Question Building a PC for <£100? Ideas for mobo/CPU.

[Stevoid6000]

So my son and I decided to try and build a PC so that we could both play Minecraft at the same time. The idea was to spend less than £100 - relying on secondhand, but still wanting to put it together ourselves (or not buying a crappy old prebuilt). I had an old power supply (no issues with it, but upgraded when I put a GPU in the home pc) and CPU with stock intel cooler. I though I could find an appropriate lga1151 compatible 6/7gen mobo for next to nothing as the CPU is from 2017. However, it turns out that "discontinued" also means "expensive".

Not having kept up to date at all with technology, has anyone any suggestions for mobo/cpu combinations that might now be in the sweet spot of 'definitely out of date' but not yet 'retro'?

I know using a secondhand PSU is dodgy, but I don't think we'll mind too much if the Frankenstein we're creating goes up in smoke after 6 months. I'll make sure the fire alarms are all functioning....

We're based in the UK and planning eBay/gumtree for everything, unless there's some amazing deal on Amazon or something. Aim is able to turn on, connect to internet and play Minecraft....

Any suggestions welcomed!

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: Intel Pentium G4560 3.5 GHz Dual-Core Processor (Purchased For £0.00)
CPU Cooler: Intel E97379-001 CPU Cooler (Purchased For £0.00)
Case: Fractal Design Define Mini C MicroATX Mid Tower Case (Purchased For £25.00)
Power Supply: Corsair CX450M (2015) 450 W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-modular ATX Power Supply (Purchased For £0.00)
Total: £25.00
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2023-07-25 18:44 BST+0100

 

[Misgar]

If you already have an LGA1151 CPU, a stock Intel cooler and a PSU, you're already part way there, provided you're not too fussy about the mobo. Forget big fancy expensive second hand ATX mobos, but concentrate on low-end microATX which are cheaper. If you wait up to a few weeks, you should be able to score a working mobo for less than £30. Just make sure your CPU is compatible before buying the mobo.

Add to that some second-hand RAM for £15 to £20, a brand new 120GB or 240GB SATA SSD for £10 to £20 and a GT 630 or GT 710 graphics card and you're nearly there. Look out for computer cases being sold by people within a 10 mile radius and collect in person. You can often pick up a bargain if the auction says "collection only". I got a Fractal Define full tower case for £15.

I've built computers for as little as £20 with parts from eBay plus bits out of my spares box.

 

[Stevoid6000]

Thanks! I was thinking that this should definitely be possible, but have been scouring eBay for z170/z270/b250 boards and they all seem to want £60+. Maybe I just need to keep looking (it's easy to become impatient!) but I wondered if I was just looking for too old/niche a generation.

 

[Eximo]

Don't limit yourself. Also H170, H270, H110, B150, Q170, and Q270. Q are basically Z boards without overclocking sold in OEM machines.

You may also be able to pick up an entire used desktop for around that price if you look closely. Then you can just harvest it for parts and/or re-sell the extra components.

You might also be able to find new remanufactured boards on places like aliexpress and the like. This is where they harvest working chips from broken boards and put them on new PCBs. Not always the best support, but sometimes they add more up to date features.

Motherboards do grow more scarce compared to CPUs over time which is why the prices will start to rise the older they get, and where those remanufacturing businesses make their money.

 

[Stevoid6000]

I didn't know what the Q ones were, so was avoiding them through ignorance! And I'd forgotten about the H ones entirely. Thanks for your help!

 

[Stevoid6000]

One more question - is fancy-looking RAM significantly better than boring-looking green stuff? I don't imagine I'll be pushing it hard ...

 

[Eximo]

Not really. Unless you are running very high speed memory they don't really need cooling these days.

But it doesn't cost much to get cheap memory with heatspreaders.

 

[Misgar]

Agreed. Unless you're overclocking the RAM with high XMP values, most heatsinks are superfluous, but DIMMs with fancy LED lighting obviously work better than plain old green PCB versions, don't they?

 

[Stevoid6000]

Agreed. Unless you're overclocking the RAM with high XMP values, most heatsinks are superfluous, but DIMMs with fancy LED lighting obviously work better than plain old green PCB versions, don't they?

That's what I thought! Those clever LEDs dissipating heat energy as beautiful light... (I got 8gb crucial green stuff for £8 to bring me to £122 including monitor)

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: Intel Core i3-7100 3.9 GHz Dual-Core Processor (Purchased For £0.00)
CPU Cooler: Intel E97379-001 CPU Cooler (Purchased For £0.00)
Motherboard: Asus PRIME B250M-K Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard (Purchased For £38.00)
Memory: Crucial CT2K4G4DFS824A 8 GB (2 x 4 GB) DDR4-2400 CL17 Memory (Purchased For £8.00)
Storage: Kingston A400 480 GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (Purchased For £16.00)
Video Card: Asus 710-2-SL-CSM GeForce GT 710 2 GB Video Card (Purchased For £15.00)
Case: Fractal Design Define Mini C MicroATX Mid Tower Case (Purchased For £25.00)
Power Supply: Corsair CX450M (2015) 450 W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-modular ATX Power Supply (Purchased For £0.00)
Monitor: BenQ GL2450HM 24.0" 1920 x 1080 60 Hz Monitor (Purchased For £20.00)
Total: £122.00
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2023-07-27 23:38 BST+0100