 !!!!!!!!!!! Im happy with that is everybody else ?

[Webby]

The PSU will be fine, the Earth Watts series have received good reviews (can't find a review for the 380w in particular at the moment) and you will not be drawing anywhere near the capacity of the PSU for the system that you have specified.

[kungpo]

Looks pretty good to me!

[Sprite]

Silverpower PSUs are made by Tagan I've heard. What are the total Amps on the 12v rails for the Silverpower Modd ?

EDIT: "SilverPower is one of the many brands operated by Nanopoint, which also owns Tagan and Seasonic." - Taken from CustomPC