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Hello,
is it possible to get a new computer for £260 with a monitor?
my friend wants it to play perfectworld ,general web browsing and uni work.
doesn't even seem like dell can offer that.
is there any standard laptops for £260?
he thinks he wants to get a desktop because its more powerful but then again anything is more pwoerful than his 9 year old dell laptop he currently uses to play perfectworld.
so both choices if possible.
thanks in advance
not new but you can get a pretty reasonable Refurb Machine for that price form fleabay
As I've just built a pc for that sort of cash, I can tell you it's going to be very tight esp with a monitor, most of the inards of project spork came in under £200 however I did have a few old bits I could reuse so added nothing to the total.
Look for 17-19" screens as they should be pretty cheap 2nd hand.
Also remember the hexus for sale section ;)
Your best bet is to look for a complete setup from eBay and perhaps add in a graphics card separately.
This is what I would get:
MSI 785GTM-E45 ~ £48
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/171803
This has a version of the HD3450 graphics card integrated onto the motherboard.
2gb RAM ~£19
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/139662
AMD Sempron 140 ~ £27
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/168973
If the MSI motherboard has ACC you maybe able to unlock the CPU to a dual core.
Be Quiet! 350w PSU ~ £30
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/166784
Case ~ £12
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/108273
92mm fan ~ £2
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/63283
Western Digital 320gb hard disk ~ £31
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/124735
IDE DVD-ROM drive ~ £9
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/126087
There is SATA DVD rewriter on Scan for around £13 but your friend will need to pay for postage though.
HANNS.G HW173AB 17" TFT Monitor ~ £87
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/126874
Gigabyte keyboard and mouse ~£7
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/164273
The total comes to £268.63 using the free postage option on Ebuyer.
I would use Windows 7 RC1 until early next year and then your mate will have to buy a copy of the OS. Alternatively they probably can get Windows Vista and eventually Windows 7 for around £40 as part of the Microsoft Perfect Steal promotion for students. If your friend has MSDNAA access they can get Vista or Windows 7 for free.
That sounds pretty good! I'm after something quite similar actually - however I'll keep my 20" Dell monitor, keyboard and mouse. Recommend the same type of thing with a dual core CPU? Maybe even C2D?
Ta!
Even though that sempron is based on the phenonII it's still a pritty poor cpu
For about £30 you can get a slightly older Athlon x2 which would be far better.
That case is also really nasty, You can get some quite nice very cheap cases.
Infact going through ebuyer I just spotted this
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/172779
http://image.ebuyer.com/UK/R0172779-01.jpg http://image.ebuyer.com/UK/R0172779-02.jpg
Nice layout, much better hex fan grills, 120m fan mounts, black internals.
For £25 that looks surpriseing good.
I'm almost tempted to get one just to see what it's like.
Just checking fleabay compleated listings, you should be able to get a 2nd hand 19" monitor for around £50-60 with p&p
oh and 120mm fans will be under £5
Someone has got 2 thermaltake 120mm fans currently at £0.99
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Thermeltake-12...d=p3286.c0.m14
For the budget that is the best new build I could spec and for the game being played the 780G and a Sempron would be enough it seems. Of course if you buy secondhand you can get bargains. However if the OP has the time this maybe a way forward for such a limited budget.Quote:
Originally Posted by Pob255
Quote:
Originally Posted by pritsey
Changes I would make to the build:
Phenom II X2 545 ~ £66
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/168972
OR
Athlon II X2 245 ~ £49
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/168975
OCZ 400w PSU ~ £35
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/152505
I would look to change the RAM to PC2-8500 if possible.
I would also upgrade to this more expensive motherboard as it has 4 RAM slots:
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Asus-M4A785D-M-PRO
There is also a 320gb Samsung F1 on Scan too for around £34. The case Pob255 found looks decent for the price too.
Scan,Dabs and Novatech may have some bits cheaper so shop around a bit of you can be bothered.
The seperon is only a single core cpu with reduced cache, it's not going to cut it for many newer games.
For a budget of £260 I'd say 2nd hand is the only option for a half decent gaming pc.
Only problem with that case is it's not expected in untill october :(
I think I'm going to put one on pre-order just to see what it's like ;)
Intel G31 motherboard £30
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/161014
ATI HD 4350 GFX- £23
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/158996
2nd hand ebay DUAL CORE E5200 OR e4500 OR e2200 etc
...approx £40.
The friend of the OP is only using it to play a game which runs fine on a 9 year old notebook. The major limitation will be the speed of the graphics card and the hard disk speed. The recommended processor is a P4 1.5ghz!! I even know people who run Vista on single core processors and TBH it was RAM which was the major issue(the notebooks had 1gb initially) and once upgraded to 2gb of RAM Vista worked fine for them. Windows 7 should be a bit better for lower performance hardware too. My friend tried Windows 7 RC1 on a P4 3.2ghz with 2gb of RAM and a 128Mb 9800XXL and it worked perfectly fine.Quote:
Originally Posted by Pob255
Also the Sempron 140 has the same amount of L2 cache per core as the the Athlon II X2 processors as it is basically one of these processors with one core disabled. The L2 cache is not shared like the L3 cache found in the Phenom II processors so in single threaded applications the Sempron 140 won't be any slower than an Athlon II X2 at the same megahertz rating. Even scaryjim managed to unlock one of these to a dual core!! :) The friend of the OP can always upgrade the CPU at a later date when required and all the components come with a warranty.
For my purposes second hand components are good enough but TBH if I was building something for a friend I would only buy new or use second-hand components which I have used as I always give a warranty myself in the latter case. I just don't want to have to support the PC in three months time if the motherboard goes pop or something like that. At least wiith new bits the motherboard can be sent back for a replacement.
To the OP I would probably upgrade the PSU to the following 400w one:
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/152505
It would give more scope for future upgrades.
I disagree that buying 2nd hand processors is unwise for any build.Quote:
Originally Posted by CAT-THE-FIFTH
As long as you fully test it once it arrives (2 hours+ with Prime95) and keep it cool and sensibly clocked, it should last at least 3 years. Not bad for £30-£40.
I wouldn't buy a used motherboard, PSU or disk drives.
Just put this in a new build for mah mate, ive got to say i found it strange they bundle an 8pin pci-e connector with it seeing as its only 400W and around 33A on the 12v if i remember correctly.Quote:
Originally Posted by CAT-THE-FIFTH
It's not the point here though really is it? He just made some suggestions for a new build at that price (which I was shocked at to be honest, surprised he got it so low), and then if the OP wants to swap out certain components for second-hand equivalents then that's their call.Quote:
Originally Posted by rushholme
There's always a risk involved with second hand, no warranty components, so I'd be loathe to recommend them as well. I don't have a problem with them, I just wouldn't recommend them, that's all.
anyone used server as a desktop OS?
ive read some guides in the past.
Ive got the iso and product key from dreamspark.
Ive found some antivirus programs that work on server 2008 and aren't to expensive.
btw thanks to everyone for the advice so far. my mate hasnt got the money yet so not completely sure of what options are open.