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Thread: Help me build a BUDGET PC

  1. #1
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    Help me build a BUDGET PC

    Alright people. Mate of mine wants me to look at upgrading his old dell PC and I know that they're notoriously difficult to upgrade so I thought I might come up with a spec for him to show how cheap it COULD be to build something new. So I need some help putting it together as cheap as poss.

    CPU: Athlon 7750+ £45
    MOBO: need help here, needs integrated graphics ~£35-50
    RAM: Crucial 2GB £18
    HDD: Maxtor 250GB £30
    DVD: LG DVDRW £16
    Case/PSU: CoolerMaster Elite 333 Black Case With CM eXtreme Power 460W PSU £53 -- could possibly save money here, any suggestions?
    Monitor: got
    OS: got

    Total: £193-208

    Not as low as I was hoping though, any suggestions where I can shave money off?

    Regards

  2. #2
    Moosing about! CAT-THE-FIFTH's Avatar
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    Re: Help me build a BUDGET PC

    This motherboard is good for the price:

    http://www.ebuyer.com/product/164480

    The integrated graphics card is based on the same chip as the 8400GS IIRC.

    Get this RAM as you can run it in dual channel:

    http://www.ebuyer.com/product/129177

    This RAM is also better quality than the normal cheapo stuff.

    350w Be Quiet psu:

    http://www.ebuyer.com/product/166784

    400w Silverpower psu:

    http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/400w-...ed-cooling-fan

    This is a good budget unit and the company is part of Tagan.

    You could add in a cheap case but TBH the Coolermaster case and PSU combo is very good value for money.

    The PSU is actually a 430w if you read this review:

    http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/550

    If you start spending any less money you will begin to skimp on quality. Also the Nvidia 8300 integrated and X2 7750+ would be probably a better overall spec than the e5200 and the Intel integrated graphics Dell usually uses.

    Also the case will be nicer,the PSU bigger and the RAM also is a better make too.
    Last edited by CAT-THE-FIFTH; 08-06-2009 at 04:17 PM.

  3. #3
    Not a good person scaryjim's Avatar
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    Re: Help me build a BUDGET PC

    Motherboard: Sapphire 740G - Newer IO / Southbridge, but still using the aging X1250 graphics core from the old 690G: good enough for browsing / office type use though, and it's only £43...

    Case: Casecom Mini Tower - I've used one of these recently and the build quality is surprisingly good. The DVD drive cover's a bit awkward (when it opens it blocks the eject button so you have to push the tray back in!) but it'd do the trick, looks pretty good and is nice and small. It is £20 though: you can get budget mid-tower cases from £13 and while they're nothing special they'll hold all the pieces of a PC and allow enough air to flow so it doesn't spontaneously combust

    PSU: Here's where you'll struggle. I used this Hiper PSU in the case above and it seem wel made and does the job, but it's not been running long enough to know about reliability. After that price starts rising: There's the Antec Basiq 350 which should be reliable and solid, and Ebuyer has a pre-order Be Quiet 350W. Those are all in the £25 - £30 price range: I wouldn't want to get anything cheaper than that tbh...

  4. #4
    jim
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    Re: Help me build a BUDGET PC

    Any chance of shifting components like the hard drive and dvd drive from the Dell into the new machine? Just thinking that might save a little bit of money. Even if he wanted DVD-RW and the old drive is a DVD-ROM, it's always nice to have two so that you can read from one and burn to the other simultaneously, and if the old hard drive is of a good quality and speed you might be able to use it for page files. Might as well salvage what's worth salvaging.

    I accept that hard drives are very cheap, and probably not worth the hassle, but I don't know how old this Dell is. Just to say, Dell PCs really aren't difficult to upgrade - maybe a long time ago, but not now. The only problem with them is that the motherboards have very restrictive BIOS setups.

    I stripped out my old Dimension 4600 a few years back, put it into an Antec P180 and attached a new PSU with no problems whatsoever, so I don't think these days the 'proprietary' problems still stick.

  5. #5
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    Re: Help me build a BUDGET PC

    Maybe you instead of a 460 watt psu you should maybe opt for a 400 watt psu

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