Dual Core Desktop less then £150 (self-build)

rite thanks to digicol who helped pick and choose the rite componants i have sent off for what i need also have 2 d/l samsung dvd`s and 2 nic cards will let yous know when it all arrives so be prepared for loads of questions :roflmao:so a big thanks to all who helped out one way or another
 
Guys whats the best spec then to purchase for under £160 inc P&P?
Many to build but what is the ultimate spec for that price?
Cheers!
 
mobad said:
Guys whats the best spec then to purchase for under £160 inc P&P?
Many to build but what is the ultimate spec for that price?
Cheers!
Click to expand...

If your running at stock speeds then I would get something in the region of an Athlon X2 4400 or the Intel dual core e2180. If you want to overclock then settle for the Intel E2140 and get a cheap board but make sure it has an Intel chipset, this will save you about £15 over the other two but overclock to crazy speeds.

Not sure how good the overclock would be with a cheap board but any board that will get close to 400fsb will push the CPU to 3ghz. I am sure most Intel based boards would allow you to this.

You would not get a graphics card of any worth in this price range, if you stretched to just over £200 then you could get a great setup. Off to pick the kid up from school, be back on later but if you look at the setup I posted earlier, but combine it all with the Intel e2140 and the ECTS board then that would be about £150/£160 all in. Then maybe another £60 for a 7900GS card, that would be a great setup for just over £200. You will not get better than that buying brand new mate.
 
@digicol I decided to follow your recomendation and ordered the Intel board and processor and kept all the rest the same for my daughters new pc. I am thinking of getting another pc for my son for his eighteenth birthday, he is into gaming. I am probably going to go for a custom case but what would you recommend for the rest bearing in mind it does not to exceed a £500 budget.
 
Curious123 said:
@digicol I decided to follow your recomendation and ordered the Intel board and processor and kept all the rest the same for my daughters new pc. I am thinking of getting another pc for my son for his eighteenth birthday, he is into gaming. I am probably going to go for a custom case but what would you recommend for the rest bearing in mind it does not to exceed a £500 budget.
Click to expand...

Just the base unit mate? No monitor or anyting? If so you should get a decent quad core for £500. I am unsure about a card at this moment in time, I would personally wait till after Christmas for a DX10 card, then you should see the market level out and see what cards are to go for in your price range. Then sell the card I chosose now (you will only lose a couple of quid guaranteed) and purchase a very good DX10 card early in the new year. In the meantime I will be adding probably the X1950pro or 7900GS, both come in at less than £80 and £65 respectively and are more than capable cards for the next 6 months or so.

Gotta spec a PC up for someone else first, will get back to you soon.
 
I've decided to go for the spec Digicol has helped me choose, Many thanx for hes time and efforts.

I've canceled the one of saverstore.
Any ideas how long the refund would take if paid by Paypal?
 
digicol said:
Just the base unit mate? No monitor or anyting? If so you should get a decent quad core for £500. I am unsure about a card at this moment in time, I would personally wait till after Christmas for a DX10 card, then you should see the market level out and see what cards are to go for in your price range. Then sell the card I chosose now (you will only lose a couple of quid guaranteed) and purchase a very good DX10 card early in the new year. In the meantime I will be adding probably the X1950pro or 7900GS, both come in at less than £80 and £65 respectively and are more than capable cards for the next 6 months or so.
Gotta spec a PC up for someone else first, will get back to you soon.
Click to expand...

very intresting thread is it hard to build pc up
looking forward to digicols reply might have a go my self
on gameing pc for son
cheers all
 
Building a PC is easy, it's all about following the diagram in the manual and slotting things into place. If you can build lego you can build a PC. :)

For £500 I have gone for the following setup, I have left out the case so you can shoose your own.

I have gone for a quad core CPU as they are awesome performers, even in games, coupled with a decent but mid priced MSI motherboard with overclocking potential if you fancy a go at that a little later on. This has the very good 965 chipset, there is a newer chipset out but at this moment in time it has not proven it's owrth so I have gone for the safe option on one I know is a good performer.

A very nice WD 320gb hard drive with 16mb cache, 20X DVD burner and an excellent Corsair 550W PSU to keep it all running nice and stable. Oh and I have gone for a very good priced 7900GS for the graphics card as it will play all games at good frames, I think it's pointless gettiing one of the new DX10 cards at this moment in time, wait a few months then upgrade. And at £63 for a card of this quality, you can't really refuse it with a £500 budget.

Oh not to forget the fantastic 2gb of Corsair XMS2 running at 800mhz with nice heat speaders.

Total cost is about £450 (then whatever you pay for a case).

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/131950
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/128047
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/98710
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/124735
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/129527
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/132563
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/133540
 
@digicol Thanks m8, thats looks like a cool config. I would probably skip the DVD writer and install one from one of my old pc. Could I use the £20 to enhance the spec in any way?

The Dual core pc you recommended arrived yesterday, it worked out to about £184 delivered but I went for a 160Gb rather than the 80GB and the 2GB Kingston lifetime warranty.

@ratty077 my son put it all togather whilst the wife and I supervised with a glass of wine, so a lot easier than you imagine. lol. Unfortunately we didn't get any SATA cables with the kit so could not try it out.
 
Curious123 said:
@digicol Thanks m8, thats looks like a cool config. I would probably skip the DVD writer and install one from one of my old pc. Could I use the £20 to enhance the spec in any way?
The Dual core pc you recommended arrived yesterday, it worked out to about £184 delivered but I went for a 160Gb rather than the 80GB and the 2GB Kingston lifetime warranty.
@ratty077 my son put it all togather whilst the wife and I supervised with a glass of wine, so a lot easier than you imagine. lol. Unfortunately we didn't get any SATA cables with the kit so could not try it out.
Click to expand...

Really no SATA cables with the board?

Did you get the ECS board? If so the stingy gets!!!

Let us know which board you went for so that people know to buy some SARA cables for their drives.
 
digicol said:
Lol, how about the Imtel route? A great combo here, just use the above parts but remove the board and processor and add these ones below:
ECS 945GCT-M V1.0 i945GC Socket 775 6 Channel Audio mATX Motherboard
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/132324
Intel Pentium Dual Core E2180 2GHz Socket 775 800MHz FSB L2 1MB Cache Retail Box Processor
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/132064
Total cost for both is about £80
Much better than the AMD equivalent, or if you wanted to save £10 get the lowest processor here: (But that is a bit slower than the AMD setup).
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/127249
Click to expand...

I am never comfortable with anything other than Intel for my own pcs. Going to nip over to PCWORLD tonight to pick up some SATA cables, they are cheaper on fleabay but don't really fancy waiting for a few days for them to arrive.
 
Have a look at some on Ebuyer, take a print out of them and ask PC World to price match, I have read that it is company policy to price match with online stores.

Not a lot of people know about that. I think it is down to managers descretion, it's worth a try if PC World are charging silly money.
 
digicol said:
Building a PC is easy, it's all about following the diagram in the manual and slotting things into place. If you can build lego you can build a PC. :)
For £500 I have gone for the following setup, I have left out the case so you can shoose your own.
I have gone for a quad core CPU as they are awesome performers, even in games, coupled with a decent but mid priced MSI motherboard with overclocking potential if you fancy a go at that a little later on. This has the very good 965 chipset, there is a newer chipset out but at this moment in time it has not proven it's owrth so I have gone for the safe option on one I know is a good performer.
A very nice WD 320gb hard drive with 16mb cache, 20X DVD burner and an excellent Corsair 550W PSU to keep it all running nice and stable. Oh and I have gone for a very good priced 7900GS for the graphics card as it will play all games at good frames, I think it's pointless gettiing one of the new DX10 cards at this moment in time, wait a few months then upgrade. And at £63 for a card of this quality, you can't really refuse it with a £500 budget.
Oh not to forget the fantastic 2gb of Corsair XMS2 running at 800mhz with nice heat speaders.
Total cost is about £450 (then whatever you pay for a case).
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/131950
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/128047
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/98710
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/124735
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/129527
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/132563
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/133540
Click to expand...

Intels new true quad core is out on the 9th, which after a few weeks will make the current quads drop in price, so id hold off on the quad core...
 
Hi digicol,

You seem to be the perosn in the know, do you know of anywhere that does some nice snazzy cases?

Thanks
 
i canceled dmy order due to no stock..

really good offer but a shame on the lack of stock..

thanx anyway
 
calisto said:
Hi digicol,
You seem to be the perosn in the know, do you know of anywhere that does some nice snazzy cases?
Thanks
Click to expand...
I find that cases are all down to personal taste, I just use the cheapest case with a good quality seperate PSU for my own builds. Works for me ok. (Sometimes I just buy ready built up cases for low powered units that are not going to use many drives or extra graphics.) The cheap ones are fine if your not pumping any power through, especially as a lot of components now are built to use less power than they were a few years ago.

Curious pointed to some earlier, here are some more:

http://www.ebuyer.com/cat/Cases/subcat/*Gaming-----Modding-Cases
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/productlist.php?groupid=701&catid=7
http://www.komplett.co.uk/k/kc.aspx?bn=10149
http://www.overclock.co.uk/dept/Cases_3.html
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Products.ASP?CatID=7&Category=Cases&Thumbnails=yes
 
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