Advice for building Pc for under €600

kenny10033

Hi,
This is my first time building a PC and was wondering if anyone could help me with parts suggestions.
Its mainly going to be used for Internet and watching movies but also a bit of gaming and maybe a small bit of video encoding.My budget is €600 and I was hoping to order from Komplett.ie as I've only had good experiences with them before.
Any advise would be greatly appreciated:)

marco_polo

Main question would be if this budget includes a monitor or not? If you already have a monitor then what size is it?

marco_polo

Presuming you have an existing monitor that is no more than 1680 X 1050 resolution I came up with this on Komplett. A minor flaw is that it the cheapest 4GB 1333Mhz DDR3 kit I could find, but I am guessing it will be adequate. I will check some reviews later on to make sure it is not a complete pile of crap .

kenny10033

I would be looking to get a new monitor for the system. Oh and I already have a 1T external HD so I probably only need a 500G or even 320G internal.
Thanks for your help:)

Solitaire

Komplett hasn't the best choics... nor is it cheap.



With just €600 inc. monitor its almost impossible to get anything more than this budget rig. The fact that monitors start at €150 there doesn't help...

kenny10033

Solitaire wrote: »

Komplett hasn't the best choics... nor is it cheap.



With just €600 inc. monitor its almost impossible to get anything more than this budget rig. The fact that monitors start at €150 there doesn't help...

Where else would you reccomend to look?

Solitaire

Hardwareversand

There are a few cheapie merchants in Ireland, but they rarely have a good enough selection to cover all components in a build and/or have shabby service, so HWVS ends up the etailer of choice for full builds. A couple of peeps have had bad experiences with them, but I could say the same of Komplett, and its not "eleventy-seven thousand" bad experiences like many have had from other websites.

You could also risk splitting the build between Komplett and Pixmania and still save a bit of cash even after the two p&p charges, but a good few have had bad experiences there. Dabs can also be good value, but even I've been bitten shopping with them after somehow avoiding hassle with either Pix or OCUK! (two common complaints here)

Sample:

EDIT: Forgot a DVD burner. Knew I was missing something! :rolleyes:



This isn't really deviating much from the above, so it ends up a bit cheaper even if you count the (flat rate) €30 p&p (and the ~€20 part I forgot )

Better CPU, better *brand-name* case, everything else roughly equal. Not counting the p&p for either site (and accounting for the DVD whoopsie) you've saved ~€60... for a budget build. Possibly enough room to squeeze in a much faster tri-core CPU, even if it ends up on AM2 rather than AM3


FINAL EDIT: Tried it with a X3-720BE, RS770 AM2 mobo and a manufacturer-overclocked HD4870 1GB with a custom cooler... oh and remembered the DVD burner Got it under €600!... not including the €30 p&p. Oh well...

Gadgetman496

You could get one of these (Prebuilt).

It comes without OS or monitor but it's good bang for book IMO.

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TerrorFirmer

gadgetman496 wrote: »

You could get one of these (Prebuilt).

It comes without OS or monitor but it's good bang for book IMO.

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For a gaming machine you'd need the following (forgetting OS):

- New PSU
- Video Card
- Monitor

Which would bring it up to the 600 easily...and you'd still have an inferior system at the end of it (questionable case, and so on)

Gadgetman496

TerrorFirmer wrote: »

For a gaming machine you'd need the following (forgetting OS):

- New PSU
- Video Card
- Monitor

Which would bring it up to the 600 easily...and you'd still have an inferior system at the end of it (questionable case, and so on)

Well for any kind of real gaming I'd agree TerrorFirmer but I wouldn't go as far as saying inferior?

I have a reasonably hi end self build & love it to bits but at the time it cost plenty.


I also use 2 of the eBuyer machines from a similar offer last year & have one of the current ones also. I don't game but I do a lot of trans-coding & burning and found those machines to be excellent, never had any issues with them at all. @ 220 STG you couldn't go wrong for general run of the mill stuff.

I think we can get to carried away with hi Specs & overkill at times.

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Solitaire

eBuyer? Is that a builder with... "life expectancy problems"? (surging Deer/Solytech PSUs FTL!)

The big OEMs (Dell, HP, Compaq etc.) use B- to D-grade PSUs and OEMs (from low-grade Deltas all the way down to mediocre-but-reliable Sirfa/Sirtecs and Hipro-HKA - no, not that HiPro) so they don't blow up too often. Many lesser-quality medium-scale OEMs (eMachines, eBuyer) use highly questionable F- to NG-grade PSUs that are flakey at best and ticking time-bombs at worst.

So even for basic use these dubious builds can be a gamble - they might start off fine but a year (or even three months!) down the line they may very well decide to let the magic smoke out...

TerrorFirmer

gadgetman496 wrote: »

Well for any kind of real gaming I'd agree TerrorFirmer but I wouldn't go as far as saying inferior?

I have a reasonably hi end self build & love it to bits but at the time it cost plenty.


I also use 2 of the eBuyer machines from a similar offer last year & have one of the current ones also. I don't game but I do a lot of trans-coding & burning and found those machines to be excellent, never had any issues with them at all. @ 220 STG you couldn't go wrong for general run of the mill stuff.

I think we can get to carried away with hi Specs & overkill at times.

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Not at all. Don't get me wrong - I share the opinion that people often go overboard on their builds at times, but in this case its sheer necessity. The OP mentioned he wants to game, so:

- The eBuyer machine needs a new video card, the one in it would barely play games at lowest resolution and settings, and some not at all - hardly suitable for a gaming machine.
- It certainly needs a monitor
- And it would need a new power supply for said new video card too

And whilst bringing you up to about 600, the machine would still be inferior for the following reasons:

- Pretty poor cooling...There's only one back exhaust and one side, no front or top intake. Even budget cases in a self build would offer far better cooling, which is desirable for a games machine, especially one built around mAtx.
- Its an mAtx board, which is a small bit limiting.
- The design of the case, according to the discussion, means longer length cards cannot fit it without taking a hacksaw to the frame.

And so on...I don't disagree that in stock form it's probably fine for general usage. But the idea of buying cheap and then upgrading never works out as well as building your own machine for the same money.

Gadgetman496

TerrorFirmer wrote: »

Not at all. Don't get me wrong - I share the opinion that people often go overboard on their builds at times, but in this case its sheer necessity. The OP mentioned he wants to game, so:

- The eBuyer machine needs a new video card, the one in it would barely play games at lowest resolution and settings, and some not at all - hardly suitable for a gaming machine.
- It certainly needs a monitor
- And it would need a new power supply for said new video card too

And whilst bringing you up to about 600, the machine would still be inferior for the following reasons:

- Pretty poor cooling...There's only one back exhaust and one side, no front or top intake. Even budget cases in a self build would offer far better cooling, which is desirable for a games machine, especially one built around mAtx.
- Its an mAtx board, which is a small bit limiting.
- The design of the case, according to the discussion, means longer length cards cannot fit it without taking a hacksaw to the frame.

And so on...I don't disagree that in stock form it's probably fine for general usage. But the idea of buying cheap and then upgrading never works out as well as building your own machine for the same money.

I would totally agree with you where any sort of real gaming would be concerned for sure, I was a bit swayed by the OP's casual mention of "A bit of gaming" maybe!

I certainly wouldn't get one of those if gaming was to be a prerequisite but I can only speak from my own experience with them for general use including trans-coding & burning, the two I have for just over a yer have served their purpose well.

My neighbours machine has a Gainward GeForce 9800GT 1GB G card & he only uses it for surfing & email LOL! :eek: That card alone cost half the total cost of the eBuyer machine


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Effluo

I always find it funny when people see a computer with a dual core 2.6ghz and four gigs of ram and then go WOW when it says only £220(€255(without banks or credit cards cut)) :O

Just because it's cheap don't make it good value!
Feach ar seo!

Intel Pentium Dualcore E5300 "Box", LGA775
60,01 €

ASUS P5KPL-AM, Sockel 775 Intel G31, mATX
41,61 €

4096MB-KIT A-DATA PC6400/800,CL 5
Verfügbarkeit: Art-Nr.: HV20FK96DE
37,46 €

Jet Delta mit 420W-Netzteil
34,67 €

Samsung EcoGreen F2 500GB, SATA II (HD502HI)

42,01 €

LG GH22NS40/NS30 bare schwarz SATA II

21,43 €

total 237,19 € + 30 shipping

With the asus mobo and samsung hdrive this is gotta be a better deal!

Gadgetman496

Effluo wrote: »

I always find it funny when people see a computer with a dual core 2.6ghz and four gigs of ram and then go WOW when it says only £220(€255(without banks or credit cards cut)) :O

Just because it's cheap don't make it good value!
Feach ar seo!

Intel Pentium Dualcore E5300 "Box", LGA775
60,01 €

ASUS P5KPL-AM, Sockel 775 Intel G31, mATX
41,61 €

4096MB-KIT A-DATA PC6400/800,CL 5
Verfügbarkeit: Art-Nr.: HV20FK96DE
37,46 €

Jet Delta mit 420W-Netzteil
34,67 €

Samsung EcoGreen F2 500GB, SATA II (HD502HI)

42,01 €

LG GH22NS40/NS30 bare schwarz SATA II

21,43 €

total 237,19 € + 30 shipping

With the asus mobo and samsung hdrive this is gotta be a better deal!

Don't forget the case


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marco_polo

gadgetman496 wrote: »

Don't forget the case


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Cases are for wimps. Real men use anti-static sheets and a table.

TerrorFirmer

Actually that says Jet Delta 'with' 420w. That's an outrageous price really for a case+psu when you consider Delta PSU's have a decent rep.

Solitaire

No! Jet's the brand, Delta is the model name and has nothing to do with the OEM!! :eek:

Seeing as Jet is part of the Xilence group (or vice-versa) that case would most likely have a PSU with the same ultra-craptacular OEM as Xilence PSUs - Casing Macron