Decent Spec PC for £500 or less, any ideas?

[V_R]

Right guys,

The other half's sister and husband want a pc and have asked me to find them one.

Looking for a prebuilt, decent non gaming spec. Email, web and office is the main concern here.

£500 is the top end of the budget, cheaper if possible.

Been looking at PCSpecialist, Bolton PC and 3Bsystems.

Does anyone know of any other good suppliers out there?


Below is what i keep going back to. I need to get a 17" tft and a copy of XP. The total comes out at about 450 quid all from 3B.

Athlon64 AM2 3200+ Base Unit

MIDI ATX (400W) Case,
AMD Athlon 64 Bit Socket AM2 3200+ CPU,
Asrock AliveNF4G-DVI M/board,
512Mb DDR2 667 Ram,
200Gb SATA2 HDD,
3.5" 1.44Mb FDD,
Int. nVidea 6100,
int. AC97 Snd, 10/100, USB2.0,
16x +/- D.L. DVD Writer,
FREE Keyboard, Mouse & Speakers,
DIY KIT (Parts Only) - £255
FULL BUILT & TESTED - £279
Monitor for £109
Windows XP OEM

The above PCs HDD is way bigger than needed, 80Gb would be fine. May see if they will put a smaller one in and ajust the price, do you think they'll do it?

Is the above over the top for what they want?

Any and all advice is good.

Cheers.

 

[michael 118]

Thats a very reasonable spec, very good indeed for the money.

Maybe a gig of ram? or not worth it for them?

the price difference from 80gb to 200gb isnt that large now.. so if you desperatly, i would say get the 80, other have a 160 or the 200.

what does everyone else think?

 

[floppybootstomp]

Tis true, there's very little difference between pricing for 80Gb and 200Gb. And one of your relatives may start getting into lots of mp3's and stuff, you never know, so maybe they'll need space.

The free keyboard, mouse and speakers will be absolute rubbish, so best tend to that.

Other than that, looks fine

 

[V_R]

I think your right there.

I'll ring them in the morning and ask about the speakers, kb and mouse.
If i am happy with the result then i'll go for it. As long as the mouse has a wheel then they should be ok, They are looking for something to get them started, not sure if they will even use the speakers at first!

Will let you know......

Thanks.

 

[muckshifter]

The keyboard & mouse will be fine, for a new user ... don't overly complicate things by getting them replaced until latter ... KB & M are a personal thing anyway. They are bundled with the case so you will not actually save any money. The speakers are rubbish, but again, they are part of the bundle ... once they realise they can have this "sound system" pay music all day, they then can look for something a little better.

The MB has integrated graphics, which, can use up-to 256 of on-board memory ... better get more memory, I suggest you get 2gig now at point of sale than try and add-to later. It will add some time before any "upgrade" would be needed.

 

[V_R]

The kb etc are this set here. I thik it should do them alright for a while.

I inquired into another 512meg RAM, they will do it for £39. But i forgot to ask what brand it will be, I'm guessing nothing special.

Any last thoughts as they are getting restless!

 

[muckshifter]

go ...

 

[V_R]

go ...

Thats good enough for me.

I'll buy the bits and build it myself and save a few quid for them.

 

[V_R]

Well i had the parts for about a week now, and up and running since saturday.

I got it hooked up to the Router and my D-Link KVM switch, so messing about with it is nice and easy. The only prob is that me Logitech G7 dont work with said KVM Switch, so i have to use my old MS mouse for the 2nd rig and leave the G7 plugged into my pc. But thats no big issue.

The spec below is what i ordered plus the monitor mentioned above. Its grand for them they dont need a monster rig, I is still waiting for them to order broadband!

Athlon64 AM2 3200+ Base Unit

MIDI ATX (400W) Case, With blue 'bubble 'tube' lights running down the front and an LED temp display. (Not expecting that!)
AMD Athlon 64 Bit Socket AM2 3200+ CPU,
Asrock AliveNF4G-DVI M/board,
1Gb DDR2 667 Ram,
200Gb SATA2 HDD,
3.5" 1.44Mb FDD,
Int. nVidia 6100,
int. AC97 Snd, 10/100, USB2.0,
16x +/- D.L. DVD Writer,
FREE Keyboard, Mouse & Speakers.
and a 17" TFT

I have also had it crunching since saturday afternoon, going 24/7. Told 'em i needed to run a burn in test!
Unfortunately it wont be crunching when it leaves my place, as i cant see it being on for long enough....Tis a shame.....Its not a massive scorer but average is just under 2 thousand points a day at the mo, running BOINC of course. Sadly its going to its new home tonight and that will be the end of that!

This has got me thinking though, i am now seriously considering another X2 for crunching..... but we'll see about that, i am just thinking out loud at the mo.....

Will post a photo or two when i get home tonight.

 

[floppybootstomp]

That's really good for the price