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  Entry-level PC for 20K (Feb 2010 Update)

  Roydon Cerejo, Oct 09, 2009 1815 hrs IST

  We help you choose components to put together a basic PC

  

Page 1 - CPU, Motherboard Page 2 - Memory Page 3 - Hard Drive Page 4 - Cabinet Page 5 - Optical Drive Page 6 - Monitor Page 7 - Keyboard, Mouse Page 8 - Speakers Page 9 - Final Build

Feburary 2010 Update : Components Changed

• WD5000AAKS 500GB HDD instead of the Hitachi
• BenQ G2020HD LCD Monitor instead of the 18.5" AOC

The rest of the components have remained the same and are still the best choice for the price.

 

If you are one of those who have been saving to buy a PC this festive season, here is a guide that would help you put together an entry-level PC.

In today's times this is basic computer that will allow you to easily perform all your daily tasks without any problem, which may include some Office applications, internet, multimedia (music & movies) and some casual gaming.

We set off with a budget of Rs.20,000 in mind, which is a fairly acceptable price for your first PC or someone looking for a basic setup, but not bare bone either like a netbook.  These are all Mumbai prices, so if you're in Delhi or Chennai then you may get these components for a little less since these things are always a little pricier in Mumbai. So without wasting any more time let's get on with it and build our entry-level PC.

CPU and Motherboard Combo (Rs. 5,500)

• AMD Athlon II X2 240 (2.8Ghz)
• Gigabyte GA-MA74GM-S2 (740G Chipset)
  

Whenever you buy a CPU and motherboard, it's better if you buy them as a set as many vendors offer you a small discount when you do so. The two choices were Intel E5200/G31 and Athlon IIX2/740G. We chose AMD for our entry-level system because you get a higher clock speed for the same price as an Intel E5xxx series chip. Yes, you can overclock the E5200 more easily but we are not targeting that audience here and more importantly we are looking for a solid performing combo, and even a blonde would agree that the 740G kicks the G31's butt.

 

This is micro-ATX board with plenty of features like 3+1 phase power design, solid state capacitors, 6 SATA II ports, Gigabit LAN, DVI and VGA, and the list goes on.  It also has a PCI-E x16 slot in case you want more graphics power later.

Page 1 - CPU, Motherboard Page 2 - Memory Page 3 - Hard Drive Page 4 - Cabinet Page 5 - Optical Drive Page 6 - Monitor Page 7 - Keyboard, Mouse Page 8 - Speakers Page 9 - Final Build

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