Spec Me Cheap and Small

Antar Bolaeisk · 24 Sep 2009 at 13:08

Hello all,

I was wondering if the hardware boffins of OcUK would perhaps help me in finding the smallest, cheapest system capable of running XP, DVD playback (I'll supply my own player so no need to include that in the cost) and has at least one pci slot.

Also no need to include a hard-drive or OS as I'll organise those myself, either running it off a pen drive or old hard-drive lying around.

The winner will be the one who can best meet the requirements at the cheapest possible price and will receive 1 x eCookie.

Thanks in advance,
Antar.

Antar Bolaeisk · 24 Sep 2009 at 13:17

Sorry, forget to say, I don't even need the case, just a motherboard, cpu and RAM (maybe a GPU and soundcard if they're not inbuilt on the board).

Antar Bolaeisk · 24 Sep 2009 at 15:41

Cheers 5abr3, helped loads.

Why do you feel the first spec is "risky", I'm kinda liking the idea of the all in one package.

Antar Bolaeisk · 24 Sep 2009 at 23:18

It won't have to do very much work, simply play dvds and run some java code, I would imagine it should be okay for that.

Antar Bolaeisk · 25 Sep 2009 at 17:03

Lanz said:
Unless you want a Media Center or Low powered server, dont get an Atom.

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/default.aspx?p=91&p2=96

It really does lack in everything desktop-wise.

As said, just some java code and play DVDs. I'll probably try and strip as much from XP as possible and, if I'm feeling very adventurous (depending on how things go) I might even try a lightweight linux os.

Thanks guys for all the help, muchy appreciated.