£400 student rig challange....

Tombo · 12 Feb 2007 at 14:40

Wouldnt a £10 USB stick work just as well.

bfar · 12 Feb 2007 at 14:41

I'm a bit suprised that this is sparking a C2D vs AMD discussion. For a mid-high end rig, sure I'd be going Intel all the way.

But lads you don't understand - this is a budget build for very basic home use. Email, Messenger, Word, Itunes, a few IE windows, maybe a DVD here or there, a Ronan O'Gara wallpaper and thats more or less it!! She might burn a DVD once a month. She won't be running Orthos, 3D Mark, or folding@home, put it that way

The cheapest CPU in the store would probably never see 100% usage in this rig.

We have £425, maybe £450. If a C2D fits in that price point than thats great, but I wouldn't base the whole build around it. I feel at this budget, I should be looking at good reliable parts that will do the job bank for buck. I'd rather get a quality case & PSU than just get a C2D for the sake of having a slightly faster CPU.

bfar · 12 Feb 2007 at 14:42

dupli, sorry

bfar · 12 Feb 2007 at 14:47

Tombo said:
Wouldnt a £10 USB stick work just as well.

Yup. Little miss 'know it all' knows better. She's afraid she'll loose the USB sticks in her make-up bag

fester · 12 Feb 2007 at 16:18

Its hard to get a spec in here that don't in involve a 8800gtx and an 3.4 gig overclockered c2d.Even if it just for ms office. LOL

bfar · 12 Feb 2007 at 16:33

fester said:
Its hard to get a spec in here that don't in involve a 8800gtx and an 3.4 gig overclockered c2d.Even if it just for ms office. LOL

Aye

There were a few sensible suggestions posted tho. Thanks all

artaxerxes · 12 Feb 2007 at 16:43

Rather than saying 450, how about a challenge to get the most fully functional and smallest footprint, for the cheapest price.

A budget of 450 is very high for what you actually need, it is also right on the cusp of making complete sense to get C2D.

milkinc13 · 12 Feb 2007 at 16:59

on an AMD side

MSI K9N Neo-F nForce 550 (Socket AM2) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £52.86

AMD Athlon 64 3800+ 2.4GHz (Socket AM2) - Retail £74.01

Corsair 1GB DDR2 Value Select PC5300 Dual Channel Kit (2x512MB) £61.09

BFG 3DFuzion GeForce 6200 LE Turbo Cache 256MB DDR TV-Out/DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail £29.36

Akasa AK-ZEN-01-BK Zen Black Case - No PSU £29.36

Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 200GB ST3200820AS SATA-II 8MB Cache - OEM £51.69

Akasa Ultra Quiet 400W Paxpower Active PFC ATX2.0 PSU - Black Nickel with Blue LED Fan £44.64

Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium 64-Bit Edition DVD - OEM - 1Pk (66I-00788) 72.84

Asus DRW-1608P3S 16x16 DVD±RW Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) £19.96 inc VAT

£436

all there from what I can think of, but can't find a floppy on here, and I think another company sells then for £20max, so that'll be £456 at max. hope this helps

bfar · 12 Feb 2007 at 17:06

artaxerxes said:
Rather than saying 450, how about a challenge to get the most fully functional and smallest footprint, for the cheapest price.

A budget of 450 is very high for what you actually need, it is also right on the cusp of making complete sense to get C2D.

I like your first idea, but a C2D really wants a £500 budget. Thats definately laptop territory.

Just to point out, I can do a very good quality x2 3800 rig for £402.

bfar · 12 Feb 2007 at 17:08

milkinc13 said:
MSI K9N Neo-F nForce 550 (Socket AM2) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £52.86

AMD Athlon 64 3800+ 2.4GHz (Socket AM2) - Retail £74.01

Corsair 1GB DDR2 Value Select PC5300 Dual Channel Kit (2x512MB) £61.09

BFG 3DFuzion GeForce 6200 LE Turbo Cache 256MB DDR TV-Out/DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail £29.36

Akasa AK-ZEN-01-BK Zen Black Case - No PSU £29.36

Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 200GB ST3200820AS SATA-II 8MB Cache - OEM £51.69

Akasa Ultra Quiet 400W Paxpower Active PFC ATX2.0 PSU - Black Nickel with Blue LED Fan £44.64

Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium 64-Bit Edition DVD - OEM - 1Pk (66I-00788) 72.84

Asus DRW-1608P3S 16x16 DVD±RW Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) £19.96 inc VAT

£436

all there from what I can think of, but can't find a floppy on here, and I think another company sells then for £20max, so that'll be £456 at max. hope this helps

I like this one.

Just one question tho, do you really think 64bit vista is a good idea for a novice?

artaxerxes · 12 Feb 2007 at 18:04

Anything more than this is really superfluous. This has lasting appeal, upgradeability without having to throw an old graphics card away. As a student the ultra portability of the system will also be handy when moving halls/flats each year. Sure some of the stuff is out of stock - but I am sure you can improvise.

Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 80GB ST380811AS SATA-II 8MB Cache - OEM (£32.89)
Sony Floppy Drive - Black (£5.86)
Shuttle XPC SK22G2 Aluminium Barebones System - AMD 64 (Socket AM2) (£143.34)
AMD Athlon 64 3500+ 2.2GHz (Socket AM2) - Retail (£64.61)
GeIL 1GB (2x512MB) PC6400C5 800MHz Value DDR2 Dual Channel Kit (£56.39)
Microsoft Windows Vista Home Basic 64-Bit Edition DVD - OEM - 1Pk (66G-00660) (£57.56)
Liteon DVD-8900 16x DVD±RW/RAM (Black) - OEM (£17.61)
Sub Total : £321.93
Shipping : £8.95
Vat : £57.90
Total : £388.78

If you really must blow the budget - add graphics.

fester · 12 Feb 2007 at 18:23

Product Name Qty Price Line Total
GeIL 1GB (2x512MB) PC6400C5 800MHz Value DDR2 Dual Channel Kit (GX21GB6400DC) £47.99
(£56.39) £47.99
(£56.39)
Antec NSK1300 ATX Cube Case - 300W PSU £49.99
(£58.74) £49.99
(£58.74)
Sony Floppy Drive - Black £4.99
(£5.86) £4.99
(£5.86)
Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 Pro CPU Cooler (Socket 754/939/940/AM2) £13.99
(£16.44) £13.99
(£16.44)
AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 3800+ 2.00GHz (Socket AM2) - OEM £54.99
(£64.61) £54.99
(£64.61)
Samsung SpinPoint P SP2504C 250GB SATA-II 8MB Cache - OEM £42.99
(£50.51) £42.99
(£50.51)
Abit NFM2-nView nForce 6150 Micro ATX (Socket AM2) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £59.99
(£70.49) £59.99
(£70.49)
Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium 64-Bit Edition DVD - OEM - 1Pk (66I-00788) £61.99
(£72.84) £61.99
(£72.84)
Sub Total : £336.92
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 : £60.70
Total : £407.57

This setup can be made almost silent and is quite pretty. The onboard gf6150 gfx has all the features of the Gforce 6 cards like dx9 and hardware mpeg decoding and will run aero.As for vista 64 it is more secure which is why it has not been hacked yet like the 32bit version.

Tute · 12 Feb 2007 at 21:03

bfar said:
Yup. Little miss 'know it all' knows better. She's afraid she'll loose the USB sticks in her make-up bag

Er... you think a floppy disk is still going to work after a few hours of being knocked around in a make-up bag?

FDs are bad news, you can get USB sticks for a few quid these days.

bfar · 12 Feb 2007 at 21:17

Tute said:
Er... you think a floppy disk is still going to work after a few hours of being knocked around in a make-up bag?

FDs are bad news, you can get USB sticks for a few quid these days.

You think? :rolleyes:

Like I said, she "knows better". I didn't set the requirements here, I'm just doing as I'm told. Besides, for the extra tenner Madam Princess should have her wish....

By the ways, I'm very impressed with the reponse here, you guys are outstanding

artaxerxes · 12 Feb 2007 at 21:19

I hope you are practicing safe... backups.

Who needs a USB key when you can gmail all your documents and access them from anywhere - acts as a free backup too.

bfar · 12 Feb 2007 at 21:20

artaxerxes said:
I hope you are practicing safe... backups.

Who needs a USB key when you can gmail all your documents and access them from anywhere - acts as a free backup too.

would you reckon that someone who carries floppys in a makeup bag would grasp the concept of gmail?

milkinc13 · 13 Feb 2007 at 11:19

bfar said:
I like this one.

Just one question tho, do you really think 64bit vista is a good idea for a novice?

ok then drop the 64bit and use 32bit Vista, it won't affect the overal cost of the system as the 32bit is the same amount. Glad you like my idea.