Home System for £400

Mak3R · 15 Aug 2011 at 18:25

Hi Guys,

My family are after a basic system to use in the house. It needs nothing fancy, just the ability to browse the web, store stuff and use office etc. The max budget is £400. This includes the tower (except HDD, i have a spare), OS, Monitor and KB/mouse.

I have tried a few specs but end up way over budget, although i was trying to use only intel... Is this acheivable with this budget? I have being trying to avoid something from the likes of the men in purple shirts, as you basically get what you pay for.

Any help appreciated.

stulid · 15 Aug 2011 at 18:30

Your basketProduct Name Qty Price Line Total
OcUK V-Line 221V2SB 22" Widescreen LCD Monitor - Black £99.98
(£83.32) £99.98
(£83.32)
Intel Core i3-2100 3.10GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £89.99
(£74.99) £89.99
(£74.99)
MSI H67MA-E35 Intel H67 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Micro-ATX Motherboard - (Sandybridge) **B3 REVISION** £64.99
(£54.16) £64.99
(£54.16)
Corsair Builder Series CX 430W V2 ATX '80 Plus' Power Supply (CMPSU-430CXUKV2) £39.98
(£33.32) £39.98
(£33.32)
BitFenix Merc Alpha Gaming Case - Black £32.99
(£27.49) £32.99
(£27.49)
Crucial Ballistix Sport 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-10666C9 1333MHz Dual Channel Kit (BL2KIT25664BA1339) £22.79
(£18.99) £22.79
(£18.99)
Samsung SH-S222AL/BEBE 22x DVD±RW SATA Lightscribe ReWriter (Black) - OEM £15.98
(£13.32) £15.98
(£13.32)
Sub Total : £305.59
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £13.75
VAT is being charged at 20.00% VAT : £63.87
Total : £383.21

So the PSU is amazing and high quality,
http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php?name=NDReviews&op=Story&reid=239
http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/Corsair-CX430-V2-Power-Supply-Review/1284

The motherboard has SATA3.0 and USB3.0, it also has theses display outputs,
http://www.msi.com/product/mb/H67MA-E35.html

- 1 x HDMI port
- 1 x Graphic Card port
- 1 x DVI-D port

And the i3 2100 kicks ass - http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu/display/core-i3-2120-2100.html

And its £366 with free delivery which you can get

chrisarm · 15 Aug 2011 at 18:33

What size monitor you lookin at, is vga ok. Are you wanting a cheapy keyboard, mouse or something decent?

Reaper 392 · 15 Aug 2011 at 18:33

if you plan on doing any light gaming then this will be great, if not go for stulids i3 2100 spec as it will be faster despite having less cores

leaves £40 for a keybaord and mouse:
YOUR BASKET
1 x OcUK V-Line 221V2SB 22" Widescreen LCD Monitor - Black £99.98
1 x AMD Llano A6-3650 2.60GHz (Socket FM1) APU Processor (AD3650WNGXBOX) with FREE DIRT3 PC Game £83.99
1 x MSI A75MA-G55 AMD Hudson D3 (Socket FM1) DDR3 Llano MIcro-ATX Motherboard £71.99
1 x Cooler Master Elite 430 Windowed Case - Black (with 500w Elite Power PSU) £64.99
1 x Corsair XMS3 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMX4GX3M2A1600C9) £23.99
1 x Samsung SH-S222AL/BEBE 22x DVD±RW SATA Lightscribe ReWriter (Black) - OEM £15.98
Total : £360.92 (includes shipping: FREE).

alternatively, go for the higher end version of the processor: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CP-305-AM&groupid=701&catid=6&subcat=2060
leaving you £23 for keyboard and mouse

Mak3R · 15 Aug 2011 at 18:52

stulid said:
And its £366 with free delivery which you can get

Sadly free delivery doesnt apply to Northern Ireland

Very nice spec, thats quite close to the spec I managed, but you forgot the OS. WHich is the real pain.

chrisarm said:
What size monitor you lookin at, is vga ok. Are you wanting a cheapy keyboard, mouse or something decent?

Around 20" I'd say, VGA is fine as I guess that's what most onboard outputs would be?

Reaper 392 said:
*snip*

Nice spec, hadn't considered Llano parts, although I dont see any gaming at all being done with this PC. So it's probably overkill.

Reaper 392 · 15 Aug 2011 at 18:57

Mak3R said:
Nice spec, hadn't considered Llano parts, although I dont see any gaming at all being done with this PC. So it's probably overkill.

ok, dont go for my spec then, the i3 2100 will be faster. just wanted to put the idea out there in case you were going to do some light gaming though

stulid · 15 Aug 2011 at 18:59

Mak3R said:
Sadly free delivery doesnt apply to Northern Ireland

Very nice spec, thats quite close to the spec I managed, but you forgot the OS. WHich is the real pain.

Ok, I got back-up plans

Your basketProduct Name Qty Price Line Total
OcUK V-Line 221V2SB 22" Widescreen LCD Monitor - Black £99.98
(£83.32) £99.98
(£83.32)
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-00599) £79.99
(£66.66) £79.99
(£66.66)
MSI H67MA-E35 Intel H67 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Micro-ATX Motherboard - (Sandybridge) **B3 REVISION** £64.99
(£54.16) £64.99
(£54.16)
Intel Pentium G620 2.60GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £53.99
(£44.99) £53.99
(£44.99)
Corsair Builder Series CX 430W V2 ATX '80 Plus' Power Supply (CMPSU-430CXUKV2) £39.98
(£33.32) £39.98
(£33.32)
BitFenix Merc Alpha Gaming Case - Black £32.99
(£27.49) £32.99
(£27.49)
Crucial Ballistix Sport 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-10666C9 1333MHz Dual Channel Kit (BL2KIT25664BA1339) £22.79
(£18.99) £22.79
(£18.99)
Samsung SH-S222AL/BEBE 22x DVD±RW SATA Lightscribe ReWriter (Black) - OEM £15.98
(£13.32) £15.98
(£13.32)
Sub Total : £342.25
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £13.75
VAT is being charged at 20.00% VAT : £71.20
Total : £427.20

These Pentiums have HD1000 built-in graphics, but are still a quick CPU - http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu/display/pentium-g850-g840-g620.html

Against a £60 AMD tri-core athlon - http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/406?vs=189

Jony27 · 15 Aug 2011 at 19:22

Sadly free delivery doesnt apply to Northern Ireland

how come i got free delivery with RM(took 2 days) when i got my headset+pen drive?

Mak3R · 15 Aug 2011 at 19:49

Jony27 said:
how come i got free delivery with RM(took 2 days) when i got my headset+pen drive?

Yeh I've noticed small things it doesn't apply to. But if your ordering something that requires a big box it does. Like for stulids above spec it was another £30 for delivery...

jennidc · 15 Aug 2011 at 19:54

AMD Quad alternative:

Your basket
Product Name Qty Price Line Total
OcUK V-Line 221V2SB 22" Widescreen LCD Monitor - Black £99.98
(£83.32) £99.98
(£83.32)
AMD Athlon II X4 Quad Core 640 3.00GHz (Socket AM3) - Retail £79.99
(£66.66) £79.99
(£66.66)
Microsoft Windows 7 Bundle - Home Premium 64 Bit £68.40
(£57.00) £68.40
(£57.00)
Options applied to the above product:
Western Digital Caviar Blue 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM (WD5000AAKX) £32.99
(£27.49) £32.99
(£27.49)
ASRock N68C-S UCC GeForce 7025 (Socket AM3/AM2+) DDR2/DDR3 microATX Motherboard £34.99
(£29.16) £34.99
(£29.16)
OCUK EZCool NA-705 Case - Black (500w PSU) £24.98
(£20.82) £24.98
(£20.82)
Corsair XMS3 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMX4GX3M2A1600C9) £23.99
(£19.99) £23.99
(£19.99)
Sony Optiarc AD-5260S 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £17.99
(£14.99) £17.99
(£14.99)
Cooler Master Hyper TX3 CPU Cooler (Socket 754/939/940/AM2/AM3/775/1155/1156) £15.98
(£13.32) £15.98
(£13.32)
Sub Total : £332.75
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £12.50
VAT is being charged at 20.00% VAT : £69.05
Total : £414.30

Jony27 · 15 Aug 2011 at 20:09

^^ SB i3 is faster than the phenom quad core, which is faster than the athlon quad core. and cheap case and nast nasty psu.

Mak3R said:
Yeh I've noticed small things it doesn't apply to. But if your ordering something that requires a big box it does. Like for stulids above spec it was another £30 for delivery...

hmmmm, £30 delivery to N.Ireland, i wonder if thats next day or not because thats quite a huge price to pay for delivery.

just had an idea, i wonder if ordering them 1 after the other would work, only the case needs a big box so the rest should be free lol.

stulid · 15 Aug 2011 at 20:11

Jony27 said:
^^ SB i3 is faster than the phenom quad core, which is faster than the athlon quad core. and cheap case and nast nasty psu.

Plus the Pentium will use a lot less watts - http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/406?vs=122

Jony27 · 15 Aug 2011 at 20:12

oh i see you specced a SB Pentium, only saw the Llano and SB i3 specs

jennidc · 15 Aug 2011 at 21:36

quad

I know i3 is faster clock for clock - but the athlons overclock unlike i3 and you have 4 cores instead of two so multithread software will run better eg Windows 7

But yes I did have to cut a few corners such as case, psu and motherboard to get a quad into the budget. Llano may be the best allround option.

stulid · 15 Aug 2011 at 21:48

jennidc said:
I know i3 is faster clock for clock - but the athlons overclock unlike i3 and you have 4 cores instead of two so multithread software will run better eg Windows 7

Heres a £89 i3 2100 vs a £89 Athlon X4 - http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/289?vs=188

The i3 is faster despite "only have two cores", uses less power (electricity prices are going up/up/up) runs cooler, isnt on a dead socket like AM3.

The current Athlon and Phenom architectures (Denab, Propus etc cores) are now too old and slow and cant compete, no ones buying this stuff anymore and certainly the spec threads suggesting a Athlon or Phenom are now rare as rocking horse ****.

Llano is the only thing that sometimes gets suggested by me and others as it does have a place at certain price points and the usage required.