£350 general use build

Deep

Deep

Deep

Soldato
Joined
29 Jul 2004
Posts
6,630
Location
Esher
Hi All,

I'm going to buy my parents a new machine, but instead of the usual buying one I'll just make them one instead. Their old Core 2 Duo is getting a bit out of date :O

I want to go for an m-itx system as space isn't the greatest where they use their machine.
It doesn't need to be uber powerful. Just enough for their Microsoft office needs, YouTube and that's around it actually.

I like this case and would like this included in the build if possible
I'll also need a W7 licence as well, but I might get that separately depending on how the specs you lot give me :)

So fire away chaps
 
 
Last edited:
Seems to be OK, would probably get 8 Gig of ram just to make sure.
That'd put me bang on £350
 
pdaboy said:
Either that or swap the mech hard drive for an SSD.
Click to expand...

Nah they'd need the space unfortunately.
My parents are going to start manually scanning in our old photos and converting our old VHS to DVDs.
So they'll put them on there (which will then get transferred onto my Server)
 
Deep said:
Nah they'd need the space unfortunately.
My parents are going to start manually scanning in our old photos and converting our old VHS to DVDs.
So they'll put them on there (which will then get transferred onto my Server)
Click to expand...
How about hybrid drive?
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/productlist.php?catid=14&groupid=701&sortby=priceAsc&subid=1894

Yea they won't be anywhere as fast as proper SSD, but should still offer pretty good performance in contrast to standard mechanical drives.
 
I've just ordered the i3 NUC, 2x 4GB RAM, 240GB mSATA SSD and an 802.11ac wireless card and gotten a bit of change out of £360.

Pair it with a USB drive or buy the 2.5" version if you need space, I would never consider booting off a spinning disk again now that I'm used to SSD.
 
Caged said:
I've just ordered the i3 NUC, 2x 4GB RAM, 240GB mSATA SSD and an 802.11ac wireless card and gotten a bit of change out of £360.

Pair it with a USB drive or buy the 2.5" version if you need space, I would never consider booting off a spinning disk again now that I'm used to SSD.
Click to expand...

Can you let me know how it fares for day to day use please?
 
How about the following?

AMD A8-5500 3.20GHz
TeamGroup Elite 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800
Gigabyte F2A88XN-WIFI AMD A88X
Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s
Kingston 60GB SSDNow V300 Drive SATA 6Gb/s
Lian Li PC-Q07A
EVGA 500W 80 Plus Power Supply

Total : £359.45

Even lower cost general web browsing/media use mini itx build:

AMD Athlon 5350 2.05GHz Quad Core Processor
MSI AM1I AMD AM1 (Socket FS1b) Mini ITX Motherboard
TeamGroup Elite 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800
Kingston 60GB SSDNow V300 Drive SATA 6Gb/s
Hitachi GST Travelstar 5K1000 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 2.5"
Antec ISK300-150 Black Mini-ITX Case 150W PSU
LiteOn DL-8ATSH Slim SLOT Black 8x DVD-RW SATA Optical Drive

Total : £288.41

Could take it down by £40 if the SSD is removed from the price, but after having one I can't go back!

Also, how do you get the format with the photo links underneath? :o
 
Deep said:
Can you let me know how it fares for day to day use please?
Click to expand...

No worries. I'm replacing an i5 2400 with a 500GB SATA drive and 4GB RAM (Optiplex 390). All I do is internet, iTunes, Remote Desktop and Remote Powershell across two displays.
 
Deep said:
Can you let me know how it fares for day to day use please?
Click to expand...

Erm, it's perfect. That's about all I have to say about it. Boots instantly (Windows 8.1 Pro), feels solid. Wi-Fi performance from the Intel 7260 AC/Bluetooth card is great.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom