[SOLVED] Would you build or buy a basic office PC?

Stevoid6000

Honorable
Jun 14, 2017
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10,540
Would anyone bother to build a really basic office PC, rather than buy one off the shelf? I might be taking a job in another city and will need a computer there.

My main motivator is how cheap it could be. I'm not a gamer (unless you count C&C that I just found reborn in OpenRA!) and I haven't got any spare parts lying around.

My current budget PC cost around £450 3 years ago. I really enjoyed building it, and am enjoying adding to/tweaking it as time goes by. I'm not averse to buying second-hand parts. It runs a Pentium G4560, which has been fine for all I've asked of it.

What's the cheapest micro ATX desktop parts list that someone could recommend, or shall I just (lazily/boringly) buy a second hand laptop?

Thanks!
 

Stevoid6000

Honorable
Jun 14, 2017
34
0
10,540
Thanks. I was worried that someone would suggest buying as the sensible thing to do. I was partly trying to justify shopping for parts again...
I'll fight with eBay/laptops direct and see what I can turn up.

Cheers
 
Would anyone bother to build a really basic office PC, rather than buy one off the shelf? I might be taking a job in another city and will need a computer there.

My main motivator is how cheap it could be. I'm not a gamer (unless you count C&C that I just found reborn in OpenRA!) and I haven't got any spare parts lying around.

My current budget PC cost around £450 3 years ago. I really enjoyed building it, and am enjoying adding to/tweaking it as time goes by. I'm not averse to buying second-hand parts. It runs a Pentium G4560, which has been fine for all I've asked of it.

What's the cheapest micro ATX desktop parts list that someone could recommend, or shall I just (lazily/boringly) buy a second hand laptop?

Thanks!
Something like this:
PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Athlon 3000G 3.5 GHz Dual-Core Processor (£43.98 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: Gigabyte B450M DS3H Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard (£64.95 @ AWD-IT)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 8 GB (2 x 4 GB) DDR4-2666 CL16 Memory (£35.84 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Kingston A400 240 GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£26.99 @ Amazon UK)
Case: Fractal Design Core 1100 MicroATX Mini Tower Case (£32.22 @ Amazon UK)
Power Supply: be quiet! System Power 9 400 W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply (£46.98 @ Aria PC)
Total: £250.96
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-08-07 21:20 BST+0100
 

Stevoid6000

Honorable
Jun 14, 2017
34
0
10,540
Something like this:
PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Athlon 3000G 3.5 GHz Dual-Core Processor (£43.98 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: Gigabyte B450M DS3H Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard (£64.95 @ AWD-IT)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 8 GB (2 x 4 GB) DDR4-2666 CL16 Memory (£35.84 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Kingston A400 240 GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£26.99 @ Amazon UK)
Case: Fractal Design Core 1100 MicroATX Mini Tower Case (£32.22 @ Amazon UK)
Power Supply: be quiet! System Power 9 400 W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply (£46.98 @ Aria PC)
Total: £250.96
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-08-07 21:20 BST+0100

Nice list, thanks! I'd forgotten about athlon processors. I'll take USAFRet's advice but I'll keep this as a baseline and revert of I can't find anything better. I'll probably have to revisit Ubuntu to keep costs down...