Spec me a PC - Budget £350

[Tainton]

Friend is giving me £350 next week to build his son a PC for xmas.

It must include a 17" TFT within the price.

Im intel all the way and so want to stick with that - possibly core2 1.88 or >

Theres alot of motherboards and combo's which make it difficult to choose.

Must include board, chip, ram, hard drive and case and cheap dvd burner.

Thanks in advance for any help on this

 

[Mr. Smith]

Hmmm... Your going to struggle, case, monitor, kb/mouse, mobo, gfx, ram, psu etc, etc... The job lot for £350?

Check the for sale sections in this forum and others as people always let their stuff go for a good price.

AMD might be a better bet with the budget.

Ham usually comes up trumps with the budget builds... Ham, where you at?

 

[llwyd]

The things you want to get out the way first would be:

Monitor: http://www.ebuyer.com/product/104838

Mouse + KB: http://www.ebuyer.com/product/131221

2.1 speakers: http://www.ebuyer.com/product/126018

Case: http://www.ebuyer.com/product/108273

Then spec your PC with the money left

 

[Joe]

screw the 17" -- 19" wide behbah http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Disp...ton+H340+Wide+LCD+DVI+Monitor?productId=28994

E2140 -- https://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Com...re+E2140+1.6GHz+(Retail+775)+?productId=27106

ASROCK 755 -- https://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Com...-GLAN+Socket+775+Motherboard+?productId=26545 (no Quads)

2x 1Gig DDR 2 -- https://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Com...PC6400)/Arianet+1GB+PC2-6400+?productId=26111

ARIA case/psu -- https://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Cases/MIDI+Tower/Arianet+Xen+MIDI+case+?productId=27725

8600GT -- https://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Com...a+GeForce+8600GT+256MB+PCI-E+?productId=26918

160G Hdd --

http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Comp...tion=shoppingCartAdd&productId=24013&context=

18x DVDRW --

http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Comp...D-5170A-0B+18x+DVDRW+DL+Black?productId=24497

Belkin Wireless Keyb-Mouse --

http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Peri...in+Wireless+Keyboard+&+Mouse+?productId=27083

£352.19

 

[Joe]

There all speced just add delivery costs

Notes ::

The above Mobo isnt really an Overclocking beast (but im sure we could squeeze and xtra ~ 2-300 MHz ) and DOES NOT accept QUADS

(but featured heavily on the OSX86 HCL as a good1)

The Aria PSu is Advertised as ''500" Watt -- it isnt, but should be capable for that system, upgrade this first (oh and it will prob b noisy).

for an xtra £20 the HDD size can go V HIGH

No OS included but most peeps have a copy of XP laying about/else UbuntuLinux

 

[Ham]

Right, im juggling 3600pixel width of fierfox tabs (no scrolling needed, <3 my monitors) so gimme a break if the links get a bit screwy.

CPU

Mobo

Ram

GPU

HDD

PSU

Case



Monitor

Mouse + Keyboard

DVD-RW

Comes to about £350 and the proccy will OC well, beating the old Athlon 64 FX singles that cost like £600.

That'd be my choice i think.

 

[Mr. Smith]

screw the 17" -- 19" wide behbah http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Disp...ton+H340+Wide+LCD+DVI+Monitor?productId=28994

E2140 -- https://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Com...re+E2140+1.6GHz+(Retail+775)+?productId=27106

ASROCK 755 -- https://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Com...-GLAN+Socket+775+Motherboard+?productId=26545 (no Quads)

2x DDR 2 -- https://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Com...PC6400)/Arianet+1GB+PC2-6400+?productId=26111

ARIA case/psu -- https://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Cases/MIDI+Tower/Arianet+Xen+MIDI+case+?productId=27725

8600GT -- https://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Com...a+GeForce+8600GT+256MB+PCI-E+?productId=26918

160G Hdd --

http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Comp...tion=shoppingCartAdd&productId=24013&context=

18x DVDRW --

http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Comp...D-5170A-0B+18x+DVDRW+DL+Black?productId=24497

Belkin Wireless Keyb-Mouse --

http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Peri...in+Wireless+Keyboard+&+Mouse+?productId=27083

£352.19

Wow - good work mate. I didn't think this was really possible! Think you need a case etc too

 

[Rastalovich]

ARIA case/psu -- https://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Cases/MIDI+Tower/Arianet+Xen+MIDI+case+?productId=27725

*cough*

 

[Mr. Smith]

Doh - late night followed by long day @ work = foolish mistakes by me

 

[Tainton]

Ive managed to speak with him regarding the comments mentioned here and hes agreed to up the budget to £450 so hopefully this gives more flexibility.

Will be keeping my eye on any ebay bargains - altho ive seen some stuff there go for the same price if not more than buying direct from say OC, Aria etc....

Hopefully now maybe a core2 1.86 maybe possible and semi decent card?

Do appreciate your comments girls and boys finding them useful

Thanks In Advance

 

[Ham]

£450 is a much better sum. Gimme 5...

Edit: Whats this machine going to be used for? And will you be overclocking it or not?

 

[SBB]

This is what I reckon for 450... It doesnt include a mouse+kb+speakers but you can easily spec one in for not much money. This should allow you to push a decent speed from the CPU too.

Also i'm not really sure why I went for 1GB ram... 2gb would cost £20 more at most.

 

[SBB]

Just looked at the prices of 8600GTs, i dont think they perform that much worse than the GTS and they are going for £65 over at tekheads

 

[Tainton]

Thanks SBB thats helped alot ebuyer seems pretty good on prices.

Getting the money next week so will keep a look out for any bargains in the meantime.

I assume you can recommend the motherboar you chose > MSI P35 - i was looking at cheaper Asrock boars for approx £40 but assume these are not as good?

 

[racerjosh]

its easily do-able i built my rig (customising a prebuilt model) for £250 but that was excluding moniter, keyboard, mouse and OS (os would of cost £60 on top but i have the disc to do it myself)

 

[Pat123]

hm i spend a little more on the PSU and cut down on the mobo.. best thing to have is a solid PSU..

 

[SBB]

Thanks SBB thats helped alot ebuyer seems pretty good on prices.

Getting the money next week so will keep a look out for any bargains in the meantime.

I assume you can recommend the motherboar you chose > MSI P35 - i was looking at cheaper Asrock boars for approx £40 but assume these are not as good?

MSI are good price/performance and a review indicates that you should get a fairly decent overclock out of it... which is critical for the best value out of the cheaper intel chips!