Budjet PC Build

[Ares_202]

Hi, im building a computer for my brother he just wants to do some web surfing and light gaming (mostly older games)

His budjet is about £250

He does not need a monitor or peripherals just the PC itself, can you reccomend me any parts?

Thanks

[AdamAnubis]

What kind of games? Does he want to play them on max or just have them playing? What resolution is he running at?

I'm doing a build now, is sneaking just above the £250 mark though And that's with me forgetting a Harddrive...hmmm

Are there any old PC parts that can be salvaged? That's a very tight budget though. Doable though.

EDIT: Assuming that there's no salvagable parts around then the below is about the best you'll get in terms of future-proof ish and not just buying outdated parts. Note however, this does not include and OS so add +£70 for that.


That said, if you wanted you can get rid of the GT240 (brining it to £234) allowing you to then add in a better/more appropiate card at a later date when there's more money around. There's onboard so can still be used for surfing etc.

[Ares_202]

Hi Adam.

He just needs the games playing (his res is low 1280x1024) he mostly plays games older games like BF2 and Medieval 2 total war, but i want to have some amount of future proofing so he wont have to rebuild if he decides to play newer games

I dont need an OS

The spare parts that might help

Aluminum case (dating back from around 2005)
Socket 775 motherboard (Gigabyte P35-DS3L) - supports up to 45nm Quads

his budjet might stretch to £300 if there is a requirement to do so, he has VAT exemption too i think so you can remove that from the bill

[AdamAnubis]

Right, well if he has a Socket 775 then might be able to use that I'll do it again sans motherboard and with a Core2.

Yeah, if he wants futureproofing then a slightly more expensive card might be needed. I'll have a look.

EDIT: Core2's and DDR2 RAM are now fairly expensive, more so than the above build (the same set up with just a CPU/DDR2 came to ~£400. The above is more future proof as it's an AM3 motherboard, meaning he can upgrade the CPU later on and has DDR3 (Core2/Socket 775 would restrict to DDR2). If I were you, I'd sell the motherboard and use that money to buy a GTS250 (about £90 each) or look for second hand parts (8800GT) on ebay and the like. More risk though and no guarantee.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

This is what I would look at getting if you don't want to re-use any parts:

AMD Athlon II X3 Tri Core 440 3.00GHz (Socket AM3) Processor ~ £56

http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Compo...roductId=39499

ASRock M3A770DE ~ £52

http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Compo...roductId=37777

OCZ Gold 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-10666C9 1333MHz Dual Channel Kit ~ £59

http://www.aria.co.uk/SuperSpecials/...roductId=37540

VTX ATI Radeon HD 4850 512MB GDDR3 PCI-Express Graphics Card ~ £66

http://www.aria.co.uk/SuperSpecials/...roductId=40735

Samsung HD502HJ F3 500GB 3.5" SATA II Hard Drive ~ £31

http://www.aria.co.uk/SuperSpecials/...roductId=37759

Samsung SH-S223C 22x Internal DVD±R/RW SATA Drive ~ £13

http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Compo...roductId=38547

OCZ OCZ400SXS-UK StealthXStream 400W Silent ATX2.2 Power Supply ~ £27

http://www.aria.co.uk/SuperSpecials/...roductId=39205

Coolermaster Elite 335 Tower Case ~ £29

http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Compo...roductId=35132

The total comes to around £333 including VAT and excluding delivery.



However since you already have a decent enough motherboard I would look at the following build:

Intel Pentium E6600 3.06GHz ~ £63

http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Compo...roductId=41216


OR


Intel Core 2 Duo E7500 2.93GHz ~ £70

http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Compo...roductId=40933



OR

Intel Core 2 Quad Q8300 LGA775 (Yorkfield) 2.50GHz (1333FSB) Processor ~ £108

http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Compo...roductId=38434


OCZ GOLD 4GB (2x2GB) DDR2 PC2-6400C5 800MHz Dual Channel Kit ~ £68

http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Compo...roductId=29106


VTX ATI Radeon HD 4850 512MB GDDR3 PCI-Express Graphics Card ~ £66

http://www.aria.co.uk/SuperSpecials/...roductId=40735

Samsung HD502HJ F3 500GB 3.5" SATA II Hard Drive ~ £31

http://www.aria.co.uk/SuperSpecials/...roductId=37759

Samsung SH-S223C 22x Internal DVD±R/RW SATA Drive ~ £13

http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Compo...roductId=38547

OCZ OCZ400SXS-UK StealthXStream 400W Silent ATX2.2 Power Supply ~ £27

http://www.aria.co.uk/SuperSpecials/...roductId=39205

Coolermaster Elite 335 Tower Case ~ £29

http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Compo...roductId=35132

The total comes to around £297 to £342 including VAT and excluding delivery.

If you keep the case you already have you can drop the price of the builds by around £29.

The AMD build has more upgrade potential but the Intel based build with the Q8300 will be faster.

The HD4850 512MB is around the same speed as a GTS250 and is cheaper. It is around the same speed as an HD5750 512MB but lacks DX11.

I have a Q6600 at around 2.9GHZ(around the same speed as a Q8300) and an overclocked HD4830(similar in speed to a stock HD4850) and I can run most games at decent settings at 1440X900 and 1680X1050 under XP and Vista.

[kurosagi01]

If you can stretch it to £300 this is pretty much my setup*apart from diff mobo*
Be able to do all you need and play games amazingly upto todays game but you know,you can always choose amd option but this my current setup apart from i have Asus P7H55-M mobo.

[AdamAnubis]

However Kurosagi is missing a HDD, case and CD Drive (While you can use the current case, I'd still suggest pushing a bit more and getting a new one just for future upgrades/know you have a decent one). It does really depend on how much he can be pushed. If he wants future proof, spend an extra ~£80 and get one (like Kuro's) that will last for a while and still be fast, or pay £250 and get old parts.

[Ares_202]

How much faster are the i-3's compared to a Q8300?

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Here are comparisons of the Q8200 and Q8400 with the Core i3 530:

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/118?vs=52

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/118?vs=89

Also 2GB of system RAM is rather low for a modern system as this would mean more paging to the hard disk. The Samsung F3 500GB and the Western Digital Black 500GB are the fastest 500GB hard discs ATM.

[AdamAnubis]

2GB is low but also cheaper

I'd personally go for the i3, is newer tech and is likely to be more efficent/cooler too.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Here is the Core i3 530 based version of the Intel build I suggested:

Intel Core i3 530 2.93Ghz (Clarkdale) (Socket LGA1156) Processor ~ £76

http://www.aria.co.uk/SuperSpecials/...roductId=39240

Asus P7H55-M Intel H55 (Socket 1156) DDR3 PCI-Express Micro-ATX Motherboard ~ £66

http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Compo...roductId=40151

OCZ Gold 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-10666C9 1333MHz Dual Channel Kit ~ £59

http://www.aria.co.uk/SuperSpecials/...roductId=37540

VTX ATI Radeon HD 4850 512MB GDDR3 PCI-Express Graphics Card ~ £66

http://www.aria.co.uk/SuperSpecials/...roductId=40735

Samsung HD502HJ F3 500GB 3.5" SATA II Hard Drive ~ £31

http://www.aria.co.uk/SuperSpecials/...roductId=37759

Samsung SH-S223C 22x Internal DVD±R/RW SATA Drive ~ £13

http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Compo...roductId=38547

OCZ OCZ400SXS-UK StealthXStream 400W Silent ATX2.2 Power Supply ~ £27

http://www.aria.co.uk/SuperSpecials/...roductId=39205

Coolermaster Elite 335 Tower Case ~ £29

http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Compo...roductId=35132

The total comes to around £367 including VAT and excluding delivery.

[kurosagi01]

All i could say is £400 be the sweet spot for a whole budget build.

[Attila the Bun]

Everytime I look at this thread the overall cost creeps up and up

Starts at £250 is now at £400 we could be playing poker

[kurosagi01]

I gurantee you that your brother will be a happy dude because for that price he can do some serious gaming and go playing all latest games,he will eventually turn into a average pc gamer.
This what i propose for £400,he will be able to play all his games and all latest games and please do NOT get the board mixed up with the "SI" mobo.

[AdamAnubis]

Everytime I look at this thread the overall cost creeps up and up

Starts at £250 is now at £400 we could be playing poker

That's just how Hexus rolls Good for PC advice, wallet advice? Not so much. "Just spend £20 here..the GTX480 will last longer...it'll be better in the long run.."



Though I do have to say I agree with Kurosagi

[Ares_202]

Sorry Guys, i couldnt convince him to spend £400 so he went for the E7500, my old mobo, 2gb ram and 4850 graphics

Thanks for your help