Ok, so I'm making my dad, who works at home, a new office PC. I have about £400 to work with, very handily I can get the OS free (legally) so that doesnt factor into the cost. Im starting out with one of the recommended builds in todays "Best Buys" article. (I've rounded all the prices up) CPU: Dual-Core E5200 - £78 MOBO: Gigabyte GA_EP43-DS3L - £69 Mem: OCZ Platinum 800Mhz (2x2Gb) - £41 Chasis:Antec Three Hundred - £45 PSU: Corsair CX400W - £40 CPUCooler: Akasa 965 - £14 Optical Drive: LG GH22NS40 22X sata - £16 HD: Seagate arracuda 500Gb - £43 Graphics: ATI Radeon HD 4770 512Mb - £78 However since its an office PC the graphics aren't essential, so I was thinking of replacing the 4770 with a 4350, any recommendations on a specific model would be awesome. This would also free up another £30-40 so can anyone spot any worthwhile upgrades? Thanks in advance
Have you looked at motherboards with built in graphics? They are more than capable for an office PC. No sense spending on something that wont get used. I have an AMD system with HD3200 built in (hdmi out etc) for example, the board being about £80 which could save quite a bit of money. You could then get a graphics card at a later date if you needed one (by which point new generations will be out etc etc)
If you insist on building it yourself, I'd get an AMD based system with integrated graphics (i.e. the 740G or 780G chipset) a AMD Phenom X2, and 4Gb of RAM. Anything more than integrated graphics is a complete waste of money, I'm sure your Dad would appreciate the money savings. EDIT: Here's my suggested spec, as listed at eBuyer. Alternatively, just get a Dell. £269 for a Vostro 220 with an E5200 and 2Gb of RAM. You could stick in another 2Gb for £20.
I should maybe have clarified that although its an office pc he plays the odd game on it (nothing graphically demanding but i felt that considering you can get a basic card for £30-40 it would be worth it). I like the build you posted oasked, taking into account the above, would you recommend getting a graphics card or not?
If it's games like Solitaire, or even Age of Empires, then there is no need for more than Onboard graphics.
I wouldn't bother TBH, onboard graphics should more than sufficient. If they're not you can always add in a card later.
Fair enough, I like oaskeds build so will probably go with that, the motherboard has a PCI-e 2.0 slot, so I can always add a card in the future I guess. That still leaves me with ~£100 to spend on something hmmmm. Maybe a new screen or something similar.
