£400 budget PC

[chavo]

Hi,

My mum has asked me to build her a new PC. The only thing that can be reused from her old PC is the optical drive so it really is a full new system, she has said she would like a big monitor. She uses the PC for browsing the web so it doesn’t have to have a huge spec.

I was thinking a 22” monitor which will set us back about £130 and a budget case with PSU for about £30. The system could use on board graphics. I am thinking of installing Windows 7 64 bit as she only plays games like “who wants to be a millionaire” and low spec stuff and I have a unused copy in my house that I don’t want.

Can anyone advise a good Board, Ram and Chip combo, I will pop a 500 gig hard drive in (£50) it and I have a 7800 GTX if needs be she can have that. Budget for board Ram and chip is around £190. As future proof as possible.


Any suggestions as I don’t know whether to go the AMD/Intel route or the DDR2/DDR3 route.

[Terbinator]

Hi,

My mum has asked me to build her a new PC. The only thing that can be reused from her old PC is the optical drive so it really is a full new system, she has said she would like a big monitor. She uses the PC for browsing the web so it doesn’t have to have a huge spec.

I was thinking a 22” monitor which will set us back about £130 and a budget case with PSU for about £30. The system could use on board graphics. I am thinking of installing Windows 7 64 bit as she only plays games like “who wants to be a millionaire” and low spec stuff and I have a unused copy in my house that I don’t want.

Can anyone advise a good Board, Ram and Chip combo, I will pop a 500 gig hard drive in (£50) it and I have a 7800 GTX if needs be she can have that. Budget for board Ram and chip is around £190. As future proof as possible.


Any suggestions as I don’t know whether to go the AMD/Intel route or the DDR2/DDR3 route.

£50 on a 500GB hard drive? The Samsung F3 500GB costs around £35 and is arguably the fastest HDD in its price bracket.
I recommend getting a decent brand PSU though rather than the manure that usually comes with "budget" cases. An AMD Athlon II X2 can be had for around £50, along with any AM3 770/780/785 motherboard, the 785 is the newest of these and has an updated SB and reasonable on-board GFX for around £50. For either 2/4GB of DDR3 your looking around £40 for 2GB and £80 for 4GB - possibly cheaper if you dig around.
The Corsair CX400 is a decent reliable budget PSU and costs around £40 at most.

[chavo]

good stuff i will have a look at that thanks

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

good stuff i will have a look at that thanks

Do you have a copy of an OS to hand??

[dirky]

I'm looking at doing an upgrade for the mother in law, I have some DDR2 already so have been looking at:

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/MSI-7...-8ch-AUDIO-ATX

&

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/176042

For around £100 total

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

I'm looking at doing an upgrade for the mother in law, I have some DDR2 already so have been looking at:

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/MSI-7...-8ch-AUDIO-ATX

&

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/176042

For around £100 total

If you need integrated graphics I would look at the following:

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/168321

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/ASRoc...SATA-RAID-mATX

The Asrock motherboard has dedicated DDR2 on the motherboard for the IGP.

The motherboard also seems to have the SB710 southbridge with means it can do core unlocking too:

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...d.php?t=233254

[dirky]

Nice one thanks, will look at that too

[chavo]

Do you have a copy of an OS to hand??

Yes i have a few OS options that she can use, she works for the NHS and gets a hefty discount for OS.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

This is what I would look at getting:

Digimate 22" LCD ~ £99

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/22-Di...-7001-Speakers

AMD Athlon II X3 425 ~ £54

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/176042

ASROCK M3A785GMH/128M ~ £60

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/179183

This motherboard has 128MB of DDR3 for the IGP.

4GB DDR3 ~ £82

http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/p...L9D-4GBRL.html

Run this at 1333MHZ using low latencies. You also get cashback from Quidco and TopCashBack for using Novatech.

OCZ 400W PSU ~ £39

http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/p...400SXS-UK.html

Coolermaster Elite 341 ~ £30

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Coole...X-Case-w-o-PSU

Samsung F3 500GB ~ £38

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/500Gb...-Cache-8ms-OEM