India Broadband Forum

rajan1311

Hi guys,
as i have holls now, i got too much time on my hands, so i will write some potentially useless stuff too. Plz correct me and add ur comments/suggestions.

So, here i would try to help those who do not wanna spend much on their PC and want max performance for their money.

In a low cost Budget PC, i usually look at the following.

1)Low power
2)Overclocking potential
3)New technologies(such as hybrid crossfire)
4)Upgradability
5)Low cost (duh!)

They r in random order.

So, now i would suggest a very rough PC config that would be good in this category

Processor:
My pick - Dual cores
Dual core is the way to go if ur on a low budget. Dual cores are pretty good and will meet most of our daily requirements. Both Intel and AMD has gr8 dual core processors.
From Intel's side, i like the E5200/E5400. Both are good, low power consumption and overclockable.Even the E7400 is good.
From AMD's side, the Athlon 2 250 and Phenom 2 550 are fast,support DDR3(and DDR2) and are worth looking.

Motherboard:
My pick- micro atx boards
Usually most of the entry level boards are micro atx.
For Intel, u could get a G41/31 chipset. They feature onboard video and have a Pcie X16 slot(the G41 has a Version 2.0 PCIe slot)
Frm AMD, u can get a 780G motherboard. Its got support for both AM3 and AM2+ processors. Its onboard video is far better than that of intel, but still not for high end gaming(duh!). Most of them support ATI hybrid crossfire. U can also get boards that have an HDMI out too.

RAM:
My Pick- 2GB DDR2 800MHz memory.
Get some good quality RAM. Usually corsair XMS2 is good and cheap.

HDD:
My pick :500GB harddisk
500GB is almost becoming a standard now. If u feel u dont need it, get 320GB. As far as brands, i cant say, i usually buy seagate.

Optical drive:
My Pick: DVD combo drives
Bluray ROM are still very costly(Bluray RW are far more), so its better to stick with a dvd drive for some more time.

Case:
Get a decent case which comes with a PSU. There are many brands out there like zebronics/iball etc.

Monitor:
My pick: A 19" TFT LCD
These have become very common and are gettin cheaper buy the minute.
Brands, well cant say much there, but samsung, Benq, LG are the well known ones.

Mouse/Keyboard:
Get a wired keyboard and an optical mouse.

OS:
well, here u can get any. U can try linux or w8 till the release of windows 7 or just get XP.Its up to u.

PS: I would personally get a Phenom 2 550 over an E7400 any day as it is cheaper and far better in terms of performance. Also, the AMD platform is better as u get better features. U can use an AM3 processor on ur AM2+ motherboard and when u want to jump to DDR3(say after 2 years or so ?) u do not have to change the processor.

Hope it helps those on a low budget(20-30k). For rich ppl, just take this as a joke (spl u lolol ).

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Very sry for double post. While posting, my browser just slowed down. I must have clicked twice or so, plz Del any 1.

otpsurvive

Although Intel haver budget procs and MoBos, they prove to be much costlier compared to AMD as a platform. One shouldn't look at the top-end and say it is good and then go buy the low-end offering. One should compare equivalents of both companies. When this is done, AMD clearly emerges a winner for the buyer on a budget. You get more bang for the buck. As rajan1311 says, the on-board graphics on the AMD's chipsets are far ahead of the intel's and that too at a very affordable price. The problem with Intel is that though one product of their's might be affordable but the platform as a whole is costly. They also don't give features such as hardware level virtualization on their budget offerings and even overclockability is extremely limited or non-existent. Whereas AMD processors, even their low-end ones (except the ultra-low-end Semprons) offer all the advanced features of a mid-end or a high-end proc. So, if you ask me, go for an AMD offering if you're on a budget.

rajan1311

Infact, almost all AMD processors support virtualization, which could be usefull with the introduction of windows 7. But not all Intel processors support it. Infact, most of the entery level and mid range processors do not support it(E5200,E7400,etc).

newprouser

Interesting fact. I heard intel maybe introducing it in all processors from now on, true ?

rajan1311

Not in all i think. They were to introduce in the Q8xxx series. M not sure abt others. But, there will be no way u can find out if ur processor supports it or not as the model no. will be the same as b4. (u can find out after u buy it)