Cheap PC/baseunit?

[format]

My gfs parents are looking for upgrades to their Dell Dimension 1100

# Manufacturer: Intel
# Chipset: Intel 865GV

    * Intel 82865GV Memory Controller Hub
    * Intel ICH5 (Intel 82801EB) or ICH5R (82801ER) I/O Controller Hub

# Processor: mPGA478 socket
# Front Side Bus (FSB) speed: Intel Pentium 4 processor supports 400/533/800 MHz system bus speed, Intel Celeron D processor supports 400/533 MHz system bus speed.
# BIOS: Phoenix ROM BIOS PLUS version 1.10
# Memory: two DDR SDRAM slots, 400 MHz maximum, 2 Gb (2x1 Gb) maximum, non-ECC
# Video: integrated Intel Extreme Graphics 2

It's a pretty old/crappy PC, and it takes PC3200 RAM which isn't the cheapest atm.


Does anyone know of any good bargain PC deals?

They only use it for spreadsheet/excel/word and internet browsing, and occasional light photo editing so it doesn't need to be very powerful, just quick.

No monitor/keyboard/mouse needed.

TIA.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

What is the budget for a new unit?? Do you need to include the price of an OS??

[Biscuit]

Does it have to be a prebuilt or can you build yourself?

[format]

I don't need an OS, they have XP.

As cheap as possible please, and I can build it myself

[scaryjim]

If you've got XP to install on it, I'm going to (once again!) recommend the £148 Acer Aspire Revo from ebuyer. You won't get as much hardware in a £150 unit anywhere else...

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

The Revo is very nice and compact!

This is what I have come up with:

Asus V3-M2NC61P AM2 Barebone~ £69

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/146254

AMD Sempron LE1200 ~ £25

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/AMD-Sempron-64...item3a5692a26d

1GB RAM ~ £17

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/142390

SATA DVD rewriter~ £17

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/164449

Western Digital WD3200AAJS 320GB~ £32

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/124734

The total cost will be around £150. OTH,the Acer Revo has a better IGP for media decoding and wireless although the build I suggested has a better CPU,bigger hard disk and an optical drive.

Here is a comparison of the AMD Sempron LE1200 and the Intel Atom 230:

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/default.aspx?p=43&p2=79

The Sempron is better for image editing.

Other bits which could be substituted:

ASUS V2-M3N8200 ~ £89

http://www.ebuyer.com/search?sort=pr...imit=10&page=1

This IGP is better for media encoding than the Nvidia 6100 chipset.

AMD Sempron 140 ~ £23

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/AMD-Sempron-14...item2304bb91e4

[Pob255]

Personally I'd hunt around o fleabay for cheap 2nd c2d or athlon x2 components.
However it can take a while to find and get good bargins.

If you consider a nettop then look for the 330 dual core atom over the 230 single core, the ASRock ones are nice and actually come with a dvd drive, which make installing stuff less hassle.

Buying new components, I'd look at a cheap am2+ 785g motherboard, 2gb of ddr2 and an athlonII x2

EDIT: just spotted this on novatech
http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/s....html?BB-3302G
Barebone Bundle - Atom 330 - 2GB DDR2 667Mhz - Intel 945GC Motherboard
Ok it's only the 945GC not an ION, but still all you need to add to that is a hard drive and a DVD/cd rom (heck you could probably pinch the dvd/cd out of their dell.)

This looks like a decent bundle as well
http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/s...e.html?BB-542G

EDIT2: on 2nd thoughts just get a motherboard+cpu+memory bundle
http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/s....html?MBB-542G
Then pick up a cheap mATX case and decent psu (Instead of an ATX mid tower and unknown psu)

[Iron Sights]

ccl have something similar

http://www.cclonline.com/product-inf...urer_id=0&tid=

be sure to check the other motherboard bundles on ccl and novatech too

edit: AFAIK the novatech one seems to have a better IGP