Cheapish PC

Amp34

Amp34

Amp34

Caporegime
Joined
25 Jul 2005
Posts
28,851
Location
Canada
I am finally getting round to possbly building a PC for my sister, as cheap as possible. She just wants a bog standard PC for uni (word, net...).

I have been out of the game for a little while and some of the things are a little confusing now. When I originally specced the PC at christmas I specced an Intel E6300, now Intel seem to have brought out about a dozen other processors. Can someone give me a quick jist of how to work out which one to get. :o

I was also looking at the Asrock Conroe945G-DVI MB, but that doesn't seem to exist any more, any suggestions on what board to get instead. It needs to be m-atx and have onboard graphics (hopefully somehow supporting HD video).

The rest of the PC will be something along the lines of:

Corsair 1GB DDR2 Value Select PC4200 Dual Channel Kit (2x512MB)

Hitachi Deskstar T7K500 NCQ 250GB SATA-II 8MB Cache - OEM (would the slightly more expensive Samsung be a better bet?)

Antec NSK1300 ATX Cube Case - 300W PSU (how quiet is the PSU in this?)

Samsung SH-S203BEBN 20x20 DVD±RW Dual Layer Serial ATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM

A 17" monitor, vista, mouse, keyboard and speakers.

Last question, am I missing anything? :o

Thanks
 
What CPU to get depends very much on your budget, at the cheapest end of the scale the 21x0 series seem to be clocking well. However when you are buying a mATX motherboard overclocking becomes less of an issue. :)
 
The PC won't be overclocked at all. :)

Which CPU now will be the equivilant of the E6300? Or at least the best value for money speed wise out of the 2's, 4's and 6320?

Thanks :)
 
The Abit should be the most capable in terms of graphics and for overclocking potential as well.

If it is just for general office type work then an E6320 is rather overkill, I'd be tempted to get an E2140 and 2gb Ram with the money saved. :)
 
Ah ok thanks, I was erring towards that but wasn't completely sure. As for the E6320 being overkill, I have a £600 budget and for the budget at the moment that is probably the best CPU (IMO) to get. I would probably go AMD if I were to get something of the power of the E2140 TBH.

As for 2GB of ram, that is still a possibility, but at the moment I will probably leave it at 1GB, it is a lot easier (and cheaper) to stick another couple of sticks of ram in later on than change the CPU for a more powerful one.
 
2gb of the same ram is only an extra £22 were as if you got it later would be an extra £32 alos 2gb in 2 sticks runs better then 2gb in 4sticks bacsically get the 2gb now lol
 
TBH she doesn't need two GB of ram at the moment. But on a similar note (remembering I will not be OCing the PC AT ALL) would a single 1GB stick be better than two 512mb sticks?

At the moment she has a £600 budget so there is plenty of room at the moment to play with.
 
Amp34 said:
TBH she doesn't need two GB of ram at the moment. But on a similar note (remembering I will not be OCing the PC AT ALL) would a single 1GB stick be better than two 512mb sticks?

At the moment she has a £600 budget so there is plenty of room at the moment to play with.
Click to expand...
The other posters aren't being extravagant; if you are buying Vista then you do really need the 2GB of RAM. Otherwise be prepared to face lots of nagging in a few weeks time when the PC starts to drag its feet.
 
Ok, I didn't realise it was that bad with less than 2GB, having said that at the moment the spec is coming way under £600 so I think I can be a bit extravogant with the ram. :p
 
I think I have finally decided on what components to get:

Intel Core 2 Duo E6320 "LGA775 Conroe" 1.86GHz (1066FSB) - Retail
Corsair 2GB DDR2 Value Select PC4200 Dual Channel Kit (2x1GB)
Hitachi Deskstar T7K500 NCQ 250GB SATA-II 8MB Cache - OEM
Antec NSK1300 ATX Cube Case - 300W PSU
Samsung SH-S203BEBN 20x20 DVD±RW Dual Layer Serial ATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM
Abit Fatal1ty F-I90HD ATI Micro ATX (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard
Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium 64-Bit Edition DVD - OEM - 1Pk

And either the
OcUK Value AH191DPB 19" Widescreen LCD Monitor - Black/Silver
or the OcUK Value Hanns-G HW191D 19" Widescreen LCD Monitor - Silver monitor

Anything I am missing (other than mouse and keyboard)?

Thanks
 
So all she wants the computer for is work (word, excel etc) and browsing the net, plus she's at uni. If so I think £600 is way too big a budget, and a desktop would be impractical.

I'd be looking at spending around £350 on a laptop.
 
Bug One said:
So all she wants the computer for is work (word, excel etc) and browsing the net, plus she's at uni. If so I think £600 is way too big a budget, and a desktop would be impractical.

I'd be looking at spending around £350 on a laptop.
Click to expand...

I suggested a laptop (and even a mac) and she doesn't want one. It is either I make one for around £600 or she buys a desktop from the purple shirt brigade. :)
 
Amp34 said:
I suggested a laptop (and even a mac) and she doesn't want one. It is either I make one for around £600 or she buys a desktop from the purple shirt brigade. :)
Click to expand...
Yeah stick with the desktop: it will last much longer, from my experience.
It also means that if she does decide to pick up a casual game for a while she won't have problems with it.
 
Perhaps I did not look closely enough, but what are you doing in the way of gpu? Or does the motherboard have onboard video?

Edit: nevermind, I see the mobo has onboard.
 
The Hitachi Deskstar's have had brilliant reviews for speed and silence so you wont go wrong there and the E6320 is a good choice for any applications that may come out in the future that uses mulithreading :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom