Low budget pc help (first buy/build :o)

[Dird]

Hi guys,

I've been looking into buying & building a new pc (my first alone 囧) for a while now because my current pc cant even stream (youtube-esque) videos smoothly and everything just messes up after a while until I reboot (even though im just browsing the net/iM...). The reason I've put up with it so long is because I wanted to see if the boxing days sales on western sites would better china's equivalent of amazon (but they havent as far as I've seen).

So I was looking for opinions on the best build possible for $310-470 (according to google conversion, 200-300uk), I guess excluding case. I guess I could push to around $550 if must.

I want it for dated games (QuakeLive, UT2004) and SC2/DOTA2 at 1280*960; then Java/PHP development & playing with Oracle. Occassionally video rendering but I'm not too bothered about getting a render completion from 4 hours to 1 by paying $$$.

So far I'm thinking: gtx550ti, 4gb ram (1400 cheaper than 1333～)
for CPUs: 955, i3-2120, i5-2300 (budget pushing...)?
500w psu should be enough right? 400w?

I don't mind second hand if you guys know some good parts sold cheaply, but I live in China now so shipping costs might wipe away some of the cheapness :s nobody at work self-builds so they dont know any site for 2nd hand parts in china

I have no plans to OC～

 

[Mousemonkey]

This topic has been moved from the section CPU & Components to section Systems by Mousemonkey

 

[Dird]

oh, wrong section :x any suggestions? =(

 

[majorgibly]

Whatever you do get a decent PSU, clean power is always a must.

 

[Dird]

Right now I'm thinking HD 6790 (a GPU article hear said it was best value at that range)...still not sure with CPU (expensive `-`). What do you class as a decent PSU? more power or a known brand? i can get a corsair 500w for $60 or an unknown (in the west) chinese brand's 500w for below $30 here...although its unknown it has 280 reviews with the average review almost 5/5 stars～