£150 build

[mehmeh]

Hey all.
Knocking together my Granddad a base unit for internet type use. He's been on an old PII 200mhz I gave him instead of the bin for over a year now and deffo time for an upgrade now hes got into it all. Challenge is, I wanna bring the whole system in under £150. He has Keyboard, Mouse and Monitor. OS not required.

So far I've come up with this...



+ Ram.. (PNY 2GB £11.99 still on offer at play.com unless anyone knows cheaper)

+ Case/PSU.. I guess any old cheapo case/PSU combo will do. My build gives me £25 to play with so not really enough for anything amazing, but will happily push the budget for something a bit better than a £20 jobbey from Ebuyer. Case has to be black.

Any thoughts? input? something I've not considered?

Thanks all.

[kalniel]

Does it have to be a new computer? You'd probably be able to find something much better second hand.

[mehmeh]

Does it have to be a new computer? You'd probably be able to find something much better second hand.

Agreed, could get something higher spec'd s/h, but in this instance something new and shiney is part of the alure. Plus less grief and warranty on stuff helps me out.

[shbris]

for only a few quid more you could double the harddrive, might not need it all but might as well

[Webby]

You could have the same size 80GB hard drive made by Samsung from Scan for £22 You could also save a couple of £ on the motherboard, CPU and DVD at Scan.

Still only leaves you £35 for a case & PSU though and I can't find one I would recommend for that money.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

You can get a cheapo brand new G31 based motherboard for under £25 delivered off Ebay. You can also get a secondhand E2140 or E2160 for under £30 from Ebay or a single core Celeron 420 or 440 for under 20 quid. If you are lucky you could get new CPUs at this price too!

This will save you £35 to £45.

[mehmeh]

You could have the same size 80GB hard drive made by Samsung from Scan for £22 You could also save a couple of £ on the motherboard, CPU and DVD at Scan.

Still only leaves you £35 for a case & PSU though and I can't find one I would recommend for that money.

Serves me right for being lazy, find it easier to spec on Ebuyer.. Thanks as always, Webby.

So switched to the Samsung drive you advised, nice saving there and also swapped for a LG DVD drive, another £1.50 saved w00t! Will deffo grab this little lot from Scan then.

So with Ram comes to £114.73.

What if we looked at it another way, the quality of the actual case is unimportant, but I'd like atleast a semi decent PSU as I've learned that lesson the hard way... TWICE!

£20-£30 for a remotetly decent PSU? (considered the FSP 700W, but not on offer and seems insane overkill)

What abouts...

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/350W-...ATA-80plus-Eff
or
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/350W-...ltra-Quiet-Fan

Atleast they're branded (leaning towards the Silverstone tbh) and I could throw them in a ten quid case for a few quid over the £150 target.

[Pob255]

They are both older design psu's but should be ok
Some cheap cases look quite nice, only when you have to build in them it shows (don't forget to add a box of sticky plasters into the price )

Or how about his current case? for £10 you could get some sand paper and a can of black spray paint

[shbris]

(considered the FSP 700W, but not on offer and seems insane overkill)[/I]

100 w would probably be overkill for this rig. its hard to recommend any power supply under 30 quid though

[mehmeh]

They are both older design psu's but should be ok
Some cheap cases look quite nice, only when you have to build in them it shows (don't forget to add a box of sticky plasters into the price )

Older design? All I can see missing from my prefference the Silverpower is 8pn EPS and 8pin PCIe?

I've actually got quite good at working on cheapo cases over the years, trick is to put the Plasters on before you start!

With the little adjustments and Scan prices, I can work £30+ for a PSU into the budget? Just dont want it to start getting silly as its only a basic machine, never likely to see an upgrade tbh. Just something decent enough not to take everything with it if/when it explodes would make me a happy man.

[Webby]

I would consider the Silverstone ST350F £28 good solid unit only down side is the lack f PCIe connector but since the is no graphics card and no plans to ever include one that is really a moot point.

[mehmeh]

mmhmmm just read the specs again and noticed that. No a big deal, but seems odd to have not included one, what PSU doesnt these days?! Read a few reviews of both and now not so sure, as the Akaska seems to be decent aswell, but gets knocked for its passive APC. tbh think I've giving this way to much thought as usual, either one will get the job done and as the Silverstone has recieved the Webby seal of approval, thats good enough for me.

Will get all this ordered up tomorrow then, just waiting for him to get back to me with his case chioce, he's like the proverbial kid in a sweet shop LOL!

Cheers as always to all.

[mehmeh]

Hmmm still unsure and didnt get around to ordering today. Had an email from novatech...

http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/s...html?CM-ELITEP <--- Very tempted by that bundle and will bring me in ten quid over budget. Figure the case is a step up from cheapo rubbish. Anyone have any expereince of Coolmaster PSU's? Notice they have quite an extensive range, but cant find allot of reviews or info on this 460W jobbey... Even knowing who the OEM is would be a start!

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Ebuyer do the same combo for £53 including free postage:

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/135101

[Pob255]

Like I said both of these (sliverstone and Akasa, no silverpower mentioned) are older designs and units
both have been around for a few years now, will be fine for this build.

That's not a bad deal from novatech.

If your feeling lazy go for one of there cheap bundels
http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/s....html?BB-A422A
That'll give you &#163;40 for a hard drive and dvd

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

The Silverpower SP400 is an excellent budget power supply. For under 30 quid it is great value for money. Remember there are two versions of this power supply. The later SP400P2C version has a larger fan unlike the earlier one. I have used one in a budget build for a person at work and there have been no issues so far for the last year or so.

A few reviews of the earlier version:

http://www.custompc.co.uk/labs/79280...sp-400p1b.html

http://www.pcpro.co.uk/shopper-labs/...0p1b-400w.html

http://www.trustedreviews.com/periph...p-Test-2005/p8