Little PC

[Disturbedguy]

Hello all,

Looking for a PC for my little sister.

At current she has a shuttle, but recently it has been shutting down, I thought it was over heating so have made changes that kept the temperatures down, but the PC still shut itself down randomly.

Rather than spend time and money trouble shooting the PC, I would prefer to buy one, pre built.

She mainly uses the video for watching videos online, facebook and msn, although the odd game of SIMS 3 or similar is required from time.

Budget: - £300 - £350 max. The cheaper the better. I have looked at stuff like the revo but obviously, this isn't the best option for when and if she wants to play a game.

Do not need Monitor, keyboard or mouse.

Any suggestions? Please?

[Rob_B]

You should be able to do that well under budget, what RAM/CPU/HDD does she already have?

[jim]

Under £300 prebuilt? With decent graphics?

You sure?

[Rob_B]

I'm thinking of a barebones, use some existing components & the sims doesn't exactly need a beast of a graphics card.
Not 100% prebuilt but you only need a couple of components, stick a CPU/RAM/HDD in et voila!

When I was looking (and you advised me against some, thanks!) you can buy prebuilts from PCWorld etc then just pop in a graphics card for pretty much the same effect & I reckon still well under £350

[Disturbedguy]

You should be able to do that well under budget, what RAM/CPU/HDD does she already have?

I will have to double check when I am home to confirm but I would rather go all new for her.

Under £300 prebuilt? With decent graphics?

You sure?

Good point. My step dad has said she can use his PC which is pretty much brand new, built by myself. But I can see that causing arguements, the family dont have a big budget for the PC and I am saving for a car so I dont have the budget, so I actually..it might be best, to get a PC with just on board GFX for the time being and she can game on my step dads PC, then in due time, I can stick a GFX card in, possibly my 8800GTS when/ if I get the GFX Card I have working..

[Rob_B]

http://www.studentcomputers.co.uk/De...PC_748623.html

4 blanking plates on the back so I'm assuming some sort of upgrade options for gfx although not sure of slot. A very quick Google hints at a PCIE slot (?)

If budget is an issue then why not re-use some components and have a 50/50 prebuild/manual build? You seem comfortable with building one so popping 3 components into a case won't be a big deal?

[Disturbedguy]

I will need to look at what she has now.

[jim]

Just for the sake of example, here's what £300 buys you:

http://www1.euro.dell.com/uk/en/home...-570_d005704~~

A decent Athlon dual-core, 2GB of RAM - everything's fine but graphics is not even an option on that rig. I don't know what the space is like in there, or what kind of power supply it runs. Hard to say what you'd be able to put in there in a few months' time.

Alternatively, you could try Scan 3XS? Something like my desktop #2 would be an option. Exclude the Phenom - originally I had an Athlon dual core in there which is where you'd be looking. And if you do that you can ensure that the power supply will be up to running a good graphics card, and you can make sure that you've got a case with enough room to fit the graphics. It might cost a bit more... I don't know really. But at least you'd know what's in there, and you've got a clear upgrade path for the future.

Whatever happens though, you'll almost certainly lack a graphics card with your budget.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Are there any parts which can be salvaged from the Shuttle??

What model number is it?

Do you have a copy of an OS?

[Disturbedguy]

She will have to do without until we can afford it then

I might see if they can stretch to a bit more..or if I can add a little to the over all budget.

http://3xs.scan.co.uk/ShowSystem.asp?SystemID=1123 - This doesnt look too bad actually/

[Disturbedguy]

Are there any parts which can be salvaged from the Shuttle??

What model number is it?

Do you have a copy of an OS?

I have a copy of WinXP some where, or atleast I am pretty sure I do.

Oh god, model number, its second hand and I cant quite remember to be honest.

Will have to check when home.

I *may* be able to salvaged the RAM, but will have to check if it's DDR 2 or not.

There isn't a massive rush really, just need to get a budget/ system in mind.

Edit: Wow just broke the 3000 posts mark.

[Rob_B]

But no gfx card?

She could get a laptp for ~ £250 if gfx is not a priority?

[jim]

http://3xs.scan.co.uk/ShowSystem.asp?SystemID=1123 - This doesnt look too bad actually/

Didn't realise they did systems that, erm, crap

Seriously though, that's the sort of thing I was thinking. Bit more expensive than I would've hoped though - £170 more than the Dell, and beyond the power supply and the case there's very little difference.

If you could cut the OS out, then you've dropped the Scan rig to £400 which would be better.

I'm sure there are cheaper prebuilds out there, but I wouldn't want them. Guess from here on it depends how big the demand for a graphics card is, whether you're prepared to build yourself instead, and whether the budget will move.

Only other thing I thought is that you can always send parts into Scan for them to add to 3XS builds. So if you do come across some cheap DDR2 on the classifieds you could always use that instead. I don't think it's going to make that big a difference though.

[lodore]

can get a decent machine from here
Managed to specify phonem quad core, 2gb DDR3 ram,windows 7,500watt PSU,NVIDIA GeForce GT 210 512MB 16X PCI Express
total £440
it can be lower if you adjust it. or you could use the ddr2 version if you have spare ddr2 ram lying about.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

If you did build the PC you could get the following:

Coolermaster Elite 340 Black MicroATX ~ £29

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

Gigabyte GA-MA78LMT-US2H ~ £55

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Gigab...-RAID-mATX-VGA

2GB 1333MHZ DDR3 ~ £56

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/2GB-%...-9-9-9-24-150V

AMD Athlon II X3 435 ~ £62

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/AMD-A...MHz-95W-Retail

Samsung F3 500GB ~ £37

http://www.scan.co.uk/TodayOnly/Index.aspx

OCZ StealthXStream 400W ~ £33

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

SATA DVD rewriter ~ £13

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/176026

HD4670 512MB GDDR3 ~ £54

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/512MB...-DL-DVI-I-HDMI

2X120MM Fans ~ £8

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/120mm...value-case-fan

The total comes to around £347. You can get free postage from Scan and Ebuyer.

The Elite 340 is not too large:

http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1232853

[jim]

I think the RC-341 looks a bit nicer, mind

Personal preference

Can confirm though, since they'll be similar internally, that they're very well-made cases and easy to work with. Expected it to be worse actually.