Cheap pre-built system for a friend (£400)

[jon86]

Hi,

I have a friend who is looking for a new desktop computer. He will using the computer for browsing the web and for office applications like Word, Excel, Outlook, etc. Above all he needs the machine to be ultra reliable. He has a budget of £400 which has to include Windows 7, a 21+" widescreen monitor, keyboard, mouse and some form of wireless connectivity to his home wireless router situated away from his study.

I do not want to build my friend a computer and want him to have a warranty that covers the whole machine so I am looking at pre-built options. He has specified that he wants 4GB RAM and 320 GB hard drive space. I had a look at the biggest and probably most well known American manufacturer of pre-built machines and their machines cost about £400 without a monitor.

Is this sort of budget realistic for what my friend wants? I noticed that OcUK sells a few cheap pre-built machines like the Primo 6100a AMD Athlon II X2 Dual Core 250 3.00GHz DDR3 System for £270 but even with a cheap widescreen monitor like the Iiyama ProLite E2208HDD 22" Widescreen LCD Monitor - Black for £115, that's already pretty-much used up his budget without accounting for a keyboard, mouse and wireless connectivity.

Do you think this is a good option and I should just ask him to add another £50 or so to get the other bits he needs?


Thanks,
Jon

 

[mickyflinn]

+ £50

 

[Marine-RX179]

jon, send me a trust message.

 

[Reaper 392]

add the £50 and get this before OcUK realise that they havent taken into account the ~150% increase in HDD prices for their bundles


YOUR BASKET
1 x "Primo 6100a AMD Athlon II X2 Dual Core 250 3.00GHz DDR3 System £190.00
1 x System 12 Months Standard Warranty £0.00
1 x No Graphics Card Upgrade £0.00
1 x Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-02050) £79.99
1 x Dell ST2220M 21.5" Widescreen LED Monitor - Black £104.98
1 x Corsair Builder Series CX 430W V2 '80 Plus' Power Supply (CMPSU-430CXUKV2) £37.99
1 x OcUK Value 300Mbps Wireless-N PCI Adapter £16.99
1 x Logitech K120 Keyboard (920-002524) £9.98
1 x Logitech S96 PS/2 Optical Wheel Mouse Black - OEM (953688-1600) £5.99
Total : £445.92 (includes shipping : £18.75).

feel free to change the wireless card

 

[jon86]

That's great, thanks so much.

 

[Reaper 392]

in case your wondering i put the separate PSU in there because the one used in the prebuilt system is truly horrific. its something that i would bin/sell as soon as possible

 

[Hyburnate]

Or power fans.

 

[Reaper 392]

Or power fans.

i wouldnt even trust it to do that to be honest. when you see 14A on the 12V rail for a 500W PSU you know to stay well away

 

[Marine-RX179]

jon I've sent you a email...you might want to keep an eye out for it as it might go into spam.

 

[muon]

Try and go triple core. W7 is so much smoother.

I've compared a system with E8500@4Ghz with a Athlon II X3 440 @stock and the latter is so much smoother in normal operation.

Phone up and see if ocuk will change the processor to X3 455 for £15 more (the difference in their components price).

 

[Marine-RX179]

Try and go triple core. W7 is so much smoother.

I've compared a system with E8500@4Ghz with a Athlon II X3 440 @stock and the latter is so much smoother in normal operation.

Phone up and see if ocuk will change the processor to X3 455 for £15 more (the difference in their components price).

No way...Athlon II is a slower CPU architecture wise, it probably only felt smoother because it is a fresh Windows install without lots of background apps running, or something to do with the HDD.

 

[tipsy]

add the £50 and get this before OcUK realise that they havent taken into account the ~150% increase in HDD prices for their bundles


YOUR BASKET
1 x "Primo 6100a AMD Athlon II X2 Dual Core 250 3.00GHz DDR3 System £190.00
1 x System 12 Months Standard Warranty £0.00
1 x No Graphics Card Upgrade £0.00
1 x Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-02050) £79.99
1 x Dell ST2220M 21.5" Widescreen LED Monitor - Black £104.98
1 x Corsair Builder Series CX 430W V2 '80 Plus' Power Supply (CMPSU-430CXUKV2) £37.99
1 x OcUK Value 300Mbps Wireless-N PCI Adapter £16.99
1 x Logitech K120 Keyboard (920-002524) £9.98
1 x Logitech S96 PS/2 Optical Wheel Mouse Black - OEM (953688-1600) £5.99
Total : £445.92 (includes shipping : £18.75).

feel free to change the wireless card

you could save a bit more money if he had a copy of an operating system from a previous system. You really need that standard 500w psu replaced as its an accident waiting to happen.

The system is good and I used one for 4 months as a gaming pc (600w psu and an 8800gt).

I would add this psu instead (more power a made by seasonic like the corsair)

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-007-XF&groupid=701&catid=123&subcat=

state u want the naff psu sent to u aswell incase he wants to sell his pc later.

this monitor
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MO-049-DE&groupid=17&catid=948&subcat=

If you get the monitor and the psu and remove the wireless card the cost before delivery will be

£422.94 (you will get free delivery if u buy it for him)

 

[muon]

No way...Athlon II is a slower CPU architecture wise, it probably only felt smoother because it is a fresh Windows install without lots of background apps running, or something to do with the HDD.

Nope, both fresh installs using the same SSD. In fact it is precisely in multitasking situations where you get the jitters with penryn and nothing on rana. Same amount of RAM as well.

Yes I know in most heavy processing scenarios, the penryn will be faster overall at 4ghz and especially in single threaded applications, but when multitasking rana was much better in terms of feel.

What I'm saying is that going to rana rather than regor, will result in a massive improvement for little cost.