Recommended CPU, MoBo, memory and Graphics card for under £250.00

[jameswhite1979]

I have a Case, PSU 550W, HDD, DVD etc but want to replace a old MoBo which is AMD and AGP so I think its time to update all core bits. On a budget of £250.00 which is to buy a CPU, MoBo, memory, video card and if required a heatsink+Fan.

I want it to be able to play games like GoW, UT3 & crysis. I know this is not going to run the full detail etc etc but playable would be great. I am not too bothered if the card is not DX10, do not think it has offered that much over DX9. I will be using Vista as my OS.

What I have so fair is:

Intel Core 2 Duo E4500 2.20GHz Socket 775 800FSB 2MB Cache Retail Boxed Processor
£75.77

Kingston 2GB KIT (2X1GB) DDR2 667MHz/PC2-5300 CL5 Non Ecc 1.8V
£28.62

XFX 8600GT 256MB DDR3 XXX edition Dual DVI TV Out PCI-E Graphics Card
£73.49

Gigabyte GA-P31-DS3L iP31 Socket 775 8 channel audio ATX Motherboard
£50.94


TIA, J

 

[BlueAcolyte]

You should change your motherboard to a P35 instead of a P31. If you can afford it, get a HD 3850 over the 8600GT. Other than that, it looks good.

 

[krunt]

get ddr2 800 ram over the 667. Even if you still clock it at 667. There shouldn't be much of a price difference at all between the two.
I second the p35 move, i do not know much at all about the p31 and i read a fair amount of reviews/benchmarks. There must be a reason no one has talked about it in a while.

 

[jameswhite1979]

The memory does sound like a good idea as a very small price difference. The MoBo was selected as Custom PC mag reviewed it in Jan 08 against a bunch of P35 boards and gave it a 82% rating and said "GB redefines the definition of bargin with this awesome motherboard" but always good to challenge everything...

 

[betasub]

My build was:

Core2Duo E4500
2x1G DDR2 PC6400 800MHz
HD3850 512MB
MSI P35 board

For overclocking, make sure you get at least PC6400. You can save £30 going with a Pentium E21x0 - hits similar overclock GHz, but you lose out on L2 cache. HD3850 is the cheapest "serious" gaming card, & you can save a few £ getting a 256MB version, but for newer games 512MB buffer is better for hi-res/large textures/detail.