Build Advice Basic Build - £250 Budget Help Needed

Hey guys,

In desperate need of a new second computer as our old one is far too out of date to do anything worthwhile.

Have a budget of £250, all I need to put together is a main tower though as I already have a monitor, mouse, keyboard and speakers.

Have experience building computers but not too hot on choosing components so any help would be appreciated.

 

It may be worth updating the PC you already have, I haven't worked with this size budget before, sorry I couldn't be of assistance.

 

Old PC is a Dell Inspiron 1100

* Intel Celeron 2.0 GHz Processor
* 256 MB PC2100 DDR Memory
* 30 Gigabyte Hard Drive
* 24x CD-ROM Optical Drive
* 15" XGA (1024x768) LCD and Intel Extreme 3D Graphics with 64MB Shared Memory
* AC'97 Audio
* v.92 56Kbps Modem and 10/100 Ethernet
* Two USB 2.0 Ports and One Type II PC Card Slot
* 13.1" x 10.8" x 1.8" @ 7.8 lbs.
* Windows XP Home Operating System

Not sure any of that is much use in 2010 lol.

Only difference to those specs is I upgraded the Ram to 2Gb a year so ago.

 

I... wow. £250 is buying secondhand components, I don't think you can put together a machine of any significant power for that sort of money with firsthand parts. I would have a look on eBay for secondhand computers, and get an idea of what you can buy. Really, for a decent machine, you're going to need at least £100 more.

What do you intend to use it for?

Alternatively, have you considered a nettop?

 

Hmm so do Im going to struggle with this sort of budget?

Its basically going to be used for everyday things like internet, watching videos and homework for my brothers. It doesn't need to be brilliant but I don't want to put together something that's not worth it just to stick to a low budget.

Budget is only that low because that is all my mum will help out with, anything over I would have to pay for lol.

 

hello Dan, hope i can help out. Since your on such a tight budget you wont get a lot of bang for your buck so to speak, but my reccomendations are as follows



btw to get the items use the quickfind numbers and type them in the search box to get straight to the components

i havnt included a graphics card but the motherboard ive suggested has a radeon HD4200 built in so at least you can play older games. Also im guessing youve got the operating system sorted or i dont think your gunna be able to afford anything tbh. Also not included a dvd drive as im guessing you'll have on in the old rig.

Is this any good to you? £7 over but tbh if you changed it to 1gb of ram it'll be under budget but if your using vista/7 then 1gb isnt enough.

crap forgot to put its all from ebuyer.com

 

Lucy's idea's a good one because I don't think your old computer is worth very much; stripping it for parts isn't a bad idea. You'll need an OS, though; if you're still at school you might be able to get one cheaply. Alternatively, if by homework you mean word processing, then I would pick up a high-spec ION nettop, which usually come with an OS. Obviously, you will not be able to play any games on this thing, but if browsing, word processing and video watching are the most you're going to ask of it then it should be OK.

If you can stomach second-hand buying I would still recommend that. You should get a lot more computer for your money; £250 sits right at the edge of 'not worth buying a computer.'

 

Thanks for the posts people

In regards to an OS I can get those for free via Uni so thats saved me some money.

I dont have a DVD drive in the old PC but I do have one in a broken one sitting in my garage right now lol. Its quite old too though so might just add fork out for one.

The computer wont be used for gaming so Im guessing the onboard graphics card will be fine, will it be enough for HD video?

 

TBH, a nettop isn't much faster than his old computer, I'd go with the system specced out above. You can always get a smaller hard drive if you want to save a few quid.

 

With the specs listed there how easy is it to upgrade components in the future?

 

Very easy. You can easily swap in a faster CPU, more RAM or a graphics card when funds allow.

For now though, it should be a great speed-boost and it should do HD-video very well

 

If you go with Lucy2005's suggested build and don't have an OS you could always use Linux?

But I would go for the netbook option, such as the:

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/172832
or

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/172718
or

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/172343

they would be suited for what you want to do such as watching videos, word processing and internet browsing.

you could even go for a cheaper one and save some money such as the:

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/161005

AC

 

yeah the build above will be fine for hd video

but you could probably shop around and shave £15 off the Mobo allowing you to buy a new DVD drive

also depending on you usage you could shave a tenner off the hard drive as well

also the 350W Silverstone ST35F is £30 @scan so there is another £10 there

 

Not too keen on a netbook really. Would prefer an actual PC.

Will have a shop around and see how much I can save by shopping in different places.

Cant thank you guys for all your help.

Will hopefully have all my components ordered by this evening.

 

http://www.dinopc.com/shop/pc/20-301-AMD-Sempron-PC-95p517.htm

You can customise this, i'll say thats a dam good deal.

 

do scan do free delivery tho? remember thats the beauty of ebuyer plus ive never had to wait the full 5 working days, it usually gets deliverd within 3 max.

The onboard video will do 720p .mkv no problem but it wont do 1080p (i have a htpc with the 785g chipset)

Also theres no upgrade path with a nettop, at least your getting socket am3 and ddr3 memory so it should last you a few years at least, but its all down to your personal preference we can only give you advice, good luck and i hope your happy with what you end up with

 

Scan have free delivery for qualifying AvForums members. Luckily I qualify

http://www.avforums.com/forums/scan_offer.php

Also never had a problem with Ebuyers cheapest delivery option, like Lucy I usually get it within 3 days max. All very well packaged too.

Just seen the case you recommended with a PSU on ebuyer. http://www.ebuyer.com/product/135101

 

they also ran free delivery from here a while back

part of the reason i use them just wish they had a better memory selection

 

Can anyone recommend any of the cheaper DVD drives? Or are they all pretty similar at a low price.

Also seen this, http://www.meshcomputers.com/Defaul...ine&UTM_CONTENT=HOME_OFFICE&UTM_CAMPAIGN=box1

Any views on how it compares to the specs Lucy posted?

 

all very similar