Desktop pc cheap as chips?

fwor

If you want to spend £200, I'd go with the Ebuyer one. It's a higher spec and double the size HDD for only a few quid more.

Mumstheword

Thanks fwor. I'd go for a lower spec if I could find something much cheaper......and if you all thought it worthwhile!

gonzo127

the big difference is the processor, the one on ebay has the intel G530 which is a Sandybridge based processor, which is quicker than the ebuyer one

G530 scores 2261 on CPU benchmark
E5800 scores 2171 on the benchmarks

ok so not a massive difference but it will still be a bit quicker, also the included intergrated graphics on the G530 are a lot better than the E5800

as to RAM yes the 4gb will be better, but it is a very cheap upgrade in future if you need it (currently 4gb of DDR3 Ram on ebuyer is around £15) and the hard drive - well you said you didnt really need 1TB

this being said the speed differences wont be massively noticeable, and both systems will be more than capable of running the things you want

Mumstheword

Thanks gonzo. Very useful info. I'm still scouting about to see if I can find anything cheaper (as I dont really have that much to spend if poss). If I do, I will ask on here what it's benchmark number is, to give me a more direct comparison.

closed

post the log/commit, or reinstall windows, as I said in your old threads, it shouldn't be slow

you won't be able to just lift the xp serial number from an old machine and put it on a new one.

arriva

I bought one of those zoostorm PCs from ebuyer a couple of weeks ago and I have to say they are not as good as they seem. Good value for the money, it has potentials but as it is delivered it is not that great.

First of all the power supply is so noisy that you can hear it from the other room. It is very annoying also it is only a 300W meaning if you add a graphic card and another hard drive you are out of juice.
In my case I bought the bundle because I knew I was going to put the motherboard into another case and I have my own good power supply (Corsair CX600).

The computer came with one 4GB DDR3 RAM stick which is good news if you want to upgrade your memory but if you keep it as it is the RAM will only work as a single-channel (you need two matching RAM sticks to achieve dual-channel performance).
In addition to this (please correct me if I am mistaken here) the motherboard has only 2 RAM slots so the computer will never run at DDR3 speed because to achieve DDR3 you need THREE matching RAM memory modules (the same way you need TWO to achieve DDR2).

The Samsung 1TB hard drive is only 5400 rpm and it is quoted over £100 in the shops but only because of the floodings in east-asia otherwise you could probably buy it for £50.

The case is cheap and flimsy, don't even think about resting your knee on it.

The graphic is onboard but it has one PCI-E (only one) and two PCI slots.

I am quite happy with it considering the price I paid but only because I had other parts to add/swap.
I swapped the case with my old one, replaced the noisy PSU with my (silent) Corsair PSU plus installed my a geforce GT240 and now it runs cool and fast.
The only extra expense was the 4GB DDR3 RAM stick (from ebay £15).

I think that if you are a light user it will be fine for you out of the box but then you don't need this computer: my 6 years old standard HP 5100 Pentium4 (£60 ex-office 2nd hand off ebay) with a little tweaking runs as fast as this one.
If you want to get a bit more out of this machine you will have to budget at least an extra £100-150 and definitely the extra stick of RAM to get the DDR2 at least.

PS: the mobo is a MSI G41M-P28, the RAM is a Corsair CMV4GX3M1A1333C9, the DVD writer is a SATA LiteOn (at least on my unit).

TakeThis

Mumstheword wrote: »

Fab advice, thanks all.
Closed - You very kindly helped me thru all of that in about March this year. Your help sped it up slightly - but it's still a slow pc. So after following all of the instructions on the 'how to speed up your pc' thread, and some other things people suggested, I dont think it should have anything stray on there should it? I will test the speed thanks. I dont know where the OS would come from - he might use the code from the old machine to load up the new one?
gonzo and fwor - that machine is used for net browsing and storing the occasional file for admin. No gaming. But I do like it to be able to turn an internet page quickly..... if only to stop the users of it nicking my seat and using mine which is faster!!!

Thanks all, I knew I'd get good advice on here!

Oh, ps, when I replaced it with my new one (it's other people who now use the old one), it was formatted and freshly installed. That was after first trying all the steps to speed it up. But it's just always been a pants pc!!

fwor - it's wired in to the net. Thanks for the Linux idea, DS likes to play at that sort of thing so if I do replace it, he could have the old one to test things like that and have a general play about with. He could even get it going so it's ok for his younger brothers to use.

Perhaps you should look further into that before committing to buying a PC without an OS. Maybe actually ask him how he plans to activate it? XP or Windows 7?

Meanwhile, here is a refurb with an OS, for £185.

fwor

arriva wrote: »

The Samsung 1TB hard drive is only 5400 rpm

arriva - some excellent points.

The one I'd say not to worry too much about is this one. I'm fairly sure all of the Samsung 1TB drives have only two platters, meaning that the data density is so high, the slower spin speed is almost a non-issue. And they do run a ~lot~ cooler at 5400rpm, and so will probably last longer.

jbainbridge

If you're really strapped consider ... something off Ebay. I regularly buy used HP business desktops. Have a search for 'HP dc7900'. Make sure it has a 3GHz core2duo and 2GB of ram. You should get a good example for less than 150, maybe 100. They are solid and quiet. Worth a go?

TakeThis

jbainbridge wrote: »

If you're really strapped consider ... something off Ebay. I regularly buy used HP business desktops. Have a search for 'HP dc7900'. Make sure it has a 3GHz core2duo and 2GB of ram. You should get a good example for less than 150, maybe 100. They are solid and quiet. Worth a go?

Vista? Perhaps not.