£400 budget 'spec me' request...

acrebo · 2 Aug 2010 at 16:37

Afternoon chaps; a spec required if you would be so kind!

My parents have tasked me with putting together a new build for them, as their current PC has bitten the bullet and they need a capable business computer.

It's mostly used for basic business use - office, Word, Excel as well as a lot of Internet use and the use of Photoshop. Gaming is not an issue!

Must be Intel based.
Must be wireless compatible.
They already have monitor and speakers, but require everything else (including Windows 7 OS and wireless mouse / keyboard).

£400 budget, give or take the price of a takeaway...

Redmint · 2 Aug 2010 at 16:41

acrebo said:
Must be Intel based.

Any particular reason? For low budget builds AMD offers far better value for money.

acrebo · 2 Aug 2010 at 16:45

Just my Dad stuck in the 90's after he had a nightmare with an old AMD Athlon!

If there is a considerable different in VFM / performance by going AMD I could probably persuade him...

Redmint · 2 Aug 2010 at 16:52

*waits for someone to jump on him for suggesting old tech 775/DDR2*

But hey it's cheap, it's Intel and it'll work fine for office use and a bit of photoshop.

~>Dg<~ · 2 Aug 2010 at 16:53

build a x6 amd machine for that it was posted on here somewhere cost was 400

Redmint · 2 Aug 2010 at 16:54

~>Dg<~ said:
cost was 400

Not with Windows 7, keyboard & mouse.

acrebo · 2 Aug 2010 at 17:41

Lol, thanks Redmint. I was going down the same lines of 775/dual core/DDR2 as it's faired me really well from my own build over a year ago.

acrebo · 2 Aug 2010 at 17:42

Oh, any reason why I'd go for the retail version of Windows instead of OEM builder software?

Redmint · 2 Aug 2010 at 17:44

The retail version is reuseable if you need to change/upgrade the motherboard at some point. In theory the sytem should last them a few years at least until the next Windows release is out, but I always suggest the retail version to be on the safe side.

Strepsils · 2 Aug 2010 at 18:14

Redmint said:
Any particular reason? For low budget builds AMD offers far better value for money.

yep

edGfaCTor · 2 Aug 2010 at 20:58

I agree with what others have said about amd path its better value for money.

You don't really want to be spending £400 for an old 775 intel system if you have to go down that route i would say look in members mart for one of them systems you could pick up quad core for almost half that price.

Another note don't waste £100+ for win7 retail pick up a student copy for about £50

acrebo · 2 Aug 2010 at 21:06

Fair enough guys; fancy specc'ing up an AMD build instead!?!

NeoRed · 2 Aug 2010 at 23:57

Think that works, have not used a AMD system in a very long time.

franco_22 · 3 Aug 2010 at 04:44

Advantages of this build:

AM3 800 Chipset Motherboard (best there is for AMD and ability to upgrade into a quad or six-core in the future)

AMD Phenom 555 CPU ( possible to unlock into a tri core or quad core, Phenoms with unlocked multipliers, easy to overclock for great performance for money)

4GB DDR3 RAM, you would probably be better of spending an extra tenner on better sticks but I didn't want to go over your budget.

500gb HDD + Sata DVDRW

Disadvantages:

Case + PSU, their not good but if your dad isn't going to be gaming I doubt the PSU will use half it's power rating anyway.

OEM version of windows but then again, I doubt your dad will be building more systems soon right ?