Hardware guide April, 2011: The Rs. 25,000 budget PC

Rs. 25,000 is a nice number for a new computer build. It’s affordable and yet not too little that you have to make huge compromises. With this budget in mind I set out to select components for a new system build that would serve a typical Pakistani user’s needs.

Processor

Arguably the most important part of a new computer is the Central Processing Unit or CPU. With the high price of sandy bridge CPUs and even older Nehalem versions we are left with only one choice – an LGA 775 Intel Pentium dual core E6500 CPU. Don’t let the Pentium dual core moniker fool you because this chip has the same architecture as a Core2Duo. Running just shy of 3GHz this 45nm chip offers good performance at Rs. 7,100.

 

 Motherboard

LGA 775 motherboards have traditionally been DDR2 based but with DDR 3 prices now at an all time low its a good idea to go with a DDR3 motherboard. The Asus P5G41T-M LX is one such board. Its got 2 RAM slots for a total of 8GB RAM, built in sound, gigabit ethernet and Integrated Graphics Processor (IGP). The IGP is more than enough for office use and light gaming. Should you need more power there is a PCIe x16 expansion slot for a discrete graphics card. This board comes in at Rs. 4,900.

ASUS P5G41T-M LX

RAM

Kingston value RAM is widely available locally and with falling RAM prices it makes little sense to waste precious RAM slots on 2GB modules. So a kingston value RAM DDR3 1333MHz 4GB module at Rs. 4,300 is the best choice.

Hard Disk

I have covered various hard disk types available locally before. The best hard disk in this budget is the Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB. Its a mainstream drive spinning at 7,200 RPM with a 16MB buffer and generally delivers ~ 100 megabytes/s at sequential reads. A lower capacity drive will not suffice for a modern system and higher capacity will probably exceed the budget. This drive sells for Rs. 3,800.

 

 

Case

A generic chinese case will be more than enough for this build. The Power Supply Unit might be a bit iffy but when you are on a budget you have few options. A chinese case with generic PSU will cost around Rs. 2,000.
If you want to buy a branded PSU your only option is the cooler master extreme power 460w for around Rs. 3,300. Coupled with a generic casing at Rs. 1,000 it comes to a total of Rs. 4,300.

 

 

Optical Drive

If you choose the branded PSU option above you probably won’t have the funds to buy an optical drive. But if you choose to go with a generic PSU, a DVD writer is an affordable option. Although not an essential component, there is no denying that it is more convenient to have a DVD writer attached to your system. It makes software installation and backups easier. At around Rs. 2,000 you can get a SATA DVD burner of Samsung, HP or LiteOn brand. They all tend to be equally good.

Summary

The table below lists the recommended system in a Rs. 25,000 budget:

	Recommendation	Price
CPU	Intel Pentium Dual Core E6500	Rs. 7,100
Motherboard	Asus P5G41T-M LX	Rs. 4,900
RAM	Kingston Value RAM DDR3 1333MHz 4GBx1	Rs. 4,300
Hard disk	Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB	Rs. 3,800
Case	Generic casing	Rs. 2,000
Optical Drive	Samsung, HP or Liteon DVD burner	Rs. 2,050
Total		24,150

This system will be ideal for an office or light gaming PC. Upgrade options include adding more RAM, a quad core CPU or a discrete graphics card. Be sure to add a branded PSU if you choose to add a graphics card.