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After some recommendations on a low budget build.
Needs everything really, except a monitor.
Must be AMD 64bit 3000+ (Maybe Sempron)
512mb Memory
80GB Hard Drive
Nice Case (Black)
DVD/RW
ASRock Motherboard would be nice
Onboard Graphics will do, but will probably pick up a 2nd hand Graphics card from somewhere.
Keyboard & Mouse cheap as you can get
Speakers cant be little farty one's.
All for around £200 - £250.
This is for my brother who is currently on a Pentium 3, 4GB HDD, 512mb RAM.
Needs to be able to, play music well, play low spec games, and look good.
Looking to order in around a week
Thanks Alex.
how about this then
http://www.pbest.f2s.com/images/pcquote.JPG
PB
{edit: just realised I forgot the floppy drive so need to add about £4 for that}
PB
Do you not think if possible it'd be nice to bang 1GB of RAM into the machine? I know it'd push the budget over, but would make a difference. Maybe you could salvage some old stuff from somewhere, or sell his old PC for extra cash?
Also what about an OS?
Devils-Blood
26-09-06, 19:05
Here you are
AMD Athlon64 3500 Venice OEM
2.2GHz Socket 939 512K Cache ADA3500DAA4BP
£48.95 £48.95
Asrock 939Dual VSTA Socket 939
PCI-E x16 OR AGP x8 / SATA(II) RAID / 7.1CH AUDIO / LAN / DUAL CH DDR 400 / ATX MOTHERBOARD
£36.95 £36.95
Samsung 18x DL DVDRW BLACK 12x RAM
18x Super-WriteMaster DVD & RAM WRITER SH-182D B/BEBN
£18.49 £18.49
Corsair Value Select 512MB PC3200
VS512MB400
£36.95 £36.95
80GB Seagate Barracuda 9 SATA2 8MB
ST380211A
£26.95 £26.95
4in1 MIDI Tower,KB,Mse, Spkr
uSB AUDIO, 450W PSU, MULTIMEDIA KEYBOARD, 380W PMPO SPEAKERS 3D BALL MOUSE, WINDOWED CASE LED FAN
£28.95 £28.95
Zalman CNPS7000B-Cu
462 / 478 / 775 / 939
£18.50 £18.50
The Mobo is PCI-EX or 8AGP so you must have a old AGP card somewhere.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Subtotal :
VAT : £215.74
£37.78 Total : £253.52 inc VAT
Devils-Blood
26-09-06, 19:27
or
4in1 MIDI Tower,KB,Mse, Spkr
uSB AUDIO, 450W PSU, MULTIMEDIA KEYBOARD, 380W PMPO SPEAKERS 3D BALL MOUSE, WINDOWED CASE LED FAN
£28.95 £28.95
Samsung 18x DL DVDRW BLACK 12x RAM
18x Super-WriteMaster DVD & RAM WRITER SH-182D B/BEBN
£18.49 £18.49
AMD Athlon 64 3500+ Retail AM2
2.0GHz, 1000MHz FSB, 512KB, 64 Bit Socket AM2
£52.95 £52.95
Arianet High Perf. 512mb DDR2 533
512mb DDR2 533 SDRAM PC2 4200 Life time warranty
£33.95 £33.95
80GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 2MB
ST3802110A Replaces ST380011A
£26.50 £26.50
Asrock ALIVENF4G-DVI Socket AM2
PCI-E / DUAL CH DDR2 / AMD LIVE READY / ONBOARD GFX / SATA RAID / DUAL VIDEO OUT / mATX MOTHERBOARD
£36.55 £36.55
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Subtotal :
VAT : £197.39
£34.56 Total : £231.95 inc VAT
A manky old AGP card isn't going to run any games decent enough to play :)
depends what you want to play and at what sort of res i guess, you might be able topick up a 9800pro or similar for £40 which would cope with most things at a lowish res i guess 1024x768 and low to med detail. Remember this is a buget pc so you get what you pays for.
What about this setup?
http://onlybarley.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2006/09/cheaprig.jpg
I know £243.83 is at the top of the budget, but for that you're going to get an Athlon processor instead of a Sempron, and 1GB RAM instead of just 512MB.
Also, the motherboard uses onboard graphics, which is shared from your RAM, so that 1GB RAM starts to look even more useful. You can of course get a cheapo PCI-E graphics card at a later date, how about you buy him one as a present at Christmas?
I think it's a well rounded above low spec PC for the cash, but if you want to lower the budget a tad, switching the Athlon to a Sempron 3000+ will save you £10 or £15.
Devils-Blood
27-09-06, 09:23
How about this set up and a graphics card included. Just 89p over budget.
POV Nvidia 7300LE-128Mb PCI-E £29.95 £29.95
80GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 2MB
ST3802110A Replaces ST380011A
£26.50 £26.50
512MB Major DDR2-400 SDRAM SERVER
DIMM, 512, 400M, 32X72, 8, 240, 2RX8 Micron, Samsung, Infineon, Hynix, Nanya
£25.00 £25.00
AMD Athlon 64 3200+ Retail AM2
2.00GHz, 1000MHz FSB, 512KB, 64 Bit Socket AM2
£45.95 £45.95
4in1 MIDI Tower,KB,Mse, Spkr
uSB AUDIO, 450W PSU, MULTIMEDIA KEYBOARD, 380W PMPO SPEAKERS 3D BALL MOUSE, WINDOWED CASE LED FAN
£28.95 £28.95
3½\" Black Floppy Drive £3.65 £3.65
Asrock ALIVENF4G-DVI Socket AM2
PCI-E / DUAL CH DDR2 / AMD LIVE READY / ONBOARD GFX / SATA RAID / DUAL VIDEO OUT / mATX MOTHERBOARD
£36.55 £36.55
LiteOn DRW-6S160P 16x DVD-RW Black £16.96 £16.96
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Subtotal :
VAT : £213.51
£37.38 Total : £250.89 inc VAT
Considering how bad the 7300 is, he's as well off just sticking with on board graphics until he can afford something better, saving £30 in the process! :)
Devils-Blood
27-09-06, 15:50
One of the other set ups I put before had on board graphics and a athlon 64 XP3500 and at £231 going £10 over budget would give 1GB of memory.
Now why would you pick a plain black case Barley when for a few pounds more somebody can have a black case with LED strips on the side, window panel, and LED fan with 450W PSU instead of the 350W PSU. :wink:
Cos the plain case still looks nice, but comes with a keyboard, mouse, 350w PSU AND speakers. Can't turn your nose up at that :)
Devils-Blood
27-09-06, 17:00
But the case I selected comes with mouse, keyboard, speakers and 450W PSU £2 more for the bright lights and side panel window and a extra 100 watts on the PSU. :wink:
[quote:c6d9fcf195=\"Barley\"]Considering how bad the 7300 is, he's as well off just sticking with on board graphics until he can afford something better, saving £30 in the process! :)[/quote:c6d9fcf195]
I was just about to flame you something rotten then Barley but i see what 7300 you were on about and yes you are correct the 7300le does leave alot to be desired BUT the 7300gt DDR3 is a fantastic little card and the £60ish you can pick them up for is a bargain imho, how many other cards you can get for around £60 can score near on 3000 in 3d06? (2860 to be precise but nearly 3k sounds better :wink: )
[quote:05b08daa7c=\"mac124\"][quote:05b08daa7c=\"Barley\"]Considering how bad the 7300 is, he's as well off just sticking with on board graphics until he can afford something better, saving £30 in the process! :)[/quote:05b08daa7c]
I was just about to flame you something rotten then Barley but i see what 7300 you were on about and yes you are correct the 7300le does leave alot to be desired BUT the 7300gt DDR3 is a fantastic little card and the £60ish you can pick them up for is a bargain imho, how many other cards you can get for around £60 can score near on 3000 in 3d06? (2860 to be precise but nearly 3k sounds better :wink: )[/quote:05b08daa7c]
That's a stroke of luck because I didn't look into the exact spec's of the card before posting, I just guestimated based on the name! :D
Was poorly yesterday so didn't feel up to posting much :cry:
Thanks for the suggestions.
4in1 MIDI Tower,KB,Mse, Spkr
USB Audio, 450W PSU, Muiltimedia Keyboard, 380W PMPO SPEAKERS 3D BALL MOUSE, WINDOWED CASE LED FAN
£28.95 £28.95
^^ Was looking to get a deal like that, but the speakers will most likely be pants, and it has a ball mouse^^
I can get a Wireless keyboard & mouse from work, and the speakers need to be half decent. A nice 2.1 setup would be great. I can grab a DVD/RW and Hard Drive from work aswell.
So that should help the £250 budget:
AMD 64 BIT 3000+ (Or Higher)
Foxconn - ASRock - MSI Mobo
256mb Memory --> 1GB (Can grab a stick from work)
Case (Must look half decent)
2.1 Audio Setup
Graphics Card
Hard Drive (If it can be budgeted for)
Now does that help?
No need to use the whole budget :lol:
Appreciate the suggestins people
Devils-Blood
28-09-06, 12:21
Now you move the goal post, no consideration for us poor guys who worked their fingers to bone yesterday. :D
[quote:a41761f69a=\"Devils-Blood\"]Now you move the goal post, no consideration for us poor guys who worked their fingers to bone yesterday. :D[/quote:a41761f69a]
I dunno DB, why do we bother?! ;)
Sorry :cry:
Just trying to keep the cost down as much as i can. 8)
Assuming you can get the DVD-RW and HD from work, you could get something roughly like this, but I honestly think the graphics card is total kak!
http://onlybarley.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2006/09/setup1.jpg
However if you could pick up a gig of RAM from work too, you could get something a lot nicer!
http://onlybarley.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2006/09/setup2.jpg
I've just had a thought. For £250 you aren't going to get much of a system that can play games etc well, and do everything else required.
BUT, £250 might be enough to upgrade his P3 system to something that can just about manage. What are his exact current specs? CPU, speed, motherboard, etc etc.
Also, CustomPC have an article here (http://www.pcpro.co.uk/custompc/features/86966/pcs-for-peanuts.html) about building PC's for peanuts :)
Ok i know your trying to help but that post in one word was crap.
Try upgrading a Pentium 3 system that uses SDRAM. (Not gonna be good).
_ _ _ _ _ _
And for £250 you can easily build a better system than a P3, by miles.
:evil:
Some of the suggestions so far have been excellent, and proof that not everyone can afford to splash £800+ on a PC which will only be used for mediocre gaming and web surfing.
What games is he playing at the moment?
Red Alert 2 + Settlers IV 8)
(But also want this to last for the new C&C which will not doubt need good specs).
So thats why Onboard will dof ro now, and once there is need to play higher spec games, it's just a case of buying a new graphics card not a complete build.
8)
So.. you can get a hard drive and DVD-RW from work, and possibly RAM as well?
That just leaves
CPU
Motherboard
Case
PSU
Sound
Speakers
?
If onboard graphics will be ok until later on. If you can't get RAM from work, 1GB is still going to be the sweet spot I think.
CPU
Motherboard
Case
PSU
Sound
Speakers
Exactly 8)
So something like
AMD 64Bit 3000+ Retail
ASRock ........
EZ Cool Case (+ PSU)
2.1 Speakers
Would be ideal. But if you can fit 512mb memory in there aswell it would be good.
:P
Devils-Blood
28-09-06, 16:28
When I have got time I will come up with something good. :wink:
Devils-Blood
28-09-06, 17:28
This one has a smart case and just £6 over budget with a XP3500 or if you go for the XP3200 it will come in slightly under budget. A 7300GT card for playing games well.
Gainward Bliss 7300GT PCX 256MB
TV DVI SLI SilentFX Mfr# 471846200-8026
£52.89 £52.89
MSI K9VGM-V Socket AM2
ONBOARD GFX / DUAL CORE / DUAL CH DDRII / SATA RAID / 8CH AUDIO / LAN / mATX MOTHERBOARD
£33.95 £33.95
Arianet High Perf. 512mb DDR400
512mb DDR400 SDRAM PC3200 Life time warranty
£29.95 £29.95
AMD Athlon 64 3500+ Retail AM2
2.0GHz, 1000MHz FSB, 512KB, 64 Bit Socket AM2
£52.95 £52.95
Labtec Pulse 385 Speakers 2.1/10W RMS £11.37 £11.37
Warrior Gamers Case - Black (Y1A) £27.25 £27.25
400W ATX Power Supply £9.90 £9.90
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Subtotal :
VAT : £218.26
£38.20 Total : £256.46 inc VAT
Or this one with a slightly cheaper graphics but out of stock at the mo.
MSI K9VGM-V Socket AM2
ONBOARD GFX / DUAL CORE / DUAL CH DDRII / SATA RAID / 8CH AUDIO / LAN / mATX MOTHERBOARD
£33.95 £33.95
Arianet High Perf. 512mb DDR400
512mb DDR400 SDRAM PC3200 Life time warranty
£29.95 £29.95
AMD Athlon 64 3500+ Retail AM2
2.0GHz, 1000MHz FSB, 512KB, 64 Bit Socket AM2
£52.95 £52.95
Labtec Pulse 385 Speakers 2.1/10W RMS £11.37 £11.37
Warrior Gamers Case - Black (Y1A) £27.25 £27.25
400W ATX Power Supply £9.90 £9.90
Inno3D GeForce 7300GT 256MB PCI-E
SLi TV 2xDVI Mfr# I-7300GT-G4F3
Out of stock !
£45.92 £45.92
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Subtotal :
VAT : £211.29
£36.98 Total : £248.27 inc VAT
Or this one with on board graphics and creative inspire 5.1 sound and better make of psu.
Arianet High Perf. 512mb DDR400
512mb DDR400 SDRAM PC3200 Life time warranty
£29.95 £29.95
AMD Athlon 64 3500+ Retail AM2
2.0GHz, 1000MHz FSB, 512KB, 64 Bit Socket AM2
£52.95 £52.95
Warrior Gamers Case - Black (Y1A) £27.25 £27.25
Asrock ALIVENF4G-DVI Socket AM2
PCI-E / DUAL CH DDR2 / AMD LIVE READY / ONBOARD GFX / SATA RAID / DUAL VIDEO OUT / mATX MOTHERBOARD
£36.55 £36.55
Creative Inspire T6060 5.1 Speakers
Replaces Inspire T5900
£44.50 £44.50
Hiper 350W TRUE POWER PSU
ATX 2.01 Silent 80mm Fan SATA, PPFC, SILENT 18db
£17.45 £17.45
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Subtotal :
VAT : £208.65
£36.52 Total : £245.17 inc VAT
I forgot you will need one of these if the psu has a 20 pin connector.
20 to 24 Pin ATX Converter for PSU £2.95 £2.95
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Subtotal :
VAT : £2.95
£0.52 Total : £3.47 inc VAT
Cheers Devil blood. You do like your AM2 dont ya :wink:
I like the final suggestion best of all, so ill show my brother tonight and get the go ahead to order some parts.
Or i'll wait for Rush Hour and see if i can save a bob or two!
AMD Athlon 64 3500+ Retail AM2
Warrior Gamers Case
Asrock ALIVENF4G-DVI Socket AM2
Creative Inspire T6060 5.1 Speakers
Hiper 350W TRUE POWER PSU
(Need diiferent memory as the board needs DDR2)
8)
Devils-Blood
29-09-06, 09:50
Oh I forgot the AM2 uses DDR2 but I think I had socket 939 memory in my head PC3200.
Ha Ha Barley eat my shorts :lol:
That Warrior Gamers Case is one of the ugliest looking cases I've ever seen :wink:
Devils-Blood
29-09-06, 10:34
For the budget can't be too fussy. :wink:
[quote:1fabc25ab3=\"Devils-Blood\"]For the budget can't be too fussy. :wink:[/quote:1fabc25ab3]
This is very true...
I spent over £100 on my Coolermaster Stacker case, and now I hate it, so ugly. Go figure! :P
Devils-Blood
29-09-06, 10:58
I got a gigabyte 3Daurora case in case in black and love it. Very quiet and well built. It is truly tools free and so easy install everything, but motherboard would of been handy. Its slightly bigger than a midi tower but not as big as some of the full towers I have seen and had.
You can find it here about halfway down.
http://www.aria.co.uk/ProductsList.asp?Category=10&SubCat=&Name=&Page=3&SortBy=
It's alright, not totally my style though. I think the Coolermaster case I have is great for airflow etc, as you'd expect, but my previous case, Chieftec Dragon ruled for looks, especially with the blue LED fans I put into it :)
Devils-Blood
29-09-06, 11:11
It grows on you and its got 3X120mm fans 1000RPM I have mine running at 800RPM with blue led in built.
I think its the best case I have bought so far, was going to get lain li case but at half the price I thought it was a good buy. The lain li case I liked was £180 and too expensive for a case. Basically people are paying a premium for the name.
Probably wont order a case from Aria, as there is a place down the road from me which sell some very nice cases.
They also give us a 20% discount, so in the end it's Aria prices, but i can choose from the real thing.
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