OK

Im tempted by a home build based around my old ATI X600 card robbed out of other comp... But still dont know what port it has!

So stuff Id def need:
HDD
RAM (atleast 2GB)
PSU
Tower
Mobo
CPU
DVD Drive
Would be it right?

OR I can go for a pre built...

For £479.99 I can get...
AMD Athlon X2 4600
2GB RAM DDR2
250GB SATA HDD
ATI Radeon 3450 (512mb card)
DVD Drive
And Vista... Any good? Thats with a 19 inch TFT from argos...
Could I get higher spec cheaper? Or is looking on like Dell or EBuyer better?

What's your budget?

TBH I wouldn't bother trying to keep the X600 unless you're really stapped for cash, it's a mid range card from years ago and will be a massive bottleneck. The HD4650 is about £50 and is much, much better.

Vista is good, though it's a bit RAM heavy, my (fairly) clean install uses about 1.4GB with FF, Steam, XFire and AVG running, though it might just be using more becuase it has lots available.

Most taxing thing is either Spore/TF2/RA3 tbh...

And yeah, needs to be like 450 ish tops....

For an extra £70 onto the above i get an X2 5200, 3Gb RAM and 500gb SATA... dont really think its worth it tbh...

Do you need perhiperals in that £450? (Monitor, KB, Mouse?)

I'll do a quick spec up on eBuyer for an ultimate budget PC, for TF2 and RA3, a X600 is probably worth replacing.

The PC for my family now costs less than £450... and it includes a quad-core processor, 2GB of DDR2, 500GB HDD and a 4670.

Just specced up a quick system. For system unit only (no OS or perhiperals) you can do it for sub £300;

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/127656 (you may want to look around at the cases, just find one you like and make sure it hasn't decent fan options, also, I haven't included the fans you need here)
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/149199 (you can expect to be playing TF2 on high, possibly)
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/131300 (I assumed 250GB would be right for you, just buy the cheapest SATA at whatever GB you want, though I would recommend 250GB min)
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/148853 (maybe http://www.ebuyer.com/product/131128 if you can afford an extra £20, especially if you want Vista)
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/148800 (there are cheaper, but that's pretty cheap and a nice motherboard)
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/131052 (never skimp on PSUs)
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/132064 (or http://www.ebuyer.com/product/145258 if you can afford an extra £30, worth it)
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/149639 (cheapest SATA DVDRW)

That comes to ~£290 without the upgrades or fans. Fans are £1 a peice and you need 2, so that's nothing, really.

Other things;
If you have a copy of XP spare, use that, and save yourself £60 on Vista (there is the £40 ultimate steal one from MS, but that's upgrade, so you need XP anyway). If getting Vista, DO NOT GET HOME BASIC, Home Premium is a must. 64bit is up to you, I haven't had many issues with mine (only one driver incompatibility). If you get 4GB RAM, get 64bit. http://www.ebuyer.com/product/123052 or http://www.ebuyer.com/product/123067 (seems it's gone up a bit, and 64bit is now more expensive )
Periherals are entirely up to you. Could save some money and just use headphones instead of speakers.
You could go the AMD route, though the cheapest on eBuyer seems to be £80.

All in all, that system will do you excellently, and play modern games at a good framerate with nice settings.

Can I point out that skillers is wrong about vista upgrade, you can install it on its own, using a bit of magic. If you go down that route, I will write the guide to my magic

Ah, ok, well in that case, Vista Ultimate for £40 (32bit?);

http://www.microsoft.com/student/discou ... fault.aspx (additional products on the left).

Most likely, though i believe there is a 64bit upgrade for the XP Pro 64bit users.

Thanks Skillers

I'll be ordering that pretty soon then

As soon as my loan comes through probably... I think I have an XP disk somewhere, so ill stick with that for the time being! I still dont like Vista that much

That also leaves me with a cool £100 for a screen....

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/128571, http://www.ebuyer.com/product/148893

Seems most of the kit is around 1280x1024 or 1440x900.... Which would be better? All are about a similar price... Around the £100 mark. I think I could get my old 17inch CRT if its desperate! that would be 1280x1024 too... 17inch compared to 19 widescreen...

oooh... would http://www.ebuyer.com/product/141501 be worth the extra like £20? 1680x1050 20inch...

Upper most is probs this: http://www.ebuyer.com/product/149516 << Thats probably top of what i want to spend tbh....

No probs.

Definitely get one of the 20" ones. The extra screen real estate is well worth it, and once you've used one, you will never want to go back.

You may want to look up a few reviews for the monitors in your price range, to see which one is the best.

Wigo reckons the Asus one is pretty safe

So itll probably be that one taking the whole thing to about £400... which aint bad


EDIT: Dont need a screen Getting my old one back

What ize fans would be best? I dunno nything about that sort of thing! XD



ooooh, FANS!!!!

Would... these be ok? But they dont have screws O_o

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/23880


WAAAAAAAH That rams been discontinued!!! I needs some other shiz

Would http://www.ebuyer.com/product/129954 be ok?



ok?

I think that case support 1 120mm fan (front), 1 92mm fan (back) and 1 80mm fan (side). This is only by eye/measuring stuff for comparison, so don't hold me me accountable for that. Just get the cheapest of each to save moeny (from here). If they don't have screws, you can probably find some locally in a hardware store (BnQ style).

As for RAM, seems like you're getting the 4GB now.

All ordered!

Should be on by tuesday evening all things going to plan!

Must post pics.

So 3.5GB ram system then.

Jeez, id have thought youd have at least given him the warning

We did, the 2GB kit was discontinued and the 4GB kit wasn't much more, so it was worth it, even if half a gig can't be used.

Looks like a very good system to me. You'll be totally hooked on TF2 now

Well its here and up and running Posting from it actually


























Is the main bulk of the build, clikc the thubs for larger Currently running my old x600 as opposed to the HD4670 as the screen I use is VGA not DVI (should get a converter soon). Also I'm running with one fan down (coz im lazy) and i havent perfected the wires being tidyed yet Hope you like the pics This is my room and desk btw

Techno pics with stuff I don't understand.

Looks good. :p

Got any pics of the inside after you have completed the wiring? Cos they're usually pretty good pics, lol.

Very nice!

Will do when I sort out the graphics and hook in the other fan lol

Should be sometimes near the end of this week maybe

Well.... I finally got my converter today

Tucked as much wiring as I could up between the CPU and DVD Drive, and managed to hide most of the other wires down at the bottom, the only two that aren't hidden are the front sound ports (which have to go to the back for some reason) and the main fan cables.








Can someone tell me how to hook up the front USB ports tho? They have the icons on below...



But I have 10 pins
(X = no pin, O = Pin)
1
OO
OO
OO
OO
XO < 10

pins 1 and 2 are power (5V)
3 is USB DX-
4 is USB DY-
5 is USB DX+
6 is USB DY+
7 and 8 are GND (I dunno what a GND is)
9 is no pin
10 is NC (Which i assume is Not Connected)

Any help about where to put the plugs? O_o

There should be some 9 pin headers on the board (5x2) with one pin missing (I think it's 2nd from the end, but could be first). You simply line up the "key" slot to that missing pin and plug it in. Read your mobo manual for where the headers are, it's all in pictures anyway, and tells you the pinout aswell, usually.

GND is ground.

I just <LOOK MA, I AM SWEARING> said all that in the post above? O_o Thats what it SAYS in my mobo manual about the front USB connections.... other than that theres nothing there...