Small pc advice please on a budget?

Dave85 · 28 Jan 2011 at 19:51

Hi

My grans needing a new pc so I quite fancy getting her something small and power efficient only going to be used by her for skype and web browsing. She has a budget of £150 but I will add to that a little extra if I need to.

Was looking at the shuttle Shuttle SG41J1 Plus, Already have a hard drive for it, disk drive etc so would just be needing the cheapest cpu and some ddr,

Shuttle
GeIL 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz VALUE PLUS Dual Channel
Intel Celeron Dual Core E3400 "LGA775" 2.60GHz (800FSB) - Retail

So total would be £175 ish

But then I seen the Zontact Zbox Already have ram that fits it so would need only a 2.5 inch hard disk so works out £179

Zotac ZBOX Intel Atom Mini PC SD-ID10 Barebone
Western Digital Scorpio Blue 160GB 5400RPM SATA-II 8MB Cache 2.5"

Can someone tell me what would probably be best, im leaning towards the shtutle as it has more power and cheaper. Are there any other alternatives that can just sit on the desk. Perhaps custom built itx on this budget is it possible. Like Lian li case and I can see motherboards with atoms built in for only £50 sounds like it could be a plan.

Any suggestions appreciated thanks.

CAT-THE-FIFTH · 28 Jan 2011 at 20:04

The SG41J1 Plus can also use mini ITX motherboards too meaning you will have an upgrade path.

Dave85 · 28 Jan 2011 at 21:08

Hi I examined the last options and im quite tempted to go for this custom build seems pretty good value compared to the other 2. Any glaring errors or mistakes?

ZOTAC NM10-E-E With Atom D510 Processor Wi-Fi VGA HDMI Out Mini-ITX Motherboard
Corsair 2GB DDR2 667MHz/PC2-5300 Memory Non-ECC Unbuffered CL5 Lifetime Warranty
Black Mini ITX Case with 250W PSU - 20+4pin with SATA 205560

3.5 inch sata hard drive here and a bluray drive ready for it. So total is under £140 seems like a great little home pc?
Would love to push the budget a little and get the Lian li mini itx case but it doesnt have a psu so would be looking at 70 quid versus 30. Unless Lian Li PC-Q07B can take a normal ATX psu?

Dave85 · 5 Feb 2011 at 03:00

Might aswell update will take a picture later today. Went for the

Zotac NM10 E-E and some
kingston 2GB DDR2 pc6400.
Lian li Q07 case was an utter bargain. lovely little case just a bit fiddly and with some quirks.
Used the coolermaster 380w I think it was from the old case. And 80GB WD Sata hard drive. must have been one of the first lol.

Installation was easy enough just very fiddly if you got big hands and not good with tiny screws. Im very impressed with the little system will do my gran perfectly for web browsing and iplayer. Could maybe do with just a little bit more graphics power but cant find a pci 1x gcard anywhere.