New low budget build

~bones~

~bones~

~bones~

Associate
Joined
23 Nov 2009
Posts
207
Location
Cardiff, Wales
So a friend has asked me to sort him out a new pc, he basically wants it for surfing the net and a bit of word processing and he wants it to be quick. I was think a mini-itx case, a small ssd, and an intel i3. He's got an old 160gb hd I can scavenge for photos and music etc. he has all peripherals, just wanted to check can I connect up from the intels onboard graphics to a VGA connection?

Budget is £400 including Windows 7, don't mind building it or buying a pre-built, any suggestions would be great :)
 
 
 
~bones~ said:
is there any difference between the windows you have chosen and this one?

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=SW-124-MS&groupid=33&catid=1555&subcat=
Click to expand...

The OEM one can, in theory, only be installed on one PC. For most people its fine - and a fair bit cheaper than retail.

If its just basic stuff, stick with a Pentium and get a 128GB SSD?

This motherboard has USB3 and SATA3, and VGA/DVI for a monitor.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Crucial RealSSD M4 128GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive (CT128M4SSD2) £88.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-02050) £72.00
1 x Gigabyte H61MA-D3V Intel H61 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £47.99
1 x Intel Pentium G620 2.60GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £46.99
1 x Antec VP350P 350W '80 Plus' Continuous Power Supply £32.99
1 x Fractal Design Core 1000 Midi Tower Case - Black £32.99
1 x Corsair XMS3 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMX4GX3M2A1600C9) £23.99
1 x Samsung SH-S222BB/BEBE 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £14.99
Total : £375.92 (includes shipping : £12.50).

 
ok just wanted to check it wasnt an upgrade.... will there be much/any difference between a pentium and an i3 just for surfing and watching movies etc?... also I was looking at the mini ITX cases are they any good? Would i just have to change the motherboard to a mini ITX one?

Thanks for the replies :)
 
~bones~ said:
ok just wanted to check it wasnt an upgrade.... will there be much/any difference between a pentium and an i3 just for surfing and watching movies etc?... also I was looking at the mini ITX cases are they any good? Would i just have to change the motherboard to a mini ITX one?

Thanks for the replies :)
Click to expand...

For that use, not much between them:
G620 vs 2100

If you can fit the i3 in, not a bad choice at all :)

Yeah you'd just need a mini-ITX case and motherboard, only thing is they tend to be more expensive.
 
Another option is Llano, here's a miniITX Llano build:

YOUR BASKET
1 x Crucial RealSSD M4 128GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive (CT128M4SSD2) £88.99
1 x Gigabyte A75N-USB3 AMD A75 (Socket FM1) DDR3 mini ITX Motherboard £74.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-02050) £72.00
1 x AMD A6-3500 2.40GHz (Socket FM1) APU Processor £56.99
1 x Thermaltake Element Q mini-ITX HTPC Case - 220W Power Supply £56.99
1 x Corsair XMS3 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMX4GX3M2A1600C9) £23.99
1 x Samsung SH-S222BB/BEBE 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £14.99
Total : £400.93 (includes shipping : £10.00).



This has enough graphics power for some light gaming too.

Or with the new BitFenix case:
YOUR BASKET
1 x Crucial RealSSD M4 128GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive (CT128M4SSD2) £88.99
1 x Gigabyte A75N-USB3 AMD A75 (Socket FM1) DDR3 mini ITX Motherboard £74.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-02050) £72.00
1 x BitFenix Prodigy Mini-ITX Cube Case - Midnight Black £59.99
1 x AMD A6-3500 2.40GHz (Socket FM1) APU Processor £56.99
1 x Antec VP350P 350W '80 Plus' Continuous Power Supply £32.99
1 x Corsair XMS3 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMX4GX3M2A1600C9) £23.99
1 x Samsung SH-S222BB/BEBE 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £14.99
Total : £437.52 (includes shipping : £10.50).

Click to expand...

Intel Mini-ITX (I chose this motherboard as it has DVI/VGA/HDMI):
YOUR BASKET
1 x Crucial RealSSD M4 128GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive (CT128M4SSD2) £88.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-02050) £72.00
1 x Asus P8H61-I Intel H61 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Mini ITX Motherboard £69.95
1 x BitFenix Prodigy Mini-ITX Cube Case - Midnight Black £59.99
1 x Intel Pentium G620 2.60GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £46.99
1 x Antec VP350P 350W '80 Plus' Continuous Power Supply £32.99
1 x Corsair XMS3 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMX4GX3M2A1600C9) £23.99
1 x Samsung SH-S222BB/BEBE 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £14.99
Total : £422.48 (includes shipping : £10.50).

Click to expand...
 
Last edited:
Cheers ill ask my mate what he would prefer, I personally like the bitfenix prodigy and I'm gonna try and stick with the i3 if I can get it in budget.... Never built a mini itx before is there anything different to a normal pc other than the size that I should be aware of?
 
~bones~ said:
Cheers ill ask my mate what he would prefer, I personally like the bitfenix prodigy and I'm gonna try and stick with the i3 if I can get it in budget.... Never built a mini itx before is there anything different to a normal pc other than the size that I should be aware of?
Click to expand...

Nope just smaller, that BitFenix case is very nice - I'd buy one if I could!

It'll fit all standard components, as long as its an ITX board.

 
The intel Pentium G CPUs don't provide quick sync. This really does boost the video encoding process.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Crucial RealSSD M4 128GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive (CT128M4SSD2) £88.99
1 x Intel Core i3-2120 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £83.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) £68.99
1 x Gigabyte H61MA-D3V Intel H61 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £47.99
1 x OCZ ZS Series 550W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £44.99
1 x Corsair XMS3 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMX8GX3M2A1600C9) £41.99
1 x BitFenix Outlaw Gaming Case - Black £36.98
1 x Samsung SH-S222BB/BEBE 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £14.99
Total : £428.90 (includes shipping : FREE).



That's what I would suggest. 8GB of RAM is OTT but the mobo only has two RAM slots so if you install 4GB there is no room to easily expand. The mobo has USB3, sata3 and a PCI express 3 lane (this requires an IB CPU). There are plenty of upgrade options on this socket too :)

Good sized and speed SSD with 1TB of storage. If he ever wanted to play games all he would need do is drop in a budget gaming GPU for £80-100. I know I'm a lil over but don't forget you get free P&P.

Any questions or problems you know where we are. Oh i didn't inculde Win7 as he could download the developers copy of windows 8 and put off the purchase of the OS for a while. If he wanted to buy windows 8 he could or maybe win7 will be cheaper then :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom