very cheap build

S.A.S · 31 May 2009 at 01:35

building a small pc for my nan, she will only use it to go online maybe write a few letters and save a few photos.

max of 400 pound for the build

need a pc build with mice and keyboard nothing else.

also maybe a mini atx case? or just something on the small side

thanks

JonJ678 · 31 May 2009 at 01:44

Fairly easily done these days. Mini itx sound good?

I've ignored mouse, keyboard, operating system. Comes in 150 quid under budget though

Be pretty quick. Getting a bit ridiculous how cheap computers are these days.

Audigex · 31 May 2009 at 02:40

It's more that hardware has run away from basic software. Okay, to run photoshop or encode video you need a decent system, and to play games you have to shell out for a graphics card. But to run windows, word and firefox (as a huge amount of computer time is spent for most people) £250 will do the job.

Looking at the above, I see no reason not to double up to 4gb of ram. It's likely not a lot of use for the programs, but it'll give you a little more headroom for win7. Regardless of the praise heaped on win7, it definately enjoys 4gb more then 2gb, like vista.

JonJ678 · 31 May 2009 at 02:53

Shrug. Go with 4gb then, I went with cheaper + low latency. Not going to make a massive difference.

Hardware running away from software is an interesting concept. I think requirements tend to be set by operating system; I wonder how many upgrades Vista was responsible for. If windows 7 is lighter on resources than vista, there may be a significant crash in hardware sales. Similarly, if windows didn't do the continual slowing down with time thing hardware sales would suffer. I wish I understood economics.

Audigex · 31 May 2009 at 03:43

With XP, hardware was behind at launch. Vista was much worse and basically hardware spent a few years catching up. ME/98 etc were similar, the hardware just about coped with it.

As you say, win7 isn't heavy on resources. I wouldn't say it's lighter than vista necessarily, but it's certainly not got the usual 4 years of bloat. I'd say it's comparable to vista.

Basically hardware has carried on as normal, but for once the software has sat mostly still.

shadowake · 31 May 2009 at 10:01

AMD Version with 4GB RAM:

Silverstone Sugo SG03S Aluminium Micro-ATX Case - Silver (No PSU) £71.29
(£61.99) £71.29
(£61.99)
AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 7750+ Black Edition 2.70GHz (Socket AM2+) - Retail AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 7750+ Black Edition 2.70GHz (Socket AM2+) - Retail £49.99
(£43.47) £49.99
(£43.47)
Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 250GB SATA-II 8MB Cache - OEM (ST3250318AS) Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 250GB SATA-II 8MB Cache - OEM (ST3250318AS) £36.98
(£32.16) £36.98
(£32.16)
Foxconn M61PMV nForce 430 (Socket AM2/AM2+) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard Foxconn M61PMV nForce 430 (Socket AM2/AM2+) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £36.79
(£31.99) £36.79
(£31.99)
Antec Basic 350W Power Supply Antec Basic 350W Power Supply £33.98
(£29.55) £33.98
(£29.55)
OcUK 4GB (2x2GB) PC2-6400C5 800MHz DDR2 Dual Channel OcUK 4GB (2x2GB) PC2-6400C5 800MHz DDR2 Dual Channel £28.74
(£24.99) £28.74
(£24.99)
Samsung TS-H493B SATA DVD-ROM / CD-RW Drive - OEM (Black) Samsung TS-H493B SATA DVD-ROM / CD-RW Drive - OEM (Black) £6.98
(£6.07) £6.98
(£6.07)
Sub Total : £230.22
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £11.75
VAT is being charged at 15% VAT : £36.30
Total : £278.27

wbc1 · 31 May 2009 at 10:38

This:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=FS-172-OK&groupid=43&catid=1078&subcat=

RJC · 31 May 2009 at 10:51

Any use:

Intel Pentium Dual-Core E5200 "LGA775 Core 2" 2.50GHz (800FSB) - Retail £62.09
(£53.99) £62.09
(£53.99)

Gigabyte GA-73PVM-S2 NVIDIA GeForce 7100 / nForce 630i Chipset (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £50.59
(£43.99) £50.59
(£43.99)

Corsair CX 400W ATX Power Supply (CMPSU-400CXUK) £42.99
(£37.38) £42.99
(£37.38)

Corsair XMS2 4GB (2x2GB) DDR2 PC2-6400C5 TwinX Dual Channel (TWIN2X4096-6400C5) £39.99
(£34.77) £39.99
(£34.77)

Samsung SpinPoint F1 320GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (HD322HJ) £38.99
(£33.90) £38.99
(£33.90)

Asus TA-861 Midi-ATX Case - Black/Silver (No PSU) £21.84
(£18.99) £21.84
(£18.99)

Pioneer DVR-216DBK 20x DVD±RW SATA Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - OEM £16.99
(£14.77) £16.99
(£14.77)

Logitech RX1000 Optical Laser Mouse (931710-0600) £10.98
(£9.55) £10.98
(£9.55)

Logitech Classic Keyboard 200 (968019-0120) £8.99
(£7.82) £8.99
(£7.82) Sub Total : £255.16 Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £11.75 VAT is being charged at 15% VAT : £40.04 Total : £306.95

shadowake · 31 May 2009 at 11:47

All 3 specs above are good, one Mini-ITX a Micro-ATX and a Midi-ATX, take your pick! Sure you nan will be very happy!