£450 to spend on a newbuild -- please help

[dirtya1]

Hello guys,

I have been told to sign up and post on this site because you were highly recommended by a friend!

I would much appreciate any help on this subject.

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I have a budget of £450

I already have:

windows xp, dvdrw drive, dvd drive, atx case (a bit shoddy) all taken from my old system.


the budget i would like to spend building a new system that will give me the best performance for the ££££


Thanks for your time.

dirtya1

 

[homerdog]

First off, welcome! I think you've come to the right place.

Considering that you have an OS, case, and optical drives you should be able to put together a decent system. We'll need a bit of information before any recommendations can be made though.

1) Are you interested in overclocking? If so you can save a lot of money on the processor without losing any performance. I would highly recommend it.

2) Do you plan to play games on it? I assume you do but I have made assumptions before and been totally off the mark.

Actually if you could answer those two questions I can start to make some suggestions for parts and such.

 

[dirtya1]

Thanks for the welcome homerdog.

I am indeed wanting to play games on it, I also am interested in overclocking.

 

[homerdog]

Very good. I'll be going by prices in the U.S., so you may have to change a couple of things to stay in your budget.

Processor: Core 2 Quad Q6600. This is the best bang for your buck processor out there, and it overclocks very well. There are 2 versions (steppings) of this CPU; the old B3 and the new G0. They are the same price, but the G0 runs cooler and overclocks better. It's hard to tell which one you will get until you have the box in your hands, but some online resellers will guarantee a G0 stepping.

Motherboard: GIGABYTE GA-P35-DS3L. The newer X38 chipset is good, but the few advantages it has over the P35 don't justify the price difference. The DS3 series from Gigabyte is known for its great overclocking and stability. There is a more expensive DS3R version that has a couple of extra features such as RAID and more SATA ports (for hard drives) but you probably don't need it.

Memory: Crucial Ballistix 2 x 1GB DDR2 800. RAM prices are unbelievable these days. Go for at least 2GB of quality DDR2 800 RAM like this. You will need to add another 2GB at a later date, but not until you move up to a 64-bit OS.

Graphics Card: Nvidia 8800gt. This is the card that puts everything else to shame. It performs almost as well as the $500 8800GTX for half the price. Unfortunately it is very hard to find in stock right now and most resellers are jacking up the prices accordingly. A good alternative is the AMD HD3750. It isn't as fast but it's also cheaper and easier to find.

Hard Drive: SAMSUNG 500GB. It's hard to go wrong here. I'm just linking this Samsung drive as an example; any 400+GB SATA drive will suite you fine.

Power Supply: Corsair VX450. I'm a huge fan of this PSU. Don't be fooled by the lowly 450W rating; this baby has 33 Amps on a single 12V rail, which is enough for any system with a single graphics card.

This setup should keep you well within your budget, so you have room for a couple of extras like a sound card or a better heatsink for your processor.

 

[medamorg]

I agree with what homerdog said. I would probably go with a different processor since you are wanting to overclock. If you are new to the whole experience do a ton a research before you pull the trigger. The E2180 is a good choice for OC'ing. If you can wait about a week Intel is releasing the E2200 which will give you 1x higher multiplier and probably move overclockability.

Just my 2 cents worth. Good luck!!!

 

[dirtya1]

great info guys

thanks very much!