Cheap <£300 build for my mum

[jmsellars1]

Hey guys,

I'm looking at building a PC for my mum soon to replace her pre-historic Pentium 4 PC with 512MB RAM haha.


Approximate Purchase Date: In the next month or so

Budget Range: Total budget is around £300 but if I can lower it enough to buy her a cheap 1080P monitor or some decent speakers, that would be great.

System Usage from Most to Least Important: Web Browsing, Listening to music on Youtube and Spotify, very occasional basic gaming such as the Sims

Parts Not Required: OS. Also can reuse her ~17'' Dell monitor and cheapo Dell speakers/mouse/keyboard if required. Pretty sure I have a spare DVD burner lying around too.

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: Any UK site ie. Aria, Ebuyer, Scan, Overclockers, Microdirect, Dabs, Amazon, Ebay

Country: UK

Parts Preferences: None, although I prefer to avoid OCZ SSD's

Overclocking: No

SLI or Crossfire: No

Monitor Resolution: Not too sure, it must be 720P though.

Additional Comments: Really want a small case that looks relatively high quality. Slim mATX would be ideal. Wireless networking would be a bonus but not strictly necessary.


Thanks guys


EDIT: I was thinking something along the lines of this:

Intel Celeron G530 (She thinks the E-450 in my laptop feels quick, this will be fine.)
2x2GB Corsair 1333Mhz
MSI H61M-P31 (G3)
Samsung 64GB 830 Series (More than enough storage for her, she will use maybe 5GB max.)

Total - £144.72 on Ebuyer.

If I could get a nice looking slim mATX case and a relatively quiet PSU and keep that around £200, that would be ideal. It would mean I could get her a better monitor and some decent-ish speakers too.

I'm tempted to take a punt on this:

http://www.ebuyer.com/247132-cit-s003b-black-slim-micro-atx-or-mini-itx-case-300w-psu-cscits003b

Probably a crappy PSU but it won't exactly have to deal with much stress and even if it does blow, this system is pretty cheap anyway.

 

[voiidwulf]

I'm not sure if they ship to the UK, but this DIY one from NewEgg is decent. Its $250, which is about 160 pounds.
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/ComboBundleDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.956681

You could get a decent 1080p monitor with the extra 140 pounds.

 

[jmsellars1]

Newegg don't ship to the UK, it would be a pain for warranties anyway. Thanks anyway

 

[jmsellars1]

Not massively keen on the silver but this looks pretty good:

http://www.ebuyer.com/141001-antec-minuet-350-slim-micro-atx-case-with-350w-psu-minuet-350-uk

 

[voiidwulf]

Thats a decent case. The PSU would allow for further upgrades, which is nice.

Sorry I couldn't help, good luck with it though.

It'll just get complicated if I try and find good UK deals.

 

[nekulturny]

I'd honestly do mom a Llano build, since I doubt she needs the processing power, and the graphics are stronger than Intels onboards. If your mom is like my mom, I doubt she needs a discrete graphics card to play farmville, but for the sake of longevity, I would get the better graphics processor.

 

[jmsellars1]

Just put together a Llano build which ends up with a better motherboard/graphics but costs about £20 more. Seems pointless for an upgrade she won't even notice, thanks for the suggestion though.

I'm thinking the onboard graphics on the Celeron should be fine. My mum has similar uses for her PC as my dad does for his and his Athlon 64 x2 with 2GB RAM and standard integrated graphics is still going strong after a couple of years.

Think I might go for the Celeron build with that Antec case, a wireless card and some speakers. Brings me just under £250 total which leaves me a bit of cash for noise reduction if needs be.

http://www.ebuyer.com/263387-tp-link-wireless-n150-pcie-card-tl-wn781nd
http://www.ebuyer.com/190417-logitech-ls11-black-2-0-speakers-3w-rms-980-000047

My GF has those speakers and they are surprisingly good for the size, and not too bad for the cost either.

EDIT: Might treat her to these if I'm feeling generous at the time though

http://www.ebuyer.com/170156-logitech-z520-2-0-speakers-26w-rms-with-360-degree-sound-980-000338


Not completely made my mind up yet though, any more suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 

[batuchka]

+1 on Llano for IGP and light gaming - it could definitely do Diablo 3 on 720p TVs. Also for speakers fish out something like a NAD 3020 vintage/classic amp off Gumtree UK and some Mission/Tannoy/etc speakers on the cheap and these would rock!

Edit: Diamond 9.0s @ 25 quid
http://www.gumtree.com/p/for-sale/wharfedale-diamond-90-speakers-great-condition-hardly-used/105074748

Cambridge Audio A1 25 quid
http://www.gumtree.com/p/for-sale/cambridge-audio-a1-stereo-amplifier/102950966
http://www.hi-fi-insight.com/cambridge-audio-a1-integrated-amplifier.html

 

[jmsellars1]

Thanks for the advice, any more suggestions on a good quality slim mATX case at around <£50 or <£70-80 if it includes a PSU?

 

[batuchka]

Antec NSK 2480?
http://www.ebuyer.com/130945-antec-nsk-2480-matx-desktop-case-with-380w-earthwatts-psu-0761345-00281-3

 

[jmsellars1]

I've looked at that but it's a bit bigger than I hoped and doesn't look any nicer than the cheaper Antec case I pointed out in my opinion. Thanks for the suggestion though

EDIT: It will probably spend all its time on its side as well, the other case I pointed out seems to be designed for that. EDIT: Scratch that, it will be stood up vertically but the smaller the better really, prefer mATX though.