Budget Build Ideas

[s_kinton]

I'm looking to build a cheap PC, coming in around £100 to £150. Its been a while so could do with some help on what to go for. I've got quite a few bits lying around so its only the core components I need to get hold of. Would likely purchase from Scan or CCL.

Needed:
CPU
Motherboard
Integrated GPU
RAM

Not needed:
OS
PSU
Case
Peripherals
Optical Drives
HDDs

Suggestions welcome...

[Macman]

What purpose is the PC going to be for?

[scaryjim]

How cheap/what's the usage? Any gaming at all? Streaming video? How many hard/optical drives?

There's loads of options, and for the core subsystem you're after you can pay less than £100 easily, so it all depends on exactly what you need out of the finished system...

[DanceswithUnix]

Usage is important. If you need to buy Windows, your budget is gone

[s_kinton]

Sorry, missed that point off! No gaming, just general windows usage and browsing internet - certainly doesn't need to be beefy. Also have Windows 7 which they're happy with

[scaryjim]

Scan doesn't seem to have a great range of processors, and they're a little overpriced (IMNSHO, at least)

My goto - if you're willing to go to the higher end of the budget - would be an AMD A8-7600 - £67 from CCL.

Add an FM2+ motherboard of your choice (from £40) and - ideally - an 8GB dual channel DDR3 kit; although that would take you slightly over budget and you could "get away" with a 4GB kit instead.

At the other end of the scale you can grab an MITX board with built in dual core APU for only £34 and use a single stick of RAM to get everything you need for well under £100 - but you're going to get a comensurate cut in capabilities with that option. However if all it needs to do is basic Windows that would probably be good enough (or look at some of the Intel equivalents, which generally have Bay Trail or newer processors but are > £50).

[DanceswithUnix]

At the high end, Scan's today only has a Pentium G4400, 8GB of ram and a Gigabyte motherboard for £152

You can shave about a fiver off going S1150 at Ebuyer, which doesn't seem worth it for a slower CPU on a platform which will likely soon become hard to get new spares for.

I am always suspicious of builds that won't play games. My mum's PC gets occasionally used for gaming, if only because my kids sometimes visit

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

I would say a Kaby Lake Pentium G4560,but the cheapest motherboards with the B250 chipset are over £65!! Older motherboards apparently need a BIOS update.

I would probably get a Pentium G3900 and this B-Grade motherboard:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Intel-Celer...=intel+celeron
https://www.novatech.co.uk/products/...h110m-s2h.html


I would get one stick of 4GB DDR4 and this 240GB SSD:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Kingston-Va...words=4GB+DDR4
https://www.novatech.co.uk/products/...tnd-n1a2a.html

I limited the list to two retailers so to save on postage costs. The total should come to just under £150 delivered.

Now,if you got a 120GB SSD,you could 8GB of DDR4,but a larger SSD will be less likely to get full quicker.

[wazzickle]

What about 2nd hand or refurbished parts from highly-rated sellers on ebay?

[DanceswithUnix]

Novatech do motherboard/cpu/ram bundles pre-tested including a couple of low end ones:

https://www.novatech.co.uk/motherboardbundles/

[s_kinton]

Thanks for all the advice so far. I'll have a look through and pick a setup for delivery!

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Thanks for all the advice so far. I'll have a look through and pick a setup for delivery!

An SSD will make a noticeable difference in day to day usage - its why I tried to include one with my parts suggestion!!

[DanceswithUnix]

An SSD will make a noticeable difference in day to day usage - its why I tried to include one with my parts suggestion!!

Depends on the usage of the build. Once booted a lightly used machine will hardly show any difference, so if storage is already sorted I would put the money into higher clock speed & 8GB of ram. It is better to not swap at all than to swap to fast storage. An ssd is also a very easy future retro-fit.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Depends on the usage of the build. Once booted a lightly used machine will hardly show any difference, so if storage is already sorted I would put the money into higher clock speed & 8GB of ram. It is better to not swap at all than to swap to fast storage. An ssd is also a very easy future retro-fit.

I noticed a world of difference on the A6 3670K system,once I moved back to an HDD on it(tested it for a while with an SSD) and that was normal usage. A G3900 and a SSD will generally feel quicker than a G4400 with an HDD in most cases.

The Pentium G4260 would be the ideal CPU in this case,but ultimately you need a BIOS update for H110 motherboards,which means you can just about get one with a B250 and 4GB of RAM for £160ish. The A8 7600 would be good if some gaming was required and for certain types of software but the platform is now EOL,and AMD really should have had AM4 out by now with Bristol Ridge.

Plus if the OP is quick and gets that motherboard,they could even manage to get 8GB of RAM with a smaller SSD. My experience with Novatech B-Grade motherboards is they look like they are warranty replacement stock in a plain box. A mate got a 970 one for under £40 which looked brand new. £20 for an H110 motherboard is cheap and Gigabyte have UK RMA and apparently their warranties might extend past the period Novatech mentions.

There were 3 or 4 in stock yesterday when I posted that link and its down to the last one. I have a feeling the OP will miss it sadly.

Ebuyer also have a DDR3 B150 motherboard for £39 too.

[DanceswithUnix]

Possibly laughable question but possibly not, have you considered a Chromebook? If "General Windows usage" means Facebook and ebay.