Budget Mini ITX PC Advice Please

thepominlaw

thepominlaw

thepominlaw

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Joined
8 Aug 2005
Posts
234
Hello all,

It seems like an eternity since I was in here last, since migrating to the Mac I have completely lost touch with what PC components are out there.

Its my sons birthday soon and as a surprise I want to give him (help him build) his own PC, he is currently using my old PC but that takes up so much space I am tempted to build him a Mini ITX model problem is I don’t know what I need. Basically all he ever does is play Minecraft, watch YouTube and programme so a powerful system is not needed. I am hoping to use a few bits from my old PC to keep the costs down.

Current PC Spec
6750 Core2Duo
4Gb ram
Abit P35 Pro Mobo
Nvidia 550Ti Graphics card
Corsair 600W PSU
1Tb Hard Drive
Windows 7 Pro

I am hoping to transfer the graphics card, psu and hard drive over as they are relatively new.

Looking online I am unsure what to order, I have £300 max preferably less so am looking for some components I need

Case (Mini ITX – Coolermaster Aerocool I think) £35
Motherboard (no idea)
Processor (i3? Retal with fan?)
Ram (min 8gb)
SSD (120gb should be fine for OS)
Windows 8?

Any advice you can offer would be great as I have 3 weeks to get the components. If I can find the money please also spec a new GPU and PSU just in case nothing too fancy though.
 
The problem with ITX is that the motherboard choice is more limited and generally slightly more expensive. going mATX would save you bit on the mobo, as would getting a slightly slower i3.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i3-4330 3.50GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £91.99
1 x MSI H97I AC Intel H97 (Socket 1150) DDR3 Mini ITX Motherboard £89.99
1 x Samsung 120GB SSD 840 EVO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7TE120BW) £67.99
1 x TeamGroup Elite Black 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (TED38GM1600HC11DC01) £55.99
1 x Cooler Master Elite 120 Advanced Mini-ITX Case - Black £39.95
Total : £355.51 (includes shipping : £8.00).

Definitely keep Windows 7, likewise the PSU. You could always leave out the RAM and just upgrade it in the future.

GPU-wise I think the cheapest cards that would be any sort of upgrade over the 550ti would be the AMD 260X or the nvidia 750 (not ti) for about £100. That would be a fairly small upgrade though so you would want to spend more or not bother IMO.

EDIT: Fixed CPU mistake
 
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