College Build

[hardtarget]

Hi all looking to build a system for a niece soon. This will be for her home/college work no gaming at all. She has an old computer so I will not be needing a monitor, keyboard/mouse or speakers. She will be using winXP and running microsoft office (not sure which one). I have been told I can spend approx £370 so any ideas on what parts to buy? I will need the following and anything else I may have missed. Just one thing the motherboard will have to have onboard sound as well as wifi as she uses a wireless router for her internet access. I was thinking of spending the following for each part.

• case £40
• psu £45
• cpu £70
• hard drive £50
• dvdr Writer £15
• memory 2x1gig £35
• Graphic Card £40
• motherboard £75

Total £370

The case and PSU where a right pain as it's down to personal choice, but I just wanted one with a decent PSU was thinking of this or would I be better off buying them serperate.

 

[goujon945]

Personally i would buy the psu and case separately something like an Antec 300 and a Corsair VX450. Tbh any dvd drive would do as they are pretty much the same imo. Many people would say get a Samsung or WD HDD but Hitachi and Seagate are good too. For the mobo maybe a P5K paired with a oc'ed 2180 CPU.

 

[revolutionrock]

Couldn't decide on a Mobo

Gone over on most things, was rushed.

 

[Slashiem]

Your basket

Product Name Qty Price Line Total

Akasa AK-ZEN-01-BK Rev.2 Zen Black Case - No PSU £23.99
(£28.19) £23.99
(£28.19)

Pioneer DVR-215DBK 20x DVD±RW SATA Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - OEM £13.99
(£16.44) £13.99
(£16.44)

Hitachi Deskstar T7K500 320GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (0A33435) £28.99
(£34.06) £28.99
(£34.06)

Akasa Ultra Quiet 400W Paxpower Active PFC ATX2.2 PSU - Black Nickel £34.99
(£41.11) £34.99
(£41.11)

Intel Core 2 Duo E2200 "LGA775 Conroe" 2.20GHz (800FSB) - Retail £41.99
(£49.34) £41.99
(£49.34)

GeIL 4GB (2x2GB) PC2-6400C5 800MHz Black Dragon DDR2 Dual Channel Kit (GB24GB6400C5DC) £44.99
(£52.86) £44.99
(£52.86)

Asus ATI Radeon EAH3450/HTP/256M Vcool Silent 256MB DDR2 TV-Out/DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail £21.99
(£25.84) £21.99
(£25.84)

Belkin F5D7051UK 125Mbps Wireless USB 2.0 Network Adapter £19.99
(£23.49) £19.99
(£23.49)

Gigabyte GA-P31-DS3L Intel P31 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £39.99
(£46.99) £39.99
(£46.99) Sub Total : £270.91 Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
City Link Parcel Next Day (Delivered Mon-Fri)
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £10.95 VAT is being charged at 17.5% VAT : £49.33 Total : £331.19
Sry it isnt a printscreen, but on a small screen and cant get it all in.
Also if you fancy overclocking, stick in a arctic freezer 7 which will still come under £350.

~Slash

 

[hardtarget]

Wow! Fast replys cheers lads gives me something to look at

 

[revolutionrock]

Wow! Fast replys cheers lads gives me something to look at

Also, i have the Antec Sonata case

It is a sexy looking thing, and the PSU is great so far

Powering

q6600
p5q
4gb ram
760gb hdd's
4850 ati

 

[lamboman]

I presume that she won't need this for anything particularly taxing? Try this:



Add this network card in, and this case, then you'll be sorted.

 

[Ben M]

edit: nvm.

 

[hardtarget]

What motherboard and graphics card would you recommend Ben?

 

[AbsenceJam]

I'd just go with a cheap Dell Vostro laptop (or desktop).

 

[Pulse]

I may have missed why it is you want that particular case, but personally for a girls college computer that doesn't really need dedicated graphics I'd go with a barebone.

Or for a slightly cheaper version -

With either build you could upgrade the CPU or add in a graphics card, or both and still come in under budget. Just my input

 

[lamboman]

Dunno if anyone else has noticed, but it does say XP. You won't need 4GB if you are only using this for basics...

 

[Pulse]

Dunno if anyone else has noticed, but it does say XP. You won't need 4GB if you are only using this for basics...

It's a fair point, means you could save even more on both of the builds I suggested Spose it would be future proofing if she did wish to upgrade to Vista.

Updated specs - Both still allow for upgrades of CPU/GFX

 

[Rroff]

For that price and for a girl I'd say you'd be better off looking at laptops - you can get some quite nice ones around that price... or even one of the new Asus Eee 900/1000 series.

Failing that this is what I'd go for - cheap and cheerful... (ignore the case I just threw in something cheap as a place holder).

 

[Rroff]

This the Eee I had in mind

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=LT-169-AS&groupid=959&catid=1070&subcat=&name=Asus%20Eee%20PC%201000%20Intel%20Atom%201.6GHz%2010.0"%20Laptop%20-%20XP%20Home%20-%20White%20(EEEPC1000H-W008X)

Unfortunatly OCuk don't do many laptops under £700.

 

[psychas]

u can get better cpu if u get 8800gt second hand u can get them for 50£ now so u can get better cpu and u can game and do student work everything try to get 8800gt second hand and better cpu

 

[Pulse]

<snip>

You obviously read less of the spec than I did. It won't be used for gaming, at all. So there is no need for a mid-high end graphics card, it's just a wasted expense.

 

[Rroff]

You obviously read less of the spec than I did. It won't be used for gaming, at all. So there is no need for a mid-high end graphics card, it's just a wasted expense.

Not to mention extra electricity usage, more heat, etc.

 

[Ben M]

What motherboard and graphics card would you recommend Ben?

stupid thing didn't add the mobo to the build -.-

it was a matx mobo with onboard.

which makes it nearer the budget and removes the point, oh well.