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Beowulf
16th-February-2009, 05:28 PM
No.. nothing to do with the bi-annual Geek Corner Limbo competition.

Have been looking at ultra cheap PC's for my dad and came across this one on ebuyer. (http://www.ebuyer.com/product/155469)

it's not a bad spec.. ok not great but you get what you pay for. After all it barely breaks the bank at a credit crunch friendly £209.34

for that you get :-

Processor
Intel Celeron E1400 Dual Core Processor (2.0Ghz, 512K Cache)

Motherboard
Intel Celeron Dual Core E1400 Socket 775

Memory
2GB (4GB Max)
Memory Slot: 2 x DIMM

Hard Drive
250GB (1x250GB) SATA II Hard Drive

Optical Drive
20 x Super multi DVDRW

Software
Operating System: Microsoft Windows Vista Basic

Display
Monitor Not Included

Audio
5.1 channel surround sound

Input Devices
Mouse and Keyboard (ncluded)

Networking
Interface: 10/100M LAN, Realtek® RTL8101E

I had a quick look at the component cost of this and despite my best efforts I can't build it cheaper than that! .. of course, if I leave off the Vista (and as it's for Dad I probably will) that knocks £70 odd off (for the OEM vista basic)

but even then I'm floating around the £160-170 pound mark (A bit vague as I wasn't always taking into account any delivery costs) but given the specs above.. just how cheaply could you build/ buy that machine??

Obviously if I go second hand I might get it cheaper.. but don't really want a second hand PC.. or even second hand parts for that matter.

If I can get this cheaply enough it might be Dad's birthday present ;)

Beowulf
16th-February-2009, 05:32 PM
PS..
The components I sourced already.. probably could get these cheaper with a longer search.

PROC = Intel Celeron E1400 Dual Core Processor (2.0Ghz, 512K Cache) £38.95
MOBO =Gigabyte GA-G31M-S2L iG31 Express, S775, PCI-E (x16), DDR2 667/800, SATA II, uATX, VGA £42.33
RAM = Kingston Value RAM 2GB (2 x 1GB) DIMM 240-PIN DDR II 667MHz / PC2-5300 CL5 Non-ECC £24.97
HDD = Maxtor STM3250310AS 250GB SATAII 8MB Cache - OEM £33.99
CD\DVD = Pioneer 20x DVD+/-DL OEM Black £15.37

Beowulf
19th-February-2009, 11:47 AM
Found one at YoYoTech
(http://www.yoyotech.co.uk/yoyotech-primate-system-piano-case-500w-sempron-3600-memory-80gb-hard-drive-onboard-graphics-rewriter-onboard-sound-p-1249555.html) for £139.63 inc.

Mind you it does have a slightly lesser spec..

YOYOtech AMD PRIMATE 350 - PC System - Piano Case / 500W PSU / Sempron 3600+ CPU / 1GB Memory / 80GB Hard Drive / Onboard Graphics / DVD Rewriter / Onboard Sound

Anyone else found any cheaper?

Dreadful Scathe
19th-February-2009, 12:12 PM
buy micromart and have a quick look in there - other than that, dunno :)

StokeBloke
19th-February-2009, 12:22 PM
A. About a Jack Russell.





Sorry... very old joke :nice:

Beowulf
20th-February-2009, 10:02 AM
A. About a Jack Russell.
Sorry... very old joke :nice:

actually the correct answer was B. Chihuahua :grin:

I've found by reducing the spec you can get a PC for next to nothing.. but there's a cut off point where what you're paying for is not really of any use. I mean.. you get to a point where a netbook for £100 and loose change (or free with some mobile internet contracts) outperforms your new desktop !

Sticking to my original spec (and thereby ignoring the YoYotech machine) the cheapest I've managed to make it so far is £135.. which is not bad actually.

The point of this rather pointless exercise was to see just how effective shopping around was. In this Credit crunch climate you can get more bang for your buck.. or , in the case above, the same bang for less bucks if you're prepared to do a little research.

Even though the original PC from Ebuyer was a bargain.. I've knocked a considerable chunk off it by doing just a little web research. Money that could be used elsewhere for software, games or a printer perhaps?

food for thought.