A cheap small form factor PC

[ERU]

Hi all,

I'm in the market for another home PC, i,e Internet, MS office, Win XP and perhaps some photo viewing. This one needs to small, compact and as cheap as possible. Here are my options thus far:

Option 1
I have an old AMD Athlon 2ghz, ATX mobo, 512mb system that I buy a small case AND 19" TFT for. However it's underpowered in the modern world! I'm also finding the small cases expensive and was thinking of trying to get a TFT off somewhere like freecycle.

Option 2
I'm going to need more grunt. Buy a shuttle PC off eBay.

Option 3
Look for a small form factor case and build a barebones system.



~As stated above the cost need to be kept at an absolute minimum!

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

What are the exact specifications of the PC?? What is budget??

If the PC has a PCI-E slot you could get an HD5450 for around £30 for acceleration video playback and another 1GB of RAM.

I suspect that the lack of RAM and the fact that your CPU has too do all the video decoding is what is causing your PC to slow down a lot.

[ERU]

What are the exact specifications of the PC?? What is budget??

If the PC has a PCI-E slot you could get an HD5450 for around £30 for acceleration video playback and another 1GB of RAM.

I suspect that the lack of RAM and the fact that your CPU has too do all the video decoding is what is causing your PC to slow down a lot.

This will sit in the corner of the living room and be a work PC. As stated above my budget is as little as possible; as i'm not keen on spending cash on a PC to run Office. My main requirement is getting it all down to a VERY minimal size ... the living room is small!

The mobo/cpu I have here is an old single core computer is a DFI Lanparty NF4; so it does have a PCI-E slot. However I fully realise that the single core will be severely limiting. I tried playing Empire Total War on it once.... I know I can get a x2 core for it but as these are now rare i'll be paying through the teeth for it! i.e. it would therefore be better to buy new rather than upgrade it.

Now, I realise this might not be possible with the old parts I have available, i.e. a small case adds a sizable whack. If this IS the case - I can be pushed onto a budget of £150-£200.

Maybe a Acer Revo R3700, 2GB, 160GB, Linux, £184.98 @ Ebuyer would suit my needs but I think i'd prefer to be getting 'bang-for-buck' instead. I hated my old netbook and the things it couldn't do. That seemed like a backwards step in computing to me.

If the PC has a PCI-E slot you could get an HD5450 for around £30 for acceleration video playback and another 1GB of RAM.

On a side note I have a 9800 GT in another PC (AMD II x3, 4gb, Win7-64). Is now a good time to upgrade to something about the £80 mark?

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

This will sit in the corner of the living room and be a work PC. As stated above my budget is as little as possible; as i'm not keen on spending cash on a PC to run Office. My main requirement is getting it all down to a VERY minimal size ... the living room is small!

The mobo/cpu I have here is an old single core computer is a DFI Lanparty NF4; so it does have a PCI-E slot. However I fully realise that the single core will be severely limiting. I tried playing Empire Total War on it once.... I know I can get a x2 core for it but as these are now rare i'll be paying through the teeth for it! i.e. it would therefore be better to buy new rather than upgrade it.

Now, I realise this might not be possible with the old parts I have available, i.e. a small case adds a sizable whack. If this IS the case - I can be pushed onto a budget of £150-£200.

Maybe a Acer Revo R3700, 2GB, 160GB, Linux, £184.98 @ Ebuyer would suit my needs but I think i'd prefer to be getting 'bang-for-buck' instead. I hated my old netbook and the things it couldn't do. That seemed like a backwards step in computing to me.

It might worth waiting for the cheaper AMD Zacate motherboards to be released:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showpr...03&subcat=1949

However,here is a system you might want to consider:

Shuttle SG41J1 Plus ~ £100

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/222816

This has a PCI-E 16X slot meaning you can add a dedicated graphics card at a later date.

Intel Celeron E3400 ~ £35

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/193601

Crucial 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 1333MHz/PC3-10600 Memory Kit CL9 1.5V ~ £31

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/166995

WD 500GB 3.5" SATA 6Gb/s Caviar Blue Hard Drive ~ £29

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/241715

SATA DVD rewriter ~ £12

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/145450

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

The total comes to around £207. I would check if the 1.5V RAM works fine with the motherboard.

On a side note I have a 9800 GT in another PC (AMD II x3, 4gb, Win7-64). Is now a good time to upgrade to something about the £80 mark?

You could get a GTS450 or an HD5750 for around that price but TBH it won't be a massive upgrade IMHO as the cards are similar to a 9800GTX+ or GTS250 in performance.