The HEXUS.hardware £500-or-less computer building thread!

Want the latest system suggestions? Wondering how the hardware has changed since this was first posted? Check the last pages of this thread for the latest builds!

It seems that we're regularly getting requests on this forum for help picking out parts for a computer costing between £400 and £500.

To help new posters quickly get an idea of what to expect from such a build, and to have some communal forum fun, I think it's time that we worked together to specify some nice systems within this budget :)

The rules:

• Post updates as a new post, rather than updating your old post (make it easy to find the latest ideas)
• Discuss the suggestions - this is a forum, after all ;) But please keep this thread on-topic and focused on the latest systems under £500.
• All suggestions should come to less than £500. Some wiggle room within sensible limits is allowed, use common sense :) And remember - you don't have to use up all of the budget!
• All suggestions must include an estimated cost at regular retail values. You may suggest checking Today Only type offers, of course, but don't use such prices in any estimate.
• You don't have to post a complete system, but if it it not complete, please state what else might be needed
• If your system suggestion does not include the cost of an operating system, make sure to mention that one will be needed.
• You can specify a build for any type of user, from a video editor to a gamer to an office workhorse - use your imagination and make this interesting!
• If you have a specific type of user in mind, let everyone know :)
• Quad core or dual core - it's up to you! Have fun and mix it up a little!
• Complete system suggestions must include a case, a PSU, a CPU, a motherboard, RAM, optical drive, hard drive, and a consideration of graphics output (just mention if you're using motherboard on-board).
• Use of stock HSF will be assumed unless a HSF is included in the parts list, similarly for all other components that normally come with other needed parts.
• Optional features that you can ignore or choose to use to make this harder include monitor, keyboard and mouse - can you fit those into the budget too?

If there is some other useful rule or guideline that I've forgotten, just let me know :)

As good an idea this is, it's going to be hard to cater to individual needs. Also getting everyone to agree will probably be a nightmare :p

Never the less I will do a few builds to attempt to suit different people.

Can I suggest a typical format for your suggestions too

CPU
Motherboard
RAM etc..

Justifications can come after

Quad Core Gaming

CPU: Intel Q6600 ~£130
Motherboard: Abit IP-35 dark Daider ~£65
RAM: 2GB PC6400 Corsair XMS2 ~£30

Case: Coolermaster CM690 ~£50
PSU: Corsair 520W HX ~£65

or

Combo: Antec sonata III or Antec NSK6580 With 430W EarthWatt

Hard Drive(s): Samsung Spinpoint 500GB F1 ~45
Optical: Samsung DVD-RW ~£20

GFX:Nvidia 8800GT or ATi HD3870 ~£105

Total: ~ £510

Combo Total: ~ £455

Options I would Include:

HSF: Scythe Mine/Ninja ~£25 (total £535)
GFX: 8800GTS 512MB ~ £145

using combo case and PSU, total is £520 :)

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Dual Core Gaming

CPU: Intel E7200 ~£80
Motherboard: Abit IP-35 dark Daider ~£65
RAM: 4GB PC6400 Corsair XMS2 ~£60

Case: Coolermaster CM690 ~£50
PSU: Corsair 520W HX ~£65

or

Combo: Antec sonata III or Antec NSK6580 With 430W EarthWatt

Hard Drive(s): Samsung Spinpoint 500GB F1 ~45
Optical: Samsung DVD-RW ~£20

GFX: Nvidia 8800GT or ATi HD3870 ~£105

Total: ~ £490

Combo Total ~ £435

Options I would Include:

HSF: Scythe Mine/Ninja ~£25
GFX: 8800GTS 512MB ~£145

Combo Total: £500

You could also use an Intel Petium Dual core at around £40 and 2GB or RAM to save an extra £70 on the dual core system. This should still get to around 3.0GHz when overclocking :)
It would also leave extra money in the budget for something like a 9800GTX HD3870 X2 or their equivalent at the time :)

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Media PC

CPU: Athlon 64 X2 4450e ~£50
Motherboard: Asus M3A78-EMH HDMI ~£50
RAM: 2GB PC6400 Corsair XMS2 ~£30

Case and PSU: Antec Fusion with 430W Earthwatts or the £60 downgrade version. ~£115

Hard Drive(s): Samsung Spinpoint 500GB F1 ~45
Optical: Samsung DVD-RW ~£20

GFX: integrated on motherboard

HSF Scythe Mini Ninja (Run passive)

Total: ~ £340

Options I would Include:

2x Scythe Slipstream 800 fans ~£20

Total £360

That leaves plenty for specialist equipment like TV cards, media controllers etc.. and will run silently.

A similar budget would also buy an Pentium dual core and Intel G33 CPU and motherboard setup but I would only get this if you plan on getting a dedicated graphics card, for which I would buy passive.

ATi HD3450 ~ £25
ATI HD3650 ~ £50
ATi HD3850pro ~£120
ATi HD3870 "Extreme Edition" by sapphire ~ £135 (OCUK)

You can buy things like Arctic cooler acceleros cheaply but they will not fit in this case afaik.


That'll do for now and as Thorsson points out, NO O/S included so factor in £60 odd if you want windows XP/Vista etc..

Look in every other one of staffsMike's post's. Job done :p
The other posts that staffsMike makes is the famous photo of his computer...:p

Of course I am just kidding, no one get offended, Mike is a great asset to Hexus forums :)

You're right that a one-size-fits-all is difficult, but most threads I've seen people post want the exact same thing - a gaming system :P But I left the type of system vague so that people could suggest other ideas, and so that when you make a post on someone's own help thread, it can appear here, too ;)

The aim isn't for me to arrange a single system suggestion, or for everyone to agree, but for people to play around for suggesting possible ideas and have some fun debating choices. New visitors and old alike can then just look at the latest posts for one that fits them to get an idea :)

Normally I'd prefer a standard layout, yes, but I know from past experience that it discourages people from posting :( Hence whilst I\'d love for people to do as you suggest, I\'m going to leave the layout up to the individual poster for now.

No OS in those £510 boxes...

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Rosaline

You're right that a one-size-fits-all is difficult, but most threads I've seen people post want the exact same thing - a gaming system

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true, i wouldnt do a one size fits all comp, but a htpc, low power pc, super quiet pc, basic office pc, kick ass office pc, are all things that would be worth a look :)

i approve of this idea :) an index of different specs leading to different posts that are updated when needed. wouldnt be the first place to do it, but really should be one here

Quote:

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Originally Posted by SiM

Look in every other one of staffsMike's post's. Job done :p
The other posts that staffsMike makes is the famous photo of his computer...:p

Of course I am just kidding, no one get offended, Mike is a great asset to Hexus forums :)

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I havn't used it that much have I? :p I hate my PC anyway, I just like the cabling haha.

Nice to be appriciated though :D

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Thorsson

No OS in those £510 boxes...

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What is the latest price for Ubuntu?

You like your cabling? Strange person.

What the general problem (it seems) for those building computers >£500 is the fact that they over choose or underselect the PSU... if someone could post a list of what NOT to buy, we could save ourselves the time and effort of posting on 90% of threads "This is not a good thing"

Quote:

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Originally Posted by mediaboy

You like your cabling? Strange person.

What the general problem (it seems) for those building computers >£500 is the fact that they over choose or underselect the PSU... if someone could post a list of what NOT to buy, we could save ourselves the time and effort of posting on 90% of threads "This is not a good thing"

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Good idea... Might take a while but I think I will come up with a system build guide rather than just say here by this. Got a few things on my plate so might be a week before a complete guide materialises but hopefully it will be very helpful :D

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ExHail

Good idea... Might take a while but I think I will come up with a system build guide rather than just say here by this. Got a few things on my plate so might be a week before a complete guide materialises but hopefully it will be very helpful :D

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It already exists..

http://forums.hexus.net/hexus-hardwa...s-project.html

That contains the fundamentals for creating a system, it just rarely gets updated now and is not price specific.

I'm building the following system tomorrow. I have purchased the parts already and most were from Scan. The case/psu was from eBuyer. The MS Office was from Amazon. I took advantage of a couple of Today Only offers from Scan. It includes Vista AND MS Office. It's a full base system with Vista 64-bit and 4GB of RAM, but doesn't include a monitor. Remove the MS Office and it's well under £500.

I opted for a dual-core system after much deliberation. The target user is someone who won't be gaming, but will use it for MS Office and a couple of other apps, some Web surfing and emails.

CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E6850, Conroe Core, S775, 3.0 GHz: £115.14

HSF: Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro: £14.38

Case/PSU: Antec NSK6580 Mid Tower: £59.69

HDD: 320 GB Western Digital WD3200AAKS Caviar SE16: £40.83

OS: Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium SP1* 64Bit: £61.79

DVD-RW: Toshiba/Samsung TS-H653, 20x DVD±R: £14.09

Graphics: 256MB Sapphire HD3450 PCI-E 2.0: £26.43

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3L: £56.75

RAM: 4GB (2x2GB) Corsair DDR2 6400 2x256Mx64: £58.16

Keyboard/Mouse: Microsoft B2L-00045 Comfort Curve 2000 Wired Keyboard + Mouse: £14.06

Office App: Microsoft Office 2007: £79.98

TOTAL: £541.30

Quote:

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Originally Posted by staffsMike

It already exists..

http://forums.hexus.net/hexus-hardwa...s-project.html

That contains the fundamentals for creating a system, it just rarely gets updated now and is not price specific.

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Thanks for pointing that out... would of been a rather large waste of time when a perfectly good guide exists. Think I'll save that link for everyone who posts to ask about what to buy... read that first then come back :D

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ExHail

Thanks for pointing that out... would of been a rather large waste of time when a perfectly good guide exists. Think I'll save that link for everyone who posts to ask about what to buy... read that first then come back :D

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I'm sure this thread will suffer the same fate as that one tbh but we can try :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by staffsMike

I'm sure this thread will suffer the same fate as that one tbh but we can try :)

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The problem with that thread it is that the initial posts tried to be the guide itself, which would have required Steward to keep them updated. The very nature of a guide thread makes it hard for later posts to obviously supersede the original post. That's why I did not intend to create any 'master list', but instead solicit updates in new posts. Less work for me, and it automatically keeps the thread up to date :)

See that bold text I wrote at the top? I'd already thought of this problem, see ;)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ***soul-edge***

recommending an amd processor for a media pc.
thats funny.

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Lol, here we go again. Please enlighten us with your superior intellect like last time.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ***soul-edge***

recommending an amd processor for a media pc.
thats funny.

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Why is it "funny"? I'm using an AMD CPU in my HTPC/media box, and it's absolutely perfect for that purpose?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ***soul-edge***

oh yeah you really know the in,s & out,s of a processor.
as i said before you know nothing.
so please be quiet.

this is another example of a trouble maker.
only some of us belive in the bible, am not one of them.

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He's a "trouble maker" :eek:
With an attitude like yours... I'd say that's a prime example of the "pot calling the kettle black" :rolleyes:

Instead of flaming - and leaving it at that... it would be a better idea if you'd explain why you're of the opinion that using an AMD CPU in a media PC is "funny"?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ***soul-edge***

intel processors tend to have better handling when it comes to multimedia.

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That is a very sweeping statement, and authoratitive comprehensive comp[arisons are hard to find. Certainly there was a time when the Intel range were considered suoerior because of of the MMX instruction set, but only for software written to exploit it. And it is also true that for verydemanding applications - usually gaming - the consensus is that the top end Intel range outperform the top of the range AMD, but for multi,edia, it is surprising how much you can achieve witha relatively modest processor. The limitations of the system may not be in processing speed, but in other areas, particularly in streaming applications.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ***soul-edge***

i wont be bringing my self down to your level your just looking for a response thats also why you posted.

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Unnecessary. By all means disagree with someone, but do it constructively with a reasoned argument or counter argument - repeated comments like this and some in earlier posts are more likely to result in another suspension or ban, rather than enhance you reputation as a valuable contibutor to the forum. And if you do have an opinion to share, it helps if you substantiate it.

In the first paragraph I am trying to explain that there is probably little difference between AMD and Intel products for use in a multimedia PC

In the second, I am giving you a hint that provocative comments are likely to result in another suspension or a ban. If you want to disagree with someone, fine, but do it with reasoned arguments. Don't flame.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ***soul-edge***

ok.

i agree with you on the intel & amd.

but i was just making a point when it came to someone making a negative comment.
for no reason really.

it was un-needed.

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your right

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ***soul-edge***

recommending an amd processor for a media pc.
thats funny.

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and thats a great example.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by MadduckUK

your right

and thats a great example.

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Hey - give the gyu a break! :)

(and lets get the thread back on topic!!!)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by peterb

Hey - give the gyu a break!

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I'd love to Peter :)



:laugh:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ***soul-edge***

recommending an amd processor for a media pc.
thats funny.

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Did you actually read anything passed the CPU?

The motherboard is the real reason to go AMD for a media PC at the moment. It has the best integrated graphics of any motherboard going at the moment, suitable for light gaming and coupled to an X2 is very capable of delivery most if not all HD resolutions for movies.

I have suggested an Intel setup further down if you plan to use a dedicated graphics card, but if that is something like an HD3450 or in your case an 8400gs, you may as well just not bother as the 780G has what is basically a shrunk HD3450 as it's integrated graphics solution.

***soul-edge*** shouldn't be banned even if he is trolling... he adds a lot of comic value to these forums :laugh:
I giggle at almost every single one of his posts...