Building low budget PC

balkieb2002

I need to get a pc for collage (for study but also for some lan games), but i have a low budget [€300 or less.]

I have some parts already from other pcs such as small essentials:
mouse
monitor (small 15")
keyboards
speakers
cd-drive
dvd-drive
decent graphics card
operating system

Seeing as i have the above parts i thought it would be worth trying my hand at building instead a wasting money buying a pc with parts i already have. I not too sure of compatability though so i need some help on that.

So what i think i'm looking for is:
A good speed processor
Memory: 256 or cheap 512
Hard drive: 40gb would do but 80gb or above would suit better
Case
Motherboard
+ other esentials that i could be missing.

I saw the comp below on another thread so i think i should be able to find something so suit my needs

MB ATX SA ASRock K7S41 Audio/LAN/VGA €44.32
CPU AMD Athlon XP 2400+ Tray €62.75
DDR PC400 256MB Mushkin Basic Green €46.99
GEH Midi 7728 Akrylic Design inkl. 350W €43.90
HDD IDE 80GB Samsung 7200U SP0812N 8MB €66.00

€263.96

Redrocket

where did you price the parts for the system?? the cpu seems pretty cheap but id still make the xp2500+ my first choice.

MB ATX SA ASRock K7S8XE+ SATA Raid, check that out on jes-computer.de, its an extra 20cent or something! it has an extra ddr slot, no onboard vga and s-ata, also has 5pci instead on two. appears to be a far better budget board

balkieb2002

MB ATX SA ASRock K7S41 Audio/LAN/VGA €44.32
CPU AMD Athlon XP 2400+ Tray €62.75
DDR PC400 256MB Mushkin Basic Green €46.99
GEH Midi 7728 Akrylic Design inkl. 350W €43.90
HDD IDE 80GB Samsung 7200U SP0812N 8MB €66.00

€263.96

these was priced from jes as well

thanx for the info. Yeah that board seems a lot handier especially with the extra slots, will add to the list of possibilitys.

Is the case alright?

maxheadroom

It could be great, it could be crap. You probably won't get much better for €44 though...

balkieb2002

you should know maxheadroom as you picked the components out

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?postid=1708425#post1708425

I will look around for other cases but as you said i'm probably got gonna get much better for the price

Redrocket

i dont know so im asking, does the processor that says tray after it come with a stock heatsink or not?
i doubt it??

id say it will run for about 60 seconds without a heatsink

balkie: id still go for the xp2500+ with stock heatsink, costs about 81euro off jes. you're less likely to be upgrading your cpu for a while so id pour a little more money into that. where as the ram, whatever you buy is additional to whatever you have.

there's no need for DDR400mhz ram as the xp2400 is only 266mhz bus, so it will kind of bottleneck the ram and make it run at 266mhz. the xp 2500 has 333mhz bus and wont bottleneck as much. if you overclock at all or buy an xp3200 ( 400mhz bus ) in the future thats when youd need the 400mhz ram

maxheadroom

Originally posted by balkieb2002
you should know maxheadroom as you picked the components out

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?postid=1708425#post1708425

I will look around for other cases but as you said i'm probably got gonna get much better for the price

Yeah, I thought it all looked a little familiar

Like I said, it could be great, or it could be crap. It got decent reviews on jes's site, but I have no idea what its going to be like airflow wise or ease of assembly wise. You'll just have to try it out and see if its any good

Don't expect great things from the power supply though...

You will need a heatsink with that chip. this should do the job nicely.

balkieb2002

cheers for the info

its looking like this:

MB ATX SA ASRock K7S41 Audio/LAN/VGA €44.32
CPU AMD Athlon XP 2400+ Tray €62.75
Kühler SA Arctic Copper Silent 2 TC V2 €8.99
DDR PC400 256MB Mushkin Basic Green €46.99
GEH Midi 7728 Akrylic Design inkl. 350W €43.90 (case may change)
HDD IDE 80GB Samsung 7200U SP0812N 8MB €66.00

or something more along the lines of this:

MB ATX SA ASRock K7S8XE+ SATA Raid €42.49
CPU AMD Athlon XP 2500+ Box €80,99
DDR PC333 256MB Mushkin Basic Green €45,99
GEH Midi 7728 Akrylic Design inkl. 350W €43.90 (case may change)
HDD IDE 80GB Samsung 7200U SP0812N 8MB €66.00

pricewise there isn't alot of difference so not too pushed on that

do ya have any other recomdations (sp?) to add on?

Redrocket

thats not bad your second selection, 280.37 ( i added an extra euro because you might as well spend an extra euro on DDR400 instead of DDR333 )

on the first selection ( xp2400 ) its maybe a tenner less.

your gettin a case though so check out and see how much delivery will be. i got a printer delivered for 20 quid with gls so expect to be in and around the same price.

maxheadroom

Delivery will be about €35.

I'd get the 2400+ and Arctic cooler - it'll be quieter and you won't notice the difference performence wise.

You could probably overclock it to 2500+ speeds quite easily if you really wanted to.

Redrocket

probably overclock to 2500+ speeds no problem, but everyone knows how well the 2500+ overclocks to 2800+ or 3200+ easily, or probably 3500+ knowing col_loki

the difference between the 2500 and 2400 would be unnoticable to a user, but im sure thered be a difference in a benchmarking program.

if you wanted silence like maxheadroom says just get the 2500+ tray which is 75 + the 8 or 9 euro for the quieter cpu cooler.

balkieb2002

Yeah i'll prob get the 2500+ and the artic cooler, then i might try my hand at overclocking

The case seems to be my only stalling point. I might buy a different one as i'm not too sure about that one. How much more money would it take to get one with a decent power supply and also be gaurenteed (sp?) that the mobo will fit into it?

Thanx to both of ye for all the help so far.

::Edit:: I was looking around and saw this one http://www.jes-computer.de/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=172_53&products_id=15413

It missing fans and psu [i presume these arn't too dear] but i suppose it would work out better for me in long run espec if i decide to overclock.

Redrocket

ahh ive searched around cause i have a 2500 and everywhere ive looked said that it's easy to get 3200 out of them but thats gettin a bit off topic.

that case needs a psu, cost you about 25 quid and up. depends on the wattage you want and if you want a good reliable brand named one. JES only seem to have the one brand, http://www.jes-computer.de/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=172_27&products_id=15914

balkieb2002

i would need a good psu as i read it is important when overclocking but not quite sure how the jes ones would handle it.

I was going to ask on the tweaking/modding forum how it handles but am hoping someone see this topic and is able to answer me.

I could expand my budget to about €350 or maybe a bit more if i had to look elsewhere for different case or a diff/better psu espec if it helps me in the long run.

Also when buying all the parts do i need to buy all the extra cables/wires as well or do some come with the seperate parts?

Redrocket

cables???
psu should come with a power cable
motherboard should come with at least one ide and one floppy cable.
im sure you have another ide lying around???
after that all you need is a cable from the cd-rom to the sound card for cd-audio. which is not entirely necessary.
that should be it.

i dont know, i presume a better motherboard would overclock the cpu better im not really sure? more of treaking issue!

ive never had any problems with any psu, maybe its because i dont overload it with loads of crap like fans, hds and such.

maxheadroom

Originally posted by balkieb2002
i would need a good psu as i read it is important when overclocking but not quite sure how the jes ones would handle it.

I was going to ask on the tweaking/modding forum how it handles but am hoping someone see this topic and is able to answer me.

I could expand my budget to about €350 or maybe a bit more if i had to look elsewhere for different case or a diff/better psu espec if it helps me in the long run.

Also when buying all the parts do i need to buy all the extra cables/wires as well or do some come with the seperate parts?

I really can't see you being able to overclock well on that limited a budget - overclocking stresses all of your components, which is why overclockers buy top notch (expensive) kit.

To be honest, there's little point in spending more money on the case, and then getting a no-name PSU. Unless you're willing to spend about €50 on the PSU (for this Zalman for instance), then I wouldn't bother...

Col_Loki

MB ATX SA ASRock K7S8XE+ SATA Raid €42.49

Thats a pretty crappy motherboard and comes with an SIS chipset. If you really want to get a decent performance level for your money then pick parts that will overclock nicely for you. Try the Asus A7N8X-X ...... http://www.jes-computer.de/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=156_92&products_id=14442

I'd get the 2400+ and Arctic cooler - it'll be quieter and you won't notice the difference performence wise.
You could probably overclock it to 2500+ speeds quite easily if you really wanted to.

Yea thats true. Thing about the Bartons is they run at lower speeds but have double the L2 Cache, also the FSB is higher. One other big plus for the Xp2500+ is the mulitplier, since all the chips are locked you have to overclock using FSB. With a 2400+ you will be stuck with a simular overclock, lower FSB and lower ammount of cache.

When overclocking comes into it the Xp2500+ is the chip to get. Get the Tray version and the Artic cooler for €10 (its also adjustable ).

there's no need for DDR400mhz ram as the xp2400 is only 266mhz bus, so it will kind of bottleneck the ram and make it run at 266mhz. the xp 2500 has 333mhz bus and wont bottleneck as much

Yea exactly, Pc2700 will be fine with an Xp2400+...... definetly Pc3200 with a 2500+.

To be honest, there's little point in spending more money on the case, and then getting a no-name PSU. Unless you're willing to spend about €50 on the PSU (for this Zalman for instance), then I wouldn't bother...

Yea, either get whatever cheap case you fancy and a decent PSU to go into it, or go for a case with a decent PSU already installed (your talkin over €80)...... have a look at the chieftecs.

Col_Loki

MB ATX SA ASUS A7N8X-X, nForce2 € 62,99
Kühler SA Arctic Copper Silent 2L LED € 10,89
CPU AMD Athlon XP 2500+ Tray € 74,99
DDR PC400 512MB TwinMOS CL2,5 € 86,98
Chenbro Gaming Bomb Orange + Window € 49,00
Netzteil Tagan TG380-U01 380W € 53,80
HDD IDE 80GB Hitachi HDS722580VLAT20 € 56,99


Sub-Total: € 395,64


I know its over budget but there top notch parts and should give you a nice free performance boost from overclocking. You could always get 256mb Ram and then upgrade in a months time to 512mb?

Just dont expect much of an overclock with a crappy motherboard with an SIS chipset, and VIA arent great either. You could either get some decent parts and run at probable over Xp3000+ with higher memory performance, or just get stock parts and dont have overclocking in mind......... ie stick with nice cheap parts (theres no point in going for an Xp2500+ and that Asrock board, 2400+ is a better idea).

Giblet

Check out the PC kits on komplett.ie

http://komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?sku=301141&cks=FRO

Thats pretty cheap, and decent.

balkieb2002

Thanks for the info Col_Loki. Ya always come up with good advice with a nice solution.

If i manage to scrape together more funds then that rig ya picked out seems fairly nice with abilty to overclock as well.

Check out the PC kits on komplett.ie http://komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?sku=301141&cks=FRO Thats pretty cheap, and decent.

a friend told me about that deal before and i'd be all for it except for the fact its giving me things i don't really want (such as cd-rw, less ram, smaller hd) but its still a handy alternative and definatly an option.

balkieb2002

Col_Loki wrote:

MB ATX SA ASUS A7N8X-X, nForce2 ? 62,99
Kühler SA Arctic Copper Silent 2L LED ? 10,89
CPU AMD Athlon XP 2500+ Tray ? 74,99
DDR PC400 512MB TwinMOS CL2,5 ? 86,98
Chenbro Gaming Bomb Orange + Window ? 49,00
Netzteil Tagan TG380-U01 380W ? 53,80
HDD IDE 80GB Hitachi HDS722580VLAT20 ? 56,99


Sub-Total: ? 395,64


I know its over budget but there top notch parts and should give you a nice free performance boost from overclocking. You could always get 256mb Ram and then upgrade in a months time to 512mb?

The thing is my budget has now been increased to about 500 euros so was just wondering if there was anything else i needed or that could be upgraded.

Was thinking bigger hard-drive and maybe soundcard with good speakers as current ones are crap.

Any ideas?

Thanx [sorry for draggin up old topic but twas mine and seemed like better idea ]

Col_Loki

Id change the motherboard to an Abit NF7-S , it supports SATA , RAID, Firewire......... but the main thing is it has very good onboard sound so no need for another one .

Definetly a bigger hard drive, possibly 160gb (i like my samsungs)?

The little extra you have mabye a set of speakers?

I forget because this was a while back but do you need a graphics card?

balkieb2002

This is what i have by the way:
monitor (small 15")
keyboards
speakers [crap ones]
cd-drive
dvd-rw
ati raedon 9700pro
xp op system

So apart from the system you picked out what i mainly need is a mouse [dont know why never thought of that before] and speakers.

But I will more than likly upgrade the motherboard as handy for future upgrades.

Would more memory or hard-drive space be better? I run out of space alot though so hd would prob be better.

I'll search through Jes and see what i can find in the meantime.

Thanx again for the extra info and help.

New system now looks like this:

MB ATX SA Abit NF7-S V2.0 nForce2 ? 87,98
Kühler SA Arctic Copper Silent 2L LED ? 10,89
CPU AMD Athlon XP 2500+ Tray ? 74,99
DDR PC400 512MB TwinMOS CL2,5 ? 86,98
Chenbro Gaming Bomb Orange + Window ? 49,00
Netzteil Tagan TG380-U01 380W ? 53,80
HDD IDE 80GB Hitachi HDS722580VLAT20 ? 56,99

Total so far ? 420.63

Col_Loki

The NF7-S is a great motherboard but the A7N8X isint bad either. Just no SATA and not as good on-board sound.

Your graphics is pretty well sorted with the 9700pro, pick up a set of speakers , mouse, mabye bigger hard drive........ and think about the motherboard upgrade if you have money left over.

PS Make sure you order IDE hard drives if your getting the Asus. Either IDE or SATA will do with the abit

balkieb2002

After a lot of going back and forth and deciding wether this was better than that etc, i finally have a base pc [still need help for mouse/speakers!!]

12803 CPU AMD Athlon XP 2500+ Tray 74.99 EUR
15413 Chenbro Gaming Bomb Orange + Window 36.99 EUR
14788 Kühler SA Arctic Copper Silent 2L LED 10.89 EUR
13303 MB ATX SA Abit NF7-S V2.0 nForce2 87.98 EUR
13311 DDR PC400 512MB TwinMOS CL2,5 83.99 EUR
14980 Netzteil Tagan TG380-U01 380W 53.80 EUR
15286 HDD IDE 120GB Samsung SP1213N 8MB 80.99 EUR

All the above is from Jes-Computers. [thanx Col_Loki for all the help]

I'm troubled over a choice of mouse and speakers though. As a big gamer a mouse and sound is important to me.

15540 Maus Logitech MX510 37.50 EUR
13975 Maus Logitech Click! Optical 20.99 EUR

The two mice are both optical as mouseballs annoy me and arn't to useful for games but i like the first one as many buttons

For speakers though i am not that much in the know so would like advice on the below two.

14290 LS Creative Labs Inspire P380 2.1 35.90 EUR
14299 LS Creative Labs Inspire P580 5.1 57.99 EUR

I like the subwoffer and surrond sound [col_loki said the motherboard can handle good sound]

Thanx for any help.

As ya seem to be the expert col_loki or anyelse, even though i'm a first time builder, i'd like to make it a bit fancy or glowy even The case has a window so would like to show my work off Already getting the Kühler which has a led so thats a start but wondering if there was anything else i could addon cheaply?

Thanx again.

Jammer

Abit NF7 V2.0 Mainboard for Socket A DDR nForce2SPP/MCP/Ultra 400,ATX,USB2.0,LAN
AMD Athlon XP2500+ 1.833 GHz Socket A 333MHz, 512KB Barton, OEM
Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 80GB IDE ATA/100 2MB cache 7200RPM
TwinMOS PC3200 DDR-DIMM 512MB CL2.5 Memory184-P (for DDR-PC400)
Cooler Master AERO 7+ AMD ASB-V73 for AMD XP3000+ CPU and Higher

332 incl del.

That set-up is 100% 3200+ material (stuff i have).

The mobo has 5.1, lan, USB 2 etc.

For a case..(i know this brings it slightly over budget...)...http://www.elara.ie/products/detailsfull.asp?productcode=ECE778141&productID=

It has a 300W Antec PSU. Antec are quality cases and PSU's.

Thats more like €400, but its practically a 3200+ with quality components.

Jammer

Don't buy a keyboard from JES, it will be in german layout!!!

Get one from peats, pc world or maplins!

Kazu

one of these might come in handy



http://www.jes-computer.de/product_info.php?pID=17540




http://www.jes-computer.de/product_info.php?pID=15668

dogz

if ya can stretch it a 160gb hdd is 110 yoyos and 512 mb ram for 80 and its ddr 400

balkieb2002

I'm gonna go with my choice from about 4 posts up only really need help with mouse/speakers though i suppose i kinda already no what i want.

As for the lan theres on-board lan plus i'd say i have a belkin lan card lying about somwhere.

I'll upgrade memory @ a later date as i'm happy with 512 for now but might up the hard drive to 160gb just to be sure.

As ya seem to be the expert col_loki or anyelse, even though i'm a first time builder, i'd like to make it a bit fancy or glowy even The case has a window so would like to show my work off Already getting the Kühler which has a led so thats a start but wondering if there was anything else i could addon cheaply?

Ne ideas on the above?

Thanx for all the help and keep it coming. It shaping up very nicely.

Jammer

As for LEDs and stuff, Peats have all that kinda stuff. Neon strips, neon surrounds for fans, UV lights and all that craic

balkieb2002

Thanx Jammer will look into that but have decided to wait till i have it built first

Here what i finally picked out. I upgraded the hard-drive to 160gb SATA since last time as i hear they are faster, plus samsungs are good espec with a 8mb cache.

15413 Chenbro Gaming Bomb Orange + Window 36.99 EUR
12803 CPU AMD Athlon XP 2500+ Tray 74.99 EUR
14788 Kühler SA Arctic Copper Silent 2L LED 10.89 EUR
13303 MB ATX SA Abit NF7-S V2.0 nForce2 87.98 EUR
14980 Netzteil Tagan TG380-U01 380W 53.80 EUR
15193 HDD SATA 160GB Samsung SP1614C 8MB 93.80 EUR
13311 DDR PC400 512MB TwinMOS CL2,5 83.99 EUR
14299 LS Creative Labs Inspire P580 5.1 57.99 EUR
15540 Maus Logitech MX510 37.50 EUR

But of course I still have a couple of questions.

Is everything all right for overclocking? To what processor speed would i expect? [don't intend to for a while though as wanna learn more bout it first].

Col_Loki

The two mice are both optical as mouseballs annoy me and arn't to useful for games but i like the first one as many buttons

For speakers though i am not that much in the know so would like advice on the below two.

The MX series mouse is very nice, good choice. The speakers are also pretty good for the money and yea the motherboard supports surround sound .

As ya seem to be the expert col_loki or anyelse, even though i'm a first time builder, i'd like to make it a bit fancy or glowy even The case has a window so would like to show my work off Already getting the Kühler which has a led so thats a start but wondering if there was anything else i could addon cheaply?

Definetly get a cold cathode tube. There available on the jes website under modding. Pick up a 30cm one for €8.50 (or mabye two) which ever colour you fancy, they light up the case really well and as a first time builder you will love them.

The UV ones arent a great idea (as you dont have anything UV in your case). Ie it lights up cables etc like a black light does on white.

Jes have alot for modding, have a look and see what you like.

PS Nice specs, will be a nice machine!!

[edit] You might look at a blue light / red light case fan?

BloodBath

You should consider a 2400 mobile xp. They overclock a lot better than the normal xp's and only cost a little more. You might get 2.2 with the 2500xp but you could get 2.5-2.7 with the mobile. They give out about half the heat of the normal xp's.


BloodBath

balkieb2002

You should consider a 2400 mobile xp. They overclock a lot better than the normal xp's and only cost a little more. You might get 2.2 with the 2500xp but you could get 2.5-2.7 with the mobile. They give out about half the heat of the normal xp's.

For some strange reason i always thought that the mobile processors were to do with laptops and not desktops. Don't ask me why. Do you mean somthing like http://www.jes-computer.de/product_info.php?pID=16803 ? If i were to get this instead would i have to change around anything else as well as i'm happy with the rest of the stuff.

Thanx

Balkie

BloodBath

Yeah that's the one.

They are intended for laptops but they are socket A which means they can be used in Desktops also. I got a friend of mine to order one recently. It should be arriving soon so I can start testing it. If you read up on them you will see they are one of the best processors you can get for overclocking. Definitely the best for the budget market.

There won't be any compatability problems with your other components.


BloodBath

Col_Loki

You should consider a 2400 mobile xp. They overclock a lot better than the normal xp's and only cost a little more. You might get 2.2 with the 2500xp but you could get 2.5-2.7 with the mobile. They give out about half the heat of the normal xp's.

Good advise bloodbath, i forgot mobiles went down in price over the last while in jes. As per usual it depends on the chip , and is down to luck how it overclocks but with a mobile you have a far better chance of getting a v.good overclock.