Best Ultra Low budget PC build?

[Guest]

Essentially, my friend asked me to build a ultra low budget gaming/media PC for £125. I was going to buy :

Xeon X3430 £15

Dell Optiplex 980 BTX Mobo £24

Gigabyte GTX 460 £29.99

8GB generic DDR3 from eBay £10

160 GB generic 7200rpm sata HDD £8

A generic CPU cooler because the X3430 doesn't have one included £8

Refurbished Corsair CX550 £30

Possibly a new case, but I have a couple spares, I'm not sure if the Mobo will fit?

Is this around the best I can do for the budget? And will the motherboard fit? Also is buying a refurbished PSU a bad idea?

[corrado33]

3 minutes ago, Ethan Meskin said:

Essentially, my friend asked me to build a ultra low budget gaming/media PC for £125. I was going to buy :

Xeon X3430 £15

Dell Optiplex 980 BTX Mobo £24

Gigabyte GTX 460 £29.99

8GB generic DDR3 from eBay £10

160 GB generic 7200rpm sata HDD £8

A generic CPU cooler because the X3430 doesn't have one included £8

Refurbished Corsair CX550 £30

Possibly a new case, but I have a couple spares, I'm not sure if the Mobo will fit?

Is this around the best I can do for the budget? And will the motherboard fit? Also is buying a refurbished PSU a bad idea?

The motherboard will most likely NOT fit in a new computer. Ask me how I know. Dell mobos are generally NOT any standard ATX size. 

 

Are you sure that Xeon will work in the Dell?

[Aereldor]

A GTX 460 can't run much anymore; Shop for a used 7850 or something.

[DexterSmythe]

1 minute ago, Aereldor said:

A GTX 460 can't run much anymore; Shop for a used 7850 or something.

Or a used 750ti, or other 700 series card from Nvidia would work if it fits into the price range for the GPU. I also agree that you might want to get a Mobo that is not Dell so it is not a "custom" size.

 

3 minutes ago, corrado33 said:

The motherboard will most likely NOT fit in a new computer. Ask me how I know. Dell mobos are generally NOT any standard ATX size. 

 

Are you sure that Xeon will work in the Dell?

 

[Guest]

6 minutes ago, corrado33 said:

The motherboard will most likely NOT fit in a new computer. Ask me how I know. Dell mobos are generally NOT any standard ATX size. 

 

Are you sure that Xeon will work in the Dell?

It's the cheapest compatible socket Mobo I could find (they're lga1156)

[Aereldor]

3 minutes ago, CapedCrusader21 said:

Or a used 750ti, or other 700 series card from Nvidia would work if it fits into the price range for the GPU. I also agree that you might want to get a Mobo that is not Dell so it is not a "custom" size.

The 7850 is about as fast, and being an older card, it'll sell for a lot less on eBay. They routinely go for $30-40. I'd wager a 750 Ti isn't going to sell for much less than $60.

[Aereldor]

1 minute ago, Ethan Meskin said:

It's the cheapest compatible socket Mobo I could find (they're lga1156)

Be prepared to drill some holes and install some new standoffs. Dell's cases and motherboards have proprietary form factors. I hope you've got a dremel handy.

[Guest]

1 minute ago, Aereldor said:

The 7850 is about as fast, and being an older card, it'll sell for a lot less on eBay. They routinely go for $30-40. I'd wager a 750 Ti isn't going to sell for much less than $60.

Is it fine with 720p? My friend doesn't have a 1080p monitor I don't think, and I know he's fine with it?

[Guest]

1 minute ago, Aereldor said:

Be prepared to drill some holes and install some new standoffs. Dell's cases and motherboards have proprietary form factors. I hope you've got a dremel handy.

No, but both of my spare cases are Dell custom ones anyway

[Aereldor]

Just now, Ethan Meskin said:

Is it fine with 720p? My friend doesn't have a 1080p monitor I don't think, and I know he's fine with it?

They're both alright for 1080p 30FPS at medium settings. 720p will push that up to 60.

 

1 minute ago, Ethan Meskin said:

No, but both of my spare cases are Dell custom ones anyway

Yeah, but one Dell motherboard might not fit another Dell case that it was not intended for. Do you understand?

 

Also, it's likely that your motherboard and power supply are incompatible. A lot of OEM systems use non-standard wiring power supplies. The connector is the same, but the wires are not, which means plugging it in might blow up the motherboard. Check before you install anything.

[Guest]

This is the Mobo http://m.ebay.com/itm/Dell-OPTIPLEX-980-0C522T-Motherboard-w-IO-Shield-/122279271980?hash=item1c78699e2c%3Ag%3AbJgAAOSwB09YHP~0&_trkparms=pageci%3A9a743447-dc06-11e6-8a87-74dbd180cb31%7Cparentrq%3Aa80d48ed1590a6a5e3be0cc2ffb6066d%7Ciid%3A2

[Guest]

1 minute ago, Aereldor said:

They're both alright for 1080p 30FPS at medium settings. 720p will push that up to 60.

 

Yeah, but one Dell motherboard might not fit another Dell case that it was not intended for. Do you understand?

 

Also, it's likely that your motherboard and power supply are incompatible. A lot of OEM systems use non-standard wiring power supplies. The connector is the same, but the wires are not, which means plugging it in might blow up the motherboard. Check before you install anything.

Okay

[Guest]

1 minute ago, Ethan Meskin said:

Okay

Can you link any >30 LGA 1156 motherboards and ultra cheap atx cases?

[Guest]

6 minutes ago, Aereldor said:

They're both alright for 1080p 30FPS at medium settings. 720p will push that up to 60.

 

Yeah, but one Dell motherboard might not fit another Dell case that it was not intended for. Do you understand?

 

Also, it's likely that your motherboard and power supply are incompatible. A lot of OEM systems use non-standard wiring power supplies. The connector is the same, but the wires are not, which means plugging it in might blow up the motherboard. Check before you install anything.

Sorry, it was just the cheapest lga1156 I could find, and I was already £20 over budget 

[Aereldor]

4 minutes ago, Ethan Meskin said:

Sorry, it was just the cheapest lga1156 I could find, and I was already £20 over budget 

I don't know what you're apologizing for; you just have to check whether or not-

• The motherboard fits the case.
• The motherboard uses standard power supply wiring.

If so; fantastic. If not; shop for a Q6600 and an LGA775 motherboard with 8GB of DDR2 RAM. Shouldn't cost you much for the lot.

[JefferyD90]

28 minutes ago, Ethan Meskin said:

Essentially, my friend asked me to build a ultra low budget gaming/media PC for £125. I was going to buy :

Xeon X3430 £15

Dell Optiplex 980 BTX Mobo £24

Gigabyte GTX 460 £29.99

8GB generic DDR3 from eBay £10

160 GB generic 7200rpm sata HDD £8

A generic CPU cooler because the X3430 doesn't have one included £8

Refurbished Corsair CX550 £30

Possibly a new case, but I have a couple spares, I'm not sure if the Mobo will fit?

Is this around the best I can do for the budget? And will the motherboard fit? Also is buying a refurbished PSU a bad idea?

I mean, this is basically going to be whatever your local market is like... There is nothing anyone here can really give you otherwise.

[Guest]

13 minutes ago, Aereldor said:

I don't know what you're apologizing for; you just have to check whether or not-

• The motherboard fits the case.
• The motherboard uses standard power supply wiring.

If so; fantastic. If not; shop for a Q6600 and an LGA775 motherboard with 8GB of DDR2 RAM. Shouldn't cost you much for the lot.

Would something like this : http://m.ebay.co.uk/itm/400781261644?_trkparms=aid=222007&algo=SIC.MBE&ao=1&asc=20150313114020&meid=e5befd3637404e5ab24dc81b92c1ffc6&pid=100338&rk=4&rkt=30&sd=222024447605&_trksid=p2141725.c100338.m3726&_mwBanner=1 work for the 20 pin to 24 pin

[Guest]

20 minutes ago, Aereldor said:

I don't know what you're apologizing for; you just have to check whether or not-

• The motherboard fits the case.
• The motherboard uses standard power supply wiring.

If so; fantastic. If not; shop for a Q6600 and an LGA775 motherboard with 8GB of DDR2 RAM. Shouldn't cost you much for the lot.

How can I check these, the connector type and voltage match up, is that all that's needed?

 

[corrado33]

4 hours ago, Ethan Meskin said:

It's the cheapest compatible socket Mobo I could find (they're lga1156)

Just because the CPU FITS does NOT mean it'll work. The xeon is a server CPU, it's quite possible that the server CPU will not work with a non-server board. I quickly googled but couldn't find the right optiplex 980, so I got bored and stopped. 

[Guest]

8 hours ago, Aereldor said:

I don't know what you're apologizing for; you just have to check whether or not-

• The motherboard fits the case.
• The motherboard uses standard power supply wiring.

If so; fantastic. If not; shop for a Q6600 and an LGA775 motherboard with 8GB of DDR2 RAM. Shouldn't cost you much for the lot.

I have a Dell OEM socket 775 Mobo with a Pentium 4 HT 3.0ghz, could I reuse that Mobo for a q6600?

[Aereldor]

2 hours ago, Ethan Meskin said:

I have a Dell OEM socket 775 Mobo with a Pentium 4 HT 3.0ghz, could I reuse that Mobo for a q6600?

All these Dell motherboards pose a pretty huge problem. I've said this several times, and don't know why you haven't caught on. they do not use the same power supply connector wiring.

 

I would advise making a thread about this. It can usually be determined by the colour of the wires of the 20/24-pin connector of the Dell power supply that these motherboards all came with.

 

Here's the pinout. The section in grey is the breakaway 4-pin.

 

 

Here's another with the plug depicted in the picture.

 

 

This is why I would check, because Dell is known to use non-standard wiring. If those don't match up, then you're going to blow up a motherboard. 

 

If you get a new motherboard as well as a new power supply, then make sure they fit in your case, as Dell is also known for making proprietary motherboards that don't match any industry form-factors. 

[Guest]

9 hours ago, Aereldor said:

All these Dell motherboards pose a pretty huge problem. I've said this several times, and don't know why you haven't caught on. they do not use the same power supply connector wiring.

 

I would advise making a thread about this. It can usually be determined by the colour of the wires of the 20/24-pin connector of the Dell power supply that these motherboards all came with.

 

Here's the pinout. The section in grey is the breakaway 4-pin.

 

 

Here's another with the plug depicted in the picture.

 

 

This is why I would check, because Dell is known to use non-standard wiring. If those don't match up, then you're going to blow up a motherboard. 

 

If you get a new motherboard as well as a new power supply, then make sure they fit in your case, as Dell is also known for making proprietary motherboards that don't match any industry form-factors. 

I have the motherboard, power supply and case that came with the unir, what I meant was do you think the q6600 would work in it, the power supply is a Dell 280w unit from 2005?

[aisle9]

21 hours ago, Ethan Meskin said:

It's the cheapest compatible socket Mobo I could find (they're lga1156)

BTX mobos don't fit in modern cases. Also, Dell motherboards are not transferable to different chassis.

[Guest]

20 hours ago, aisle9 said:

BTX mobos don't fit in modern cases. Also, Dell motherboards are not transferable to different chassis.

Ok