Building a very budget system. Can you get this any cheaper for me please.

Hi.

I'm in a bit of a limbo at the moment.

I'm wanting a small PC that I can leave running upstairs 24/7 in my games room and use it as a server for FLAC files for my hi-fi system and also to work as a bit of a media server for the tele in the games room.

I won't be doing any gaming on it at all. The odd bit of internet browsing but its main use will be to store music and run something like DBpoweramp for importing CD's and run itune/sonos/spotify.

I'm trying to do it on a budget and build a system that'll be capable of running windows 7/8 plus the bits and pieces listed without struggling to much.

I've added a SSD for now which will run the OS and I'll stick a couple of 1/2tb drives in over the next few months along with a dedicated gfx card.



Is there anything there that I've spent to much on or need to upgrade. Budget is £300 max and I'd ideally like to buy new.

Thanks
Mark

P.S apologies if the pics small not sure how to make it bigger.

If you're keeping the costs down, I wouldn't bother with a SSD.

You're not after performance surely so a mechanical HD would suffice.

You won't need the thermal paste since the processor will have some preapplied for you and if I were I'd leave the case fans, I'm not sure about this case but a lot come with fans.

Also I think for now you'd be better off with a hard drive as opposed to the SSD since you will fill 60GB up in no time. You could save up and get an SSD later on.

Thanks for the quick reply.

Ok swapped the SSD for a Seagate Barracuda 1TB which is slightly more but as you say maybe silly having a SSD if it'll be running all day long and opening very few programs.

The case comes with 1 x 120mm fan, I was thinking if its going to be running 24/7 then a decent cooling system would be needed?

Kept the 92mm fan for the rear and binned the other 120mm fan and thermal paste.

£301.91

apple_man77 said:

Thanks for the quick reply.

Ok swapped the SSD for a Seagate Barracuda 1TB which is slightly more but as you say maybe silly having a SSD if it'll be running all day long and opening very few programs.

Click to expand...

Why not the WD Caviar Green? It's around the same price as the SSD.

You could go for a 500GB which I find more than sufficient but you would only save around a tenner. 1TB seems the best value.

If you went for the WD instead, you can get a pentium instead of the Celeron too:


YOUR BASKET
1 x Western Digital Caviar Green 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (WD10EZRX) **SINGLE PLATTER** £75.98
1 x Intel Pentium G840 2.80GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £55.99
1 x MSI H61M-E33 Intel H61 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard **B3 REVISION** £46.99
1 x Corsair Builder Series CX 430W V2 '80 Plus' Power Supply (CMPSU-430CXUKV2) £39.98
1 x Fractal Design Core 1000 Midi Tower Case - Black £29.99
1 x Kingston HyperX Blu 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9AD3B1K2/4G) £22.99
1 x OcUK 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £14.39
Total : £301.32 (includes shipping : £12.50).



For such a low power system, extra fans really aren't necessary

Thanks for that buddy much appreciated.

Think thats probably going to be the final spec and should work out nicely

Decent for the money. For it's use a pentium seems ideal

A llano option

YOUR BASKET
1 x Seagate Barracuda Green 2TB SATA 6Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM (ST2000DL003) £99.95
1 x Gigabyte GA-A75M-UD2H AMD A75 (Socket FM1) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard £69.38
1 x AMD Llano A6-3500 2.40GHz (Socket FM1) APU Processor £59.99
1 x OCZ ZS Series 550W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £46.98
1 x Fractal Design Core 1000 Midi Tower Case - Black £29.99
1 x Kingston HyperX Blu 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9AD3B1K2/4G) £22.99
1 x OcUK 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £14.39
Total : £358.67 (includes shipping : £12.50).



That is capable of light gaming as well and should you want to run a bluray drive instead it doesn't have the issues the intel IGP has. Also note the 2TB HDD, i know i have gone over the budget but seeing as you are considering adding parts later to an intel build i didnt think you would mind.

hxcftw said:

Why not the WD Caviar Green? It's around the same price as the SSD.

You could go for a 500GB which I find more than sufficient but you would only save around a tenner. 1TB seems the best value.

Click to expand...

Because Green/Eco drives should never be used as your primary drive, theyre too slow, theyre intended for storage not OS/apps


YOUR BASKET
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM (ST500DM002) £61.99
1 x AMD Llano A6-3500 2.40GHz (Socket FM1) APU Processor £59.99
1 x Gigabyte A55M-DS2 A55 Chipset (Socket FM1) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard £44.99
1 x Corsair Builder Series CX 430W V2 '80 Plus' Power Supply (CMPSU-430CXUKV2) £39.98
1 x Fractal Design Core 1000 Midi Tower Case - Black £29.99
1 x Kingston HyperX Blu 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9AD3B1K2/4G) £22.99
1 x Samsung SH-S222BB/RSMS 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black/Silver/Biege) - Retail £19.99
Total : £294.92 (includes shipping : £12.50).



Edit: Included a retail drive so you can utilise the software which comes with it

A little over but you can take some things out if you don't want them.

The barebones includes a PSU, Case and motherboard.

Thanks for the replies guys.

Would one of the amd llano chips be a better CPU over the intel pentium one? Need it to be eco, run fairly cool and have a bit run the tasks I listed above

Well, the pentium uses less power, and as it's not going to be used for gaming I don't think Llano is appropriate:
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/403?vs=406
(power consumption near the bottom)

95thrifles said:

Because Green/Eco drives should never be used as your primary drive, theyre too slow, theyre intended for storage not OS/apps


YOUR BASKET
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM (ST500DM002) £61.99
1 x AMD Llano A6-3500 2.40GHz (Socket FM1) APU Processor £59.99
1 x Gigabyte A55M-DS2 A55 Chipset (Socket FM1) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard £44.99
1 x Corsair Builder Series CX 430W V2 '80 Plus' Power Supply (CMPSU-430CXUKV2) £39.98
1 x Fractal Design Core 1000 Midi Tower Case - Black £29.99
1 x Kingston HyperX Blu 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9AD3B1K2/4G) £22.99
1 x Samsung SH-S222BB/RSMS 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black/Silver/Biege) - Retail £19.99
Total : £294.92 (includes shipping : £12.50).



Edit: Included a retail drive so you can utilise the software which comes with it

Click to expand...

Similar to my spec by my mobo was more expensive to give you the HDMI output to make life easier.

Laptops use 5400rpm drives so it's not like the OS won't run on an eco drive. You could always add a small SSD for the OS much later if you were that bothered about boot times. If you intend to use it as a media server ideally you want as much space as poss.

Yes my PSU was OTT but for the sake of £6 the 550W PSU makes sense to me should you ever want to reuse it.

As you can see there are plenty of options, it's down to you fella to mix and match and choose what suits you best. Here is another take on it.....

YOUR BASKET
1 x Gigabyte GA-A75M-UD2H AMD A75 (Socket FM1) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard £69.38
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM (ST500DM002) £61.99
1 x AMD Llano A6-3500 2.40GHz (Socket FM1) APU Processor £59.99
1 x LG CH10LS28 BD-ROM 10x BluRay ROM / DVDRW SATA-II Optical Drive - Black (Retail) £47.99
1 x Corsair Builder Series CX 430W V2 '80 Plus' Power Supply (CMPSU-430CXUKV2) £39.98
1 x Fractal Design Core 1000 Midi Tower Case - Black £29.99
1 x Kingston HyperX Blu 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9AD3B1K2/4G) £22.99
Total : £347.32 (includes shipping : £12.50).




Good luck with your build, any problems or questions come back to us

i was in a similar sort of position wanting to stream movies to my tv and music to my stereo and decided to buy a nas. i purchased an zyxel nsa310 for £29.99 from a competitors ebay channel (brand new) as it was cheap, fairly feature packed (for the price anyway) and runs at 16-20w the reviews i read rated it highly and i've got to say i am seriously impressed with it, especially with the two usbs and e-sata giving great expansion possibilities - food for thought anyway, although it cuts out the web browsing and ripping but you could build a separate box for that and you would be saving a lot in electric costs as most idle systems are going to be pulling 120-200w depending on exactly whats in it.

i like the llano's but it doesn't seem right for you, by what you have said, not unless you want the option of light gaming.

Why did like no one suggest a Microserver which is like perfect for what he wants and costs a fair bit less too.