Budget PC

[Englander]

My aunt's computer is dying a very slow and painful death so she's decided to invest in a new one. I discussed this for a bit with her yesterday and she said she wanted to spend up to £500, which I think is quite high because all she uses it for is email/internet/word processing.

I've read around a couple of recent similar threads and from that have worked out this spec:

Mobo: Asus M4A78LT-M LE, AMD 760G, S AM3

CPU: AMD Athlon II 425 X3 Socket AM3

RAM: Corsair Value Select 2GB (1x2GB) DDR3 1333MHz

HDD: Samsung SpinPoint F3 500GB

DVD drive: Sony AD-5240S 24x DVD±RW

PSU: 350W Silverstone ST35F

Case: Coolermaster Elite 341

TOTAL: £268.76

I'm not really with it regarding AMD but I gather they're favourable for cheapo builds like this. There are a couple of things I want to know, like is everything going to fit together? (First AMD build, all this AMD 2, 2+ and 3 business is new to me!) Much point in going to 4GB RAM? Will that PSU fit alright in the mATX case? Can anything be improved upon whilst staying within a reasonable price bracket? Operating system is accounted for, as is screen and other basic peripherals. I'll draw the absolute budget line at £400 but I really doubt we'll get even close given the limited computing power required to fulfil her needs.

Thanks as always,
Michael

[arthurleung]

Considering the components you're using, I would suggest otherwise:

DELL Inspiron 570
AMD Sempron 140 2.7GHz Windows 7 Home Premium None 2048MB 320GB ATI Radeon HD4200 DVD Writer £269 D005701
AMD Athlon II X2 240 2.8GHz Windows 7 Home Premium None 2048MB 320GB ATI Radeon HD4200 DVD Writer £299 D005701a
AMD Athlon II X3 425 2.7GHz Windows 7 Home Premium None 4096MB 320GB ATI Radeon HD4200 DVD Writer £379 D005704b

In your price you have not included the OS so that is another £80 extra, which take your total price to £349 for DIY.
While you said you already have OS, you might as well use it on another computer when it is so cheap with the DELL.
The DELL system with X3 is 30 pounds more with a small drive but 2GB more memory.
The X2 system have smaller HDD and one less core, but is cheaper.
Or you could even go for the Sempron 140. Really pushing on the price but probably won't be faster than the machine your aunt have now.


There is normally not much point building very low end system yourself UNLESS you are planning to overclock (which you certainly is not in this case) or need considerably better graphics. Using Quidco take the price down another few quids. You can also look at the DELL outlet which could have system even cheaper than this, or have better spec for the same price.

[Pob255]

All of that should fit together without issues
I'd actually save a little on the cpu and go for a athlon II x2 240 or 245 or 250
http://www.ebuyer.com/search?sq=athl...1&subsearch=Go

I'd also up the motherboard to a 785g but that's just me
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/170230
(The MSI one is very nice but scan don't have any in stock http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/MSI-7...Board-Graphics )

Case looks fine, cheap and basic.
I would add a couple of little things:
Two of these 120mm fan filters http://www.chilledpc.co.uk/shop/prod...roducts_id=260 Screw them over the vents is the side panel to help reduce dust build up inside the case.
An aftermarket cooler, http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Xigma...uad-Core-Ready Just to bring the noise down

EDIT: but I do agree with arthurleung in principle. I'd go as far as sugesting looking at on of the Atom based systems (dual core 330) http://www.ebuyer.com/product/172706

[Saracen]

Well, my first thought is that it'd be easier to see what was going on in the thread if the actual components were listed, rather than just a series of links, which means we have to click 7 links and wait for shop sites to load just to see the spec. Better yet, use the text for the component and link it, like :-

CPU: AMD Athlon II 425 X3 Socket AM3 512KB L2 Cache Retail Box Processor

That way, we can see at a glance what you're talking about, and still click if need be.

The second thought is .... what about a laptop? Given her budget, and given the use, would it be more convenient? Would she prefer it? If not, fair enough.

The next thought is that given her use (email, browsing and WP), just about anything from the era of an Athlon XP 1400 onwards, and probably even quite a bit before that, would be perfectly well up to the job. So what about a second hand machine that someone's upgrading from? There must be any number of machines quite capable of that about, and I'd have thought for £100 or so. If necessary, bung a bit more RAM and a new HD in one.

You could even try the likes of Freecycle and quite possibly hit lucky, and not have it cost her a penny.

If she is of the mindset that it must be new and only new will do, well fair enough. In that case, and if she doesn't want a laptop, then the suggestions made so far are all in the ballpark, and personally, I'd look at the Atom idea - small, neat, powerful enough and energy friendly. If she wanted to archive a huge downloaded movie collection or play state of the art games, it'd be different, but I'd be surprised if anything you could cobble together from today's components couldn't handle what you say her needs are, and do it with one hand tied behind its back, standing on its head and catching flaming knives in its teeth.

[smargh]

For a basic PC, I propose this Acer Revo:

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/167153

I don't think there's any need to go the whole DIY route of case-psu-mobo-cpu-cooler-cables-dvd-video.

If you want it to [perhaps] be a bit more reliable, replace the hard drive with an Intel X25-V 40GB SSD - http://www.cclonline.com/product-inf...oduct_id=42128

Perhaps plus an external DVD drive, too, if required.

[floppybootstomp]

All looks ok to me apart from that cheapo PSU, I'd definitely use one by Corsair, Seasonic or OCZ.

And with a small budget surely it's more economical to purchase from one supplier, wouldn't the postage costs cancel any small savings made on components elsewhere?

As for Dell, I wouldn't ever go there because of:

1) Recovery disks.
2) Dedicated Dell hardware impossible to upgrade.

I have always built my own, it doesn't neccesarily work out cheaper but it does make a better build with quality components.

Just out of interest, this is my current media machine setup, a budget build, except for the case perhaps:

Asus M4N78-VM Motherboard, onboard Nvidia 8200 Graphics, LAN & Sound
AMD 5050e dual core CPU 2.4Ghz with stock cooler
2Gb (2 x 1Gb) Corsair XMS2 DDR2 6400
WD Raptor 74Gb for OS
Samsung 1Tb HDD for storage
Hauppage Win TV Nova T-500 Twin digital tuner TV card
Asus DVDRW
Antec Fusion remote control media case
Jeantech 350W PSU

(I used the Jeantech as it was already there, had I bought new it would have been a Corsair PSU around 400W)

Dunno if that helps but good luck with the build

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

I am going to make a different suggestion!!

ZOTAC GeForce 9300-ITX WiFi ~ £110

http://www.play.com/PC/PCs/4-/134498...d/Product.html

Lian Li Q07 case ~ £51

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Lian-...TX-Case-No-PSU

Intel E3200 ~ £35

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/173865

2GB PC2-6400 DDR2 RAM ~ £39

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/149699

Samsung F3 500GB~ £37

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/146252

OCZ 400W StealthXStream PSU ~ £40

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/152505

SATA DVD rewriter ~ £15

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/170014

The system will be nice and compact and the case seems to be quite decent quality too!

[Englander]

Thank you everyone for your contribution, I've considered them all and spoken to my aunt a bit more. She seems to be quite in favour of the pre-built solution, even though I've assured her that I'd be more than happy to build it for her for free and that it'd likely turn out cheaper!

So now I know roughly what of today's tech is required to meet her needs, I suppose I'll toddle off and investigate the Dell/HP prebuilt route