building a pc help

[mattw21]

Hi i have decided to build a PC but do not know what i should get.

What im hoping to make is basic gaming/multimedia computer and im lost on what i should get could anyone please advice me. Im hoping not to spend to much money cheapest possible.
I have made a pc before which was quite good but was not fit for selling.

if anybody could help me on this that would be great

Matt

ps if i have posted this in the wrong place can you put it where it should be.

[MSIC]

HI there, welcome, you've posted in the right place so don't worry.
Computers can be built for as little as £100, but i'd argue that you get what you pay for (well, under £1000 anyway).
So tell us more ... what is your budget really.
What do you have already (keyboard, mouse, speakers, monitor etc).
Where is it going to be? (Living room, bedroom etc).
Do you want it to be portable? Cool-looking? Quiet? Energy efficient?
When you say multimedia, do you mean playing DVDs and mp3s, or streaming AV files around to other components.

Is the operating system important to you? (Some people are only familiar with windows).

Will you be wanting to edit videos, or play games?
Will you be wanting to connect other hardware / gadgets to it (iPods, cameras etc)?

I'll try to help if you can give me more info.

[TAKTAK]

As MSIC says, give us some more information to chew on and ther'll be hundreds of people to help you

But right off the block i can reccomend a WD AAKS HDD and a Corsair/Seasonic/Enermax PSU

[Noxvayl]

HI there, welcome, you've posted in the right place so don't worry.
Computers can be built for as little as £100, but i'd argue that you get what you pay for (well, under £1000 anyway).
So tell us more ... what is your budget really.
What do you have already (keyboard, mouse, speakers, monitor etc).
Where is it going to be? (Living room, bedroom etc).
Do you want it to be portable? Cool-looking? Quiet? Energy efficient?
When you say multimedia, do you mean playing DVDs and mp3s, or streaming AV files around to other components.

Is the operating system important to you? (Some people are only familiar with windows).

Will you be wanting to edit videos, or play games?
Will you be wanting to connect other hardware / gadgets to it (iPods, cameras etc)?

I'll try to help if you can give me more info.

Couldn't have put it better myself... If we could have the aforementioned info it would help us a great deal in recommending hardware for you to use

[mattw21]

hi my budget for this computer is under £400 my last pc i build cost under £300.

What im hoping is i would like it to be for a bedroom i would also like it to be quite and cool looking would be quite nice and energy efficient and be able to play dvds high def if possible.

For an operating system i would rather us xp than vista.

Also would be intrested if it can edit vidieos and play games and aslo be able to tak things like digital camera etc.

Mainly im not to worried if the budget goes a little over £400

Hope this is enough info
Thanks Matt

[TAKTAK]

Barebones: here Asus T3-M2NC51PV £99.97 i've used this barebones myself in a build for someone and it's a joy to use and it looks really nice aswell, also its quite small so perfect for a bedroom environment, it's also quiet, and you have to use the built in cooler

CPU: here AMD Athlon 64 X2 4800+ £46.21

HDD: here Western Digital WD800AAJS £26.22 you might want a bit more space

RAM: here OCZ 1Gb DDR2 800MHz/PC2-6400 £17.01 for 1 stick mebbe you'll want 2 sticks?

DVD: here Pioneer DVR-115DBK £16.20

GFX: here Point Of View 8800GT £101.99
Total: &#163;307.60 <<so that leaves you plenty of room for periphs

Maybe something like this would do you?

Obv you need to factor in an OS as well, so as you've said to want XP thats around &#163;60, so the total would be around: &#163;367.60

OBV you might want to shop around for prices on scan as your entitled to free shipping (it's around &#163;10 on ebuyer IIRC, unless they have a free delivery weekend, or offer [there might be a supersaver option aswell, i'm not sure])

but this gives you a rough outline of whats available...

[Noxvayl]

Well I'll take it that your looking for a bareone system; screen, keyboard and mouse excluded. &#163;400 is a challenge but I like challenges

LiteOn DVD Writer - &#163;20.97

250Gb Seagate Barracuda SATA300 - &#163;32.77

Antec Sonata Case with 500W PSU - &#163;78.60

512Mb Gigabyte HD3650 - &#163;52.49

AMD 5000+ Brisbane Core 2.6ghz - &#163;54.63

Abit AX78 - &#163;49.62

Corsair XMS2 PC-6400 800Mhz 5-5-5-12 - &#163;28.95

Windows Vista Home Premium 64Bit - &#163;68.49

I used Vista because XP from Scan is more expensive and is frankly not better. Vista is better than XP and works very well. 2Gb of memory is needed and you have that so the PC I specified will run Vista well

Other than that I got components for less than &#163;400 including delivery from Scan which are very good and will work well together. Most people believe AMD are bad but they aren't they just don't offer faster CPU's than Intel but for cheap CPU's AMD are the better choice.

Overall I don't think you'll find a cheaper setup that runs as well as this one

[staffsMike]

Antec NSK2480 MATX Desktop Case Black & Silver - With 380W EarthWatts PSU - Ebuyer
AMD Athlon 64 X2 5000+ (2.6GHz) Socket AM2 1MB L2 Cache OEM Processor - Ebuyer
ASUS M2A-VM HDMI 690G Socket AM2 onboard VGA 6 channel audio mATX Motherboard - Ebuyer
Kingston 2GB Kit (2x1GB) DDR2 800MHz/PC2-6400 Memory Non-ecc CL5 Unbuffered 1.8V - Ebuyer
Scythe Mini Ninja Socket 478/775/754/939/940/AM2 Heatpipe Cooler - Ebuyer
Western Digital WD2500AAKS Caviar SE 250GB 7200RPM SATAII/300 16MB Cache - OEM - Ebuyer
Optiarc AD-7200S 20X DVD±RW/DL/RAM Internal SATA Bare Black Drive - OEM - Ebuyer

that leaves around &#163;100 for an 8800GT, 9600GT, ATi HD38** all good cards

You might want to look into a passive version (few available for the ATi's) or an aftermakrt cooler to keep them nice and quiet.

That is what I would build anyway. There are tower variants of that case to

[mattw21]

Thanks i think this will really help me out
Matt