Budget PC (Vista ready?)

rangor gubbins · 5 Oct 2006 at 12:30

What do people think of this as a budget PC? It'll only really be used for web browsing, and work, burning CD/DVDs, etc.
Peripherals are already bought.

REFERENCE DESCRIPTION QUANTITY PRICE COST
CP-126-IN Intel Core 2 DUO E6300 "LGA775 Allendale" 1.86GHz (1066FSB) - Retail (CP-126-IN) 1
£114.99 £114.99
MY-066-CS Corsair 1GB DDR2 Value Select PC4200 Dual Channel Kit (2x512MB) (VS1GBKIT533D2) (MY-066-CS) 1
£71.99 £71.99
HD-023-SA Samsung SpinPoint P HD080HJ 80GB SATA-II 8MB Cache - OEM (HD-023-SA) 1
£25.95 £25.95
CA-048-AN Antec SLK3800BUK Black Quiet Midi Tower Case - 400W SmartPower PSU (CA-048-AN) 1
£54.99 £54.99
GX-037-GW Gainward BLISS GeForce 7300 GS 256MB DDR2 TV-Out/DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (471846200-7661) (GX-037-GW) 1
£41.95 £41.95
Subtotal £309.87
VAT £54.23
Total £364.10

My real question is will the GPU be good enough to run Vista when it finally graces us with its presence

Thanks

Messiah Khan · 5 Oct 2006 at 13:01

Looks dcent enough to me. You already got a motherboard, or have you forgotten to spec it?

Messiah Khan · 5 Oct 2006 at 13:11

What about this spec;

CP-135-IN Intel Core 2 DUO E6300 "LGA775 Allendale" 1.86GHz (1066FSB) - OEM (CP-135-IN)
£107.99 £107.99
MB-163-AS Asus P5VD2-MX Micro ATX (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard (MB-163-AS)
£37.99 £37.99
MY-083-CS Corsair 1GB DDR2 Value Select PC5300 Dual Channel Kit (2x512MB) (VS1GBKIT667D2) (MY-083-CS)
£74.99 £74.99
GX-027-BG BFG 3DFuzion GeForce 6200 LE Turbo Cache 256MB DDR TV-Out/DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-027-BG)
£19.99 £19.99
HD-023-SA Samsung SpinPoint P HD080HJ 80GB SATA-II 8MB Cache - OEM (HD-023-SA)
£25.95 £25.95
CA-008-BT Tagan TG330-U01 330W ATX Silent PSU (CA-008-BT)
£28.99 £28.99
CA-012-AN Antec Super LANBOY Aluminum Super Mini Tower Case - No PSU (CA-012-AN)
£29.99 £29.99
Subtotal £325.89
VAT £57.04
Total £382.93

rangor gubbins · 5 Oct 2006 at 14:05

Thanks. Yeah i had forgotten the mobo.
I like your suggested spec, but why the tagan + SuperLANboy? Better case? The PC is for my mum, and i'm not sure she'd like the look of the LANboy.

The 6200LE turbo - i did think about that before. But thought it might be too budget. Admittedly the most graphic demanding thing the PC will be doing is running Vista, but i hear that might not be such a small feat.

Also considering this spec, which is a lot cheaper and i think will still be good enough - onboard GPU though. What do you think?

CP-164-AM AMD Athlon 64 3500+ 2.2GHz (Socket AM2) - Retail (CP-164-AM) 1
£54.99 £54.99
MY-059-CS Corsair 1GB DDR2 XMS2-5400C4 TwinX (2x512MB) (MY-059-CS) 1
£69.99 £69.99
MB-149-AS Asus M2NPV-MX (Socket AM2) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard (MB-149-AS) 1
£44.99 £44.99
CA-048-AN Antec SLK3800BUK Black Quiet Midi Tower Case - 400W SmartPower PSU (CA-048-AN) 1
£54.99 £54.99
HD-023-SA Samsung SpinPoint P HD080HJ 80GB SATA-II 8MB Cache - OEM (HD-023-SA) 1
£25.95 £25.95
Subtotal £250.91
VAT £43.91
Total £294.82

rangor gubbins · 5 Oct 2006 at 14:33

Or for an extra £70

CP-126-IN Intel Core 2 DUO E6300 "LGA775 Allendale" 1.86GHz (1066FSB) - Retail (CP-126-IN)
£114.99 £114.99
MB-004-AK Asrock Conroe945G-DVI (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard (MB-004-AK)
£45.99 £45.99
MY-059-CS Corsair 1GB DDR2 XMS2-5400C4 TwinX (2x512MB) (MY-059-CS)
£69.99 £69.99
HD-023-SA Samsung SpinPoint P HD080HJ 80GB SATA-II 8MB Cache - OEM (HD-023-SA)
£25.95 £25.95
CA-048-AN Antec SLK3800BUK Black Quiet Midi Tower Case - 400W SmartPower PSU (CA-048-AN)
£54.99 £54.99
Subtotal £311.91
VAT £54.59
Total £366.50

Again onboard GPU, and not sure how good these things are.

jellybeard999 · 5 Oct 2006 at 15:47

tbh, find a cheap 2nd hand A64 or S754 sempron, matx board with 6100 onboard and a matx case and psu ... she wont notice the difference, and itlll be tiny and quiet and MUCH cheaper

xirokx · 5 Oct 2006 at 18:02

for £366 you cant go wrong with that spec dude...

im not so sure if 7300 or 6200 could deal with vista....

go for the 7600 i think that should be fine,.....just double check that tho...

i wouldnt go for 3500 system has to be conroe these days..

csmager · 5 Oct 2006 at 18:10

Graphics ought to be fine - even some Intel onboards will do Aero Glass. It's not that special. Needs a fair chunk of Graphics RAM for high resolutions though.

rangor gubbins · 6 Oct 2006 at 10:03

Everybody is saying 'go conroe'. I'm really not convinced its worth the extra money for a system that will be used mainly for word processing, and web browsing, with perhaps some video watching, and music listening.

I think this will be more than enough for a few years:

CP-164-AM AMD Athlon 64 3500+ 2.2GHz (Socket AM2) - Retail (CP-164-AM)
£54.99 £54.99
MB-006-AK Asrock ALiveNF4G-DVI (Socket AM2) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-006-AK)
£39.99 £39.99
MY-059-CS Corsair 1GB DDR2 XMS2-5400C4 TwinX (2x512MB) (MY-059-CS)
£69.99 £69.99
HD-023-SA Samsung SpinPoint P HD080HJ 80GB SATA-II 8MB Cache - OEM (HD-023-SA)
£25.95 £25.95
CA-048-AN Antec SLK3800BUK Black Quiet Midi Tower Case - 400W SmartPower PSU (CA-048-AN)
£54.99 £54.99
CD-044-NE NEC AD7170A 18x18 DVD±RW Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - OEM (CD-044-NE)
£19.95 £19.95
SP-008-AL Altec Lansing VS2320 2.0 Versatile Speaker System (SP-008-AL)
£13.95 £13.95
Subtotal £279.81
VAT £48.97
Total £328.78

Does anyone agree?