In light of our upcoming Build your own PC classes and a recent Lifehacker article of a similar title, we’ve decided to take up the challenge to see the best PC that we can get for €600.

Sub €600.00 Budget Build

Long gone are the days where you should immediately budget at least a grand for a decent self-built system. Unless you absolutely have to have a top of the line PC, this budget system will serve you well for most everyday tasks, some gaming, streaming movies and music from the web, and even those bigger projects like organizing the family photos or editing home movies.

The parts

This parts list assumes that you’ll need the basic components: a case, a motherboard, processor, memory, storage, graphics card of some type, power supply, and an optical drive. We’re going to assume you have a perfectly good USB keyboard, mouse, and display you can repurpose for use with your new system. Before you blindly buy what we’re about to suggest, take a moment and look at our Build a €1,000 gaming rig and articles on choosing PC components, where we discuss some of the things you should think about before buying your components. For example, our €600 PC here is made with bang-for-the-buck in mind, not necessarily silent operation or tons of expansion bays. Remember to consider what you’ll use the system for before buying.

The case

Antec three Hundred Case

Antec Three Hundred – EU – Tower – ATX – no power – €54.95 :

The Antec three Hundred is a tried and true mid-sized case that, with luck and care, will last you for more than just one system build. It’s large enough to accommodate all but the largest components, and roomy enough to you’re your hands around inside without too much of a squeeze. Front-side audio and USB ports are a nice bonus in this budget case.

The power supply

A-Data HM-650 - 650 Watt - ATX

A-Data HM-650 – 650 Watt – ATX – €59.00

Most PC builders, especially starting off, tend to completely overestimate how much power their components will actually need. At the same time, you don’t want to buy a power supply too weak for the components in your build, or buy one from a flaky manufacturer or a no-name brand. Stick with trusted vendors on this one, and spend a little more if you have to. This 650-watt power supply from A-data should be more than enough for our components, and A-data is a trusted name. Pay attention to warranties and return policies as well, but try to make sure you’re getting the right amount of juice for the system you’re building. There are some great calculators on the web that will help you determine how big your power supply should really be, like the

The motherboard

• 

  Asus P8H61 Motherboard

  ASUS P8H61-M LE B3 Rev – Socket 1155 – Micro-ATX – €69.95 :This ASUS motherboard is actually used in a number of corporate desktops, has an easy to configure BIOS, and most importantly is rock-solid. The board sports 6 USB ports, 4 SATA ports, gigabit Ethernet, and on-board sound, so we won’t need to pick up a separate sound card. It doesn’t have integrated video, so you’ll definitely need the video card we’ll discuss later.

• If you’re willing to spend a little more, consider this MSI motherboard for €77.00, which is more expensive but packs on-board video, (so you could ditch video card below and save some more money,) but more importantly has USB 3.0, which is a huge benefit.

The CPU

Intel i5 2400 Processor

• Intel ProcessorIntel Core i5 2400 / 3.1 GHz – €162 :Yes, we’re going Intel with the budget system. No, there’s no reason you couldn’t sub this out for an AMD processor if you wanted to (in fact, we discussed it at length, and the first version of this build actually carried a AMD Black Edition – Processor – 1 x AMD Phenom II
  X4 955 / 3.2 GHz under the hood) save some more money or stand with a brand allegiance. We’re going to ignore those allegiances here and focus on the facts: while the AMD processor offers impressive bang for the buck, the Intel Core i5 is a solid processor that fits in our budget and can be found under the hood of desktops much more expensive than this one from commercial OEMs. The i5 will serve you well.

The memory

A-Data 2048 MB DDR3

A-Data 2048 MB DDR3/1333 (PC10600) – €39.90 (2 x €19.95) :

One of the most important things about buying memory is to make sure you get RAM that’s compatible with your build, and that’s from a reputable memory manufacturer. This is one area that we’ve been slightly let down by our portfolio. Our board is dual-channel, so we want to make sure we want take advantage of it but unfortunately the above isn’t possible with the above selection.

The storage

Samsung Spinpoint F3

Samsung SpinPoint F3 Desktop Class – HDD – €53.50:
Hard drives are so large and affordable at this point that you have plenty of leeway here as well. 1TB is large, and the price is right, so there’s no reason to skimp on the storage unless you really want to, or don’t plan on using this much space.

The graphics card

Sapphire RADEON HD 6750 Graphics Card

Sapphire RADEON HD 6750|Gigabyte GeForce N450OC2
We’re offering up two suggestions here to try and stave off the AMD/ATI versus Nvidia battle. Like so many other components, it’s easy to get caught up in which brand you prefer, but both of these cards pack enough power for everyday tasks and some casual gaming that they’re decent entries to the field. Don’t expect to fire up the latest titles with the settings turned up here, but if you have a couple of older titles you can’t give up, or if you don’t really play PC games at all, these will be just fine.

[http://lifehacker.com/5840963/the-best-pcs-you-can-build-for-600-and-1200]

Chromebooks went for sale in June and in this short period of time, Samsung has already dropped the price of their Google Chrome OS laptops by as much as 10%.

The Wi-Fi only Series 5 Chromebook is now selling for $399.99, down from $429.99, while the 3G + Wi-Fi Chromebook is available for $449.99, down 10% from the original $499.99. The prices for Acer Chromebooks are however unchanged.

While a price drop is always welcome, why would anyone prefer a stripped-down Chrome OS based laptop over these netbooks that are much more versatile?

Built on a rock-solid UNIX foundation, OS X is engineered to take full advantage of the technologies in every new Mac. And to deliver the most intuitive and integrated computer experience.

Hardware and software made for each other.

Since the software on every Mac is created by the same company that makes the Mac, you get a fully integrated system in which everything works together perfectly. OS X works with the processor in your Mac to deliver the best possible performance. The Multi-Touch trackpad on every Mac notebook gives you more than enough space to pinch, swipe, and tap your way around most of the apps on your system. OS X gives you long battery life by dimming the screen in low-light conditions and even regulating processor activity between keystrokes.

Apple OSX Lion Hardware

Interact with your computer in a whole new way.

Tap, scroll, pinch, and swipe using Multi-Touch gestures, directly controlling what’s on your screen in a more fluid, natural, and intuitive way. When you scroll down on your trackpad or Magic Mouse, your document scrolls down. When you scroll up, your web page scrolls up. When you swipe left, your photos move left. And there are many more gestures that make all you do on your Mac the best experience you can have on a computer. Hands down.

Easy to use and incredibly powerful.

From the desktop you see when you start up your Mac to the applications you use every day, everything is designed to be simple and intuitive. Of course, making amazing things simple requires some seriously advanced technologies, and OS X is loaded with them. Not only is it built on a rock-solid, time-tested UNIX foundation that provides unparalleled stability, it also delivers incredible performance, stunning graphics, and industry-leading support for Internet standards.

MAC OS X Lion Ease of Use

Easy access to all of your apps.

Working and playing on a Mac is all about apps, so OS X makes it simple to find and open those apps fast. The Dock is a handy place on your desktop for storing and launching your favorite apps, and it makes switching between them a breeze. The Dock also includes Stacks, folders that give you quick access to documents, files, and downloads. Launchpad is a full-screen home for all the apps on your Mac. It lets you arrange them the way you want, group them in folders, and delete them with ease. And apps purchased from the Mac App Store automatically appear in Launchpad, so you can browse thousands of apps and start using the ones you buy right away.

Getto dock

Find, organize, and share files fast.

The Finder gives you easy access to all the files on your system. It lets you find, organize, and access practically everything on your Mac — including applications, files, folders, discs, and shared computers on your network. You can sort files by kind, application, date modified, date added, or size. But with so many files on your computer, finding a specific one can be a challenge. Not on a Mac. Features like Spotlight and Quick Look make locating the file you’re looking for effortless — even if you don’t know the filename. Say you’re searching for a document, and the only thing you recall about it is the phrase “surrealist painters.” Open Spotlight, start typing “surrealist painters,” and your Mac generates a list of files that contain those words. And with Quick Look, you don’t need to open an application to verify that you’ve found the right file — view a full-screen preview by hitting the space bar. Want to share a file with someone nearby? Just drag and drop to send it to the person wirelessly with AirDrop.

Get quick access to drives, servers, and shared computers from the sidebar.

See everything running on your Mac. In an instant.

OS X offers systemwide support for gorgeous, full-screen apps that use every inch of your Mac display. You can have multiple full-screen apps open at once — along with multiple apps in windows. And it’s easy to switch between full-screen and desktop views. Mission Control gives you a bird’s-eye view of all your windows and full-screen apps, and allows you to instantly navigate among them.

Dashboard gives you quick access to your widgets.

Built-in apps you’ll use every day.

OS X also comes in a single version that includes a collection of Apple-designed applications. Not only do they let you surf the web, make video calls and have text chats, manage your contacts, and accomplish other day-to-day tasks, they also work together to make you more productive — and let you have more fun.

In what should be great news for the future of mobile devices, IBM has confirmed that it is working with ARM to design a new generation of mobile processors.

Saying that the next-gen chips will be “optimised for both performance and power efficiency”, they will be expected to facilitate extended battery life, uninterrupted Internet access, high end multimedia and support for secure online financial transactions. All pretty useful if IBM and ARM can make it work. Continue Reading

In a pre CES 2011 conference in the US, Asus has decided to introduce four new tablet PCs – the Eee Pad Slider, Eee Pad Transformer, Eee Pad MeMO and Eee Slate. First up, the Eee Pad Slider adopts a 10.1-inch IPS touch panel and a slide keyboard, and is equipped with Nvidia’s Tegra 2 dual-core processor with GeForce GPU.

The Eee Slate EP121 boasts a 12-inch widescreen and 1,280-by-800 resolution.

The machine is also equipped with Google’s Android 3.0 (Honeycomb) operating system with a weight of 886g, in addition it features two webcams, front and back, and for US customers will be priced at $499 to $799 (or around €375 to €600)

Continue Reading

Motherboard prices are set to see a spike in 2011, with well placed sources reporting that Taiwan-based mobo makers including Asus, Gigabyte and MSI all plan to react to rising raw material costs with price bumps of their own.

Asus motherboards – along with others – set to rise in price early next year.

In fact, the hikes are not only due to raw materials going up but also increasing “chipset and labour costs”, according to industry sources. Continue Reading

Handheld 3D gaming will be one of the big themes of 2011, with Japanese game developers Konami expected to provide plenty of the first wave of titles.

Batter up... 'Mobile Powerful Pro Baseball 3D' on the way.

Though, while most of us had expected Konami to hold their fire until the release Nintendo’s much anticipated 3DS, the company is set to release its debut 3D title, Mobile Powerful Pro Baseball 3D, for smartphones instead. Continue Reading

Mixed old day for Microsoft today, with plenty of positive headlines regarding rumours of the release of tablets running Windows 8 at CES 2011 followed by a report from Goldman Sachs that, financially speaking, the company may face an uncertain 2011.

Mixed Monday for Microsoft.

Not that Microsoft will go under or anything but seeing as we’re all experts in ‘the markets’ over here these days, we’ll know that if the people in those circles feel you’re a risk then it could mean that tough times are ahead. Continue Reading

The Acer Revo 100 media PC has been launched, coming into view with an AMD Athlon II Neo dual-core processor and featuring the Acer clear.fi application to boot, the latter of which allows for easy media sharing.

Sleek, contemporary... yadda, yadda, yadda

Like most new pieces of kit, we’re told it possesses a “sleek contemporary design”, though then again the odds of any company releasing something and saying it’s got a “gammy ‘70s design” is probably pretty small. Anyway, on with the Revo 100… Continue Reading

Gartner has predicted that e-reader shipments could reach 6.6 million units this year. According to the market research giants, global sales of the devices will hit that high by the end of the year, and in doing so, will have increased shipments by just under 80% form last year.

It added that the growth will continue into 2011, when e-reader sales could top 11 million, which will be a 68% increase against this year’s numbers. However, as you might expect, there was also a warning that the continuing emergence of the tablet PC market means that things could go pear-shaped for e-reader manufacturers soon enough. Continue Reading