Cheapest possible PC build?

booey1 · 23 Jun 2012 at 21:04

Hey

What is the cheapest possible PC build? (Base unit only)

It needs to be able to meet these minimum requirements:
CPU: Pentium 4 3.0GHz
RAM: 1 GB
VGA: DirectX 9 compatible video card with 128 MB, Shader model 2.0c
Sound: DirectX 9.0c compatible sound card

My aim is to buy 3 of them, make a LAN and run basic games like Titan Quest, Dawn of War and possibly Magicka. At the moment a few friends are bringing round PCs, it's a real pain having to setup everything and organise lifts etc.

There are NO PLANS TO RUN ANY NEW GAMES.

I have all the screens, keyboards, mice, etc, just need to find some very affordable PCs.

Really I'm aiming for around £50 per PC, but I'm wondering what the cheapest would be?

booey1 · 23 Jun 2012 at 21:05

I do also have 2 old cases and plenty of Hard drives and CD drives.

booey1 · 23 Jun 2012 at 21:09

2x 128 RAM sticks
2x 300w PSUs

beejjacobs · 23 Jun 2012 at 21:10

Best to go second hand on that budget?

Smoogels · 23 Jun 2012 at 21:18

Yeah, surely the motherboard+CPU would come to £50 or over.

Is that RAM you got DDR3 too? If not you will be needing to buy new sticks since no motherboard will support it (unless you get a really old second hand mobo, 128mb sticks sound oldddd)

booey1 · 23 Jun 2012 at 21:26

Okay, do current integrated graphics support pixel shader 3.0?

Smoogels · 24 Jun 2012 at 10:21

booey1 said:
Okay, do current integrated graphics support pixel shader 3.0?

Not sure, might be worth Googling. I know the AMD APU's do though, just not sure about the lower end Intel.

spicypixel · 24 Jun 2012 at 10:23

E-350 boxes would fit the bill

Akagi · 26 Jun 2012 at 10:16

I have a celeron 1.6ghz w' DDR2 rig, a p4 2.8 @ 3.1GHz w' 2GB DDR rig, a pentium dual core 3GHz DDR2 rig etc for sale... Enable trust if you want and message me? the pentium D rig will be over £50 though. Please take note of my location also

ManofHorse · 26 Jun 2012 at 13:36

Ebay surely. Second hand Dell optiplex systems all the way, they seem to be great value for money, very quiet (given their cost and age) and very reliable. There are loads of them about too as they all come out of office clearances.

I have had three, two still work, one got in a fight with a glass of water and everything died, can't really blame it for that though...

If you have the space, i would avoid the SFF/USFF ones as they can be a bit limited in tinkering potential (not much room for graphics cards, funny sized power supplies, odd fan connectors, general weirdness)