£300-350 base unit spec

[adsmithy]

Hi,

My grandads computer has got too slow recently. I want to put together a system for him. He only uses it for internet and viewing/printing photos.

For £349 I can get a Dell studio base unit.

http://configure.euro.dell.com/dells...=D045401&s=dhs

Vista Home premium
Dual core E5200
2GB RAM
320GB HDD
Int Graphics
Keyboard and mouse.

He already has a 19" TFT, mouse and keyboard which can be used.

Can I build something myself for the same budget or less with a better spec and get more value for money?

[PeterStoba]

You'd be looking at

(mostly on today only at scan, shop around and save more...)

Intel

E5300
2x1GB Corsair DDR 2 800
Gigabyte GA-G31M-ES2L
Coolermaster Elite 335
Samsung SH-S223F/BEBE
Samsung Spinpont F1 320GB
400W Silverstone Strider PSU
and vista home premium

~330

AMD

6000+
2x1GB Corsair DDR 2 800
Gigabyte GA-M61PME-S2
Coolermaster Elite 335
Samsung SH-S223F/BEBE
Samsung Spinpont F1 320GB
400W Silverstone Strider PSU
and vista home premium

Should leave you £20 for some random bits, new keyboard and mouse perhaps, or a bigger hard drive? Maybe a 790GX mobo for the AMD for some onboard HD if he wants to?

[adsmithy]

Thanks. I will go and add some parts together. Obviously that is a better spec for less, but is it enough difference to bother putting it together myself I will have to decide.

[PeterStoba]

Roughly £330, added links to my first post. Some AMD specs too...

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

This is what I would go for:

AMD X2 7750+ ~ £55

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/AMD-A...B-Cache-Retail

It is faster at stock speeds than an E5200 and also an X2 6000+ !

Asus 780G motherboard ~£60

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/150278

It has very fast integrated graphics(basically an HD3450 without its own RAM) and every monitor output you can think off and solid capacitors

OCZ 2gb RAM ~ £18

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/114728

FSP Blue Storm ~ £28

http://www.scan.co.uk/TodayOnly/Index.aspx

or

Silverstorm Strider 350w ~£23

http://www.scan.co.uk/TodayOnly/Index.aspx

Samsung 320gb F1 drive ~£38

http://www.scan.co.uk/TodayOnly/Index.aspx

Akasa Zen ~ £29

http://www.scan.co.uk/TodayOnly/Index.aspx

Vista Home Premium ~ £83

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/123067

DVD writer ~ £16

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/154810

A lot of items are on Scan Today Only this weekend!! Remember there is free postage for Hexus members on Scan and free postage for orders over £49.99 at Ebuyer!

The total comes to £327 with the 400w PSU or £322 with the 350W PSU.

You can save a bit more money by going for an Asus barebones for around £101 instead:

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/151171

This has Nvidia 8200 graphics(basically an integrated 8500gt without the RAM). It also has a 300w PSU and a card reader included!! This will drop the price closer to £300.

[Hyperviper34]

Have a look at BBBB it's cheap, powerful and you could down grade the GPU and save more money.

[Infinite]

http://configure.euro.dell.com/dells...=D045002&s=dhs

This is like exactly the same but in a different case and a crapper intergrated graphics for £279. Should do the job if your grandad doesnt game.

[madman045]

Another good website is this

http://www.dmxdimension.com/

Plenty of Dell systems

[Badbonji]

For part of the system, what about using this:
http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/s....html?BB-E842P
£249, for a E8400 included with a case, 2gb ram, mobo and 400W PSU.
All you need is a 250Gb HD and a very cheap gpu.

That is a very strong CPU, and will be useful if he uses photoshop or anything.
Will also be alot more future proof than a E5200, being a top of the range 2 core cpu.

[Will404]

For part of the system, what about using this:
http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/s....html?BB-E842P
£249, for a E8400 included with a case, 2gb ram, mobo and 400W PSU.
All you need is a 250Gb HD and a very cheap gpu.

That is a very strong CPU, and will be useful if he uses photoshop or anything.
Will also be alot more future proof than a E5200, being a top of the range 2 core cpu.

What's the PSU on that like. will it go pop!!

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

What's the PSU on that like. will it go pop!!

Also the cost of an OS needs to be added on top too.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

http://configure.euro.dell.com/dells...=D045002&s=dhs

This is like exactly the same but in a different case and a crapper intergrated graphics for £279. Should do the job if your grandad doesnt game.

Looks like a good option TBH.Excellent value for £279!!

[scaryjim]

That dell is surprisingly well balanced - definitely a good buy. I have a couple of laptops that use the mobile version of GMA3100 and it's more than good enough for general use.

Anyone else noiced that the upgrade price to a BD-RW + DVD ROM is less than just to a BD-RW? And if so, do you think it's a misprint (i.e. should be BD-ROM + DVD-RW)!?!

Personally, I'd probably go with the XP Pro / Vista Business option for an extra £40, but that's down to a personal hatred of Vista - I think £40 is a small price to pay to avoid it

[watforddude]

just a question about the RAM you have advised him to get, im upgrading my RAM aswell, in games in mind, what improvements am i expecting by replacing my 1GB Kingston HyperX DDR2 with OCZ 2gb RAM ~ £18

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/114728

[scaryjim]

If you'd rather cut back the cost, and this machine is *really* only for interwebs and ceaning up the red-eye on digital photos, then this build may do the job:

Gigabyte GA-MA74GM-S2 Motherboard £43.47
AMD Athlon 64 LE-1640 Processor £30.48
OCZ 2GB DDR2 800MHz Gold XTC Memory £17.99
Casecom Shiny Piano Black Mini Tower Case £20.66
Antec Basiq Power 350W ATX 12V PSU £27.92
Western Digital WD3200AAKS 320GB SATAII £40.06
LiteOn LH-20A1S 20X SATA DVD±RW £15.39

Grand total (pricing today on ebuyer) £195.97. For preference, I would add Windows XP Home 32bit for £69.99, but you could also choose Vista Home Premium 32bit for £10 more. Even with Vista + a decent keyboard and mouse you're going to be spending less than £300.

That said, the Dell @ £280 has more oomph in the processor, and given that all the other component are basically equivalent it's probably the better buy: the problem with building yourself is the cost of the OS...

[Badbonji]

Also the cost of an OS needs to be added on top too.

It is tested before sent, and should handle the system fine being in the build. A very good price for the cpu in it imo... Given that he had a mouse+keyboard I would have though he would have an OS install disk from the last pc...