looking to build a pc on a budget, any advice.

[leey2ki]

ok seeing how my pc is in need of upgrades and my hard drives just died, ive decided im gonna build a new pc, but i want to do as cheap as possible really.

im looking to have atleast a 2ghz processor, 1gig memory, 128(possibly 256)mb video/graphics card(for gaming), sound im not too fussy for at the minute, ill live with on board sound, and a 120gig hard drive(again atleast)

does anybody have any reccomendations of particular parts that are great value for money(this also includes new motherboard by the way)

thanks in advance.

 

[Covenant]

Leey2ki

Ooo, you mentioned the g-word. You can build a perfectly decent machine nowadays for £200 or less, but when it comes to gaming you will have to dig a bit deeper for the graphics card.
Case and 400w psu = £30 but I would spend a bit more to get a decent PSU
AMD skt940 Athlon 3500 = £65 or less
MSI K89 pci-e mobo with onboard sound = £50
1gb Kingston DDR2 memory = £73
160gb hard drive, various makes = less than £40
DVD-RW = about £25
You didn't say what games you play but something like a 256mb Nvidia 7600gt will be around about £115, but you can still get 6600gt cards for about £85.

Covenant

 

[michael 118]

Leey2ki


160gb hard drive, various makes = less than £40
DVD-RW = about £25
You didn't say what games you play but something like a 256mb Nvidia 7600gt will be around about £115, but you can still get 6600gt cards for about £85.

Covenant

Do you really need 160gb? 80gb hd lasted me 3, nearly 4 years .
You can get slightly cheaper dvd's and if your gaming you'll be using the dvd drive quite alot, best to get 2 to be on the safe side...
Yes you can get the 7600GT relatively cheap, but it looks like his mobo will be AGP slot (on a £200 budget). So it will probably be more expensive (Especially nvidias 7-series) than a PCI version of the card.



In fact the pc i bought was 2.0Ghz, 512 ram and 32mb graphics. That was almost 4 years ago and it cost around £500.

Just to put it into perspective for you

 

[Covenant]

Michael118.

The m/board I quoted for was PCI-E so I tried to find a reasonably cheap graphics card to go with it, but trying to do a reasonably priced system for gaming is extremely hard

Yeah - £500 back then must have hurt especially when you come to upgrade now and find the bits are not worth a huge amount or even worse they are obsolete. If I look around my shed at the amount of SD Ram just sitting there, it makes me want to weep.

Mind you, when I first bought a memory upgrade, it was £30 for one megabyte

Covenant

 

[michael 118]

Michael118.

The m/board I quoted for was PCI-E so I tried to find a reasonably cheap graphics card to go with it, but trying to do a reasonably priced system for gaming is extremely hard

Mind you, when I first bought a memory upgrade, it was £30 for one megabyte

Covenant

Oh right, should of looked.

yeah tell me about it, im trying to make a decent gaming machine with dual core and SLI.... about 800 at the moment.

but its like a billion more £ with vat and delivery. Damn

 

[leey2ki]

cheers.

i have a case and a new power supply, also have a recently bought dvd drive too, its basically, motherboard, cupu/heatsink-fan, graphics, memory, motheboard and hard drive.

cheers for the heads up of stuff, will definately look into it.

and yeah a big hard drive for me is needed, most games i play need like 1.5gig upto 3+gig, i also make music on my pc too.

 

[murdoch]

Have a look @ www.novatech.co.uk

 

[leey2ki]

im quite surprised how cheap some products are on that site, cheers mate, very much appreciated.

i think my motherboards full atx but im not sure, could somebody maybe shed some light on this?? i have the gigabyte ga 7n400

im asking because i cant find the info anywhere and im hoping to use this case to basically save on money untill i can find a better paying job and also one that isnt 2 sometimes 3 days a week, so as you can imagine this is majour budget lol. thanks in advance.

 

[Covenant]

Specs here
If it has more than 3 pci slots then it's probably a full size ATX.
Appears to be a Socket A board using ddr memory.
You might find difficulty getting a processor for it from the normal retail channels.
IMO if you havn't yet bought the rest of the bits, you might be better off selling the Gigabyte board on and getting an AM2 socket mobo. At least the cpu's for these are reasonably cheap so you could get a cheaper one to start with and upgrade later funds permitting. You would also get a Pci-express graphics slot, which means a bigger choice of graphics cards. If you bought bits for the Gigabyte board you would be buying into older technology such as DDR memory and AGP.

But then, if you are strapped for cash you have to do the best you can. Try advertising in the For Sale/Wanted forum.

Covenant

 

[leey2ki]

im looking to upgrade everything(motherboard included) except for my power supply, case and dvd drive.

if i look to sell how much do you think i could get for the motherboard.

a 1.6ghz amd processor(i dont know EXACTLY what it is but im sure its a duron)

512mb ram

and nvidia 64mb video card.

unfortunately i cant check full details since my hard drive is dead and wont let me get on to check the system information bit and i have none of the original boxes

 

[leey2ki]

im concidering this bundle to get me started, will allow some time to save up for better graphics card aswell.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/AMD-Sempron-3...QQihZ001QQcategoryZ131522QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

edit: also concidering this one

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/RETAIL-AMD-AM...QQihZ007QQcategoryZ131522QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

im gonna keep looking before deciding though.

 

[Covenant]

Thats just over £100. Before parting with any money I would like to find out what the motherboard is, and if the onboard graphics uses system memory or not.
If it does use system memory then CCl Online do an Abit NF95 mobo with integrated 6100 graphics using system memory, with an Athlon 64 bit cpu (not Sempron) for about the same price. You would have to get memory - the same as for the ebay kit but note, it will be ordinary ddr, again, the same as the ebay mobo.

Hope this makes sense

Covenant

 

[leey2ki]

in all hnesty i havent kept up to date on whats what since i bought my stuff when the motherboard first came out, so i have absolutely no clue what all the new stuff is(amd sempron, 64 e.t.c) so i havent got much clue which is faster and what not

thanks for all the help so far, and apologies if i seem really slow lol.

 

[Covenant]

Sempron is the baby brother. Athlon is the daddy.


Covenant

 

[leey2ki]

ah ok cool.

i also see variations of the amd 64, but after taking everything in i think ive got a much better idea as to whats what, cheers for all the help.

now time to try sell the old gear and increase the funds.

 

[Covenant]

Best of luck and let us know what you end up with.


Covenant