Cheap budget build

nwgilbert

nwgilbert

nwgilbert

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Joined
14 May 2015
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162
Hello, I built a computer about a year ago that cost £2000 so I'm fairly familiar with the process.

Now I am looking for a budget PC for my partner for business work only - it won't be used for gaming. It will be for pretty basic use such as excel, word, possibly a bit of adobe.

I am wondering what would be the cheapest option?
To build myself from individual parts or buy something off the shelf prebuilt?

Just wondering when you put together all the parts, how cheap will this actually be? I have an old PC that pretty much died on me (poor psu).
Just wondering should I remove and use parts from that such as ram or is it worth just starting fresh? (bearing in mind its like 8 years old).

If someone can give some general advice or make a suggested list that would be greatly appreciated.

I guess I would be looking at spending 150-300? Not sure how cheap it can really go when all the PC will be used for is word/excel/browsing...

Thanks in advance. :)

Nick
 
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Hi,

I put together a configuration on our site for a built system for you which comes in just under £300 not including shipping. I'll link it below so you can have a look and see what you think, you don't really need anything incredibly powerful for basic home use so I've kept the spec to a minimum to keep the price as low as possible for you.

My basket at Overclockers UK:
  • 1 x "Primo Pro AX" Configurable AMD A Series APU Office PC = £299.96
    • Build Time:Standard Build Systems - Dispatched within 7 working days
    • Secondary Hard Drive / Solid State Drive:No Second Hard Drive Option (ZERO Cost)
    • Optical Drive:No Optical Drive Selected
    • AMD Processor:AMD A4-4000 3.00GHz (Socket FM2) APU Richland Dual Core Processor (AD4000OKHLBOX)
    • Networking:Networking Not Selected
    • Security Software:No Security Software
    • Warranty:OcUK Standard System Warranty - 3 Year (24 Month C&R + 12 Month Labour)
    • Memory:Team Group Elite Black 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (TPKD38G1600HC11DC01)
    • Primary Hard Drive / Solid State Drive:Seagate 1TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache HDD - OEM (ST1000DM003)
    • Operating System:Microsoft Windows 10 64-Bit DVD - OEM (MS-KW9-00139)

Total: £314.06
(includes shipping: £14.10)
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Hello, thank you for your comment and time you have taken to put together a suggested build.

I have just been looking around at pre-builds to get an idea on how cheap you can pick up a finished PC for, and come across a PC that is just 172.92 inc. vat(free delivery).

Here is the spec:
EXDISPLAY Acer Aspire XC-214 Desktop PC AMD A4-5000 1.5GHz 4GB RAM 500GB HDD DVDRW Intel HD FreeDOS Product Description

Processor AMD A4-5000 1.5GHz
Quad-core (4 Core™)
2MB Cache
Memory

4GB DDR3 SDRAM
Expandable to 16GB
Hard Drive

500GB Serial ATA/300 7200rpm Optical Drive

DVD Writer

Operating system: FreeDOS Display

Not Included Graphics

Intel HD Graphics Input Devices

Keyboard and mouse

Gigabit Ethernet
Power Supply 220 Watt​


I am wondering how much better your build is, and if I'll really get much more out of it rather than this pre-build above. Bearing in mind that the PC will only be used for browsing/word/excel.
 
Every office machine I build comes with an ssd if they don't need the storage. I'd highly recommend it if you don't need 1TB of storage, the system will seem much faster.
 
Considering how low specced the majority of office PC's actually are, that are still in use, even Intel P4 and LGA 775 systems still get the job done. You really can simply get the cheapest components.

Any motherboard graphic will do the job.

I will concur that an SSD would be great, it makes a huge difference even to budget components, but it has to have some capacity to negate cost versus storage of a £38 500gb HDD, which has served the majority of office PC's for many years.

Fractals Core 1000 with an included PSU, great value £51

Cheapest AMD Micro ATX platform motherboard FM2+ motherboard under £40
AMD Processor for above AMD FM2 Dual core £25

Memory, single 2gb stick of DDR3 £12

Then either a standard 500gb HDD or a 120gb SSD will be £38.
 
Thank you for your comments. I will go for an SSD for sure.

@sastusbulbas: Can you link those items, I cannot find half of those on OCUK at those prices you have said.

Alternatively, could someone else put together a budget build at say around 250?
 
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I have put together this based on sastusbulbas's feedback.

Please let me know your thoughts and any changes you may suggest?
Also whether everything is compatible and if there is anything I am missing.

My basket at Overclockers UK:

Total: £212.65
(includes shipping: £11.70)
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^ What he said. :)

May as well. Plus once OS and apps are installed on that 60GB SSD there won't be much space for 'stuff'.
 
Thank you for your comments. I think I would like to go with Intel. Currently I have put both intel and amd in the list. Please can someone suggest which would perform better for basic PC use Browsing/Word/Excel/Some Indesign/Photoshop Adobe.

Since having a further look into the comparison of the two, I found the intel to have better performance results.

http://cpuboss.com/cpus/Intel-Pentiu...vs-AMD-A4-4000
Please let me know if anyone thinks against this for any reason?

Having said that, Could I get a better processor than the G3258 for not much more? What would be the upgrade from that?


In my current basket below I have put both so I need to remove one and the motherboard to match. I am also open to someone suggesting another processor? Or are one of these two the best in my price range? I don't mind going a little higher if the difference in performance will be drastic.



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Also wondering if it is worth getting a cooler, or not really on such a cheap processor? The reason I ask is it gets extremely hot in the room where we will have the PC.



My basket at Overclockers UK:

Total: £304.50
(includes shipping: £12.60)
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