cheapest CPU/Mobo/Ram/Gfx option

weird_dave

weird_dave

weird_dave

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I've been looking around at various options for a basic PC. I have a monitor, case PSU and HD, I just need CPU, motherboard, Ram and GFX. If I can find something that uses DDR2 I won't need Ram either.
The PC will be used for 1080 video playback and some web based flash games (think facebook games).
The nearest thing I've found is the ASRock Q1900M, it's a quad core (a bit OTT) mobo with built in gfx, just add DDR3, comes in at about £75.
I suspect there can be some improvements made on price, but I'm struggling.
Suggestions welcome :)
 
I don't know the make/model of the case (it's at home, I'm at work), but it's pretty generic. PSU is also fairly generic, it's a modular type. (I have a few different cases and PSUs sat around doing nothing, so I'm confident of a solution to this part of the build).

Budget is as low as possible, £50 would be ideal.

I've plumped for 4GB as the minimum, I did an install yesterday with 2.5GB (mobo was 32bit limited) and it moaned about low memory during the install! (during windows update).
 
try looking for something second hand. a socket 775 motherboard would probably be ok with either a core2duo or core2quad. some 775 motherboards have DDR2 and DDR3 slots (not populated at same time) I have one myself running on windows 10.

you need to be careful tho on 775 boards , the early ones only support Pentium 4s where as the later ones support up to Core2Quad
 
A socket 775 is likely to need a graphics card as well, this is something I'm currently trying to avoid as the only known working spare card I have is too big.

At the moment then, the ASRock Q1900M is still winning. (it's either than or I use my current 2500K build for this job and get a shiny new X99 build, but that changes the budget somewhat....)

I wish OC has some of these all in one type motherboards.
 
Am1 mobo and a Sempron quad core processor. Athlon if you want a bit more grunt.

About £50, plus you'll need some memory - single 4Gb stick will do, it doesn't have dual channel support anyway. About £75 all in (add £10-£15 if you go for the Athlon).
 
looks like it.. but I think that CPU will be garbage.. ive never actually used one though
 
weird_dave said:
I think you might be right, reviews suggest it'll struggle with 1080 video.
Click to expand...

No they don't:
http://www.techspot.com/review/806-amd-kabini-vs-intel-bay-trail-d/page7.html

Guru3d had a 1080p video test too, which maintained over the 24fps requirement.

They're not high power CPUs, and a little more cash will get something better (a dual-core AMD Kaveri setup, then a little more cash on top for a Intel Pentium bundle), but if you're strictly going for cheapest capable setup (and not buying used), you can't beat it.
 
Cheers for that link, it's given me a lot more to think about.
I have discovered a small working gfx card (7850) in my collection, which now opens up even more possibilities.
If I could get that card to work in the P5V-x se I also found working, I'd have a zero cost solution! But alas, the motherboard just doesn't seem to like it (it's happy with a 4MB PCI [yes, that is right] VGA card).
 
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