Build for brother

Jun 14, 2003
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My bro wants to build himself a new computer for uni (now i already explained to him the merits of laptops and the dell out let, but he's quite set on this so im gonna see what i can come up with for his budget)

he also wants to take it to LAN's

now i've done builds before, so im no stranger, however his budget is tight at £500

with this in mind, i think ill be sourcing a lot of things second hand.

i've been out the loop a while though and would like some advice on what are good motherboard chipsets...theres just so many and i have no idea which is best.

following Blains little thread

PC USE: gaming mostly, WoW, Guild Wars, LoTR .. gash like that also taking to LAN's

BUDGET: £500

COUNTRY: UK

FANBOYISM: None really, what evers the best value

OVERCLOCKING: not if i can help it, i will do it, i know how to do it but if/when it al goes wrong a few weeks/months down the line, i wont be there to sort it out so i'd go for reliability.

WHEN: NOW!


rough outline of my plan:

CPU:
tied to the mobo choice, and i really dont know whats good there. Dual core is the choice though and will consider 2nd hand parts here.

MOBO:

not a clue! will consider 2nd hand parts....

RAM:

Already has 2GB of DDR2 ready to go.

GRAPHICS:

with the games he plays and the fact that any monitor he does get will be small.... im suggesting we go for a second hand Radeon X1900XT or similar from Ebay. they can be had for very cheap! and i know they play alot of games very well at 1280x1024

HDD/CD/DVD:

will probably be new, HDD are cheap these days. same with optical drives

SOUND:

On board, but may pinch an Audigy out of an existing computer as it wont need it and it basically already has Audigy level creative on board sound

CASE:

not sure, its gotta be something light, im going for new on this too (less i can find an Antec LanBoy) the new Sonata 3 is reasonably priced and comes with a nice 500W PSU.

PSU: preferably comes with the case so long as its a good make. not the component to cheap out on. looking around 500W mark with Antec, Enermax or seasonic.

OS: XP Pro

MONITOR: probably going used on this too, 17-19inch is realistic limit, WS would be nice...im hunting on ebay.


all in all thats a big ask for 500 quid....im not sure it can be done myself! but perhaps getting lucky on a few deals or auctions and it could happen.



 

akhilles

Senior member
Nov 6, 2007
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Eh, 500 quids can buy a new gaming rig. Don't have to go 2nd-hand.

E7200
GA-EP45-DS3R or P5Q PRO
HD4850
320-750GB SATAII HDD (750GB is the sweetspot in terms of price per gig)
Sonata III

Pick out the rest. If you want to overclock the cpu, look into Xigmatek HDT-S1283, Infinity, Ninja, Typhoon, Tuniq, TRUE, etc. And yes, the 500W psu in Sonata III is enough for HD4850 and even HD4870:

http://www.antec.com/us/productDetails.php?ProdID=15137
http://ati.amd.com/products/ra...4800/requirements.html
 
Jun 14, 2003
10,442
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well 500 is absolute max, any savings that can be made, will be so i think im gonna stick by the 2nd hand parts.

i thought about spending a little more on the GPU, its gonna be the most expensive part probably so getting one thats got a lot of life in it makes sense.... 4850 is a great card, so ill look into it.