£250 Budget Build

dfarrall

dfarrall

dfarrall

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Hi folks,

Looking to build something for the relatives just to browse the web.
Ideally i'd like to keep it close to £200, but its looking closer to £250 from what i can make.

This is what i'v got so far. No peripherals or OS required.
Want something thats going to be fairly nippy obviously.

Im not too sure on the llana currently, what are peoples opinions, is it still fairly overpriced?

Open to other build options too, so opinions please!

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/20/build1g.png/
 
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YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i3-2120 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £89.99
1 x MSI H61M-E33 Intel H61 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard **B3 REVISION** *WITH FREE MSI GRENADE* £46.99
1 x Samsung SpinPoint F3 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (HD103SJ) £40.99
1 x Corsair XMS3 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMX4GX3M2A1600C9) £29.99
1 x OCUK EZCool NA-705 Case - Black (500w PSU) £24.98
1 x Sony Optiarc AD-7260S 24x DVD±RW SATA Lightscribe ReWriter (Black) - OEM £16.98
Total : £249.92 (includes shipping : FREE).

If you get 250 posts you will get free delivery.
I'm thinking this is the other option you have, I don't like suggesting the OcUK case and PSU as it isn't brilliant quality however there wasn't much choice in this budget.

YOUR BASKET
1 x AMD Athlon II X3 Tri Core 450 3.20GHz (Socket AM3) - Retail £56.99
1 x Samsung SpinPoint F3 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (HD103SJ) £40.99
1 x Asus M4N68T-M LE NForce 630a (Socket AM2+/AM3) DDR3 Motherboard £34.98
1 x Corsair XMS3 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMX4GX3M2A1600C9) £29.99
1 x OCUK EZCool NA-705 Case - Black (500w PSU) £24.98
1 x Sony Optiarc AD-7260S 24x DVD±RW SATA Lightscribe ReWriter (Black) - OEM £16.98
Total : £204.91 (includes shipping : FREE).

Now to be quite honest, the i3 Intel build is a lot quicker than the AMD above but then it is £50 more expensive, your decision on if you want to spend the extra. As far as Llano goes. I still don't know really, when some people off these forums get them and give some feedback I may be more inclined to suggest but to me it looks like overpriced HTPC which can do some gaming.

Could add an upgrade path with the AMD build if you spend an extra £20 to get this board. It will accept the newer processors that haven't come out yet.

If I had to make this decision I would go with the i3 considering there will be no gaming.
 
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The only way I could keep it under £200 is to use pretty old components.
TBH, I'm a bit of a novice but I wanted to try and help and it's something interesting to do :) (it's my lunch hour lol)

Should be plenty for just web browsing though.

sdiwk9.jpg


EDIT: DJmartin's would be much better! haha
 
Graphic wise the AMD APU would be better at gaming than the intergrated graphic of the i3 2100, however the CPU wise the i3 2100 is much faster.

So if not for gaming, the i3 2100 with a H61/H67 board would be better option to go than that AMD option in my opinion.

And NO! Definitely stay the hell away from the outdated 775 socket, and certainly NOT the bottom of the bottom Celeron CPU. If you must go cheap, go G620 and a H61 board.
 
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if its just to browse the net and such, you could prolly get away with a socket 775 pc

something like
Intel Pentium Dual-Core E6700 "LGA775 Core 2" 3.20GHz (1066FSB) - Retail £59.99
Corsair Builder Series CX 430W V2 ATX '80 Plus' Power Supply (CMPSU-430CXUKV2) £39.98
Gigabyte G41MT-S2P Intel G41 (Socket 775) DDR3 Motherboard £36.95
Corsair XMS3 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMX4GX3M2A1600C9) £29.99
Cooler Master Elite 335 Case - Black £29.99
Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM (ST3500413AS) £29.99
Samsung SH-S222AB/BEBE 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £16.99
Sub Total : £203.23
VAT is being charged at 20.00% VAT : £40.65
Total : £243.88
Click to expand...

you can make it cheaper by using the cheap case/psu you had in yours, would t ake it around £200 then
 
Agreed the i3 build does look rather good, i hadnt looked into that yet as i thought it would be a bit out of budget, but apparently not!
Yeah i wouldnt take up a celeron now, id just wait for more budget if needed.

The only thing that im not a fan of is the cheap case/psu obviously. Theres a couple of definatly bad reviews saying it exploded instantly. I take it im gaurenteed for instantaneous explosion?
 
dfarrall said:
Agreed the i3 build does look rather good, i hadnt looked into that yet as i thought it would be a bit out of budget, but apparently not!
Yeah i wouldnt take up a celeron now, id just wait for more budget if needed.

The only thing that im not a fan of is the cheap case/psu obviously. Theres a couple of definatly bad reviews saying it exploded instantly. I take it im gaurenteed for instantaneous explosion?
Click to expand...

Not guaranteed. As long as you don't put in a GPU it is relatively low risk, it's just a risk many don't want to take. The case is apparently not completely awful though, will have to do anyway so I think if you spent extra on this PSU for example:

1 x Lepa N-Series 400W Power Supply £24.98

You are guaranteed it won't just blow up. I would still get the OcUK case as it is the cheapest. This would be looking at around a £270 mark now. Pity you didn't come when the xigmatek was on sale.
 
Hm thats a pain, although agreed without a graphics card i dont think theres as much risk.

They are using an E-machines M-ATX case currently, i could keep the case and just swap the PSU, presuming emachines dont do anything funky in there?
 
dfarrall said:
Hm thats a pain, although agreed without a graphics card i dont think theres as much risk.

They are using an E-machines M-ATX case currently, i could keep the case and just swap the PSU, presuming emachines dont do anything funky in there?
Click to expand...

No idea to be honest. Any chance you could salvage an optical-drive then? Nothing wrong with you taking a look in the case I suppose. Can't imagine there would be much different though.
 
dfarrall said:
Afraid not, its so old its IDE cables and DDR1 :D
Click to expand...

nothing wrong with IDE drives. yes they wont be as fast as SATA, but they'll still do the job. also, if its just going to be web browsing and watching videos then the best thing you could give them is an SSD for the OS and their most used programs

if you keep the IDE DVD drive and HDD drive, you'll be able to get something like this:

YOUR BASKET
1 x OCZ Vertex 60GB 2.5" SATA-II Solid State Hard Drive (OCZSSD2-1VTX60G) £75.98
1 x Cooler Master Elite 430 Windowed Case - Black (with 500w Elite Power PSU) £61.98
1 x AMD Athlon II X3 Tri Core 450 3.20GHz (Socket AM3) - Retail £56.99
1 x Asus M4A78LT-M 760G (Socket AM3) DDR3 Motherboard £48.98
1 x OCZ Gold 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-10666C9 1333MHz Low-Voltage Dual Channel Kit (OCZ3G1333LV4GK) £25.99
Total : £281.93 (includes shipping : £10.00).


works out at a similar price to your llano build, but it has a nicer case and a PSU that wont blow up after five seconds

*edit*
changed motherboard as there were no IDE slots available. new motherboard does not have support for bulldozer, but it still supports all the phenom range, and has decent onboard graphics unlike some of the nforce boards
 
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I specced a 775 shuttle with 4gb of ram within budget?

My family are always very impressed with shuttles, I doubt they would be able to tell the difference between 775 and 1155.

Just throwing one into the mix :p.
 
Is it possible to salvage both? didnt think mobo's came with 2xIDE anymore? Good point though that i can salvage one, didnt really think about it having an IDE port.

Honestly dont think a SSD will do much for them, its mainly 1 elderly gentleman thats going to be using it so its likely to be fast enough on a traditional hdd, then i can make a saving.

Sure go ahead m3, open to all offers :D
 
Xenon AMD Athlon X2 255 3.10GHz Bundle - Dual Core Xenon AMD Athlon X2 255 3.10GHz Bundle - Dual Core £119.99
(£99.99) £119.99
(£99.99)
Cooler Master Elite 330 Midi Tower Case - Black Cooler Master Elite 330 Midi Tower Case - Black £28.99
(£24.16) £28.99
(£24.16)
Lepa N-Series 400W Power Supply Lepa N-Series 400W Power Supply £24.98
(£20.82) £24.98
(£20.82)
Sony Optiarc AD-7260S 24x DVD±RW SATA Lightscribe ReWriter (Black) - OEM Sony Optiarc AD-7260S 24x DVD±RW SATA Lightscribe ReWriter (Black) - OEM £16.98
(£14.15) £16.98
(£14.15)
Sub Total : £159.12
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £12.50
VAT is being charged at 20.00% VAT : £34.32
Total : £205.94

its cheaper to buy a new optical drive than a new HDD :D
 
Been sanctioned a little more, so my final thoughts are the following.
Decided to keep it all brand new so theres no issues with things dieng in a couple of years, considering how old the old pc's hdd/dvd are.
Seems pretty ideal as far as i can tell, i believe everything is compatable (Can never be too sure when its being built for the other halfs family :p )

http://imageshack.us/f/15/build2t.png/
 
i would suggest changing the HDD to the Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 as it tends to be faster, and cheaper.
 
Hmm if you change the HDD as above I would say you got it right for the price. The fact stulid hasn't intervened also gives me confidence :p
 
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