How cheap can they be?

Effluo

From a conversation in another thread on this forum i've come up with a question.

We were looking at prebuilt Dells and self builds wondering which offered the best value.

I've thought for a long time that the best value pc is the one that simply does what you want it to do, for your particular budget and if it can do those things relatively efficiently for a lower price then that is the price you should pay.

Now most people use their pc for just browsing the internet, watching a movie, sorting their media and writing word, powerpoint and other such documents...

So the way i see it is that the ideal budget pc should be able to do those things.

So what is the best value general persons pc?

Is it a single core(shock horror) celeron or sempron,
With 512mbs of ram,
a m-atx board with onboard vga,
Does it have linux?

Is less than 200 euro new?

What does everyone think?

elexes

a who can build the cheapist computer thread ? ( excluding cost of labour ofc ) and possibly update it over time ?

i think it would be a thread worth having as a sticky.

some min standards should be applied. such as
must have dvd/cdr -
ms xp
1gig of ram ( i know you could get away with less but still )
hsf
hdd of at liest 100g
psu & case
speakers
keyboard
mouse

off to the batcave to see what i can muster up

Solitaire

For "a box" I managed just over €160 on HWVS

But HWVS dissappointed me with its poor selection of Crap Monitors so it hit ~€280 minus the Windows Tax. Say €350 with everything.

Let's be fair, it has a keyboard, mouse, speakers and a decent (-ish) 19" monitor to boot. And I was very generous, giving it a nice 320GB 7200rpm SATA HDD and two sticks of PC6400 memory. Not that the 2Gb will run in dual-channel - the craptacular nForce4 mobo probably doesn't support such new-fangled '90s concepts :rolleyes: At least it has a decent integrated sound chip - Realtek AC888 for 7.1 surround. Unfitting

And then to the bad points. I'd give the keyboard and mouse a week. I'd give the horrible PSU hidden in the fugly-ass Jet/Xilence case about half that. The CPU is a 2.2GHz single-core Sempron and the graphics are courtesy of the onboard GeForce6100 (hey! at least it'll use eff-all power! ) And while the SATA DVD drive is great for reading DVDs and CDs and the like, it, er, can't actually burn them

marco_polo

I couldn't get below the 380 mark on Dabs, with an E1400 celeron and 1 GB Ram and 17" Monitor. Not cheap enough by half for that lot.

Solitaire

I win :P

Very surprised by Dabs. Usually they are the purveyors of all things irredeemably crap, thought it'd be almost as cheap as HWVS for a Craptasmosystem

Got €290 for a similar system to mine on Dabs, under €310 inc. p&p. Can now burn its own DVDs But the screen is now down to 17"... If anything the case, mouse and keyboard were nicer and a lot cheaper there But the speakers were pricey... they were Logitech though!

marco_polo

Solitaire wrote: »

I win :P

Very surprised by Dabs. Usually they are the purveyors of all things irredeemably crap, thought it'd be almost as cheap as HWVS for a Craptasmosystem

I thought I was onto a winner with the 11 Euro RAM and 30 euro MB, got screwed for the monitor and vista. at a total of 380 for that pile of crap I am too embarrased to even post it up.:P

270 for this stunner on pixmania (no monitor), about 285 - 290 with delivery. http://www.pixmania.ie/ie/uk/2885289/art/packard-bell/imedia-b2218.html I got my dabs build down by 10 to 370, taking off the 85 for the "Best Monitor" (Yes that seems to be the brandname) a draw more or less.

jonny72

I've found that buying a 'refurbished' pc from ebay.uk is generally much cheaper than a built pc from komplett or hws

In fact until recently there used to be insane deals on dell pc's from the dellfactoryoutlet EBAY site, it was quite common to get a core2duo, 1 gig , 250 gig hdd and all the trappings windows etc for close to 200 or just barely over. Often they were the slim model types.

Its hard to beat the low end refurbished systems, i mean about 6 months ago i picked up a core2quad 6600, 9600gt, 3 gig ram, 500 gb hdd, vista, etc, etc new but 'refurbished' for 350 inc postage, it was so good i had to buy it, only to find i didnt need it and sold it on. The second one with a 1000 gb hdd went for only 270 euros!

Depends on the value of the pound of course and knowing where to look, but quite simply put, a 200euro pc is easily possible, quite a decent one at that, obviously not for gaming though, building one is a little more expensive, plus with the refurb one u usually get xp or vista

marco_polo

Oops no speakers. Disqualified

Effluo

ok

http://www.hpci.at/ProductDetails.aspx?Id=609061

That's slave labour for ya!

Solitaire

"Fairness"



Face facts - when it comes to mid- and high-end machines, the big OEMs oversell like crazy and they're just not worth the time of day. But at the extreme low-end where they've all but given up on margin and just want to shift then damn things you really start to see how unequal things are. They get bulk discounts on CPUs, and regardless of OEM the monitors, peripherals, case, mobo, PSU et al are all custom-made bulk-shipped OEM parts that skip the retail chain and are ludicrously cheap compared to retail parts.

TerrorFirmer

This is the best I could do, but HWV have a crap selection of monitors. It could be cheaper, but I don't see the point in going for something ludicrously crap, this would be the minimum I'd go for a relatively reliable day to day machine (No ECS jokes please ).

Ah, you just can't beat Dell.

[IMG][/img]

Solitaire

Putting this here to avoid confusing the issue on the Budget Gaming Build thread (in the middle of answering a question there): A crude-as-hell gaming machine for a shade over €400 delivered. You rarely see those bouncing around for a tuppence :P