Help replacing a dead PC please

enor

Hiya,

I was planning to replace my existing PC towards the end of 2011 and have been saving up. Unfortunately it has just died a nasty death but I cannot afford a new one yet.

I have managed to save up around £400 and could stretch to £500 and replace it now but I can't find one suitable for that price. I was wondering if perhaps it may be possible to build one for this price but need help with choosing the parts.

I don't need an operating system or a monitor and my old keyboard and mouse are fine. The PC will be primarily for work and will be used largely for Photoshop and Indesign (CS5) as well as Acrobat. It needs to be good for a couple of years without much updating when I will replace it again. The plan is to pass it on to my son when I can afford a new one so the ability to play a half decent game on it would be a bonus.

My main difficulty is in choosing a processor. I've spent a weekend reading reviews and they all seem to contradict themselves. Any ideas on what to go for processor wise (I've no preference over AMD or Intel)?

I will be very grateful for any help you can give me.

Richard

Toxteth_OGrady

Have a look at this bundle from Aria here along with the Also Purchase items below. Sub-£500 if you drop the SSD. Take a look at Tom Logan's video review.

:cool:

TOG

davb

Is there no hope for your existing PC - do you know the problem with it - if not, what are the symptoms.

gonzo127

that bundle is pretty good however for what you are looking at doing with it i would and the fact Sandy bridge is due out within a month i would not recommend a duel core intel so anyways a quick look would show something like this for a self build (all from ebuyer)

AMD Phenom II X6 1055T 2.8GHz 9MB Cache Socket AM3 Retail Box Processor 204939 £139.99

MSI 870-C45 AMD 870 Socket AM3 GB LAN 8 Channel Audio ATX Motherboard £54.99

Samsung HD103SJ Spinpoint F3 1TB Hard Drive SATAII 7200rpm 32MB Cache £40.99

Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro rev 2 Socket 775, 1156, 1366, AM2, AM3 Heatpipe CPU Cooler £14.53

Antec 300 Three Hundred Case £49.52

Antec TruePower New 650W Modular PSU - 80plus Bronze and SLI Certified 3x SATA £79.99

Corsair XMS3 - Memory - 4 GB : 2 x 2 GB - DIMM 240-pin - DDR3 - 1333 MHz / PC3-10666 - CL9 - unbuffered - non-ECC £53.86

Samsung SH-S223 22x DVD±RW DL & RAM SATA Optical Drive - OEM Black £11.99

Inno3D GT 240 512MB GDDR3 DVI VGA HDMI Out PCI-E Graphics Card £48.03

Cart total inc vat: £493.89

this would give a lot of work power with some 'low' gaming ability (the GT240 is the same as the 9600GT so should eb able to play most games on a 22 inch montior in low - medium settings) - you can of course drop the X6 CPU and go for the

core i5 750 at £151.49

Gigabyte GA-H55M-S2 at £52.29

which bring the whole package to £502.69

this will be faster in a lot of everyday tasks as clock for clock the i5 is better, however when you are getting into heavy multithreading the x6 is a lot better you also have to drop to a worse motherboard going for the intel system as the AMD one is pretty darned good for the price

also since the 1156 socket is soon to be a dead socket (sandy bridge) if you do wish to upgrade in the future the intel would require a motherboard and CPU upgrade whereas the AMD is a AM3 system which is due to stay around for a little while longer so it would just require a CPU upgrade - as ever pluses and minus's for each system

A.Penny.Saved

davb wrote: »

Is there no hope for your existing PC - do you know the problem with it - if not, what are the symptoms.

Yes, this is a good point. If enor posts the symptoms shown by the PC, the problem might be able to be diagnosed and the problem corrected for far less than a new PC, pre-built or self built.

Building yourself a PC isn't going to be cheap, especially if you want a decent graphics card because they alone will cost over £100 for anything half decent. Motherboard, £50 to £200+, CPU, £50/£60 for a dual core, £90 to £200+ for a quad, £140+ for a hexa(6) core CPU. You would probably need a new PSU @ £55+ and memory because your current probably won't be re-usable, £40 to £60. A heatsink for the CPU would be needed, another £20 to £50.
The case you might be able to re-use.

AMD CPU's+motherboards are cheaper and the integrated graphics might be enough for your usage and could be upgraded later to a separate graphics card.

A 240GT is a bit of a waste of time for gaming, I have a 1GB GT240 and it struggles doing anything except for very basic stuff at low resolutions. Getting onboard graphics via a AMD chipset and CPU would be a better idea and later update it when gaming is required.

getmore4less

If the existing machine was good enough.

What would the like for like replacement cost.

What would it cost after harvesting the existing machine.

What is actualy broken cost to fix.

If on a 2 year cycle you are much better off not going to top spec.
Like for like with focused upgrades to match your primary needs.

JasX

gonzo127 wrote: »

Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro rev 2 Socket 775, 1156, 1366, AM2, AM3 Heatpipe CPU Cooler £14.53

Antec 300 Three Hundred Case £49.52

Samsung SH-S223 22x DVD±RW DL & RAM SATA Optical Drive - OEM Black £11.99

Inno3D GT 240 512MB GDDR3 DVI VGA HDMI Out PCI-E Graphics Card £48.03

Probably not too far off the mark but I really rouldn;t bother upgrading the CPU cooler, the stock one that comes with it will be fine

Perhaps OP can re-use the DVD drive from their existing machine and not need that -another £20 saved

OP could re-use their case at a push but likely worth getting a new one.

The graphics card is a bit pants for modern stuff but if there is no immediate gaming requirement will be fine for the other stuff and can be cheaply replaced with a more powerful one down the line (should be fine for older stuff tho)

gonzo127

A.Penny.Saved wrote: »

A 240GT is a bit of a waste of time for gaming, I have a 1GB GT240 and it struggles doing anything except for very basic stuff at low resolutions. Getting onboard graphics via a AMD chipset and CPU would be a better idea and later update it when gaming is required.

i did state the GT240 would be ok for low gaming usage on low to medium settings, its never going to blow anyone away but should cope with most games at the moment

i am also recommending adding it in for the CUDA abilities that it adds

enor

Thanks for your replies, I'm just looking at the options above now. Just to let you know, the old machine is gone for good. Its been slowly going for a while but the other day a burning plastic smell came from it so I opened it up and there's molten black plastic all over the motherboard. I couldn't even locate what had melted! Anyway, I've put a new PSU in the case and stuck an older (working) motherboard and processor in and it now works fine for internet use.

Ta
Richard

TEDDYRUKSPIN

Erm...... if you have that amount of money, why not just go out and buy a laptop? For that money you can get a decent computer just for that amount and will last you easily for 3 years. Especially for the programs you are using.

Or just get a base unit and use your existing monitor and keyboard.

From my own experience now, I would just get a laptop. Not worth the hassle to build a new machine now. Computers have dropped down in price alot.

gonzo127

JasX wrote: »

Probably not too far off the mark but I really rouldn;t bother upgrading the CPU cooler, the stock one that comes with it will be fine

Perhaps OP can re-use the DVD drive from their existing machine and not need that -another £20 saved

OP could re-use their case at a push but likely worth getting a new one.

The graphics card is a bit pants for modern stuff but if there is no immediate gaming requirement will be fine for the other stuff and can be cheaply replaced with a more powerful one down the line (should be fine for older stuff tho)

all valid points (as always Jas) however i going low information my reasoning is

a aftermarket cooler will allow a good overclock to get the most out of the system for minimum expenditure, at £15 'at build' to save hassle in the future of changing it or having to upgrade the CPU if it isnt fast enough plus all the exptra performance in the mean time (10-20% overclock) i think is worht £15

DVD drive very true, if the old one can be salvaged great otherwise its priced in

depends on the case really, i wouldnt want to house a £400 system in a old case that possibly doesnt have great air flow for cooling

and once again GT240 is more to cover some basic gaming if required plus the CUDA performance that can be used in the Adobe programs - just noticed that there is a 9800GT on ebuyer for about £5 more than the GT240 which would add a bit more wallop to gaming if needed (still not stunning but better)

as ever you could save money else where such as dropping to a 500 watt PSU and going for value RAM i just think the above is a good compromise accross the board