Potential Budget PC...

RoEy

RoEy

RoEy

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Joined
10 Jan 2008
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Location
Nottinghamshire
My Dads got a Tiny PC that he's had for the last 8 years! With Windows 98 2nd Edition on it. I'm building a new PC for him and he's told me to keep it below £500. He has Monitor, Keyboard, Mouse. He'll be using it mainly for his work files, i.e. word docs, loads of music, watching dvds, downloading, surfing net, burning files etc. Not for games though. Potential spec:

CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E2200 "LGA775 Conroe" 2.20GHz (800FSB) - Retail - £57.56

Motherboard: Asus P5K Intel P35 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard - £78.71

Memory: Corsair 2GB DDR2 XMS2-6400C5 TwinX (2x1GB) - £35.24

GPU: PowerColor ATI Radeon HD 2400 PRO SCS3 SILENT 256MB DDR2 HDTV/DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail - £29.26

Drive: Samsung SH-S203D 20x DVD±RW SATA Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - OEM - £17.66

HDD: Western Digital Caviar SE16 250GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (WD2500AAKS) - £44.64 (Will be partitioned into 3 parts)

Case: Antec Solo Quiet Mini Tower Case - No PSU - £61.09

PSU: Akasa Ultra Quiet 500W Paxpower Active PFC ATX2.2 PSU - Black Nickel - £52.86

OS: Microsoft Windows XP Professional Edition inc. SP2 - OEM - 1Pk (E85-05040) - £89.29

Total Price - £466.37

I know the board is crossfire and I said he won't game but at least it makes it future proof for a bit. Can add more memory and better CPU if he needs it down the line too. But the above spec will be more than enough for him for years.

What does everyone think? OK?

Thanks,

RoEy
 
Last edited:
If your dad has kept the same monitor, keyboard and mouse for the past 8 years I reckon you should treat him to a new monitor at least. This system will perform about the same as what you have there but includes a 20" monitor for £10 more. I've changed to XP Home as unless your dad needs the extra networking capabilities of Pro it is probably an unnecessary extra expense.

Intel Core 2 Duo E2200 "LGA775 Conroe" 2.20GHz (800FSB) - Retail £48.99
(£57.56) £48.99
(£57.56)
Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition inc. SP2 - OEM - 1Pk (N09-01991) £47.99
(£56.39) £47.99
(£56.39)
Samsung SH-S203D 20x DVD±RW SATA Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - OEM £14.99
(£17.61) £14.99
(£17.61)
Abit IP35-E (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £54.99
(£64.61) £54.99
(£64.61)
Samsung SpinPoint S 250GB SATA-II 8MB Cache - OEM (HD250HJ) £35.99
(£42.29) £35.99
(£42.29)
OCZ 2GB (2x1GB) PC2-6400C4 Dual Channel Platinum Revision 2 XTC Series DDR2 (OCZ2P800R22GK) £23.99
(£28.19) £23.99
(£28.19)
PowerColor ATI Radeon HD 2400 PRO SCS3 SILENT 256MB DDR2 HDTV/DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail £24.99
(£29.36) £24.99
(£29.36)
Antec NSK 4480 Mini Tower Case (Silver) - 380W Earth Watts PSU £39.99
(£46.99) £39.99
(£46.99)
OcUK Value L-2041W 20" Widescreen LCD Monitor - Black £99.99
(£117.49) £99.99
(£117.49)
Sub Total : £391.91
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
City Link Parcel Next Day (Delivered Mon-Fri)
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £12.95
VAT is being charged at 17.5% VAT : £70.85
Total : £475.71
 
Thanks for your advice semi,

I forgot to mention that the monitor is roughly 4 years old. It's in perfect condition and it's a Sony 17". I've been thinking about getting home edition but I heard it doesn’t support dual CPU’s. I've gone for a better PSU as I've had cheaper ones in the past that's died. Plus I'm not keen on the case you mentioned, although very good value. There may not be much difference in performance between the two systems but I wanted to make sure that every component was good quality.

He can always buy a new monitor at a later date and plus the system will be very up gradable too.

Thanks for your help once again,

RoEy
 
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