Budget £400 PC

azzerz

azzerz

azzerz

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11 Oct 2006
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856
Hey guys,

I bought a Dell laptop last year with a pretty good cpu, but due to me never being happy.. i've decided on getting a new core2powered comp :)

£400 is my budget.. wouldnt mind going too much over.

What I need:

CPU - Core2(I would personally choose the e6400.. but im not too sure)
Motherboard - Anything compatible)
RAM - 1GB would be good.. 2GB would be great!
GFX Card - Only to play CS1.6(I'd like it to run CSS.. but im not too bothered)

I've looked around.. but I dont know too many sites other than No competitor talk please!.

I'd love some suggestions from you pros ;)

Thanks in advance.
 
You're not going to get much for £400 but I'm sure we could build you a C2D system for that budget.. do you need PSU/Case/Monitor/OS etc? If so, we'll be struggling.

Also, do you want to overclock?

EDIT: OK, here it goes.

E6300 . Either OEM or Retail. If OEM you need to get an aftermarket cooler.

£127 / £136 (OEM/Retail)

Gigabyte S3 Excellent little overclocking board for a great price. 2nd one down, P965 chipset, not P945

£94

nVidia 7300GT The one at the very bottom, should be able to run CS1.6 with ease.

£59

If you can stretch your budget by around £50, you should go for the GeIL PC5300 memory, which is 2GB of quality RAM. Or you can go for the 1GB kit which is £94

£165 / £94

Total cost, £445/£374 (2GB / 1GB RAM)

If you go for the OEM E6300, you need to get an aftermarket cooler like the Thermaltake Big Typhoon (2nd one down)

£30

With aftermarket cooler, £475 / £404 (1gb/2gb ram)
 
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OK ,the 400 budget is gonna be tight......

-GFX, 7600GT is best for budget and great for CSS
-Get a pentium D 805 (50 odd quid 2nd hand) dual core and graet overclocking potential
-Get a conroe ready motherboard
-2GB value ram

Might be able to fit that with case,hd etc in about 450 or so :)
 
Wow, thanks for the quick reply..

I already have the case, monitor, ect from my old PC.. so its just those four i need to figure out.

Thanks very much!
 
Alright well what I posted should do you extremely well if you can stretch that budget a little bit further. Plus it's a core 2 duo ;) Well overclockable to 3GHz and beyond with the right motherboard/cooling combo.
 
ExoStatic said:
The 7300GT will be able to run CSS!

Hell, even my FX5200 can run CSS on 1280x1024 with high settings at ~20FPS which is enough for me..
Click to expand...

Exo, ty!

Great post.. i'm going to do exactly that and order it within a couple days(Payday :D).. from OCUK ofcourse ;)

btw, im not even gonna play CSS.. 1.6 for me is a much better game.. been playing for 6 years now and it NEVER gets old! ;)

Just want to be able to say "My PC can run CSS.. however i choose not to"

Thanks for all the help guys!
 
Nice! By the way, those specs are exactly the same ones as the one that I'm looking into getting.

How much RAM did you opt for? 1 or 2gb?

Also if you want to give me a headsup of how the frame rates are in some games then I'd appreciate it. I just mainly want to know how the 7300GT performs as there aren't many benchmarks for it around the interweb! yarr.
 
ExoStatic said:
Nice! By the way, those specs are exactly the same ones as the one that I'm looking into getting.

How much RAM did you opt for? 1 or 2gb?

Also if you want to give me a headsup of how the frame rates are in some games then I'd appreciate it. I just mainly want to know how the 7300GT performs as there aren't many benchmarks for it around the interweb! yarr.
Click to expand...

2BG ;)

and I'd be happy to give you the framerates, i'll post back when its up n running!
 
ExoStatic said:
The 7300GT will be able to run CSS!

Hell, even my FX5200 can run CSS on 1280x1024 with high settings at ~20FPS which is enough for me..
Click to expand...

It's very difficult to be, even remotely, competitive @ 20fps.
Good luck :)
 
Hey, I've looking around at a couple different CPUs and found a review on the core2's vs the AMDs..

the core2's worked better for gaming and such.. but werent up to much when it came to general computing, is this true? (Found this on tom's hardware, sorry if im not allowed to mention other sites)

So I was thinking of that CoreDuo 805 that got OC'd to 4.1GHz at the same link as above and spending my saving on a watercooling kit..

OR maybe get a higer AMD depending on performance and price, but I lack knowledge on AMDs.. so any help with that would be great!

Any suggestions would be awesome :)
 
Just one thing to note, your say you've currently got a Dell computer, and that you'll be wanting to use your old case - you won't be able to do that. Nothing fits in a Dell case, using a Dell power supply, apart from Dell equipment.

You'll have to fit a case and power supply into your budget as well.
 
Nah, my dell is a laptop.

I have the case from the computer before that

Im planning on getting a Lian Li case anyway :)

btw, my budget is now 500
 
u selling your dell laptop?

id go core duo...its a lot better and it will overclock easily to 2.8ghz and that will trump all pentium d cores
 
core duo is conroe basically...

id go conroe all the way if you get it to even 2.6ghz it will destroy most if not all pentium d's and probably even challened my fx-60 if it was at 2.8ghz+
 
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