300 Euro PC

[ljh25]

I am thinking of building a new pc for my mother, because her current one is really slow.

She doesn't play games on it, so there is no real need for a GPU (there is need for a disk driver tho).

I was thinking that a 300 Euro budget is a nice price point.

What parts should I get?

 

Some parts that I may get:

Intel Pentium G3258

MSI H81M-P33

WD 1TB HDD

Cooler Master N300

Corsair 8GB Ram

Samsung SH-224DB

Corsair VS350

 

Thank you

[EPPHO]

i would go with G4400

[Centurius]

If speed is a concern you might want to go with a SSD as that's one of the greatest non-gaming related improvements to a system.

[manikyath]

does she need much file storage?

 

does she do things that require 8GB ram?

[ljh25]

1 minute ago, manikyath said:

does she need much file storage?

 

does she do things that require 8GB ram?

No, not much file storage is needed. It might be a good idea to throw in a SSD like Centurius said.

And is 4GB ram enough for simple pc usage? 

[manikyath]

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Pentium G4400 3.3GHz Dual-Core Processor  ($58.98 @ OutletPC) 
Motherboard: ASRock H110M-ITX/ac Mini ITX LGA1151 Motherboard  ($67.99 @ SuperBiiz) 
Memory: G.Skill NT Series 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR4-2400 Memory  ($30.98 @ Newegg) 
Storage: A-Data Premier SP550 240GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($54.99 @ NCIX US) 
Case: Rosewill FBM-02 MicroATX Mini Tower Case  ($24.99 @ Newegg) 
Power Supply: SeaSonic S12II 430W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply  ($53.99 @ SuperBiiz) 
Optical Drive: LG GH24NSC0B DVD/CD Writer  ($13.99 @ Newegg) 
Total: $305.91
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-07-28 16:28 EDT-0400

 

i'd suggest something like this (dont mind the thing being in dollars, german PCPP is less than reliable with pricing )

[manikyath]

Just now, ljh25 said:

No, not much file storage is needed. It might be a good idea to throw in a SSD like Centurius said.

And is 4GB ram enough for simple pc usage? 

4GB is in fact plenty for most things "mom" does.

[ljh25]

Thank you all for the fast reply's!

[Sauron]

11 minutes ago, manikyath said:

4GB is in fact plenty for most things "mom" does.

what about this?

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i3-6100 3.7GHz Dual-Core Processor  ($110.99 @ SuperBiiz) 
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-H110M-A Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard  ($47.98 @ Newegg) 
Memory: Kingston HyperX Fury Black 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2133 Memory  ($39.99 @ Newegg) 
Storage: A-Data Premier SP550 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($36.99 @ NCIX US) 
Case: DIYPC MA08-BK MicroATX Mini Tower Case  ($24.97 @ Newegg) 
Power Supply: SeaSonic 350W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply  ($31.99 @ SuperBiiz) 
Total: $292.91
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-07-28 16:40 EDT-0400

 

It's missing the disc drive but that's 13 bucks

[paincow]

Alright, so I was able to 8 gbs of RAM, a fairly nice CPU (which can be upgraded if your budget allows), a 200 gb SSD, all in the nice and small Antek ISK 110 VESA case. I had to put in the picopsu because the parts took too much power, but an upgrade should be fairly simple.

List:

PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/list/mNsMcc
Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/list/mNsMcc/by_merchant/

CPU: AMD A6-7470K 3.7GHz Dual-Core Processor  ($64.99 @ NCIX US)
Motherboard: ASRock A68M-ITX Mini ITX FM2+ Motherboard  ($63.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: Mushkin Silverline 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory  ($28.99 @ Directron)
Storage: A-Data Premier SP550 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($36.99 @ NCIX US)
Case: Antec ISK 110 VESA Mini ITX Desktop Case w/90W Power Supply  ($62.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Other: 160 Watt Pico PSU ($44.50)
Total: $302.45
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-07-28 16:35 EDT-0400

[Sauron]

3 minutes ago, paincow said:

Alright, so I was able to 8 gbs of RAM, a fairly nice CPU (which can be upgraded if your budget allows), a 200 gb SSD, all in the nice and small Antek ISK 110 VESA case. I had to put in the picopsu because the parts took too much power, but an upgrade should be fairly simple.

List:

PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/list/mNsMcc
Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/list/mNsMcc/by_merchant/

CPU: AMD A6-7470K 3.7GHz Dual-Core Processor  ($64.99 @ NCIX US)
Motherboard: ASRock A68M-ITX Mini ITX FM2+ Motherboard  ($63.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: Mushkin Silverline 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory  ($28.99 @ Directron)
Storage: A-Data Premier SP550 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($36.99 @ NCIX US)
Case: Antec ISK 110 VESA Mini ITX Desktop Case w/90W Power Supply  ($62.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Other: 160 Watt Pico PSU ($44.50)
Total: $302.45
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-07-28 16:35 EDT-0400

a 160w power supply is not enough. look at my post above

 

-edit-

or rather, it's probably barely enough but the quality is not there.

[manikyath]

pricing it out on alternate.nl (which, if you want to go cheaper, go azerty, i heard they're amazing in NL )

 

https://www.alternate.nl/Intel(R)/Pentium-G4400-socket-1151-processor/html/product/1228136?

https://www.alternate.nl/LG/GH24NSD1-DVD-brander/html/product/1225611?tk=7&lk=9383

https://www.alternate.nl/ASRock/H110M-ITX-ac-socket-1151-moederbord/html/product/1250349?

https://www.alternate.nl/ADATA/Premier-SP550-240-GB-SSD/html/product/1219268?

https://www.alternate.nl/Antec/VSK3000B-U3-U2-Behuizing/html/product/1225122?

https://www.alternate.nl/G-Skill/4-GB-DDR4-2133-Werkgeheugen/html/product/1226983?

https://www.alternate.nl/Corsair/VS-Series-VS350-350-Watt-voeding/html/product/1149178?

 

comes in at slightly over budget totalling €339.26, or €344.21 delivered by PostNL's friendly local idiot.

(please tell me postnl delivery people understand the concept of a doorbell in the netherlands...)

 

short summary of the system

- dualcore pentium, actually faster than a lot of those €300 "quad core processor" machines on shelves in some stores

- mobo that has a slot for an eventual gpu upgrade, a second memory dimm, AND has on-board wifi

- 240GB SSD, does the starting up thing faster and things

- some antec case that looks like it'd fit in an office (for some reason all cheap cases are lowriders)

- 4GB ram, if you bother with azerty you could probably get 8GB ram within the price bracket i'm talking here

- corsair VS power supply, they're not all too great, but for the power this system will be drawing i'd almost be fine dropping the cheapest crappiest psu from alternate in it

[manikyath]

1 minute ago, Sauron said:

a 160w power supply is not enough. look at my post above

it's not the 160w thats the problem, its the picopsu part

[Sauron]

1 minute ago, manikyath said:

it's not the 160w thats the problem, its the picopsu part

yeah I corrected it

[manikyath]

6 minutes ago, Sauron said:

yeah I corrected it

just in case i went to check, my server with an i7 4770 and a GT640 hasnt drawn more than 89 watts from the wall since it was last rebooted

[Sauron]

2 minutes ago, manikyath said:

just in case i went to check, my server with an i7 4770 and a GT640 hasnt drawn more than 89 watts from the wall since it was last rebooted

but you'd want to prepare for the maximum stress scenario when buying a psu. Still 160 is probably fine for that - but why get that when there's a cheap seasonic 350w psu?

[manikyath]

Just now, Sauron said:

but you'd want to prepare for the maximum stress scenario when buying a psu. Still 160 is probably fine for that - but why get that when there's a cheap seasonic 350w psu?

that's why i picked the corsair VS in my alternate based build.

- cheap, but still good enough in all honesty

- locally available

- not an eyesore.

[paincow]

1 hour ago, Sauron said:

a 160w power supply is not enough. look at my post above

 

-edit-

or rather, it's probably barely enough but the quality is not there.

 

1 hour ago, manikyath said:

it's not the 160w thats the problem, its the picopsu part

Honestly, the quality of a PSU doesn't matter for a build that isn't focused on high end performance. Where I work we recently got a load of computers with no name unrated 300W PSUs, and across about 15 machines, only one had a bad power supply. This was with machines that had been heavily used for six or so years (had i3 530s). The quality really only matters on a high end system.

[Sauron]

Just now, paincow said:

 

Honestly, the quality of a PSU doesn't matter for a build that isn't focused on high end performance. Where I work we recently got a load of computers with no name unrated 300W PSUs, and across about 15 machines, only one had a bad power supply. This was with machines that had been heavily used for six or so years (had i3 530s). The quality really only matters on a high end system.

the quality of the psu matters a lot, because it directly influences its chances to die and fry the whole system with it. Does that mean that every poor quality psu will bring on the apocalypse? No, but the chance is higher and the risk is unjustified because there are better and cheaper options.

[paincow]

5 minutes ago, Sauron said:

the quality of the psu matters a lot, because it directly influences its chances to die and fry the whole system with it. Does that mean that every poor quality psu will bring on the apocalypse? No, but the chance is higher and the risk is unjustified because there are better and cheaper options.

Pico PSUs are actually quite good with a 19V power brick. even a 120W power supply would be enough for these purposes, and one got a 10/10 from jonnyguru.