~£300 Budget PC

Heaven Can Wait

Heaven Can Wait

Heaven Can Wait

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Joined
26 Nov 2006
Posts
624
Gotta build a PC for a friend's family, minus monitor mouse and keyboard.

At that budget im looking at the value ones.
Is there anything I need to look for? I'd like to build one that can be upgraded a little, even though it would be on an AGP MB

something like the OCUK value one maybe, which is


- AMD Athlon X2 4200+ 2.2GHz (Socket AM2) - Retail
- AMD Athlon X2 Approved CPU Cooler
- Asus Vintage V3-M2V890 Barebones System
- 2GB PC2-5300C5 Dual Channel Kit (2x1024MB)
- Western Digital 80GB SATA-II 8MB Cache
- HP RM345i 16x DVD-ROM (Black)
- On-Board VIA Graphics
- On-Board 5.1 Audio
- Integrated Gigabit LAN

Figure id get a bigger HD, and maybe a cheap graphics card?
any advice appreciated, thanks.
 
what is the pc used for?
edit// spec corrected for intended use

Your basket
Product Name Qty Price Line Total
Asus ATI Radeon EAH2400 Pro HTP Silent 256MB DDR2 HDTV/DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail £24.99
(£29.36) £24.99
(£29.36)
Pioneer DVR-212DBK 18x DVD±RW SATA Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - OEM £17.99
(£21.14) £17.99
(£21.14)
Western Digital Caviar Special Edition 160GB SATA-II 8MB Cache - OEM (WD1600AAJS) £28.99
(£34.06) £28.99
(£34.06)
Asus Vintage V3-P5945GC Barebones System - Intel Core 2 Duo (LGA775) £54.99
(£64.61) £54.99
(£64.61)
OcUK 2GB (2x1GB) PC2-6400C5 800MHz DDR2 Dual Channel Kit £23.99
(£28.19) £23.99
(£28.19)
Intel Core 2 Duo E2140 "LGA775 Conroe" 1.60GHz (800FSB) - Retail £38.99
(£45.81) £38.99
(£45.81)
Sub Total : £189.94
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
City Link Parcel Next Day (Delivered Mon-Fri)
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £9.95
VAT is being charged at 17.5% VAT : £34.98
Total : £234.87


im not sure if everything is 100% compatible though, so a webnote may be in order
 
Last edited:
If not for gaming then £300 is more than enough:

Product Name Qty Price Line Total
Antec NSK 4480 Mini Tower Case (Silver) - 380W Earth Watts PSU Antec NSK 4480 Mini Tower Case (Silver) - 380W Earth Watts PSU £45.99
(£54.04) £45.99
(£54.04)
Samsung SH-S203D 20x DVD±RW SATA Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - OEM Samsung SH-S203D 20x DVD±RW SATA Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - OEM £14.99
(£17.61) £14.99
(£17.61)
Gigabyte GA-73PVM-S2H GeForce 7100 Micro-ATX (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard Gigabyte GA-73PVM-S2H GeForce 7100 Micro-ATX (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £43.99
(£51.69) £43.99
(£51.69)
OcUK 2GB (2x1GB) PC2-6400C5 800MHz DDR2 Dual Channel Kit OcUK 2GB (2x1GB) PC2-6400C5 800MHz DDR2 Dual Channel Kit £23.99
(£28.19) £23.99
(£28.19)
Samsung SpinPoint S 250GB SATA-II 8MB Cache - OEM (HD250HJ) Samsung SpinPoint S 250GB SATA-II 8MB Cache - OEM (HD250HJ) £35.99
(£42.29) £35.99
(£42.29)
Intel Core 2 Duo E2200 "LGA775 Conroe" 2.20GHz (800FSB) - Retail Intel Core 2 Duo E2200 "LGA775 Conroe" 2.20GHz (800FSB) - Retail £51.99
(£61.09) £51.99
(£61.09)

Sub Total : £216.94
Shipping : £10.95
VAT : £39.88
Total : £267.77
 
No gaming will be done, they really just want one to use for skype and emails (their 21 year old daughter just moved to south africa for a year)
Is £300 really enough for a conroe now?
Is there much of a performance increase compared to a 4200x2 amd?
They really know nothing and are relying on me for this (even though im a complete newb and get all my knowledge from here)
thanks a lot.
Tom
 
Definitely worth going conroe over AMD. Intel even beats them at the budget end now. £300 is perfect for a non-gaming PC. Personally I'd go full ATX just so you have better upgrade options in the future. I'd imagine somewhere around £80 for a PSU/case combo, £50 for a decent but cheap mobo, £40 for a cpu, £40 for hdd, £50 for a semi decent gfx card, £25 for some RAM and £20 for DVD+RW drive. All erring on the higher side, I'm afraid I don't have time to do a full spec up now though but if you're still around tomorrow I'll do one up.
 
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