An impossible task? £100-£150 budget

[carebear]

My girlfriend is in need of a new tower. Her current tower is nearly 10 years old; 768MB of RAM and a 1.7GHz single core processor but it's finally packed up and she's had enough or her laptop because it keeps over-heating just browsing the internet.

I said to her we should have a look around to see if we can find something cheap and cheerful. We're looking for just the tower but her budget is £100. I said I'd give her an extra £50 toward it, but she said no, (women >_>). I'm doing it anyway.

We've looked around and seen a couple of good second hand bargains but they seemed a little fishy and I don't want her being ripped off by someone selling her dodgy items. Unfortunately I'm not close enough to inspect every system she's offered when she goes to pick one up because I'm currently not living nearby.

So I ask where is a good place to look and do you think it's possible to get a system this cheap? The optimal specs I'd say would be to run WoW on minimum settings at 1280x1024 decently; 20-30FPS just so she can play a moderate amount of games; nothing majorly top spec and top settings.

EDIT: Have found this: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/EVESHAM-PC...ht_1498wt_1396

What would be any of your thoughts of that system?

[Nightbliss]

For 150quid all you'll be able to get, that can run WoW and games, will indeed be used systems.
150quid is the range for the old Dual Core Systems from AMD/Intel with ~2004 generation graphic cards (GF8600GT's and alike) and enough ammount of Ram since they are cheap anyway.

I have an Athlon X2 4800 (2.5Ghz Dual Core) + Asus Mobo with 4GB (4x1GB) Kingston and a HD4650/GF8600GT + Mid Tower I would kindly give away for free if you payed shipping to the UK beacause the system power's up but turns itself off after 30s/10mins/whatever. I've switched the PSU but keeps happening, temperatures are fine so not sure why it happens.

It's here, gaining dust in my closet.

Goodluck but 150quid is a very low budget for new items.

[carebear]

For 150quid all you'll be able to get, that can run WoW and games, will indeed be used systems.
150quid is the range for the old Dual Core Systems from AMD/Intel with ~2004 generation graphic cards (GF8600GT's and alike) and enough ammount of Ram since they are cheap anyway.

I have an Athlon X2 4800 (2.5Ghz Dual Core) + Asus Mobo with 4GB (4x1GB) Kingston and a HD4650/GF8600GT + Mid Tower I would kindly give away for free if you payed shipping to the UK beacause the system power's up but turns itself off after 30s/10mins/whatever. I've switched the PSU but keeps happening, temperatures are fine so not sure why it happens.

It's here, gaining dust in my closet.

Goodluck but 150quid is a very low budget for new items.

Yea I can understand it's a very low budget, especially for new items. Old parts are more than welcome, just anything that keeps her happy. I'm just struggling where to look as most second hand places on eBay and such are very miss-leading. Thanks for the tips on specifications though. I'll be sure to keep an eye out.

[Erto]

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/New-GT520-...ht_6560wt_1163

This looks good enough to me, although I'm far from tech savvy.

[Stefanos123]

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/New-GT520-...ht_6560wt_1163

This looks good enough to me, although I'm far from tech savvy.

we had to use this computers on my school and they suck they are slow really slow it takes seriously 15 seconds or more to start internet and you can't play games which cost maybe 1gb so i guess that won't be wow or indeed everything on low resolution.

[Marest]

That is a very slim budget, and I'm doubtful if you will find a capable system for it (or rather, if it would be worth the deal). I reckon you could get a computer that does well for browsing and writing, but gaming? It would be outdated before you even got it.

With such a budget my honest suggestion is to try and save up a bit more. I know that's probably something you have already thought off, but it really seems to be your best option. Alternatively, you could get the basic components now (nothing fancy) and upgrade as you get more money to spend. For example:

Asus P8H61-M LX (£50): http://www.novatech.co.uk/products/c...-g0eay0kz.html
Intel Celeron G530 (£37): http://www.novatech.co.uk/products/c...80623g530.html
Corsair Value 2GB (£11): http://www.novatech.co.uk/products/c...2gb1333d3.html
Antec VP450P 450W (£35): http://www.novatech.co.uk/products/c...5-06451-4.html

Total: £133

Missing to have a "functional" computer is a case and a HDD. If you can salvage that somehow, this is probably your best bet. Try to save up and pick up a GPU later on (which will significantly help performance in WoW). Something along the lines of a 6750 shouldn't be too expensive, I reckon around £60-70. With that, it wouldn't be a very strong gaming computer - but enough to run WoW fairly well at the suggested resolution.

[CheezusCrust]

http://www.dinopc.com/shop/pc/NEW-Na...35-95p1116.htm

My girlfriends parents got that computer, it handles browsing and such easily, although the one Marest posted is more powerful.

[carebear]

That is a very slim budget, and I'm doubtful if you will find a capable system for it (or rather, if it would be worth the deal). I reckon you could get a computer that does well for browsing and writing, but gaming? It would be outdated before you even got it.

A good idea and thanks for the pointers. I did look around at some websites to see if I could build her one but I'm always unsure of compatibility issues as I'm not the greatest when it comes to the technicalities. I can put them together and know what to look for but when it comes to real in-depth numbers I'm pants.

I do have a spare hard drive I could give her if the PSU fits; I think it's a small 80GB that's 5-6 years old. As for the case would a budget case with a PSU work or would it be too risky?

I had a quick look on scan and they have a good chunk of budget cases like this: http://www.scan.co.uk/products/color...-with-500w-psu -- link to the filtered search: http://www.scan.co.uk/shop/computer-...owers-with-psu

Would they suffice?

[Marest]

I would personally never go for or recommend a case + PSU combo, but considering the slim budget it might not be such a bad idea. Be very careful what deal you buy though; if you get an improper PSU it might end up frying your other components (worst case scenario). That said, all combo deals aren't horrible (as a matter of fact, my first build was based on a case + PSU combo from a fishy manufacturer and it works great even today, some 10 years later, minus the fan). It's a bit of a "leap of faith" type of deal.

Considering the listed case + PSU combos, I have unfortunately no comments. In any other thread I'd suggest against it... but the slim budget is a real pain to get around. If I was forced to pick one, I'd go for the Inwin case (http://www.scan.co.uk/products/inwin...-with-400w-psu), but I have no clue regarding its features or how good/bad that PSU is.

Edit: The PSU seems to be a Inwin IP-S400CQ2-0.
If that is indeed the case, it's not a full-out horrible PSU. Very much sub-par, but perhaps good enough for your intentions. You can find a review here: http://hardwareinsights.com/wp/2011/...0-400w-review/

[carebear]

I would personally never go for or recommend a case + PSU combo, but considering the slim budget it might not be such a bad idea. Be very careful what deal you buy though; if you get an improper PSU it might end up frying your other components (worst case scenario). That said, all combo deals aren't horrible (as a matter of fact, my first build was based on a case + PSU combo from a fishy manufacturer and it works great even today, some 10 years later, minus the fan). It's a bit of a "leap of faith" type of deal.

Considering the listed case + PSU combos, I have unfortunately no comments. In any other thread I'd suggest against it... but the slim budget is a real pain to get around. If I was forced to pick one, I'd go for the Inwin case (http://www.scan.co.uk/products/inwin...-with-400w-psu), but I have no clue regarding its features or how good/bad that PSU is.

Edit: The PSU seems to be a Inwin IP-S400AQ2-0.
If that is indeed the case, it's not a full-out horrible PSU. Very much sub-par, but perhaps good enough for your intentions. You can find a review here: http://hardwareinsights.com/wp/2011/...0-400w-review/

Okay thanks for the advice. I'll keep it in-mind and will be sure to thoroughly look at PSUs. I could be kind to her and throw in another £50 and see what we can get for £200 instead. I'll keep searching though, thanks a lot.