The £250 challenge: and the winner is...

 

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By Stuart Turton

Posted on 7 May 2009 at 12:32

In January we set four intrepid PC Pro reporters the task of building the best PC they could for only £250, with the winner being decided by public vote. Well the votes are in and we can finally announce the winner.

Given the drama involved in finding, building and buying the machines it seems only fair we run through the results in reverse order.

5. The Free PC

Propping up the foot of the table is senior news reporter Stuart Turton, whose unenviable task was to set a benchmark for the rest of the field by acquiring a PC for free. Dubbed the Goodwill PC, his Pentium II monster was donated through recycling site Freecycle. Slow and ugly, it clearly didn't find favour with the voters. Find out why Turton's not taking the loss well on our blogs.

4. High Street Store

Kept off the bottom of the table by Turton's behemoth machine was deputy editor David Fearon. He was tasked with haggling with London's notoriously stingy high-street shops to source the best machine he could. What he delivered was an Acer Aspire laptop with a 14in screen and enough under the hood to run Vista. Not bad, but clearly not good enough.

3. Online store

Peripherals editor David Bayon was the man charged with trawling online stores to find a PC fresh out of its wrapping. After badgering Dell staff on the Live Chat facility for a discount, he turned his attentions to Tesco Direct, Amazon and Asda. In the end, it was a Zoostorm desktop which caught his eye. A machine damned by editor and judge Tim Danton as "boring". Obviously, many of you felt the same.

2. Second hand

So close, but so far. Components editor Darien Graham-Smith squeaks into second place with his eBay-bought Compaq Presario. Aside from a healthy specification, the Presario also impressed with a healthy bundle of peripherals that Darien was sure to tout around the office at every possible opportunity.

1. Build-your-own

When staff writer Mike Jennings was handed the £250 and asked to build his own PC, his eyes lit up. There's no denying this challenge was right up his street and whatever its faults, there's no denying "The Warrior" PC was made with love. The E5200 processor was overclocked, extra lights and fans fitted and a tremendous amount of time lavished on the details. There's no doubt The Warrior is a worthy winner. Find out Jennings' thoughts on his blog.

Thank you to everybody who voted in the £250 challenge, we'll be announcing our prize winners shortly.