Looking for the cheapest possible PC...

[ld13]

As per thread title, I'm looking for the cheapest complete PC (sans the keyboard, mouse and monitor if possible) I can get my hands on... it is for a good cause.

Advert below seems to be the best I could find for now, but it at Sahara. Anyone got an account there? I get their emails but I cannot recall that I ever opened an account there in the past.

 

[Shake&Bake]

I also somehow got spammed from them - without having ever opened an account or ever passed on my info to them.

Sorry don't have an account with them.

 

[CataclysmZA]

That's really not a bad price considering what you're getting. I don't know anywhere else that has anything that cheap - must be a clearance sale for them. Pity about there being basically zero upgrade path in the future, but its a tradeoff some of us have to make.

Stick Linux on there and you're good to go.

 

[WaxLyrical]

No HDD?

 

[ld13]

Pity about there being basically zero upgrade path in the future, but its a tradeoff some of us have to make.

I do not need an upgrade path with this as it will only be used for powerpoint/word/excel in my mom's class - her school PC is almost older than I am!

No HDD?

Not a big problem. Got loads around here that I can use.

 

[ld13]

Not to be funny or anything, but I would like to thank you so much for your uber useful posts all over the forum carter2! If I may dare to ask, for what competition are you padding your postcount?

Hmmm Samsung is cheap and have really good features!

You need to do PPPOE passthrough

Go with Lenovo...Im using it!

Go with HP deskjet1000...Cheap and efficient!

Go with any HP printer as they are cost effective and efficient

No idea

No Ideaa as i am using sony lenses as they are very good
so will suggest you to go with them..Costly but very efficient

Looks interesting I will check on google though!

 

[NomNom]

Cheapest I could work out was R1711.00 including shipping from Rebel Tech, everything (excluding hard drive and monitor).

What you can do is get an Esquire account and get your components from there.

What you should look out in getting is a case that comes with a PSU will save you about R200 there and also get good brand Ram suchas Transcend or Kingston and be careful of getting "Axtrom"

 

[ld13]

Cheapest I could work out was R1711.00 including shipping from Rebel Tech,
What you can do is get an Esquire account and get your components from there.

Thx NomNom, already got an account from esquire, +-R1650 for the HP N40L but the sahara bundle comes to R1252.86 landed. Not bad imo.

 

[Yotch]

You could try the classifieds on Carbonite for a secondhand system or CPU/motherboard. The HP N40L includes a hard drive and could be reused as a media player/NAS at a later date. It's also much more compact.

 

[CataclysmZA]

Go with any HP printer as they are cost effective and efficient

Err...No. HP printers are among the worst when it comes to reliability and ink efficiency. Cost effective when you buy them, yes, but in my experience consumer-grade ones never last more than two years. Even the business-grade ones I sold to the local municipality when I was working in a store in PE two years back were returned for repairs a year and a half later, all three with broken rollers. They used to be good, but now I stay far away from them. I trust my plucky little Samsung laser printer.

 

[ponder]

Err...No. HP printers are among the worst when it comes to reliability and ink efficiency. Cost effective when you buy them, yes, but in my experience consumer-grade ones never last more than two years. Even the business-grade ones I sold to the local municipality when I was working in a store in PE two years back were returned for repairs a year and a half later, all three with broken rollers. They used to be good, but now I stay far away from them. I trust my plucky little Samsung laser printer.

I'm gonna have to disagree from a corporate and private use point. I've had two hp multifunctions at home, 1st one got killed by lightning (phone line was plugged in) and the second one is still going strong. This probably over more than a 10yr period. In the corporate environment all printers were hp laserjets, they just kept on pumping out the prints, only issue we ever had was when using 'pirate' cartridges. I'll stick to hp thank you.

 

[HavocXphere]

Err...No. HP printers are among the worst when it comes to reliability and ink efficiency.

Most of them yes. The laser black & whites kick ass though.

 

[DrJohnZoidberg]

Never has issues with HP (laser) printers.

 

[SomeoneEls]

Thx NomNom, already got an account from esquire, +-R1650 for the HP N40L but the sahara bundle comes to R1252.86 landed. Not bad imo.

2 things

1. The celeron d430 is a 5 year old single core processor. The thing is pretty slow.
2. From esquire at the moment you can get :-
   UniQue Midi - Tower Chassis with 450W PSU R 179.00
   Foxconn H61MXL-K- Intel H61 Chipset R 399.00
   Intel Celeron G460-1.80GHz Single-Core,R 299.00
   Axtrom Seitec 2.0GB DDR3 R79
   LG DVD Writer 24X R129
   subtotal R1089
   Including VAT R1237

The G460 is also a single core celeron but it's a sandy-bridge processor and will be about twice as fast as the 5 year old d430(according to benchmarks). If you don't need a DVD writer or are happy with using the old case remove those and upgrade the CPU and RAM

I've never had a problem with the axtrom ram but kingston isn't too much more expensive.

 

[Pada]

SomeoneEls, your build still needs a HDD

 

[CataclysmZA]

Most of them yes. The laser black & whites kick ass though.

The laser ones in general are great. Some of the modern ones are still prone to early failure but overall the laser's reliability remains good. Its the ink ones that gave me the most headaches over the last three years. I've even found evidence that they were designed to fail after a predetermined amount of time. Also, how many other brands require a firmware reset after reaching a particular number of prints? Canon and Samsung have been great in my experience, although other's mileage may vary.

 

[NomNom]

why are people disscussing printers? its got absolutely nothing to do with this thread.. seriously irritating

the G460 will be more than enough for a simple office pc I've built a pc with a G530 and was pleasantly surprised just how fast it was. I recommend you get a stick of 2GB ram since it might struggle abit on 1GB

also at Pada the OP said he doesn't need a new hard drive.

+1 on SomeoneEls build

 

[SomeoneEls]

SomeoneEls, your build still needs a HDD

EDIT:- Oops didn't see you mentioned that OP doesn't need a hard drive already! Thanks NomNom

 

[Malfeasant]

As per thread title, I'm looking for the cheapest complete PC (sans the keyboard, mouse and monitor if possible) I can get my hands on... it is for a good cause.

Advert below seems to be the best I could find for now, but it at Sahara. Anyone got an account there? I get their emails but I cannot recall that I ever opened an account there in the past.

Do the components have to be brand new? If not then there should be decent sub-1k PCs to suit your needs on carbonite like another poster mentioned. Heck, I'm sure even gumtree would have something half-decent.