Machine for very poor family

[q974739]

Hi Guys

I'm looking at trying to put together a machine for a very poor family. Could people please make suggestions for as cost effective a machine as possible? I'll probably end up purchasing it myself - there's no way they can afford it. Unfortunately I'm experiencing some Work Uncertainty and can't really afford all that much either...

Thanks

Q.

 

[PiKe]

Second hand stuff is the way to go here.

 

[PaulCa]

If you don't need gaming, a Raspberry PI 3. It can do some "gaming", retro gaming for example.

A PI is about £30, a case about £5 and a power supply about £7, you can get cheaper PSUs though from China. Any 2 Amp USB charger will do.

 

[Rannoch]

Get a cheapo on eBay

 

[Iron-man]

im sure something fairly cheap can be picked up if its just for net or word docs etc, if for gaming then as above second hand the way to go

 

[OpenToSuggestions]

Buy a Windows 7 laptop for <£100 from ebay.

 

[Lakeland]

If you don't need gaming, a Raspberry PI 3. It can do some "gaming", retro gaming for example.

A PI is about £30, a case about £5 and a power supply about £7, you can get cheaper PSUs though from China. Any 2 Amp USB charger will do.

If they have a tv the pi can output to then this would be ideal..

Buy a Windows 7 laptop for <£100 from ebay.

..else a cheap all in one laptop is probably your best bet.

 

[q974739]

I really should have added that the young lad has autism and a minecraft obsession - some graphics are a requirement.

 

[jsmoke]

Parts on eBay or cex or even charity shops.

 

[Iron-man]

as above CEX do some real cheap processors etc which would be adequate to run minecraft

 

[Jamin280672]

Also try facebook market place, I see a lot of cheap fairly decent PC's in my area on there at the moment, theres an AMD FX-8350 with 8gb ram and a GTX 970, 1TB hard drive etc for £200 on there at the moment.

 

[mattyfez]

Also 120gb SSDs are now about £25 brand new, which makes second hand ones almost worthless .. worth a consideration..

 

[Sherbs]

I saw some business grade Lenovo Think Centres on the bay for less than £40. Not bad spec for the price.

 

[~>Dg<~]

you can get £100 quid machines older i5/i7 machines sometimes.on ebay.not uncommon probably some on now.you just need to keep a eye out.

 

[MagicBoy]

Ex lease quad core corporate PC, add GT 1030. Should be do-able for £150.

 

[Lokken86]

as above CEX do some real cheap processors etc which would be adequate to run minecraft

Yep. You can get a core i3 540 there for a pound! Its actually astonishing what can be found on there.

OP do you have a more specific budget in mind? Even if it seems low we could find some good stuff.

 

[BinnsY]

I'll echo what most here have said that buying something second hand is probsably the best option. However, if you did want to do a new self build I'd suggest something like the below;

My basket at Overclockers UK:

• 1 x Bitfenix Nova Midi Tower Case - Black= £26.99
• 1 x Asus H110M-Plus Intel H110 (Socket 1151) DDR4 Micro ATX Motherboard= £51.95
• 1 x Intel Pentium G4560 3.50GHz (Kaby Lake) Socket LGA1151 Processor - Retail= £44.99
• 1 x Team Group Vulcan T-Force 8GB (2x4GB) DDR4 PC4-19200C14 2400MHz Dual Channel Kit - Grey (TLGD48G2400= £82.99
• 1 x Kingston A400 240GB SATA 6Gb/s 2.5" Solid State Hard Drive - (SA400S37/240G)= £44.99
• 1 x Kolink Core Series 300W 80 Plus Certified Power Supply= £22.99

Total: £287.20 (includes shipping: £12.30)​

​

 

[ED209]

If you buy new try and look at the 2200g etc.

I built my son a pc in May using this processor and he loves minecraft. Used the onboard gpu as well so was quite and a cheap build. Used the mail gaming 3 mobo and 8gb of ram.

Note that if you get the same mobo there is a chance it may not support the processor as it needs a bios update.