Base units. Please :)

[Cylinder]

Hi.. I posted before about a desktop, but I'm looking for a new base unit, I'm struggling really lol.

My budget is £300. I would like;

4GB Ram
500gb+ HDD.
Average gfx card (doesn't matter too much, integrated or not).
Processor pref something decent..triple core maybee

Everything else can be pretty standard.

I've found this;




AMD Phenom X3 Triple Core 8650 2.3GHz Processor
AMD 690V Motherboard
ATi Radeon X1250 Graphics (SMA)
4GB PC2-5300 667MHz DDR2 Memory
750GB Serial ATA II Hard Drive
20x Serial ATA DVDRW
High Definition 8 Channel 7.1 Sound
1000MBps LAN
Zen Midi Tower Chassis with PSU



£293, I can pick up so no delivery charges. This is from www.aria.co.uk

Is this okay for the price? I'm not clued up but I'm just thinking Triple Core, 4GB Ram, 750GB HDD for £300.. Or are there better systems for same price/less?

Graphics card is a little sucky but I don't want it for gaming..

I've tried places like Dell, Arbico, Overclockers but feel free to suggest some.

I already got a monitor so that isn't needed, I can buy keyboard and mouse, speakers separately so that isn't a need.

Thanks. :)

[N!ck]

Hi.. I posted before about a desktop, but I'm looking for a new base unit, I'm struggling really lol.

My budget is £300. I would like;

4GB Ram
500gb+ HDD.
Average gfx card (doesn't matter too much, integrated or not).
Processor pref something decent..triple core maybee

Everything else can be pretty standard.

I've found this;

£293, I can pick up so no delivery charges. This is from www.aria.co.uk

Is this okay for the price? I'm not clued up but I'm just thinking Triple Core, 4GB Ram, 750GB HDD for £300.. Or are there better systems for same price/less?

Graphics card is a little sucky but I don't want it for gaming..

I've tried places like Dell, Arbico, Overclockers but feel free to suggest some.

I already got a monitor so that isn't needed, I can buy keyboard and mouse, speakers separately so that isn't a need.

Thanks. :)

That will be just about the best you can get for the price.

I recently built a system with 2GB 800MHz RAM, AMD Athlon x2 2.7GHz, 500GB HDD and an 8400GS graphics card. That was around £250.

I say go for it.

[Cylinder]

I got told it's cheaper to custom build, but I'm really not that clued up on it. I could get all the parts and then just screw up badly putting it together. I wouldn't know were to start or anything.

I think I'll go for it then, they say for Counter-Collect you can get it within 20minutes usually, takes 30minutes to get there so I can get it on Saturday probably. ^^;

I just don't wanna get it, then see a week later that I could get a better one, say a better gfx card for cheaper. :[

[N!ck]

I got told it's cheaper to custom build, but I'm really not that clued up on it. I could get all the parts and then just screw up badly putting it together. I wouldn't know were to start or anything.

I think I'll go for it then, they say for Counter-Collect you can get it within 20minutes usually, takes 30minutes to get there so I can get it on Saturday probably. ^^;

I just don't wanna get it, then see a week later that I could get a better one, say a better gfx card for cheaper. :[

Well it depends if they have the system already built and in the warehouse (which i'm pretty sure they will do). Once you order it takes around 5-20 minutes for the counter collect depending on how busy they are and the items you ordered (i've been to Aria a fair few times to pick stuff up). The graphics card is fine for everything apart from gaming. Remember it doesn't come with any operating system on it so you'd have to sort that out yourself.

[Cylinder]

Well it depends if they have the system already built and in the warehouse (which i'm pretty sure they will do). Once you order it takes around 5-20 minutes for the counter collect depending on how busy they are and the items you ordered (i've been to Aria a fair few times to pick stuff up). The graphics card is fine for everything apart from gaming. Remember it doesn't come with any operating system on it so you'd have to sort that out yourself.
Yeah, I can get the O/S myself. I new it would cut down the price down by £50+ without an O/S. So I figured it would be better. ^^;

I'm hoping they will have it in stock in same day, are Aria reliable? I'd never heard of them myself until about a week or two ago.

What will the graphics card actually be able to handle? Does it affect the resolution of a screen or anything? I just got a new monitor and it's resolution is 1680x1050 or something. It'll be able to do that won't it?

I've got hooked upto my Laptop atm and that graphics card is Nvidia Geforce Go 6150, thats suited my fine. Is it better than that or same? Cos I've played San Andreas on that and it's been alright..for a laptop, but I hardly play games anyway.

[N!ck]

Aira are reasonably reliable and if you have a problem/a component breaks in it then they should sort it out fine for you (within 1 year or whatever it is). The graphics card will do the resolution of the monitor fine. You probably will be able to play games like San Andreas on it, but i wouldn't recommend it. You'll be wanting to install a 64-bit operating system as well to make sure you can use all of the RAM.

[Cylinder]

Aira are reasonably reliable and if you have a problem/a component breaks in it then they should sort it out fine for you (within 1 year or whatever it is). The graphics card will do the resolution of the monitor fine. You probably will be able to play games like San Andreas on it, but i wouldn't recommend it. You'll be wanting to install a 64-bit operating system as well to make sure you can use all of the RAM.
Ahh, thats great. ^^; Aslong as it'll do the job, thats all I care about.

Because the graphics card is integrated, how much of the ram would it use? Would it be something basic like 128 because it's a basic card? And in time, say a few months would I be able to buy a better graphics card and replace it? And you said in my previous thread that integrated are usually VGA and my monitor is VGA so I should have no problems with that, ayee.


For installing the 64 bit, is there anything different? Like, will all the parts be compatible and is it just the same as installing any other o/s. When I'm using it, whats the visual difference? Or is it just performance and will everything else work fine? I mean I won't need different drivers and different versions of software etc?

Thanks so much ^^;

[N!ck]

Ahh, thats great. ^^; Aslong as it'll do the job, thats all I care about.

Because the graphics card is integrated, how much of the ram would it use? Would it be something basic like 128 because it's a basic card? And in time, say a few months would I be able to buy a better graphics card and replace it? And you said in my previous thread that integrated are usually VGA and my monitor is VGA so I should have no problems with that, ayee.


For installing the 64 bit, is there anything different? Like, will all the parts be compatible and is it just the same as installing any other o/s. When I'm using it, whats the visual difference? Or is it just performance and will everything else work fine? I mean I won't need different drivers and different versions of software etc?

Thanks so much ^^;

Shouldn't use much RAM. Yes, you could replace it easily. Everything should be compatible with x64. No different to installing any other OS. No visual difference. Slight performance increase. Will need 64-bit drivers.

[Cylinder]

Brilliant. ^^; Going to order it tomorrow, hopefully get it same day.

Same system on aria, just £25 or something cheaper and has 2.1ghz instead of 2.3 and 500gb instead of 750gb. Is it better to spend the extra £25 for that?

I'm not fussed either way, I'm getting it from aria, cheapest I've seen around.

Thanks so much. :]!

[N!ck]

Yeah, go for the cheaper one. It also has better RAM.

[Cylinder]

Brilliant. ^^; Going to order it tomorrow, hopefully get it same day.

Same system on aria, just £25 or something cheaper and has 2.1ghz instead of 2.3 and 500gb instead of 750gb. Is it better to spend the extra £25 for that?

I'm not fussed either way, I'm getting it from aria, cheapest I've seen around.

Thanks so much. :]!
Sorry, I mistyped that so much lol. I think you knew what I meant anyway.. uhh, I'm not sure.

I meant, there is a cheaper system on Aria.co.uk.

Same specs except;
2.1ghz processor instead of 2.3.
500gb instead of 750gb.

It's £25 cheaper, £264 or something..instead of £293. Is there a noticeable amount of difference (apart from HD) in the processor for the price?

If it isn't much difference, that'll give me an extra £20 to put towards the keyboard/mouse so it'll be alreeet. :D.

[N!ck]

Sorry, I mistyped that so much lol. I think you knew what I meant anyway.. uhh, I'm not sure.

I meant, there is a cheaper system on Aria.co.uk.

Same specs except;
2.1ghz processor instead of 2.3.
500gb instead of 750gb.

It's £25 cheaper, £264 or something..instead of £293. Is there a noticeable amount of difference (apart from HD) in the processor for the price?

If it isn't much difference, that'll give me an extra £20 to put towards the keyboard/mouse so it'll be alreeet. :D.

Yeah, i knew what you meant :).

[Cylinder]

So go for the cheaper system for £20 less? Is there much of a difference in performance, or is £20 more worth it for 250gb/2.3ghz?
Sorry for all the questions btw lol, bet your sick of me. ^^; You've been a great help though. :)

[N!ck]

So go for the cheaper system for £20 less? Is there much of a difference in performance, or is £20 more worth it for 250gb/2.3ghz?
Sorry for all the questions btw lol, bet your sick of me. ^^; You've been a great help though. :)

Well Aria sell both of The CPUs for the same price and a 500GB HDD is £15 different, so yeah it's probably worth it to get the cheaper one which also has better RAM.

[Cylinder]

Well Aria sell both of The CPUs for the same price and a 500GB HDD is £15 different, so yeah it's probably worth it to get the cheaper one which also has better RAM.
Ahh, ok then. I'll do that. The processor is different though, not sure how much different.. both triple core AMD Phenom but the one in first post is 8650+ and the cheaper one is 8450+.

Any noticable difference again?

I can always add another internal HDD at a later date can't I?

[N!ck]

Ahh, ok then. I'll do that. The processor is different though, not sure how much different.. both triple core AMD Phenom but the one in first post is 8650+ and the cheaper one is 8450+.

Any noticable difference again?

I can always add another internal HDD at a later date can't I?

Not much noticeable difference, and yes you can add more HDDs in future.

[Cylinder]

Ahh, that system is out of stock and I think on the page it means 3 days for it to come back in stock. I'll just get that then and wait, I can get it during week. :)

Thanks so much ^^; All the help I needed.