Spec me - Sub £400 PC, never to be used for games or OC

[roakes]

Hey all,

My mate is after a new PC (just the base unit, no screen etc.). He will never use it for gaming or OCing at all. Looking at sub £400 prices. Obviously needs to be as fast as possible for the price but at least 250gb hard drive.

Any ideas?

Thanks

 

[Snow-Munki]

probably get away with a conroe 6300 and a gig of ddr2 ram.

 

[roakes]

Will need a case/dvdrw etc. too.

Put together a quick one myself, see what u think...

AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 3800+ 2.00GHz (Socket AM2) - Retail (CP-166-AM)
Corsair 1GB DDR2 Value Select PC5300 Dual Channel Kit (2x512MB) (VS1GBKIT667D2) (MY-083-CS)
Asus M2NPV-MX (Socket AM2) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard (MB-149-AS)
Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 200GB ST3200820AS SATA-II 8MB Cache - OEM (HD-085-SE)
Antec SLK3800BUK Black Quiet Midi Tower Case - 400W SmartPower PSU (CA-048-AN)

Total 388.82 inc VAT

Plus a DVDRW

 

[Massive Attack]

probably get away with a conroe 6300 and a gig of ddr2 ram.

why a conroe if no OCing or games would be better off with a 939 rid as they are cheap

 

[roakes]

Sorry, yeah would prefer AM2 for at least a little future proofing

 

[jcb33]

Might help if you tell us what he actualy uses it for... If its just word processing and web browsing then a 400Mhz cpu would do

 

[roakes]

Just general use, web browsing, watching films etc. Nothing too CPU intensive but he's been given a budget of around £400 so may aswell use it

 

[konicky]

Hey all,

My mate is after a new PC (just the base unit, no screen etc.). He will never use it for gaming or OCing at all. Looking at sub £400 prices. Obviously needs to be as fast as possible for the price but at least 250gb hard drive.

Any ideas?

Thanks

No need for Dual core so how about:

AMD Athlon 64 3500+ 2.2GHz (Socket AM2) £54.99
Asus M2N-E (Socket AM2) PCI-Express DDR2 £57.99
Corsair 1GB DDR2 Value Select PC5300 £74.99
Sapphire ATI Radeon X1300 256MB DDR2 AVIVO £39.99
Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 200GB £45.95
NEC AD7170A 18x18 DVD±RW Dual Layer £19.95
Antec SLK3800BUK Black Quiet Midi Tower £54.99

£409.90 inc

 

[hhhhbk]

consider secondhand high end socket a

something like
abit nf7
xp2500 or higher + decent cooler
2x512mb memory

for £100 easily

new case and psu
big hard drive
dvdrw etc


and youd have 200 leftover to buy another if it ever broke

 

[hp7909]

lol... some of the 'cheap' suggestions TBH, that's not cheap especially if something breaks & you can't find it anywhere! Also old componets consume more power, etc. Build new, but cheap. & as for 'He will never use it for gaming or OCing at all', never say never

• Intel Pentium 4 820 Dual Core "LGA775 Smithfield" 2.8GHz (800FSB) - Retail (CP-102-IN) £72.99
• Asrock Conroe945G-DVI (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard (MB-004-AK) £45.99
• GeIL 1GB (2x512MB) PC5300 667MHz Value DDR2 Dual Channel Kit (GX21GB5300DC) (MY-030-GL) £79.99
• Samsung SpinPoint P SP2504C 250GB SATA-II 8MB Cache - OEM (HD-018-SA) £46.95
• NEC AD7170A 18x18 DVD±RW Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - OEM (CD-044-NE) £19.95
• Antec SLK3800BUK Black Quiet Midi Tower Case - 400W SmartPower PSU (CA-048-AN) £54.99
• Subtotal £320.86
• VAT £56.16
• Total £377.02

Can go C2D

 

[wizardmaxx]

Almost the same as hp's.

CA-004-AS Asus TA-210 Series Midi Tower (Black) - 360W PSU (CA-004-AS)
£32.00 £32.00
MB-004-AK Asrock Conroe945G-DVI (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard (MB-004-AK)
£45.99 £45.99
CP-116-IN Intel Pentium 4 805 Dual Core "LGA775 Smithfield" 2.66GHz (533FSB) - Retail (CP-116-IN)
£61.99 £61.99
MY-059-CS Corsair 1GB DDR2 XMS2-5400C4 TwinX (2x512MB) (MY-059-CS)
£69.99 £69.99
HD-079-SE Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 250GB ST3250620AS SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (HD-079-SE)
£51.99 £51.99
CD-078-SA Samsung SH-S182D 18x18 DVD±RW ReWriter (Black) (CD-078-SA)
£16.95 £16.95
Subtotal £278.91
VAT £48.81
Total £327.72

You can still get core2duo 6300 at £62 more = £390. So if he's looking for fastest option for the price that would be the choice to go for.