Building a budget PC

v-un-v · Posted: Thu Feb 23, 2006 1:23 pm Post subject: Building a budget PC

I'm having to cross from my beloved Mac OS platform (although not necessarily away from it for good!!)- for work related reasons but being a 'mature student' with a mortgage and young kids to feed I've got to throw one together on a VERY STRICT budget. When I say strict- I mean about £75- £150 MAXIMUM!!

What are the best cheapo motherboards out there worth looking for (in the secondhand pages)?

...and while we are on the subject, what are the best 'budget' CPU's to go for- for the money?

all comments welcome Smile

Tom

DrJustice · Posted: Thu Feb 23, 2006 2:35 pm Post subject:

Have you considered just picking up a complete second hand PC? I think that wold be much cheaper than getting all the parts second hand. Not to mention a whole lot easier. You'd be hard pressed to meet a sub £150 budget buying parts, but you might just do it if you get a complete box. Building one from parts is perhaps best left until you are on a roll to get a good/fast/cool PC.

The bottom line power-wise for you depends on what you want to use it for. If it's not to be used for DAW, CAD, gaming and so on, then IMO anything AMD or Intel above 1 GHz with 512MB ought to do fine. That is, it will run office, internet and multimedia applications just fine.

Of the current crop of CPUs the "AMD Socket 754" CPUs are the cheapest. The previous generations AMD using "Socet A" are also fine. Intel P4 CPUs are fine as well. AMD is generally cheaper.

As for motherboards, brand new ones are now so cheap that it's silly. £40-£50 should land you one with all the bells and whistles. Personally I like Asus, but Abit, MSI, Epox and a few others are fine too.

Not that informative, I know. There is an almost infinite number of possibilities if you want to roll your own. If you let us know what the machine will be used for, it'll be easier to gauge the requirements.

For reference, my most used computer is a Pentium 3 at 750MHz with 128MB RAM running Windows 98. I'm typing this message on it. With that machine I surf the net, do e-mail, write and compile code, watch videos play music and run lots of other applications. My fastest machine is an AMD socket A box at 1.6GHz (XP1900) with 768MB RAM. It runs all the heavy CAD applications, games, music software etc. that I care to throw at it, and it always feels fast and nimble. I don't really understand why people feel they must have multiple 4GHz CPUs and several GB RAM before they can do anything... I'll be fine with what I have for now Smile

Oh, and don't worry about picking up a second platform, you'll become an unbeatable advanced multi dexterous super user Cool

DJ
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blue hell · Posted: Thu Feb 23, 2006 2:38 pm Post subject:

Why not buy a used one ?

Just a quote from somewhere

v-un-v · Posted: Thu Feb 23, 2006 3:17 pm Post subject:

v-un-v · Posted: Thu Feb 23, 2006 3:32 pm Post subject:

DrJustice · Posted: Thu Feb 23, 2006 3:48 pm Post subject:

blue hell · Posted: Thu Feb 23, 2006 4:18 pm Post subject:

v-un-v · Posted: Thu Feb 23, 2006 4:52 pm Post subject:

DrJustice · Posted: Thu Feb 23, 2006 5:16 pm Post subject:

One more thing:

If you hook that Windows box up to the net, or otherwise want to run software of dubious origins, install Avast antivirus.

DJ
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klangumsetzer · Posted: Fri Feb 24, 2006 12:47 am Post subject:

thanks for the link to the free anti-virus program! Very Happy

best regards

eike
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Uncle Krunkus · Posted: Fri Feb 24, 2006 1:28 am Post subject:

Yeah, definately a second hand job is the way to go. Ebay will probably have something not too old, just waiting to go for a song. If anything, only research the motherboard/CPU as everything else could be easily pumped up if and when you need it.

Uncle Krunkus · Posted: Fri Feb 24, 2006 1:29 am Post subject:

BTW,
Yes, Avast rocks. I've had it for over a year now. Avoid Mr Norton like the plague!!! Wink

v-un-v · Posted: Fri Feb 24, 2006 1:54 am Post subject:

Uncle Krunkus · Posted: Fri Feb 24, 2006 2:23 am Post subject:

Oh well, I spose if Norton was originally made for Macs then it was only a matter of time before it became irrelevant. Rolling Eyes

(sorry Tom, couldn't help myself)

elektro80 · Posted: Fri Feb 24, 2006 6:31 am Post subject:

There is software and there is software. Nortonware on the other hand is something else as PC owners now are starting to realise. If there is one work of art that will take your PC out of the loop it would be the Norton Tools and the Firewall/NAV suites. Try installing the lot and set it up for that really obtrusive probing. OMG. Ouch. You will always need two PCs. One for the Norton stuff and one you can work on.
If it is any consolation Norton on a mac is even more useless.
"Do you want to have Norton repair a serious problem?"
As if.
Rolling Eyes

Nortonware is wormware and they have been using a free copy of the Spiderman DVD as bait. Rolling Eyes

Hey, I really admire that wonderful way the autolearn mode in Norton FW is set up.

Kassen · Posted: Fri Feb 24, 2006 9:08 am Post subject:

If you are going to go Windows on this I recomend 98-lite; look into that. Slap on Firefox instead of IE.

But; does it realy *need* to be windows? Linux might also do and installing it isn't quite as scary as it used to be.

v-un-v · Posted: Fri Feb 24, 2006 10:42 am Post subject:

v-un-v · Posted: Sat Feb 25, 2006 2:17 am Post subject:

I've just bought into the darkside and bought a Dell Optiplex P3 1gHz GX150 (won one on ebay for 80ukp- including a 17" monitor)

Crikey!

Don't know what the OS is- but it's probably 2000 or XP- either way I should now be able to get involved with some more electronics DIY

-That's of course after I've got it past the fuhrer and fobbed her off with some story about it being 'donated' to me!! Laughing

seraph · Posted: Sat Feb 25, 2006 2:44 am Post subject:

Uncle Krunkus · Posted: Sat Feb 25, 2006 3:16 am Post subject:

Sounds like a great deal.
Anything over 1G for less than $100 including a monitor has got to be good.
Still, I remember when RAM was $10 per MB!! Smile

mi_dach · Joined: Dec 17, 2005 Posts: 133 Location: Sweden

You should consider getting a soundblaster Live! card, or maybe two. I use a 500mhz machine with two Live! cards and the kX drivers. Using soundfonts lets you put a lot of samples onto the cards hardware, and there's even cheap reverb and delays and so on that wont consume any cpu.

It's not great, but I can't think of anything better for the same price. You do need some kind of midi-joystick adapter though, to hook up any midi gear, but the live! cards can be found in any flea market for next to nothing

v-un-v · Posted: Sat Feb 25, 2006 4:08 am Post subject:

v-un-v · Posted: Sat Feb 25, 2006 4:17 am Post subject:

Uncle Krunkus · Posted: Sat Feb 25, 2006 6:08 am Post subject:

I've had 3.1, 95a, 95b, 95c, 98, 98SE, and I've gotta say that XP Pro shits all over them. Probably because XP is the first one which isn't just a re-patched version of 3.1. It's based on NT/2000. Very stable and very kind on resources.

deknow · Posted: Sat Feb 25, 2006 6:42 am Post subject:

yes! xp is the first windows i've liked since 3.1. if the used pc comes with original disks, i'd do fresh install...and then get rid of everything not needed.

deknow