£250

[Jcb33]

My m8 has this as his budget but wants to be able to play games (ATI 700 Not copeing)

He has
1800+
30GB HDD
Combi Drive
Case
Enermax 350W PSU

Usable

What could he get thanks in advance

[TiG]

What games he want to play and What motherboard and amount of memory does he have?

TiG

[d_fresh1]

i'd get...R9700 non pro, 1 256mb stick of corsair 3200, and a NF7 rev 2 (not S) ...use the rest tilll he can afford upgrades...

[Jcb33]

£250 and his mother board is PC133 so not realy any good hes wanting to play newer games like Jedi knight 2 and if posible HL2 on min settings hes low on budget so realy wanna help him thanks

[Theo]

XP1800 Pally or Tbred?

Abit NF7 V2.0 - 68,93 inc. VAT (komplett)
2x Crucial PC3200 - £39.94 each (free delivery from crucial iirc)
Sapphire Radeon 9500 Atlantis 128MB - 114.34 inc VAT (komplett)

Total = 270.61 inc VAT, shipping, etc.

20 squid over the limit, but worth it imo. Others will probably give better suggestions, so don't listen to me

[Jcb33]

Wants 80GB HDD now lol

[Theo]

Maxtor 80Gb 7200rpm 2mb cache - 60.69 inc. VAT
Asus V9180 GeForce4 MX440-8X 64MB 40.02 inc. VAT
Abit NF7 V2.0 - 68,93 inc. VAT (komplett)
2x Crucial PC3200 - £39.94 each (free delivery from crucial iirc)

Total = 257.85 inc VAT inc Shipping

I have that graphics card in my media pc. Although it's not a 9800 pro, it still does the trick, and it played counterstrike nicely at 800x600 on Direct3d settings.
If he says he wants 8Mb cache on the hdd, kick him

[luke313]

Or you could use the same as Theo said above, but with the NF7-M which has onboard GF4mx and ditch the graphics card.

[Austin]

Seriously XP1800+ is plenty enough for gaming so long as you have at least a GF4TI4200. The PC133 isn't as limiting as you think, you're probably 10% slower than using DDR. If gaming's important don't touch a GF4MX, GF-FX5200 though poor is miles better but for under £100 the 4200 128MB is a real bargain only lacking high AA+AF and DX9 abilities which he's unlikely to be too worried about. £60 for the HD and £90 for the 4200 and that leaves £100 but he may find that's all the boost he needs. He could buy a Rad9600PRO or GF-FX5600ultra (rev2 flipchip) if he wants a DX9 ready card (ie wants to keep the card for 2 years or so) but it will cost £40-60 more on the price of the gfx card.

An XP1800+ PC133 GF4TI4200 will easily kill an XP2800+ PC3200 nForce2 GF4MX in practically EVERY game. I would advise upgrading the CPU, mobo and RAM in the near future but don't skimp on the gfx card in doing it if games are your thing!

[Austin]

If you get a mobo and RAM now then I'd suggest Crucial's 256MB PC3200 for £40 (free P&P). For the mobo the SiS746FX is a real bargain at £38.50 (www.dabs.com) it lacks 400FSB, multiplier adjustment but is only 5-8% slower than the expensive nForce2 with Dual Channel DDR. If you want 400FSB ability then the SiS748 fit the bill for £45 or KT600 for £46 (again Dabs), KT600 may even come with multiplier adjustment.

You want multiplier adjustment and ideally CPU/core voltage adjustment to help o/c, or more correctly run the cheap TbredB or Barton at the speeds they are capable of. If you have a mobo without mult adjustment then the likes of an XP2100+ fit in nicely as the default 13x multiplier should allow you to hit XP2700+ 333FSB speed which is nice for £50. Of course it makes sense to keep the XP1800+ for now but thinking of the future and all. If this is all a bit technical I'm rec'ing to definitely get 256MB PC3200 (ideally Crucial) £40 and then for the mobo you can get SiS746FX as a great cheapo option or else SiS748 or KT600 for their 400FSB support and still cheap cost. If you can find a bargain nForce2 mobo cool, lacking Dual Channel is no big thing just rem to buy only 1 RAM stick.

You can get the RAM and mobo for well under the £100 you'd have spare and then you can add a TbredB or Barton later and run them around XP2700+ to 3200+ speed with little effort (and £65-90 cost inc HSF).

[Axion]

dont get a g4MX....

get a cheapo 4Ti; when on offer/refurb you can get em for under £50 and make the MX look like utter rubbish