£250 Family PC

[joeyjojo]

No. Bad advice. 60gb as the only storage?? A mechanical drive is still fine and once Windows has loaded will be quick enough.

Yep. In the build I wrote about above I got Windows 8.1 installed, all updates, newest office, itunes, etc. etc. all installed no problem, and it boots in a few seconds. So much faster than booting off a HDD.

Remember that the official Win 8 system requirements are only 20 GB free space. As long as the OP is accurate and it's just for "emails and surfing" then a small SSD is ideal.

 

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

You might also want to consider the AMD A4-5300. The CPU is slower in absolute terms than say the G3220,but the IGP is much faster,so might be better if any light games want to be run on it.

 

[altrewin]

Another slight respec
YOUR BASKET
1 x Microsoft Windows 8.1 64-Bit DVD - OEM (WN7-00614) £74.99
1 x Intel 520 Series 60GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive £49.99
1 x Intel Pentium G3220 3.0GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £41.99
1 x MSI H81M-P33 Intel H81 (Socket 1150) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard £33.95
1 x SuperFlower Amazon 300W "80 Plus Bronze" Power Supply £29.99
1 x Zalman T1U3 Mini-Tower USB 3.0 - Black £20.99
2 x TeamGroup Elite 2GB (1x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Single Channel Module (TED32GM1600C1101) £14.99 (£29.98)
1 x OcUK 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £10.99
Total : £306.36 (includes shipping : £11.25).


_____
Wouldn't trust the Kingston SSD recommended earlier, iirc that is part of the same series that had the NAND swapped for far less version, meaning it's a slow SSD. Suprisingly the Intel 520 isn't that much more so I included that instead.

 

[joeyjojo]

Another slight respec
_____
Wouldn't trust the Kingston SSD recommended earlier, iirc that is part of the same series that had the NAND swapped for far less version, meaning it's a slow SSD. Suprisingly the Intel 520 isn't that much more so I included that instead.

This is about as good as it gets for £306.

Still, the OP wanted £250, £300 max, so you've gone over budget. The Kingston might be a bit slower than other SSDs in benchmarks, but it's still going to be a lot snappier than that 1TB mentioned earlier, and in synthetics it holds its own against the 520 and others.

http://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/5254/kingston-ssdnow-v300-120gb-ssd-review/index9.html

I've built a PC with the Kingston and it's immense value for money at £40. At £50 the Intel is 25% more cash, and no way will it be 25% faster in real life.

 

[tbh]

I think I'll also need to include an OS in this budget (preferably Windows 8).

Considered dropping Windows 8 and installing Linux instead?

Faster, more secure, much smaller footprint so ideal for SSDs, no need to worry about viruses, also some of the newer distros such as ElementaryOS are aesthetically beautiful.

And of course it's free, so you're instantly removing the most expensive part of your build.

If all you need it for is browsing, email and light office work then why spend money you don't need to?

I recently installed Linux on a friends old netbook and she couldn't be happier that her desktop is both much prettier and much snappier than the Windows install it replaced (and she still doesn't believe me that she doesn't have to run virus scans, but to be fair most new converts from Windows take time to adjust to that ).

 

[tamzzy]

I've built a PC with the Kingston and it's immense value for money at £40. At £50 the Intel is 25% more cash, and no way will it be 25% faster in real life.

you might wanna have a read.
http://www.anandtech.com/show/7763/an-update-to-kingston-ssdnow-v300-a-switch-to-slower-micron-nand

 

[CEUOTC]

Considered dropping Windows 8 and installing Linux instead?

Faster, more secure, much smaller footprint so ideal for SSDs, no need to worry about viruses, also some of the newer distros such as ElementaryOS are aesthetically beautiful.

And of course it's free, so you're instantly removing the most expensive part of your build.

If all you need it for is browsing, email and light office work then why spend money you don't need to?

I recently installed Linux on a friends old netbook and she couldn't be happier that her desktop is both much prettier and much snappier than the Windows install it replaced (and she still doesn't believe me that she doesn't have to run virus scans, but to be fair most new converts from Windows take time to adjust to that ).

+1

If you look at:

Linux Lite 2.0. (Based on Ubuntu 14.04)
Ubuntu 14.04. (Kubuntu/Xubuntu etc)
Manjaro. (Based on Arch)

I have used Linux Lite 1.8 and found it to give a great windows like experience (Windows 7)

The newer version has scripts that all you have to do is select and it will install most of the popular software anyone would ever need to run a home computer.

There are plenty of YouTube videos covering these distro's and they have excellent support for AMD APU's/Intel/Nvidia and Legacy(ish) AMD GPU's.

At the moment running Ubuntu on a P170EM/Asus G46VW and a i3-4150 + GTX 660 Desktop. Also running Manjaro on a i5-4670k + GTX 770 Desktop.

Fast secure and free.

 

[tamzzy]

well, if op desperately wants windows, if he has a friend in uni, they can get win 8 pro for 50 quid, that's 25 quid saving right there