help with budget living room pc

[jetlee]

i'm putting together a cheap pc for family to check their email and browse on, it will be running xp. i might occasionally use it to play a game or two, photoshop, maybe light 3d work and do things that i can't use my mac for. target price is around £250, i have a 20" tft to use with it already.

i plan to shop at ebuyer.co.uk

i want it to be intel based, best i can afford is 4500. so i can choose between 2160, 2170, 2200 and 4500. does any one of these overclock exceptionally well? i will decide which cpu i get after i know how much everything else adds up to.

ram will be 2gb £35 http://www.ebuyer.com/product/116755

hdd will be 250gb SATA around £40, no idea which one... there are so many to choose from, can someone recommend a brand/line?

graphics card (not really necessary, but i've been deprived of games because of my mac for too long now), i have no idea which one! i don't want to spend more than £50.

mobo will need; intel 775, ddr2 (up to a decent speed), sata and pcie. decent amount of usb, ethernet and all the standard stuff. no idea which one to go for, this is the one component that has me most confused. mini-atx, wouldn't hurt and neither would an ide.. but these are not important.

power supply, just tell me roughly how many watts it should be and i should be able to figure it out or if you're feeling helpful, you could recommend something suitable and quiet.

estimations...
ram - 35
hdd - 40
mobo - 40
psu - 25
case - 30
= 150
cpu - ?
gfx - ? (low end ati, might be good.. could keep price closer to 200 this way)
might throw a card reader, sound card and dvdrw onto it if i have enough cash left over.

i'd like to make the order before i go to bed tonight, any help would be greatly appreciated!

 

[g-paw]

Not sure of prices over there so I may come in high. Suggest a P35 mobo, either the Gigabyte p35 DS3L or ASUS P5k. The ASUS is more expensive but has 3 PCI slots and other features. If your case with take an ATX mobo, you better other than with a mATX. If you want onboard video or something like a small HTPC case, then the mATX mobo is necessary. I would get at least Tier II PSU in the 450w - 500w range given your budget. A DATA makes good inexpensive RAM. For the GPU look at the ATI 3850, 8800GT, but I wouldn't go less that an 8600GT

 

[tlmck]

RAM = http://www.ebuyer.com/product/116755 = 35.00
PSU = http://www.ebuyer.com/product/120375 = 31.15
MB = http://www.ebuyer.com/product/132272 = 38.25
HDD = http://www.ebuyer.com/product/124732 = 39.58
CPU = http://www.ebuyer.com/product/141242 = 41.66
GFX = http://www.ebuyer.com/product/126987 = 39.99
Case = http://www.ebuyer.com/product/125959 = 9.99

235.62. Best I could do. Had to pick Antec PSU as I am unfamiliar with the other low cost brands. Antec is very good quality. MB has decent on board GFX if you wanted to wait on the vid card. There are less expensive GFX cards, but not for gaming. 8500gt is about the bottom end.

 

[roadrunner197069]

For a livingroom computer I would get the 8500GT with HDMI out for the graphic card. Then you can add a big HD TV later. Mine has e2180 OC to 3.33 Asus P5K SE mobo, 2g PC6400 Ram, 580G HDD with 70 DvDs on the HDDs, DvD burner, Vista Ultimate, and a 42" LCD HDTV. Soon I will add a LG combo drive for HD/ Blueray movies. Total in the computer is $650 USD. I,m not sure what that converts to but it is a very sweet living room media center.