Hi guys, I am building a PC for a friend, his budget is £550, and that needs to include everything (speakers / keyboard / monitor ) and the PC will mainly be used for gaming. I'm just not sure how much to spend on the specific parts, so guys, please help! ps - budget can't go up
hmm i went over budget at 590 but its a decent enough system could save money on a cheaper 4:3 screen i guess. http://premium1.uploadit.org/jobby5001//Image2.jpg
well, first advice i would give is, if you are building for a friend, only buy retail parts...it never fails, you build for a buddy, you buy oem because you think "ill provide all the help he needs", then something goes wrong and you cant return the piece...suddenly, your not best buds no more...lol...so, keeping retail only in mind, and the fact that 550 of your money equals 1080 or so in mine, here is the best i could come up with...its from newegg, so prices may not scale to what you can get...plus, it doesnt include a hard drive, but here we can order a drive directly from western digital for less than newegg carries them, and its a retail version...a 250 gig caviar se16 sata II runs about $85...bringing this total to around $1080...granted it doesnt include shipping...but make him spring for that or let him buy a damn dell...try this link...but it may not work LITE-ON 18X DVD±R DVD Burner LH-18A1P-186 - Retail Item #: N82E16827106043 - $31.99 COOLER MASTER Centurion 534 RC-534-KKN2-GP - Retail Item #: N82E16811119106 ($10.00 Mail-in Rebate) before rebate - $49.99 SCEPTRE X9WG-NagaV Black 19" 8ms DVI Widescreen HD Ready LCD Monitor Retail Item #: N82E16824112002 - $179.99 BFG Tech BFGR7950256GTOCE GeForce 7950GT 256MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 OC HDCP Video Card - Retail Item #: N82E16814143090 - $219.99 XCLIO X14S4P3 500W ATX 500W Power Supply - Retail Item #: N82E16817189012 - $79.99 Logitech X-230 32 Watts 2.1 Black Speakers - Retail Item #: N82E16836121119 - $35.99 Logitech Media Elite 967559-0403 Black USB + PS/2 Wired Standard Keyboard - Retail Item #: N82E16823126178 - $23.99 Microsoft D66-00069 Black 3 Buttons 1 x Wheel USB + PS/2 Wired Optical Mouse - Retail Item #: N82E16826105164 - $15.99 CORSAIR XMS2 1GB (2 x 512MB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 675 (PC2 5400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model TWIN2X1024-5400C4 - Retail Item #: N82E16820145539 - $79.00 GIGABYTE GA-965P-S3 LGA 775 Intel P965 Express ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail Item #: N82E16813128017 - $107.99 Intel Core 2 Duo E4300 Allendale 1.8GHz LGA 775 Processor Model BX80557E4300 - Retail Item #: N82E16819115013 - $169.00
I don't follow your logic there?? Retail and OEM parts have the same warranty, only difference is OEM doesn't come with fancy boxes etc. So in this scenario, OEM would be best as its a tight budget. Other than that though, nice choice of parts. I'd probably get a single 1GB syick of memory with the view to buying another one later. I'd also consider lowering the spec of the gfx card slightly so you can spend more on the memory. That CPU is begging to be overclocked and having PC2 6400 memory is gonna help that.
BASTAGES!! thing is, you go any lower (ie oem or less expensive pieces) and you wont have much of a "gaming" system...he needs to pony up or...like i said...go store bought...trust me...i have much experience in building for friends, and it seldom ever ends well...they want uber rig product for celeron budget pc price...
i bought some cpu's and mobo's from a vendor about a year ago, and because they were oem, they had only a 90-day warranty and a shorter return policy...eh...sure enough, many were faulty, which was terrific i might add...i never realized that is not the case everywhere....my bad (edited lol)
spending £550 isnt gonna get you much go for a dell as they can get you a better deal than making you own at that budget
have a look at this pc at dell i know its a bit over but if you change the unnecessary support service to 1 year it would be in budget for a good piece of kit
Best I could do was just under £600 and that still doesn't include a keyboard and mouse. All stuff from Scan.co.uk Code: LN17354 19" Daewoo HL920W, Widescreen LCD, 1440x900, 5ms, 1000:1, 300 cd/m2, White/Black, DVI/D-Sub £97.99 £115.14 LN15258 Gigabyte GA 965P-S3 iP965, S775, PCI-E (x16), DDR2 533/667/800, SATA II, SATA RAID, ATX £55.29 £64.97 LN17304 Intel Core 2 Duo E4300, Socket 775, 1.80 GHz, 800MHz FSB, Allendale Core, 2MB Cache, Retail £88.42 £103.89 LN11283 1GB CorsairXMS2, DDR2 PC2-6400 (800), 240 Pins, Non-ECC Unbuffered, CAS 5-5-5-12 £62.64 £73.60 LN13548 Samsung SH-S183A/BEBN Black SATA 18x18 ±R Dual Layer DVDRW Writer OEM UK inc Nero 6.x £18.30 £21.50 LN14095 Coolermaster Centurion RC-534 Black Tower Case w/o PSU £32.89 £38.65 LN6678 80 Gb Western Digital WD800JD Caviar SE, SATA150, 7200 rpm, 8MB Cache, 8.9 ms £24.44 £28.72 LN7636 380W Enermax Coolergiant AX Series EG385AX-VHB(G)(SFMA) ATX PSU, 12V Version 1.3, aPFC £18.89 £22.20 LN15603 256MB Leadtek 7900GS PCI-E (x16), Mem 1320 MHz, GPU 450 MHz, 20 Pipes, 2x Dual Link DVI-I/HDCP READY £90.99 £106.91 Net Total £489.85 Carriage £16.77 V.A.T. £88.66 TOTAL £595.28
Buying a Dell/Compaq/whatever often limits the possibilities of upgrades. If you buy parts and make up the rig, atleast you can be sure what's in it! There wont be nasty compability problems further on etc. What I'd do is I'd go for E4300, 1 GB of ram, a cheap (yet not the cheapest possible) decent manufacturer mobo and then look how much money is left. The monitor is IMO the most important thing because it doesn't become obsolete in two months. Shame there's just no way you could get a nice wide TFT, so I'd go 17" 4:5 one. Like Trig pretty clearly stated, building for a friend is always a russian roulette, make EXTREMELY clear that the money just isn't enought for a top-notch gaming rig and he wont be able to run the games even remotely at full settings.
