PC Buying Guide – under Rs 25000
Jun 21st, 2007 by Ashok
So, you are on a budget and you need the best value for money rig. Well, you have landed at the right place.
As the title reads, the budget limit is Rs 25,000.
1) Lets start with AMD
- Processor : AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ – Priced at Rs 3850
- Motherboard : Asus – M2N MX (Onboard Graphics) – Price Rs 3300
- Hard Disk Drive : 250 GB Seagate SATA2, 16 MB buffer – Price Rs 2900
- RAM : 512 MB Trascend DDR2 @ 667 Mhz – Price Rs 850
- Optical Drive : Sony 18x DVD writer (DRU-835) or Lite-on 20x DVD Writer (LH-20A1P) – Price Rs 1650
- Monitor : Samsung 17 inch CRT Flat Screen (Samsung 798 Magic Bright) – Price Rs 5700
- Speakers : Altec Lans 121i – 2.1 (2 speakers one woofer) – Price Rs 980
- Keyboard and Mouse : Logitech Combo pack – Price Rs 850
- Uninterupted Power Supply (UPS) : Powersafe 600 VA – Rs 2200
- Cabinet and SMPS : Zebronic with 400W power supply – Rs 1600
The total adds up to Rs 23800 plus 4% VAT which is Rs 952..
Total cost of your AMD PC – Rs 24752
I Recommend – If you could push your budget further by Rs 5000. You can go for 1 GB DD2 @ 667 Mhz – Priced at Rs 1600. Also you could get yourself a sleek LCD monitor. Viewsonic 17 inch widescreen LCD costs around Rs 8000.
If you can afford consider getting the AMD Athlon 4200+ X2, the performance gain is huge compared to the 3800+ X2. The AMD 4200+ X2 costs around 4800 rupees.
2) Next up is Intel
- Processor : Intel Core 2 Duo e4300 1.8 Ghz – Priced at Rs 4500
- Motherboard : Intel D945G (Onboard Graphics) – Price Rs 3600
- Hard Disk Drive : 160 GB Seagate SATA2, 8 MB buffer – Price Rs 2100
- RAM : 512 MB Trascend DDR2 @ 667 Mhz – Price Rs 850
- Optical Drive : Sony 18x DVD writer (DRU-835) or Lite-on 20x DVD Writer (LH-20A1P) – Price Rs 1650
- Monitor : Samsung 17 inch CRT Flat Screen (Samsung 798 Magic Bright) – Price Rs 5700
- Speakers : Altec Lans 121i – 2.1 (2 speakers one woofer) – Price Rs 980
- Keyboard and Mouse : Logitech Combo pack – Price Rs 850
- Uninterupted Power Supply (UPS) : Powersafe 600 VA – Rs 2200
- Cabinet and SMPS – Zebronic with 400W power supply – Rs 1600
The total adds up to Rs 24030 plus 4% VAT which is Rs 961..
Your Intel Core 2 Duo PC will cost you Rs 24991.. wow
Remember your sacrificing a 90 GB of storage space to get the Intel Core 2 Duo.
I Recommend – Again, if you could push your budget by 5 to 7 thousand rupees, then you could very well get yourself a much better rig (Performance wise).
With a budget of Rs 32000, you could get the latest 965 chipset. Get either the Intel D965RY (Rs 4900) or ASUS 650i Ultra (Rs 5200). I recommend the Asus board.
And also, get a 250 GB Seagate Hard disk. Cost per GB is lesser. 250 GB along with 300 GB are the best value for money hard disks in the market currently.
160 GB – Rs 2100 – Rs 13.2 / GB
250 GB – Rs 2900 – Rs 11.6 / GB
300 GB – Rs 3550 – Rs 11.9 / GB
400 GB – Rs 5300 – Rs 13.5 / GB
You could also get 1 GB RAM and a LCD monitor. Read AMD ‘I recommend’ above for more.
Finally, Intel or AMD?
Tough. Tough. Tough. I’d go with AMD, as this is a budget rig and AMD offers great value for money. If you have plans of overclocking though, get the Intel without hesistation. But remember, a overclocked processor voids warranty. Google for more on overclocking.
Hope this guide helps.
Next week – Watch out for PC under Rs 40,000 buying guide.
Excellent calculation there!!
Very helpful guide. Your choices are very good.
Looking forward for your next guide.
Which one will be more faster among these two ?
its cool man…but do we really get 1gb ram for Rs 1600..
AMD by a slight margin..
AMD is easily 15% cheaper than Intel..
But then, if you overclock the e4300 it rocks. But you have to invest on a good motherboard like Asus P5B Sli or Deluxe (Rs 7500 – Rs 10000) which doesnt have on board graphics. So the overall cost goes upto 40 to 45k
Good review,
suggest if you can add location based pricing info… say for metro cities.
For people using peripherals like AIOs and similar usb devices non-Intel m-boards are fine
& those who still use old/ obsolete printers.. i recommend sticking to Intel for compatibilty reasons.
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hey awesome guide man but you haven’t mentioned where to buy these parts from. also this is a assembled computer so no support. Next the prices varies from place to place a few 100+ or -. Could you do a laptop series. I am looking to buy a new one in the coming months. Dell lets you customise you laptop I don’t know about other vendors. they seem to have fixed configs.
The prices that i have mentioned are from S.P Road, Bangalore.
Regarding laptop, Dell lets you customize their lappies, but the problem is delivery and service. After you place the order you need to wait for a good 2 weeks for delivery. And the after sales service is strictly ok.
Get a Sony or a HP
Can we make our own laptop ??
@Shailendra
Yes, you do need 1 gb of RAM especially if your planning to upgrade to Windows Vista. I recently installed Vista Ultimate Edition on my AMD (5200+ X2) and on standby without any applications running (With Aero Themes on) the memory usage was around 850 mb.
Even otherwise if you plan to upgrade your PC or buy a new one 1 GB is bear minimum these days.
1 gb DDR2 was costing around Rs 4500, just a month ago. RAM prices (only DDR2) have crashed by more than 60% in the last one month.
@Insomniac
What do you mean by make our own laptop? Do you mean assemble laptops just like desktop PCs? If yes, its possible but not recommended.
Why dont you check out http://www.dell.co.in DELL allows you to customise your configuration.
Hi, nice review, but again for people who want a dedicated graphics card what are the alternatives (i.e motherboard and G.Cards) and the graphics card in the motherboard which one is it.?
Another Q, I see u have failed to mention the cost of the OS.
Considering that people may now to finally go for a legitimate OS.
Linux is free but i don’t know whether people are ready to shed their prejudices.
Good review none the less probably one of the few poeple who are not obsessed with intel.
Thanks Rahul..
I did not include the OS here cos this article comes under the Computer Hardware Category.
Also, expect a article on Operating Systems shortly.
Hey any plans of updating the list..i think the intel prices have gone down..