Low Budget Help

DSS22 · 28 Nov 2010 at 11:13

My parents have agreed to get me a computer, however their budget is only at around £300 (I can probably get it a little bit above). Could anyone spec me a system? I don't need an OS since my friend has a spare install, but I will need a monitor+keyboard so maybe take a bit off for that.

I'm willing to wait for pieces to come up cheap, so it would be really helpful if someone could point me towards the kind of parts I should be looking at. Thanks!

DragonQ · 28 Nov 2010 at 11:18

£300 including monitor? That's gonna be extremely tough, might be worth getting a low-end laptop from PC World or something. What will you be using the PC for?

DSS22 · 28 Nov 2010 at 11:24

Mainly for gaming and photo editing / graphics work. I might be able to get a monitor off one of my friends though.

Cookeh · 28 Nov 2010 at 11:28

Not a hope of anything reasonable I'm afraid.
Low spec Core2Duo system with *possibly* 2GB of ram and a G31 chipset.
But you won't have dedicated graphics so it will just fail at games.

DragonQ · 28 Nov 2010 at 11:32

Maybe look at this:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=FS-265-OK&groupid=43&catid=1078&subcat=

with "no security software", "no operating system" and the graphics card option. £244 in total. You'd then have to scrounge a keyboard off of someone or get one cheap, and then maybe see if you can get or buy a monitor off of a friend or something.

Cookeh · 28 Nov 2010 at 11:35

BenQ G2222HDL 21.5" Widescreen LED Monitor - Black
(£93.61) £109.99

Coolermaster Elite 430 Windowed Case - Black (with 500w Elite Power PSU)
(£53.61) £62.99

Asus M4A78LT-M 760G (Socket AM3) DDR3 Motherboard
(£41.69) £48.99

AMD Athlon II X2 Dual Core 250 3.00GHz (Socket AM3) - Retail
(£35.74) £41.99

Samsung SpinPoint F3 500GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (HD502HJ)
(£27.22) £31.98

OCZ Gold 2GB (1x2GB) DDR3 PC3-10666C9 1333MHz Low-Voltage Single Channel Module (OCZ3G1333LV2G)
(£21.27) £24.99

Sub Total : £273.14
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £11.75
VAT is being charged at 17.50% VAT : £49.86
Total : £334.75

Thats the best I can do, and still no dedicated graphics card, and still over budget!

DSS22 · 28 Nov 2010 at 11:35

That looks good... would that be a better option than building myself?

DSS22 · 28 Nov 2010 at 11:37

Thats really helpful Cookeh, I think my friend has actually got a spare monitor so that is actually well below budget =)

Cookeh · 28 Nov 2010 at 11:39

BenQ G2222HDL 21.5" Widescreen LED Monitor - Black
(£93.61) £109.99

Coolermaster Elite 430 Windowed Case - Black (with 500w Elite Power PSU)
(£53.61) £62.99

Intel Celeron Dual Core E3400 "LGA775" 2.60GHz (800FSB) - Retail
(£32.33) £37.99

MSI G41M-P25 Intel G41 (Socket 775) DDR3 microATX Motherboard
(£29.78) £34.99

Samsung SpinPoint F3 500GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (HD502HJ)
(£27.22) £31.98

OCZ Gold 2GB (1x2GB) DDR3 PC3-10666C9 1333MHz Low-Voltage Single Channel Module (OCZ3G1333LV2G)
(£21.27) £24.99

Sub Total : £257.82
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £11.75
VAT is being charged at 17.50% VAT : £47.17
Total : £316.74

Slightly less over budget, but much older tech. Still no dedicated graphics. Still no keyboard.

Do you not have any money you could contribute to this?

DSS22 · 28 Nov 2010 at 11:41

I don't have much no although I could find about 50-80 quid.

95thrifles · 28 Nov 2010 at 11:46

If you dont need a monitor in it, and can go 50 over, you can get a very reasonable system for 350

Gainward ATI Radeon HD 4870 "Golden Sample" 512MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card - OEM (Grade A Refurb 3 Months Warranty) £79.99
Patriot Viper 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C7 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (PVS34G1600LLK) £63.44
Coolermaster Elite 430 Windowed Case - Black (with 500w Elite Power PSU) £62.99
Asus M4A78LT-M 760G (Socket AM3) DDR3 Motherboard £48.99
AMD Athlon II X2 Dual Core 250 3.00GHz (Socket AM3) - Retail £41.99
Samsung SpinPoint F3 500GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (HD502HJ) £31.98
LiteOn IHAS124 - DVD±RW (±R DL) / DVD-RAM drive - Serial ATA - 48x (CD) / 16x (DVD) 48x (CD) / 24x (DVD±R) /12x (DVD±R DL) 32x (CD) / 6x (DVD-RW) / 8x (DVD+RW) / 12x (DVD-RAM) - Internal - Black £11.97
Sub Total : £290.52
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £10.50
VAT is being charged at 17.50% VAT : £52.68
Total : £353.70

xRowan · 28 Nov 2010 at 11:47

If your budget was £400 this would be easy to build a very nice pc. This is the best I could do

Cookeh · 28 Nov 2010 at 11:47

For £360 (including postage :eek:

), you could get this:

HIS ATI Radeon HD 5770 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card
(£85.10) £99.99

Corsair XMS3 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMX4GX3M2A1600C9)
(£56.16) £65.99

Coolermaster Elite 430 Windowed Case - Black (with 500w Elite Power PSU)
(£53.61) £62.99

Asus M4A78LT-M 760G (Socket AM3) DDR3 Motherboard
(£41.69) £48.99

AMD Athlon II X2 Dual Core 250 3.00GHz (Socket AM3) - Retail
(£35.74) £41.99

Samsung SpinPoint F3 500GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (HD502HJ)
(£27.22) £31.98

Sub Total : £299.52
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £10.00
VAT is being charged at 17.50% VAT : £54.17
Total : £363.69

Still no keyboard, but you can pick them up for £5 in a well known high street shop.

System will out perform the Primo by a mile, and will be decent for games (depending on the resolution, which I don't think is going to be great seeing as you're getting one free from a friend

) and editing.

Cookeh · 28 Nov 2010 at 11:48

Oh snap! Ive been forgetting optical drives all this time!

Ima blame the fact I haven't used one in over two years

DSS22 · 28 Nov 2010 at 11:50

Wow thats a really good option. Thanks loads guys

Cookeh · 28 Nov 2010 at 11:51

I'd go with 95thrifles build. But spending the extra £2 on Corsair XMS3 ram - more reputable brand and lifetime warranty

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-203-CS

(Mainly because its similar to mine

, but it's a very good build, and should manage whatever you throw at it)

scrlk · 28 Nov 2010 at 11:52

Again, over budget but slightly more powerful integrated graphics.

EDIT: Why don't you save up? £400 will get you a better PC.

DSS22 · 28 Nov 2010 at 11:57

What stuff would be better for 400?

xRowan · 28 Nov 2010 at 12:00

DSS22 said:
What stuff would be better for 400?

For £430 you could get a better motherboard, a quad core and a gtx 460 which is great.

95thrifles · 28 Nov 2010 at 12:00

For a bit more you can add a 460 and/or better mobo, but you can keep going all day, try n stick to your original budget, the build above should be sufficient for most things still

HIS ATI Radeon HD 5770 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £99.99
AMD Athlon II X4 Quad Core 640 3.00GHz (Socket AM3) - Retail £75.19
Patriot Viper 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C7 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (PVS34G1600LLK) £63.44
Coolermaster Elite 430 Windowed Case - Black (with 500w Elite Power PSU) £62.99
Asus M4A78LT-M 760G (Socket AM3) DDR3 Motherboard £48.99
Samsung SpinPoint F3 500GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (HD502HJ) £31.98
LiteOn IHAS124 - DVD±RW (±R DL) / DVD-RAM drive - Serial ATA - 48x (CD) / 16x (DVD) 48x (CD) / 24x (DVD±R) /12x (DVD±R DL) 32x (CD) / 6x (DVD-RW) / 8x (DVD+RW) / 12x (DVD-RAM) - Internal - Black £11.97
Sub Total : £335.79
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £10.50
VAT is being charged at 17.50% VAT : £60.60
Total : £406.89