Home PC €400 Budget ?

Drewgt

Hi,

I'm technically competent but overwhelmed by the quantity of items available. If I was to believe all I read I can spend €400 on the case alone when i know the big companies can sell a system for this price.

1. What is your budget? [€400] approx

2. What will be the main purpose of the computer? [Home, MS office, printing photos and browsing. Also streaming to tv.

3. Do you need a copy of Windows? [Yes]

4. Can you use any parts from an old computer? [No, current PC is 8 years old and decrepit]

5. Do you need a monitor? [No]

5a. If yes, what size do you need. [n/a]

5b. If no, what resolution is your current monitor and do you plan to upgrade in the near future? [1440x900, 19" but would like 24" in future]

6. Do you need any of these peripherals? [500gb to 1TB hard drive, card reader, top front of case to have usb3 and headphone. current pc connected hard wire to wireless router].

7. Are you willing to try overclocking? [Yes/No] no but hadd thought a 1150 motherboard would give future possibilities for cpu upgrade.

8. How can you pay? [Bank Transfer/Credit Card/Laser] any

9. When are you purchasing? [In x days] this weekend or week.

10. If you need help building it, where are you based? [South Dublin City/Cork City/Kerry/etc.] n/a

Thank you for your advice, I will almost certainly buy on one or more of the german sites looked at to keep prices down.

yawhat!

Item|Price
Cooltek X1, Midi Tower, ATX, schwarz, ohne Netzteil|€21.03
Intel Core i3-4130 Box, LGA1150|€96.98
4GB G.Skill PC3-10667U CL9-9-9-24|€30.19
be quiet! SYSTEM POWER 7 350W - bulk -|€35.54
Crucial M500 120GB SATA 6GB/s 6,4CM (2,5") 7mm|€59.99
Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit SB-Version Englisch|€87.03
ASRock H81M, Sockel 1150, mATX|€47.46
Shipping|€18.99
Total|€397.21

There is a 128GB SSD which should be grand to start out with. A 1000GB hard drive could be added at a later date. You could leave out the SSD either and just get the hard drive. 4GB of ram should be plenty for your needs as well. Again another 4GB could be added a later date.

Serephucus

I'd swap the processor to something like this, which gives you room to throw in a 1TB hard drive as well.

It's a 2.7GHz dual core, vs. a 3.4GHz dual core with hyperthreading, but to be honest, if it's just web browsing and word documents, you won't notice the difference anyway. I was using a similar system for a couple of months last year, and I'd take the SSD over a faster processor in a heartbeat.

MRTULES

Just got a g1820 last week as well as a 120gb ssd. For day to day use its great so far.
Built it all with some 2nd hand parts from adverts. Total 349
G1820
8gb ram
Sapphire 6950
B85m pro 4
Corsair CX 600m
Bitfenix merc beta
Sandisk v300 120gb ssd

Serephucus

All that for €350? Christ almighty you did well!

MRTULES

Well the GPU isn't in yet because I am missing some cables from the PSU and I have no molex to 6pin converters. Also the power button on the case is a bit wonky(wire loose me thinks).
Obviously better to buy new and avoid potential problems with 2nd hand stuff but when cash is tight you do what you csn. And I'm very happy so far.

Drewgt

Thanks for the help everyone. I've been looking through the options and reckon that the following will come in under budget. Some of the items on your list Yawhat dont appear to be stock.

Sharkoon VS3V or Aerocool A3X Advance case.
MS Tech Power Supply
Asrock Z87 Mainboard (1150)
Celeron G1820
Crucial M500 or Adata SP900 SSD
Crucial 1600 4GB RAM
Windows 7 HP

Higher spec board will I think give an upgrade path.

Questions I'd like to ask you are
"Are either case adequate?" I realise they're not great!
Will any ATX PSU fit any ATX Case?
Has anyone dealt with Compuland.de or Mindfactory.de?

Thank you again everyone

yawhat!

Never heard of them sites. Higher priced board won't give any upgrade options. Any 1150 processor will work. You will just be paying more for ones that support overclocking or can handle two or three graphics cards.

Drewgt

Ta, Those sites are the main ones that show up in Geizhals.de which I saw recommended here (somewhere) Obviously my upgrade perceptions are wacky!

MRTULES

I believe a few here have used mind factory but obviously hardwareversand is the most popular. I placed my 1st order with them last week. Straightforward on line bank transfer pretty quick delivery.

MRTULES

You could go something like this??

Item|Price
SanDisk SSD 128GB S-ATA 600|€56.89
Seagate Barracuda 7200 1000GB, SATA 6Gb/s|€47.33
Zalman T4 Mini-Tower - schwarz mATX, ohne Netzteil|€21.07
Intel Celeron G1820, 2x 2.70GHz, boxed|€31.82
8GB-Kit Crucial Ballistix Sport Series DDR3-1600, CL9|€56.26
Corsair Builder Serie CX430 V3 Non-Modular 80+ Bronze, 430 Watt|€37.31
ASRock H81M-VG4, Sockel 1150, mATX|€34.92
Shipping|€11.99
Total|€304.59

The only things there I would be worried about are the case and the board.
I dont know if you want to do what I'm doing and just download windows now on a free trial until I get enough cash in a few weeks time to buy it plenty left over to add it in there if you want.
The only reasone to change board would be more connectivite like bluetooth of hdmi or whatever. The only reason to go for a z87 is if you plan on getting a K cpu for overclocking down the line. If you did then THIS seems to be the cheapest or close to it @ €76.
I got one of THESE @ €54.
I really know nothing about the case but I would guess its pretty poor, maybe a few more quid here would be a good idea too.
Anyway, more food for thought

Had to throw this in while Im at it. White ITX build just changed the case and motherboard. All compoinents in stock as I post this, as with the build above but please make sure to have someone else through their expert eyes over this before pulling the trigger on anything as I am no expert.
Item|Price
SanDisk SSD 128GB S-ATA 600|€56.89
Seagate Barracuda 7200 1000GB, SATA 6Gb/s|€47.33
Intel Celeron G1820, 2x 2.70GHz, boxed|€31.82
8GB-Kit Crucial Ballistix Sport Series DDR3-1600, CL9|€56.26
Corsair Builder Serie CX430 V3 Non-Modular 80+ Bronze, 430 Watt|€37.31
Cooler Master Elite 120 Advanced weiß, Mini-ITX, ohne Netzteil|€42.28
ASRock H81M-ITX, Sockel 1150, ITX|€52.76
Shipping|€11.99
Total|€343.64

You could quiet happily ditch the 8gb ram down to 4gb to save €25.
Also I got a Bitfenix merc beta case and threw this in the front to give front usb 3.0

Drewgt

Got the bits from Hardwareversand today and hoped to be posting how pleased I was. Thanks for the advise everyone. Took it and bought the lesser cpu and an ssd.
However it appears the corsair psu doesn't work. I plugged it onto the board and nothing happened so disconnected and tried it stand alone. Fan doesn't spin and 0Volts output! Does it need to be connected for fan to spin or show output voltage? Ironic that I bought what I thought was a better brand of PSU.

Thanks again

Serephucus

To see if the PSU is working, disconnect it from everything, grab a paperclip. Stick one end in the green, PS_ON connector, and the other in any ground pin (clickie). This essentially tells the PSU that the case's power switch has been pressed.

Drewgt

Thanks Serephucus. Working now. I was too gentle with trying to jumper the on pins.
Very pleased now!

For info to anyone, I had a hard time squeezing the MSI ATX motherboard into the Fractal Design Core 1000 case. Had to remove the drive housing by drilling out the rivets and replacing with screws. Otherwise there was just too much pushing and twisting to try and get the board in.

Next step OS. Win 7 in temporarily but I'm too mean to spend half the price of the harware putting in the OS. Ubuntu maybe.