cheapest possible spec

Soldato
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My friend has asked me to spend the money i owe him on a PC for him. Its not much but he has some stuff already.

He needs, CPU/RAM/Mobo/graphics. I can give him a PSU and i could lend him a graphics cards for now since i doubt anything worth getting wont fit into budget. Hes currently running an AMD 3500+, SB Live 5.1 ATI x1650 1.5GB ddr1...so you can see why he needs to upgrade.
The actual budget is £85 but it "could" be increased if he speaks to me nicely enough/i get annoyed at him lagging any game i play with him.

So, cheapest dual core spec you can muster? I looked around but there doesnt seem to be an equivilant of the E21xx series anymore, so AMD i guess? (he doesnt want second hand...which makes it much harder)
 
yep i know, hence why i was having issues with finding anything lol. That looks good, since ill be able to sell his hardware on for a little bit of cash so that can push it up.
 
yea, ill probably sell his x1650, saw one go for £22 (agp) last week so that ups the budget a little. If i sell my 7950gt agp i could up the budget from my pocket, or if not, i could lend him the 8800gts 320mb for a month until he can afford the 4650. From looking around the best i can find is either

The above spec/bundle or a slight variation in mobo, for around £110 i found it with an asus board with 4 ram slots on it and a few extra other things, but with no cpu cooler, or 90ish with not cpu cooler.

£115 gets 2gb corsair, intel e5200 and some cheapo biostar mobo (G31 i think).

E5200 would be worth the extra over the X2 4400 right? Or am i forgetting something?
 
Yea, the e5200 should be faster than the x2 4400. That said, the e5200 is an overclocking beast. It may be worth going 2nd hand and getting a better board for the same price of the g31 new and overclock it to 3.5GHz +
 
I would go second hand, he seems to want new, which is making it nice and hard for me.

I am now going ot decide between the e5200 and the below spec. I cba with looking more tbh, ill just put it in some money (was going to buy him a socket 939 x2 4400 the other day but they changed mind on selling) as im annoyed at him not being able to play anything above starcraft lol

AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 7750+ Black Edition 2.70GHz (Socket AM2+) - Retail £49.99

Foxconn M61PMV nForce 430 (Socket AM2/AM2+) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £36.79

OcUK 4GB (2x2GB) PC2-6400C5 800MHz DDR2 Dual Channel OcUK 4GB (2x2GB) PC2-6400C5 800MHz DDR2 Dual Channel £28.74

Total : £125.01
 
unless you manage to convince him to go second hand, stick to amd.
that x2 is ok, cheap mobo as well.
toss a 4830 a month later and he'll be able to play absolutely anything with good details at a decent framerate . ;)
 
i have convinced him to spend £150, although itll take a month longer but he can use my spare pc in the mean time (C2Duo 8800gts 2gb) so i think that will do ok. He'll still be a bit short when it comes to getting a graphics card, but once weve sold his x1650 he should just be able to afford a 4650 or something.

I'd like to thank everyone for there help + constructive posts etc.
 
unless you manage to convince him to go second hand, stick to amd.
that x2 is ok, cheap mobo as well.
toss a 4830 a month later and he'll be able to play absolutely anything with good details at a decent framerate . ;)

il second that, ive got one in at the minute to tide me over and its a cracking piece of big black brick
 
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