Cheapo games pc

A

Armalite

Geek Trainee
I was using my old Evesham P4 2.6 as a spare on my other desk for looking at data while working on my main pc in front of me - until it went bang last night :-/ Apart from sitting there in an accounts package all day, the only other thing I used it for was World of Warcraft :rolleyes:

I've gotten used to having 2 pc's to use so I'm looking at finding a cheap replacement. I always used intel until my current pc which is AMD64 and it works fine so I'm not bothered about processor brand, whatever gives the best bang for buck :)

As i said, its basically a spare - I dont want to spend more than 500ish+vat on it. I've built one from components before and its still working ok, but that may well have been more luck than anything, so if i can buy a system alrdy built then cool, otherwise i'm not completely averse to buying bits and chucking them together if its idiot proof :cool:

Is there any thing likely to be worth salavaging from a 3 year+ old P4 before I bin it btw? I assume the drives will be usuable as spares still? I guess case internals may have changed so I'll need another if i build one?

Any pre-built bargains out there, or ideas for a home build much appreciated...

Chrs,
Rich
 
Hi, what are your full system specs?

Because of the fact its 3 years old, i think you may well have to build a new computer from scratch and only salvage things such as dvd driver, hard driver and thats about it.
 
The cases really haven't changed. Intel did try to get a new motherboard desktop formfactor going (BTX) but it never took off, so ATX is still in business. While the CPU could be salvaged for the new box, I'd just pull it and keep it in the spare parts box or sell it. It's going to be hard to find a motherboard that supports it, simply due to the change in sockets that's happened from 3 years back.

Yeah, the drives can be spared...but if the budget allows, it might not hurt to go to something bigger.

Here's a suggestion that will bring you up to speed:

Motherboard: Asus P5B £79.39 inc VAT
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E6300 £114.51 inc VAT
RAM: Crucial PC5300 2x512MB £77.63 inc VAT
Video Card: Asus GeForce 7600GT 256MB PCIe £104.83 inc VAT
Power Supply: Hiper Type-R 580W £57.58 inc VAT

Total: £433.94 inc VAT

If you wanted to round that whole box out:
Hard Drive: Western Digital 160GB SATA £36.36 inc VAT
Optical Drive: Pioneer 16x DVD-RW £20.91 inc VAT
Case: Antec SLK3000B £29.92 inc VAT

New Total: £521.13

Really, your budget is pretty generous, espeically factoring VAT in addition to your £500, so you can really build a nice machine.
 
I doubt the CPU could be salvaged, maybe so if it were a skt T (LGA775) but not skt 478, thats dead now, and from the age of the CPU i am thinking its a Skt 478.
 
I was only expecting to re-use the case, cd/rw and one of its (IDE) HDs for storage of general rubbish - I'd get a new master HD as I've read that they are noticeably better in performance?

I'd like to put together some thing that will last as long as possible and perform well - so I'm happy to use the budgets £580-odd inc vat. Any thing that could be improved upon u think?

Thnks for the input thus far :)
 
Well, most, if not all, new drives spin at 7200RPM. Secondly, just due to advances in platter density and hard drive design, you end up with a better performing drive.
 
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