Budget Build

Spangles

Spangles

Spangles

Associate
Joined
20 Jun 2012
Posts
2,429
Location
Polegate, East Sussex
Good Afternoon,

A friend of mine at work is looking into getting a new PC. I asked him for his budget and he said around £250. I nearly fell over.

I am struggling to find something in that price range and while something from the members market may be more what we need to look at, seeing what we could get new is a good idea too.

His main uses are playing World of Tanks and he does a bit of photo editing, probably nothing to in depth though.

He only needs the base unit as has the other stuff available. He mentioned he has his current build (something from 2008, probably pre-built) hooked up to his TV so I believe an HDMI port is going to be needed.

He somehow also needs to get Windows for it, but I have informed him that that probably is just not going to happen within this budget. He is currently running Vi....Vis...Vist...I can't say it.

I reckon we could look at pushing up to around £275 for all the hardware.

Can you please provide me with some ideas of where to head for this build as I am struggling to find a good fit within this sort of budget.

There is a good chance we could reuse his existing hard drive.

Thanks for your efforts in advance.
 
Yeah but I doubt we can fit that into the budget, so I can tell him that isn't going to happen as it may make the build be a bit too budget. I have asked him to provide me with the model of his existing setup so I can see what sort of gain we are going to be looking at.

I have managed to find some nice components but overall it comes to around £325, which is probably going to be too much if he still has to get an OS on top.
 
For an extra £20 you would get a decent PSU - i'm not happy with the one i've picked - but needs must and the rest is quality (ignoring the case):

My basket at Overclockers UK:

Total: £302.92
(includes shipping: £11.10)



​
 
 
Guys, thank you for your efforts. Will present him with the options tomorrow. Will try to educate him that a bit more cash will obviously create a better system. Everyone just wants everything for as cheap as possible at the moment.

Your efforts are appreciated. May Zeus smile on you ;)
 
Please, please, please do not go for that Kolink psu. I know Plec said he wasn't happy with it and that the budget is very tight but that so called 400w psu only has 288w on the 12v rail. That is a sure sign of a older design crappy psu. There are no reviews for anything other than the Kolink Platinum 1200w unit so we know nothing about these cheaper units, not even who the oem is. I dread to think about the quality of the internals on these things so please avoid them until they have been reviewed by a reputable independant source.
 
pastymuncher said:
Please, please, please do not go for that Kolink psu. I know Plec said he wasn't happy with it and that the budget is very tight but that so called 400w psu only has 288w on the 12v rail.
Click to expand...

Hehe, i actually found it physically difficult to 'add to basket' - it was if my brain could not compute what my hand was doing.

I think i had one your posts battering my subconscious as my mouse hovered over it :D

(@OP - sound advice)
 
:D:p:D I have been like that several times in the psu section when someone insists that they just can't find a extra tenner for something that has much better quality. In the end you have to pick the best of a bad bunch which usually turns out to be the XFX XT 400w. There have been a few occassions where the person asking for advice just won't budge on the budget even though they have spent a small fortune on other components!! In cases like that I have refused to recommend something and backed out of the thread. It can be hard work sometimes trying to convince people that the psu is not the place to save money but many sadly still don't get it. :(
 
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