Cheap as possible internet browser

[The_Strict_Nein]

I'm looking to build an internet browsing PC for my uncle as cheap as possible, while still running decently enough in order to not annoy him. The primary uses of this PC are photo storage and internet browsing

 

This is what I have so far

 

http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/3mW49

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

 

CPU:  AMD A8-5500 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor  (£66.99 @ Amazon UK) 

Motherboard:  Asus A88XM-A Micro ATX FM2+ Motherboard  (£45.46 @ Scan.co.uk) 

Memory:  Kingston Beast 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory  (£53.98 @ Amazon UK) 

Storage:  Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  (£42.99 @ Amazon UK) 

Case:  NZXT Source 210 Elite (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case  (£38.65 @ Scan.co.uk) 

Power Supply:  XFX ProSeries 450W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply  (£34.14 @ Scan.co.uk) 

Operating System:  Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (OEM) (64-bit)  (£69.96 @ CCL Computers) 

Total: £352.17

(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)

(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-04-06 14:16 BST+0100)

 

The system does not need a graphics card at all.

 

Any advice?

[The_Ginger_spoon]

if it is just for internet browsing get 4gb of ram instead

 

[LukaP]

and a non a88x motherboard unless you plan to overclock it

[flibberdipper]

Try to get some CL9 DDR3-1866 RAM, and a Kaveri APU.

 

if it is just for internet browsing get 4gb of ram instead

 

NO. Remember, this is a CPU and a GPU, and they have to share the RAM. Hell, even on my grandma's HP with 8GB, it came with 2GB allocated. And that's usually just enough.

[Cacao]

Check this out:

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

 

CPU:  AMD FX-4300 3.8GHz Quad-Core Processor  (£69.59 @ Aria PC) 

Motherboard:  Biostar A960D+ Micro ATX AM3+ Motherboard  (£29.03 @ Ebuyer) 

Memory:  Kingston 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1333 Memory  (£52.99 @ Amazon UK) 

Storage:  Mushkin  120GB 2.5" Solid State Disk  (£45.98 @ Aria PC) 

Case:  BitFenix Comrade ATX Mid Tower Case  (£28.04 @ Aria PC) 

Power Supply:  Be Quiet 300W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply  (£32.76 @ Scan.co.uk) 

Total: £258.39

(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)

(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-04-06 14:21 BST+0100)

 

100 GBP cheaper, has an SSD and plenty of RAM.

[The_Strict_Nein]

 

Check this out:

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

 

CPU:  AMD FX-4300 3.8GHz Quad-Core Processor  (£69.59 @ Aria PC) 

Motherboard:  Biostar A960D+ Micro ATX AM3+ Motherboard  (£29.03 @ Ebuyer) 

Memory:  Kingston 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1333 Memory  (£52.99 @ Amazon UK) 

Storage:  Mushkin  120GB 2.5" Solid State Disk  (£45.98 @ Aria PC) 

Case:  BitFenix Comrade ATX Mid Tower Case  (£28.04 @ Aria PC) 

Power Supply:  Be Quiet 300W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply  (£32.76 @ Scan.co.uk) 

Total: £258.39

(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)

(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-04-06 14:21 BST+0100)

 

100 GBP cheaper, has an SSD and plenty of RAM.

 

 

Does the Biostar have on-board video?

[wtfxmitchell]

http://www.amazon.com/Asus-CHROMEBOX-M004U-ASUS-Desktop/dp/B00IT1WJZQ/ref=sr_1_1?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1396790607&sr=1-1&keywords=gigabyte+brix

[smjpl]

If he is looking for an internet browser only, I would install Linux mint over windows and use the extra cash to throw in a 120GB SSD. The increase in performance will really make it a good experience and Linux mint is really simple to use. It uses an equivalent start menu system so it will take no time to transition. It comes preloaded with all office software (which is windows compatible) and many other really cool applications.

[Cacao]

Does the Biostar have on-board video?

Well you could throw in like a 10$ GPU or get an APU I guess. Motherboards don't have video, it depends on the CPU.

[LukaP]

 

Check this out:

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

 

CPU:  AMD FX-4300 3.8GHz Quad-Core Processor  (£69.59 @ Aria PC) 

Motherboard:  Biostar A960D+ Micro ATX AM3+ Motherboard  (£29.03 @ Ebuyer) 

Memory:  Kingston 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1333 Memory  (£52.99 @ Amazon UK) 

Storage:  Mushkin  120GB 2.5" Solid State Disk  (£45.98 @ Aria PC) 

Case:  BitFenix Comrade ATX Mid Tower Case  (£28.04 @ Aria PC) 

Power Supply:  Be Quiet 300W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply  (£32.76 @ Scan.co.uk) 

Total: £258.39

(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)

(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-04-06 14:21 BST+0100)

 

100 GBP cheaper, has an SSD and plenty of RAM.

 

but no video out you need a gpu there

[Cacao]

but no video out you need a gpu there

Yeah didn't realize the CPU doesn't have video until after I posted. So you could just add a cheapo 10$ video card or go with an APU. Either way keeping the ~250 GBP price point shouldn't be hard.

[SMURG]

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-483-GI&groupid=701&catid=5&subcat=2803 - This would probably do the trick, and it'd save you £60. Plus as others have said, go 4GB instead of 8GB (although you need SODIMM for that board). Personally I'd get the bay-trail board (£50), a 4GB stick of SODIMM (~£15), the 1TB HDD you initially linked to (£42) and some cheap mini-ITX case to put it in. You might even find a case with an integrated PSU powerful enough to run it, since the total power draw is gonna be <100W lol.

EDIT: +1 to the person suggesting Linux over Windows. Personally I find people (i.e. my parents and my brother) get the hang of Ubuntu faster than Mint, but either way Linux can do web browsing, basic office work, media playback and file storage just as well as (if not better than) Windows can.

[LukaP]

or you could go with a NUC. not sure how much they sell for in the UK tho

[Grave]

You don't need much to power a pc purely for browsing/multimedia storage/maybe home theatre use or just to watch movies/videos on. I think you can sacrifice a few things for a wee bit extra performance and hardware where it matters most. The first parts list is also around your original price point, but has way more in every way aside from the motherboard in a way since this one wouldn't overclock that greatly (but, this CPU can - arguably the best A8 APU).

 

 

You could easily play some flash games or low-demand titles and such with this, let alone specifically storage and browsing at a more than just "acceptable" quality:

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU:  AMD A8-5600K 3.6GHz Quad-Core Processor  (£64.91 @ Ebuyer)
Motherboard:  ASRock FM2A55M-HD+ Micro ATX FM2+ Motherboard  (£35.50 @ Ebuyer)
Memory:  GeIL Value PLUS 4GB (1 x 4GB) DDR3-1333 Memory  (£24.58 @ Amazon UK)
Memory:  GeIL Value PLUS 4GB (1 x 4GB) DDR3-1333 Memory  (£24.58 @ Amazon UK)
Storage:  Seagate  2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Hybrid Internal Hard Drive  (£81.96 @ Dabs)
Case:  NZXT Source 210 Elite (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case  (£38.65 @ Scan.co.uk)
Power Supply:  XFX 450W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply  (£20.00 @ Maplin Electronics)
Operating System:  Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (OEM) (64-bit)  (£69.96 @ CCL Computers)
Total: £360.14
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-04-06 14:41 BST+0100)

 

While I think the above is meant to last a while (~4-5 years or more, typical PC cycle), you could bump many things down and make it very very cheap. I just figured it'd be better to not lose any features or quality while maintaining a good price. If you'd like, maybe toss in a cheap air cooler for the CPU. It'll help with longevity of the system if the CPU is frequently under 100% load as well as probably last a lot longer at an acceptable quality than the stock fan that will come with the A8.

 

Here's the ultra-budget option that I don't really recommend since it might not be too powerful after maybe 2-3 years or so, but will still work fine for what the implications are, minus most gaming:

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU:  AMD A6-6400K 3.9GHz Dual-Core Processor  (£40.79 @ Aria PC)
Motherboard:  MSI A55M-E33 Micro ATX FM2+ Motherboard  (£31.80 @ Aria PC)
Memory:  GeIL Value PLUS 4GB (1 x 4GB) DDR3-1333 Memory  (£24.58 @ Amazon UK)
Storage:  Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  (£29.99 @ Aria PC)
Case:  Fractal Design Core 1000 MicroATX Mini Tower Case  (£28.92 @ Scan.co.uk)
Power Supply:  XFX 450W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply  (£20.00 @ Maplin Electronics)
Operating System:  Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (OEM) (64-bit)  (£69.96 @ CCL Computers)
Total: £246.04
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-04-06 14:50 BST+0100)

 

You could also consider installing a Linux distro on either system to save even more money. And I highly recommend the Fractal Design Core 1000 case over the NZXT Source 210 Elite. The Elite isn't much better than the standard Source 210, looks better for sure, but everything else isn't really different. The Core 1000 is ~25% cheaper with all the same features and still a great case, especially at a lower budget. I mention the standard 210 because it's almost 100% identical to the Core 1000. Left the 210 Elite on the first build since money wasn't nearly as important.

 

Also, the core differences on the two builds really are just that the first one has functioning USB3.0, a much faster APU, slightly more RAM even though you really do not need it, and a significantly faster SSHD instead of the standard HDD. The Seagate Hybrid drives shouldn't exactly be compared to SSD storage, but damn if they aren't much faster than an HDD. I opted for a very cheap 2TB over a 2TB HDD + 32-64GB SSD. The WD Blue you chose was very very expensive, and I promise you that the first build I've posted is miles ahead of what you originally have on your post. The second? It is decently slower in the CPU department, enough to consider spending the extra 10-25 pounds for something better, but everything else is virtually the same as the build in your post or just enough of what you need. 

 

 

 

Anyway, hope I gave you some insight on the build/part selection.

 

Edit: I only went with 2 separate 1x4gb sticks (will still work fine) instead of 1x8 because it looks slightly better in the case, they were the cheapest 4gb I saw on PCPP, and these motherboards I know for sure are optimized for dual-channel operation. Normally it isn't a big deal but in the first build, if you planned on doing anything intensive, it might help to have the extra RAM boost since it's only 1333mhz DIMMs. Faster RAM with either APU on the builds will not benefit you much despite what others are saying here; the APUs aren't that fast anyway and spending 10-30 pounds more on RAM to get maybe 2-5 FPS on low-medium settings at best for general gaming is just dumb.

[The_Strict_Nein]

Thanks for all the suggestions. By the way, that £20 XFX power supply doesn't actually exist if you go to the webpage

 

My uncle will be going from a 6 year old Dell XP crapola PC to this. It also needs to be Windows as he has a VERY limited attention span when it comes to PCs and he also uses Outlook as his e-mail client. I'd hate to spend all the hours teaching him Linux when I have exams to study for.

 

So far I have this:

 

http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/3oWh0

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

 

CPU:  AMD A8-5600K 3.6GHz Quad-Core Processor  (£64.91 @ Amazon UK) 

Motherboard:  ASRock FM2A55M-HD+ Micro ATX FM2+ Motherboard  (£35.00 @ Ebuyer) 

Memory:  Crucial Ballistix Sport 4GB (1 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory  (£29.39 @ Aria PC) 

Storage:  Seagate  1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Hybrid Internal Hard Drive  (£58.98 @ Novatech) 

Case:  Cooler Master N200 MicroATX Mid Tower Case  (£31.73 @ CCL Computers) 

Power Supply:  XFX ProSeries 450W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply  (£34.14 @ Scan.co.uk) 

Operating System:  Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (OEM) (64-bit)  (£69.96 @ CCL Computers) 

Total: £324.11

(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)

(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-04-09 20:37 BST+0100)

 

And this:

 

http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/3oVOu

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

 

CPU:  Intel Core i3-4130 3.4GHz Dual-Core Processor  (£77.99 @ Aria PC) 

Motherboard:  Asus H81M-PLUS Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard  (£40.57 @ Scan.co.uk) 

Memory:  Crucial Ballistix Sport 4GB (1 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory  (£29.39 @ Aria PC) 

Storage:  Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  (£42.98 @ Aria PC) 

Case:  Cooler Master N200 MicroATX Mid Tower Case  (£31.73 @ CCL Computers) 

Power Supply:  XFX ProSeries 450W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply  (£34.14 @ Scan.co.uk) 

Operating System:  Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (OEM) (64-bit)  (£69.96 @ CCL Computers) 

Total: £326.76

(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)

(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-04-09 20:37 BST+0100)

 

I take it the AMD one is better, right?

 

Also, how do they compare against this:

 

http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/desktop-pc-monitors/desktop-pcs/desktop-pcs/hp-pavilion-500-242ea-desktop-pc-21907330-pdt.html

 

This pre-built would have the massive disadvantage of having to teach my Uncle Windows 8, so if it's negligible performance it'll swing him even more towards letting me build this PC

[SMURG]

Honestly, I'm still confused as to why the Bay-trail Celeron is out... 2.46GHz quad-core CPU with integrated GPU and motherboard for £50 lol. I mean sure the AMD APUs are gonna have better graphics performance but this is for internet browsing primarily right?

In fact, if you really want to have an LGA CPU, why not go for Pentium/Celeron instead of an i3? They're like half the price and will do web browsing totally fine.

[The_Strict_Nein]

Ah, didn't see the Bay Trail post. Seemed to be a dual core, but I guess that'll work fine. I'll reconfigure tomorrow. 10:48pm local time for me

[SMURG]

Ah, didn't see the Bay Trail post. Seemed to be a dual core, but I guess that'll work fine. I'll reconfigure tomorrow. 10:48pm local time for me

I may have linked a dual core, but there's definitely a quad core version that's like £10 more lol. Main thing you lose with that is PCIe, which you probably don't need anyway. Besides, dual core would probably work.

I've a J1900 server board on the way myself (3-5 days lead time though ), should be suitably more powerful than the Atom D2550 I've been using (and even that thing can do web browsing just fine at 1.86GHz lol).