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Hi guys

i've decided to upgrade my PC on a budget, purely so it's usable for Movies, internet, and i want to be able to run the newest games out. my current 450mhz is increasinly showing it's age so gonna spash out with an upgrade.

i'm ooooookay with pc's ( ) but everything moves sooooo fast i'm a bit behind since i last took any interest in hardware.

i started off with a budget of £300, but after a few little add-ons i've ended up closer to £500.

this is what i've decided on but any comments welcome...

CPU:
AMD Athlon 64 3500+ Socket939 , Venice Core, 2.2GHz , 512KB Cache, Retail £74.60

HD:
250 Gb Samsung SP2504C SpinPoint P120, SATA300, 7200 rpm, 8MB Cache, 9.0 ms, NCQ £50.83

Graphics Card:
256Mb XFX 7600GS Mem Clock 800 MHz, GPU 400 MHz, 12 Pipes Dual Link DVI, S-Video/TV Out £75.20

PSU:
430w Seasonic S12-430 aPFC PSU Silent ATX2.0 £41.00

MoBo:
ASUS M2V VIA K8T890, Socket AM2, PCI-E (x16), DDR2 800, SATA I / II, SATA RAID, ATX £57.15

Memory:
1GB (2X512MB) Corsair TwinX XMS2, DDR2 PC5400 (667), 240 Pin, Non-ECC Unbuffered, CAS 4-4-4-12 £70.21

the only part i've bought so far is a thermaltake soprano case for it and then i've got my CD/DVD drives, monitor etc from this pc which should be fine.

As i said i've sortof bundled my way through confusion to befuddlement to get this list so it wouldn't suprise me if i've done a massive compatibility boo boo

this all comes to £380 and that's without my case so please don't tell me i should spend more unless you know somewhere cheaper than scan for these parts

Any comments welcome

p.s sorry for the long post

That configuration will be fine for your usage, but I recommend you get 2GB of RAM instead 1GB if you have plan on running Windows Vista. Vista will be a huge resource hog, with a lot of usele.. oops, new features in it.

You don't need 'hardcore gamer' memory, 667Mhz is the spec to watch, 2x 1GB.

You should take a look at dual-core processors from Intel if you can, the Pentium D line will require some fancy cooling gear but the prices are dropping fast since they introduced their 'Core' line of processors. If you're only running Windows, it's best to have two 32-bit cores than one 64-bit core because Windows doesn't do 64-bit yet. (Well to be totally honest there's a version of it that does, but it's bad at it and hw driver compatibility is a nightmare).

Hope this helps.

thanks dude/dudette (your name always confused me )

i did notice after i posted the list that i need an AM2 proccessor, AMD do basicaly the same one for an AM2 mobo but about £5 more

i think i'll leave the 2gb of ram for now, but i might add more if i do upgrade to vista in the future, but i reckon 1gb should do me okay for my xp at the moment without breaking the bank

First off i'd make sure you spend your money on the Motherboard / Graphics Card / Power Supply and then worry about costing in CPU/Memory/HD

You'll need a sturdy PSU, i recommend anything from Antec, ThermalTake, Enermax or SilentX. Don't buy a Qtec. Get anything over 480W, i would recommend a Enermax 600W Silent PSU (£70).

Buy a AMD AM2 Motherboard, from Asus and get PCI-E or SLI, then get a AMD 64bit AMD2 3500+ (id try to go for the 3700+ if u can its an amazingly good overclocker).

Once you've got these i would look at your graphics card.

The 7600 range is a really cut down 7800, the 7600GS has either 8 or 12 pipelines, the new cards coming out have 16-32 pipelines.. alot more..

I would buy a ATI X800GTO2 or X850 256MB (similiar cost - more powerful), and then look at getting ur hard drive and memory (as you can upgrade or add to these later on..

Also, the previous post about Intel Dual Cores, is a correct one, they are VERY cheap, you can pickup a Dual Core 2.8Ghz (2.8Ghz) off ebuyer with 2mb cache for £85.. and they overclock well as well (3.6-4ghz on air)

My friend has one of these processors and he sets the second processor to run the game he is going to play.. so that game alone has pure 2.8Ghz power.. lush! - and they are ALOT cheaper than AMD dual cores ALOT cheaper!..

I'd get this:
ASUS P5WD2 PREMIUM SKT775 1066FSB Intel 955x Chipset PCI-E DDR2-800 Dual GB-LAN Dual RAID *Dual Core CPU Ready*

Intel Pentium D 920 (BX80553920) Dual Core 2.80GHz FSB 800 2 X 2Mb LGA

Sapphire X1800GTO 256mb Dual DVI VIVO PCI-E

Corsair (VS1GBKIT533D2), 1GB Kit (2 x 512MB) DDR2, PC4200, 533 MHz, 2x64Mx64, non-ECC, 240 DIMM, unbuffered

Western Digital WD1600JS Caviar SE 160GB 7200RPM SATA2/300 8MB Cache - OEM

Total including delivery = £500.12

If you added another £30 on that you'd get a 250GB HDD and 1GB of Corsair gaming performance memory (faster)