Build me a computer for £500

[Guest Guest]

We've been told we have £600 to spend each on new workstations for me and the NM, this doesnt need to include monitors.

 

The PC must be capible of video encoding, running VMs, image editting, aswell as the usual techy administration of servers. We cant see how we can do it on the budget so we're looking at building our own PCs.

 

TBH im not massively clued up on whats good and whats not in terms of motherboards, ram, gfx, PSUs... I know my stuff with Intel CPUs, and have recently been looking at the new Phenom 6 cores....

 

But anyway;

 

£500, what would you buy?

[mtdmitchell]

We've been told we have £600 to spend each on new workstations for me and the NM, this doesnt need to include monitors.

 

The PC must be capible of video encoding, running VMs, image editting, aswell as the usual techy administration of servers. We cant see how we can do it on the budget so we're looking at building our own PCs.

 

TBH im not massively clued up on whats good and whats not in terms of motherboards, ram, gfx, PSUs... I know my stuff with Intel CPUs, and have recently been looking at the new Phenom 6 cores....

 

But anyway;

 

£500, what would you buy?

 

I dont bother building PC's anymore mainly due to the fact that a 5 year warranty costs next to nothing these days, if you build you only get OEM warranty.

 

I bought a Nice quad core, 4gb Ram all the usualy stuff and a 22inch widescreen monitor for less that £600 for myself and line manager last year from Stone.

[timzim]

It's much more fun to build your own PC and really not brain surgery! Make sure you stick in at least a twin output graphics card so you can impress everyone with multiple monitors. Also get a decent size case and a powerful PSU as you'll always want to stick more things in it (like extra HDDs). Helps with the cooling too. Most suppliers (e.g. ebuyer) have user ratings & reviews for their components so you can get a good feel for what's reasonable if you do a bit of research. Have fun!

[Guest Guest]

Been looking on ebuyer and have managed to build some systems for £470ish; Phenom x6 1055T and a i5 750. As has been said the problem is if you have incompatible or broken parts... and you only get a years warrenty and its supposed to last us 3 years.

Stone are rediculasly overpriced now, much higher than dell. But even dell is coming in at £500 for a E7500 with 4gb ram and no seperate GFX...

 

We just dont know what to do, hense why im asking on here if anyone knows of any bargain parts which have great bang for your buck.

[nicholab]

It a work PC I would chose a standard machine and upgrade it. I would also get a 24" display.

[mtdmitchell]

Spoke with Stone Yesterday and my account manager said prices are very High at the moment becuse of the dollar. If you wait a month prices might come down again.

 

I always use 3 or 4 companies when i get qoutes and stone always match or better the qoutes so maybe have a word with your account manager.

 

Ebuyer do have some good deals on Base units if you can order from them.

 

i enjoy building my own check out for parts- using Overclockers UK