£150 budget build spec me request

bainbridge

bainbridge

bainbridge

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Hi

Building a home system for a friend who will be using it many for internet shopping, backing up family photos and doing his invoices.

£150 budget, was going to look at buying some 2nd hand 775 gear off MM but want to look at the possibility of buying new components with integrated graphics as they wont be gaming.

Also not going to bother overclocking it as I'll be the one going round there to sort it if it fails, but if there are any cheap combos which are begging to be tweaked I'll do it.

We already have:

Midi-sized case (just going to use the old one)
optical drive (but IDE so might have to get SATA)
4gb DDR3 ram
keyboard and mouse (ps2)
17" monitor

So just need:

Mobo to fit midi sized case (mini ATX?)
CPU (ideally with integrated graphics)
PSU
Hard drive (500GB minimum, ideally 1TB)
Optical drive (If required)
ps2 to usb adaptors

I've not done anything with AMD CPU hardware since 2005 and haven't built anything smaller than standard ATX sized systems so would appreciate some help on what to get.
 
I'm not convinced this can be done with new kit for only £150.

This is the cheapest I could get an AMD build

YOUR BASKET
1 x ASRock FM2A55M-DGS AMD A55 Chipset (Socket FM2) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard £41.99
1 x Toshiba (7K1000.D) 500GB SATA 6GB/s 32MB Cache - OEM (DT01ACA050) HDD £41.99
1 x AMD A4-5300 3.40GHz (Socket FM2) APU Trinity Dual Core Processor (AD5300OKHJBOX) £37.99
1 x Antec VP350P 350W '80 Plus' Continuous Power Supply £32.99
1 x OcUK 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £15.95
Total : £182.30 (includes shipping : £9.50).




And intel

YOUR BASKET
1 x Toshiba (7K1000.D) 500GB SATA 6GB/s 32MB Cache - OEM (DT01ACA050) HDD £41.99
1 x ASRock H61M-GS Intel H61 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Micro Motherboard £38.99
1 x Intel Celeron G550 2.60GHz Socket LGA 1155 Processor - Retail £35.99
1 x Antec VP350P 350W '80 Plus' Continuous Power Supply £32.99
1 x OcUK 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £15.95
Total : £177.30 (includes shipping : £9.50).



If you qualify for free shipping the intel build is "almost" there.

If you could up the budget to £200 you could have a much better all round build.

YOUR BASKET
1 x ASRock FM2A75 Pro4-M AMD A75 Chipset (Socket FM2) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard £59.99
1 x AMD A6-5400K Black Edition 3.60GHz (Socket FM2) APU Trinity Dual Core Processor (AD540KOKHJBOX) £47.99
1 x Toshiba (7K1000.D) 500GB SATA 6GB/s 32MB Cache - OEM (DT01ACA050) HDD £41.99
1 x Antec VP350P 350W '80 Plus' Continuous Power Supply £32.99
1 x OcUK 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £15.95
Total : £210.30 (includes shipping : £9.50).

 
Thanks BinnsY much appreciated. £150 does appear a bit optimistic looking at the above, though only £20 over for shiny new components might swing it :p

What would you suggest is the more powerful of the cheaper builds?
 
bainbridge said:
Thanks BinnsY much appreciated. £150 does appear a bit optimistic looking at the above, though only £20 over for shiny new components might swing it :p

What would you suggest is the more powerful of the cheaper builds?
Click to expand...

There is very little between the two cheaper ones. The intel build is ever so slightly quicker for CPU speed, and the AMD build will be better for onboard graphics. I suppose it's a case of picking which of those two is more important.

If your never going to play a 3d Game I'd probably go for the Intel.
 
BinnsY said:
I'm not convinced this can be done with new kit for only £150.
Click to expand...

It's certainly doable if you shop around. I priced up the following at a competitor site -

1x 500W Storm Silent LPJ19-25 £14.38
1x 500GB Seagate ST500LM012 2.5" HDD £37.32
1x MSI H61M-P25 £33.13
1X Intel Celeron Dual Core G550 £33.06
1x SAMSUNG SH-224DB DVD±R £13.76
Total: £142.63 (includes shipping : £9.15).

Granted the spec uses a 2.5" drive (3.5" drives were more expensive on the competitors site), so you might need to factor in a drive conversion kit (few pounds), but it's doable.
 
visibleman said:
It's certainly doable if you shop around. I priced up the following at a competitor site -

1x 500W Storm Silent LPJ19-25 £14.38
1x 500GB Seagate ST500LM012 2.5" HDD £37.32
1x MSI H61M-P25 £33.13
1X Intel Celeron Dual Core G550 £33.06
1x SAMSUNG SH-224DB DVD±R £13.76
Total: £142.63 (includes shipping : £9.15).

Granted the spec uses a 2.5" drive (3.5" drives were more expensive on the competitors site), so you might need to factor in a drive conversion kit (few pounds), but it's doable.
Click to expand...

Mmm that is food for thought. Regarding the different drive size I'd just makes some snug fitting spacers so that won't cost any extra.

So looking at the above systems, how would they compare performance wise to some 5-6 year old 775 gaming hardware, sych as a 3ghz duo with 4gb ddr2 800mhz running a cheap card such as an ati 4850 or similar?

The graphical content of modern websites is increasingly demanding, and if they did fancy playing back some hd home movies would the above new systems be capable?

Whatever we end up doing I want it to suit their needs as per the opening post, comments much appreciated.
 
visibleman said:
It's certainly doable if you shop around. I priced up the following at a competitor site -

1x 500W Storm Silent LPJ19-25 £14.38
1x 500GB Seagate ST500LM012 2.5" HDD £37.32
1x MSI H61M-P25 £33.13
1X Intel Celeron Dual Core G550 £33.06
1x SAMSUNG SH-224DB DVD±R £13.76
Total: £142.63 (includes shipping : £9.15).

Granted the spec uses a 2.5" drive (3.5" drives were more expensive on the competitors site), so you might need to factor in a drive conversion kit (few pounds), but it's doable.
Click to expand...

To be fair, the only reason this is significantly cheaper is because you have picked such a cheap PSU. I can't imagine it's particularly good quality at that money and I'd certainly want to be spending more.

In terms of graphics any modern chip should have enough power to play HD video. But some of these are going to start struggling if you throw more at them.

Personally I'd still be trying to up the budget to £200 and buy that slightly more expensive AMD build in my first post.
 
visibleman said:
1x 500W Storm Silent LPJ19-25 £14.38
1x 500GB Seagate ST500LM012 2.5" HDD £37.32
1x MSI H61M-P25 £33.13
1X Intel Celeron Dual Core G550 £33.06
1x SAMSUNG SH-224DB DVD±R £13.76
Total: £142.63 (includes shipping : £9.15).
.
Click to expand...

I wouldn't touch that...

A £15 PSU, its a great start, as you can get decent brand PSU's for around £30..

You know 2.5 HDD's are slower right? they run at 5400 rpm rather than 7200rpm, thats why it's cheaper.

I'd personally go for a trinity build.. Just my 2p. :D
 
Doomedspeed said:
I wouldn't touch that...
Click to expand...

We all know that it isn't a great spec and ideally you'd spend more on better components. Unfortunately however, the budget was £150, that spec meets that budget - simples :rolleyes:


BinnsY - Granted but then i wouldn't say Antec PSU's are brilliant neither, especially when you can pick up a Zalman cheaper.
 
Shamelessy going to point you to the MM section, q8300 775 system with onboard gfx for under your target.

It would be a struggle to get a decent new system for £150 with all the gubbins wanted. However if you were to extend your budget to £200 I am sure you can start getting some nice little machines :D
 
I think, considering the user requirements, that some of the recommendations are taking things too far.

Sure they are nice budget all rounders. But for the uses listed many people manage with simpler tablets and laptops, even mobile phones.

I am currently running Ubuntu 12.04 on a socket A Asrock K7S41, with an Athlon XP 2000 cpu and 2gb of DDR 400. 20gb IDE drive. Though a simple graphics card would improve some websites appearance. It does the job as a simple pc for web and documents.

Another oldie I use is an Asus P5QL-VM-EPU, C2D E6300 and 4GB DDR2. W7 and onboard graphics. Good enough to stream movies.

And the E8500 based HTPC that still pulls its weight, and the old Q9550 system that can still play many a game and cope with any homework task the kids have.

Most of this old kit can be picked up for beer money and resold with little loss. When online shopping at Tesco becomes too taxing of system resources later, I am sure much of what's being recommended above will still be available.
 
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