Cheap PC required for lounge - any suggestions?

Chuffy

Hi, I've got an LCD TV in the lounge and an old PC behind it that I use to stream music, movies etc to it. Problem is, said PC is pretty old and starting to struggle. It's a 6 year old AMD Athlon 2100XP with 512MB of RAM. The hard drive is very 'grunty' and and the fan/PSU also creates lots of noise.
As such, I'm looking for something to replace it. Obviously I don't need a monitor and as I'm not a gamer, I don't need cutting edge. I do however need quiet - not whisper quiet, but not light aircraft like I have now. Size is not that important as the unit is out of sight down the back.
I know I could build a PC using the old case, but when I add in the cost of a new HDD, PSU, motherboard, memory, graphics card and operating system (I know I can use Linux for free) it makes it more viable to buy a new PC.
I've looked on the Dell website and there are options but I'm keen to get others views.

sjrinteriors

Build your own.. always best option..

Go for a motherboard that has onboard graphics.

How much you want to spend???

let me know on here n I will spec one for you and point you in the right direction for the best price supply..

Chuffy

About £200. Found some recon units for about that.
Intel Pentium Dual Core processor 2140, 1GB RAM, Vista Home Premium, Lightscribe DVD burner, 160GB HDD, onboard GFX.

custardy

most likely you will find a massive difference in noise over your old set up.
i recently upgraded an old psu/CPU/mobo of about the same era/spec and noise levels dropped massivly

do you really need vista?

Chuffy

No, but this is the spec of the unit I found - no option to change it as pre-loaded.

sjrinteriors

Hmmm £200 for refurb unit.. not sure Id bother.. what warranty do you get with it?

sjrinteriors

Based on that spec you mentioned you can get the bits from a supplier I use for £110 (inc VAT & Del)

No O/S but why bother if you already have one... you would need a case aswell but thats another £15-20 inc psu...

Chuffy

Manufacturers warranty (12 month I assume).
The O/S I have is OEM so can't be reused.
Which supplier do you use and/or what components have you come up with?

sjrinteriors

Ok you can re-use your OEM providing its only installed on one PC..

The spec was intel duo core 2140, gigabyte mobo with onboard GFX, 1 MB of DDR2 667 mem, DVDRW-lightscribe, 160GB SATA HD.

The suppiler is aria.co.uk

spud17

Chuffy

OEM disk is forever linked to original installation, you can get away with some upgrades e.g.memory, possibly HD.
Sorry I don't have the proper link, (on different PC).
Retail versions can be used on more than one PC, but only one at a time.

Chuffy

That's what I thought.
This obviously raises the cost further if I want windows (approx £45 for XP).
Then add a quiet/half decent PSU and I'm back in the same budget area.