New Spec Please

Sharlaw

Sharlaw

Sharlaw

Associate
Joined
4 Jul 2008
Posts
806
Location
UK - Maidenhead
Hi Guys,

I've been asked to put something together for a mate.

He's looking for a machine for essentially light home/office work browsing and pushing media to his TV. Won't be used for gaming.

Does not need to include. OS, keyboard/mouse and monitor.

Budget around £400

TIA
 
 
Potty27 said:
Does he need an OS?
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Sharlaw said:
Does not need to include. OS, keyboard/mouse and monitor.
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I'll take that as a no ;)

Why not look to build a little HTPC that could be hooked upto the TV?

YOUR BASKET
1 x Seagate Barracuda 2TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST2000DM001) HDD £74.99
1 x MSI A75IA-E53 AMD A75 Chipset (Socket FM2) DDR3 Mini ITX Motherboard £69.95
1 x TeamGroup Xtreem LV 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-21300C11 2666MHz Dual Channel Kit (TXD38G2666HC11CDC01) £65.99
1 x AMD A6-5400K Black Edition 3.60GHz (Socket FM2) APU Trinity Dual Core Processor (AD540KOKHJBOX) £47.99
1 x Corsair Builder Series CX 430w Modular '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply (CP-9020058-UK) £41.99
1 x Cooler Master Elite 120 Advanced Mini-ITX Case - Black £39.95
1 x LG GH24NSB0 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £16.99
Total : £357.84 (includes shipping : FREE).



Mobo includes wifi and bluetooth which is a nice touch. You can get free apps for smartphones to act as a basic keyboard/mouse or a remote for media software.

The RAM is a little OTT but it feeds the IGP and believe it or not the APU is capable of light gaming. You can tweak it to suit just thought I'd put the idea out there for a HTPC/light gaming console hybrid.
 
The GPU in the A6 series isn't good enough to benefit much from the fast RAM. The 1600MHz stuff would be fine, and 4GB is plenty for a low budget. Saves a good £30.
 
 
teppic said:
The GPU in the A6 series isn't good enough to benefit much from the fast RAM. The 1600MHz stuff would be fine, and 4GB is plenty for a low budget. Saves a good £30.
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I clearly said it's a little OTT and he can tweak it to suit, it didn't put the spec over budget.

It's the form factor i.e size of the build he might find interesting.
 
honosuseri said:
I clearly said it's a little OTT and he can tweak it to suit, it didn't put the spec over budget.

It's the form factor i.e size of the build he might find interesting.
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Calm down :) Just saying it'd not benefit much here and there's a good saving to be made.
 
teppic said:
Calm down :) Just saying it'd not benefit much here and there's a good saving to be made.
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I am calm, I'm just tired of people repeating what I've already said in threads.

The ITX mobo is roughly the same price as the ATX you guys are using (that's a nice mobo btw). The ITX does have bluetooth and wifi included as I said which is nice (the ATX doesn't) however it's limited to two DIMM slots so he can't expand cost effectively. Which is why I just used a 8GB kit from the get go as it was still in budget.

I look forward to seeing what he settles on in the end :)
 
Nobody said your spec was bad or that ITX is not a good idea. You comment on my specs all the time, I'm simply doing the same - to save money, not to argue.
 
Thanks for the replies guys, definitely like the idea of the HTPC, saving space is certainly a bonus. I do have a 2TB WD Green I'll be donating to this build.
 
Sharlaw said:
Thanks for the replies guys, definitely like the idea of the HTPC, saving space is certainly a bonus. I do have a 2TB WD Green I'll be donating to this build.
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Thought it might appeal. The green Eco drive is a bit slow for the OS so dropping that HDD from my spec and use the SSD Teppic pointed out makes sense. By all means drop the RAM to 4GB 1600Mhz if you want to, just be aware the ITX doesn't have room to add more unless you replace what is already fitted.

You can use THIS to post a basket if you want to, makes life a lil easier :)
 
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