Hi, i am new to the forum and stuff on here, and have spent a few hours looking through all the posts, and i must say it seems friendly and full of advice. Basically this is going to sound a bit cheeky, but i am wanting to build a pc, a 'decent' one if i can, with a budget of about 500 pounds.

A few things to remember when giving me advice, if you do that is.

I am not very good at the inside of a case, and the workings, i know very little.
I want to make this my profession, as i am a young A-level student studying I.T and Business
(ALL THE PARTS I HAVE LISTED ARE OF OF EBUYER.CO.UK, THE QUICKFIND CODE IS IN BRACKETS
)

Ok, i will start by telling you what i have found with advice from people, i will start with the processor and motherboard, i want to stick with a Pentium 4 processor, preferably a 3.2GHZ, and a gigabyte motherboard,

Intel Pentium 4 3.2GHz (Prescott) Socket 478 FSB800 1MB Cache Retail Boxed CPU (58515) around 150pounds

Gigabyte GA-8IPE1000g S478 I865PE ATX Sound GIG LAN USB 2.0 FSB800 SATA100 Retail Box (62518) around 55 pounds

Hopefully, if i explain what i want if someone would kindly look at the motherboard, they can tell me if it is ok, i want that processor to fit, also i would ideally like a dvd-rom drive, then a re-writer drive, along with a hard drive, and a media/floppy media drive bay, i have no idea what connections these use, which is why i would like the advice, the re-write drive i was looking at is:

LG GSA-4167BAL 16x DVD±RW Dual Layer Internal IDE (Black) - OEM (97237) around 33 pounds

The hard drive i was looking at is:

Western Digital Caviar SE 250GB UIDE 100 7200rpm 8mb Cache- OEM (47656) around 73 pounds

Then i come onto the ram subject, i would ideally like 1gb, this is listed below, and ideally like to know how many slots there are in plain terms that i can understand:

Kingston 1GB DDR PC3200 400MHz Non-ECC CL3 (3-3-3) 184pin DIMM's (Kit of 2 x 512mb) (49296) around 70 pounds

Now i move into one of my most important issues, is that i want to 'pimp' or mod the case, with fans and lights, the works, i was looking at the following case, and i think it fits the desired motherboard above:

Ebuyer Extra Value 0314TL-BB ATX Gaming Case in Black with USB/Audio/1394 Side window and 350w PSU(no power cord) (91831) around 40 pounds

Obviously i will be removing the PSU and replacing it with this one i found below:

Ebuyer 600w Power Supply Blue With Tri Colour Dual Fans (61300) around 13 pounds




So there i think i have just covered the basics, here is a spec i want:

Pentium 4 3.2GHZ processor
Decent motherboard with expansion (LOL, sorry to sound sill and un-technical)
Preferably 120gb-250gb hard drive
1gb ram, preferably more
Re-writer drive
Case + P.S.U


I was also wanting to know about sound and graphics cards, i hear some have built in one's and just wandering whether this does? if not what one's should i buy that fit, i will be grateful for any responses i get, feel free to e-mail me (mucks edit: email removed for your protection)

Thanks very much

first thing, i'd remove your email unless you want to be spammed to death

AMD will give you the best performance for the money you want to spend, what you have listed is fine but you havent got a graphics card ?

also dont even bother wasting your time with that £13 PSU, get a Tagan, Enermax or Antec 450W one, it will be expensive but with what you want to add to your case your going to need a decent PSU

Gigabyte boards vary in quality.
AMD processors better value/performance than Intel, imo.
That '600W' PSU is a piece of crap, you're probably better off keeping the one in the case.
The NEC 3540 DVDRW is way better than the LG drive.
If you're on a budget you don't really need an extra DVD ROM drive.
Which grafix card?
Monitor?
SATA hard drive preferable to PATA drive.
The memory is fine.

And you're going to use E-Buyer.

Hmm.

Ok, take a look around the forum, esecially at what people have listed for their systems, or maybe ask here for somebody to spec you a machine to suit your budget.

Please don't go down the path you've chosen at the moment, it'll end in tears.

And if you do insist on an Intel processor, consider using an Asus motherboard with it.

Finally, with that budget, there isn't going to be a lot left to pay for modding your machine.

ok, thanks for the critiscm.

Well if anyonw would like to spec me a machine then?, the reason i got that p.s.u is because it was like all blue and l.e.d so nit wud go with my case, so anyone like to do me a spec?

ok, this is just a rough estimate using prices at www.overclockers.co.uk

Asus A8N-E £75
AMD Athlon64 3000 £105
1GB Geil Value £75
Samsung 120GB SATA-II HD £60
Leadtek Winfast 6600GT (PCI-E)£105
Plextor PX-740A DVD-RW £50
Tagan 420W I-XEYE PSU £60

thats £530

or for an Intel system using the other bits above and

Asus P4P800-E Deluxe £80
Intel 3Ghz prescott £120
Leadtek Winfast 6600GT (AGP) £110

thats £555

obviously you'll need a case and OS, plus all the other peripherals if you havent got them so your looking at about £600+ for either system depending where you get it all from

Hey, that wasn't criticism, that was advice

Both of the systems Me__2001 has specced are excellent for your budget.

The Plextor DVDRW is a fine burner, but if you want to stay a little more within budget, go NEC or Pioneer as both are good burners and proven.

If you went for either of those, and went AMD, your price would be £510.00. Plus postage

Might be good to wait for a little more feedback off the other guys here as well.

What about other items like the monitor, keyboard, mouse etc, if you do not have them you will be over budget anyway. Could you clarify that?

ok, thanks.

Could i have like a list of sites or links where you get your stuff from, once i have, if i do manage to build this succesfully, i will be making sveral more.

Also i want to keep the ase i said about, unless i find a better one, also i want to keep the Intel Pentium 4 3.2 GHZ processor,

Also it is just the base unit i want, i have other arrangements for the periphals and monitor,

cheers...

Here’s a few to be going on with…

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/

http://www.kustompcs.co.uk/

http://www.chillblast.com/home.php

http://www.overclock.co.uk/customer/home.php

http://www.scan.co.uk/

http://www.komplett.co.uk/k/k.asp

http://www.tekheads.co.uk/s/index

http://www.crucial.com/uk/

i was using prices from www.overclockers.co.uk, some of the others on here use www.overclock.co.uk, www.ebuyer.com, www.techfever.co.uk and www.aria.co.uk

if your going to go the intel route, what are your thoughts on future upgrades ? the system i specced was using the old 478pin boards, if you want to go faster later then youll need to spend more now on the new LGA775 boards as the 478 maxes out at 3.2Ghz