Suggestions for an "el cheapo" AMD system

[avas]

I need advice about building a cheap pc 4 myself. I looked at the ption in the sticky post but the motherboard mentioned is not available locally to me in London so some other suggestions plz.
I am a student so most cost effective system i.e. cheap yet giving performance. I will be mainly using it to surf, burn & play music, word etc and some games although dont get too much time for them. But i hate systems that are too slow in the routine tasks.

I was thinking bout a
Athlon Xp 2400- 2800
Abit / ASus nvidia chip mobo
512 mb ddr (dont know the company)
120/80 gb 7200 ide hard disk (?Maxtor/Seagate)
Using on board sound
Lite-on 52x cdrw + dvd player drive
1.44 fd
agp card (? not sure what to buy)
56k modem internal
monitor planning to use an old 17" crt, gettin one from a fair for £40-45

I am not averse to using used parts for it if i can find them frm computer fairs or maybe look for deals on ebay. i am not too sure about ebay though.

 

[jpeyton]

See the thread linked in my signature.

 

[jpeyton]

If you want an Abit or Asus motherboard, get an Abit NF7-S or an Asus A7N8X.

RAM, try to stick with a major brand, but get value RAM. Corsair, Muskin, OCZ, Kingston, Adata, etc. all make good inexpensive RAM. Make sure you get PC3200 with a CAS2.5 or CAS2 rating.

For a hard disk, Maxtor and Seagate are both good companies. People tend to like Seagate better because of their 5 year warranty. Just make sure you get a model with 8MB buffer.

DVD writers are around $50; and the price of blank DVDs is spiraling down. It would be a better option than a CD-RW and a DVD-ROM or Combo Drive.

Right now, the price/performance in the lower end of the spectrum goes to ATI Radeon 9600 cards. Make sure you get a 128-bit card; the 64-bit SE models are heavily crippled.

 

[Texun]

In my opinion you can't go wrong with either brand of board you have listed. I have used both, and each one has been good, but I am 101% pleased with the Abit NF7 board. Installation and setup is very clean and straight forward. It has also been exceptionally stable and I would not hesitate to buy a new one tomorrow if I needed a replacement.

 

[KoolDrew]

I would go with a Abit NF7 mobo and as for RAM Corsair Value Selct series would be good. As for harddrive I would definetely choose a seagate over a Maxtor. As for a video card a 9600 as jpeyton would probally be perfect in your case