£365 budget machine

A[L]C · 18 Jul 2007 at 10:18

Hi all,

What can you recommend for £365. No leeway on that budget at all. Lower graphics is ok.

Thanks
Paul

fobose · 18 Jul 2007 at 10:26

OcUK GeForce 8600 GT 256MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail £61.99
(£72.84) £61.99
(£72.84)
Samsung SpinPoint P SP2504C 250GB SATA-II 8MB Cache - OEM £33.99
(£39.94) £33.99
(£39.94)
Antec Sonata II Piano Black Quiet Case - 450W Smart Power PSU £54.99
(£64.61) £54.99
(£64.61)
OCZ 2GB (2 x 1GB) PC2-6400C4 Dual Channel Platinum Revision 2 XTC Series DDR2 (OCZ2P800R22GK) £56.99
(£66.96) £56.99
(£66.96)
Asrock 4CoreDual-VSTA (Socket 775) PCI-Express/AGP DDR2 Motherboard £36.99
(£43.46) £36.99
(£43.46)
Intel Core 2 Duo E2160 "LGA775 Conroe" 1.80GHz (800FSB) - Retail £49.99
(£58.74) £49.99
(£58.74)
Sub Total : £294.94
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 : £53.36
Total : £358.25

Not sure if you wanted a monitor + keyb/mouse or not?

A[L]C · 18 Jul 2007 at 10:30

How does the 8600GT rate?

stickroad · 18 Jul 2007 at 10:31

Are you going to overclock the system?

Will_3rd · 18 Jul 2007 at 10:34

Slightly cheaper

fobose · 18 Jul 2007 at 10:37

Oop, I forgot a DVD drive

I think the 8600GT is on par with a 7900GS? (7900GS might be better at higher resolutions though).

A[L]C · 18 Jul 2007 at 10:37

Just trying to see how much Im losing out on. Thinking of buying a **** (like shell) on finance. Its £258 but with interest, works out at £364. The specs are:

305- D07V03A
Intel® Core 2 Duo E6320 Processor (1.86GHz,1066MHz,4MB cache)
Genuine Windows Vista Home Basic - English
1 Year Business Hardware Support
2048MB 667MHz Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM [2x1024]
320GB (7200rpm) Serial ATA/100 Hard Drive with 16MB DataBurst cache
256MB ATI® Radeon® X1300 Pro PCI Express graphics card
16x DVD +/- RW Drive
Dell Entry Quietkey USB Keyboard - UK/Irish (QWERTY)
Dell 2 Button USB Scroll Optical Mouse - Black
No Accidental Damage Support
McAfee® Security Centre 8.0 - 24 Month Protection - English
Integrated 7.1 Channel High Definition Audio
13-in-1 Media Card Reader
Microsoft® Works 8.0 - English

Unfortunately Ive got a bad credit rating so I think thats my only option.

Wiggins · 18 Jul 2007 at 10:39

A[L]C said:
How does the 8600GT rate?

Check the review

fobose · 18 Jul 2007 at 10:40

I wouldn't get a prebuild, you wont be able to do any overclocking at all, and with dells I dont think you can even change the PSU on them incase you wanted to upgrade the system later on?

A[L]C · 18 Jul 2007 at 10:41

fobose said:
I wouldn't get a prebuild, you wont be able to do any overclocking at all, and with dells I dont think you can even change the PSU on them incase you wanted to upgrade the system later on?

Dont really have much choice though.

Stelly · 18 Jul 2007 at 10:43

A[L]C said:
Dont really have much choice though.

If I was you I would use the MM market and get 2nd hand parts... should be good... thats what I would do anyway with the money your looking at spending

Stelly

A[L]C · 18 Jul 2007 at 10:45

Stelly said:
If I was you I would use the MM market and get 2nd hand parts... should be good... thats what I would do anyway with the money your looking at spending

Stelly

Dont have any money available mate! For the price though, that prebuilts not a bad spec is it?

fobose · 18 Jul 2007 at 10:48

What is the PC for? Is it for you or are you buying it as a present for gf/son/daugther? If your buying it for yourself, surely you could hold off till you could afford something better?

Stelly · 18 Jul 2007 at 10:55

A[L]C said:
Dont have any money available mate! For the price though, that prebuilts not a bad spec is it?

Never liked Shell... especially the sub standard mboards they use in the computers... I also think they use Maxtor HDDs as well..

Other then that finance as well... go for it dude... unless you can save lira up

Stelly

A[L]C · 18 Jul 2007 at 11:03

fobose said:
What is the PC for? Is it for you or are you buying it as a present for gf/son/daugther? If your buying it for yourself, surely you could hold off till you could afford something better?

Its for me. Currently got a A64 3000+, 2gb (4x512) ram, X800GTO2. Ive got a little girl who we spend our spare money on, so Im not going to feasably save up more than £20 a month really.

stickroad · 18 Jul 2007 at 11:05

With that budget you wont be able to overclock anyway, not very far. Since its a budget board and budget memory. Which wont go far.

That pre built system is very good value for money, go for it.

A[L]C · 18 Jul 2007 at 11:08

stickroad said:
With that budget you wont be able to overclock anyway, not very far. Since its a budget board and budget memory. Which wont go far.

That pre built system is very good value for money, go for it.

Should be able to put an 8600gt in there (thats an upgrade option). Dont think Id be able to go any higher though as its only a 300w psu!

Do you think upgrading to the E6420 would be worth the extra £35?

fobose · 18 Jul 2007 at 11:12

What about upgrading the graphics card for your current rig?

A[L]C · 18 Jul 2007 at 11:18

I suppose so, but this is my only real upgrade opportunity for the forseeable future.

Barry1337 · 18 Jul 2007 at 13:25

I would change the motherboard to this:

EVGA nForce 650i Ultra (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard (122-CK-NF66-T1)
£44.99
£52.86 inc VAT

That should enable you to overclock better