£250 build - is it possible?

[staffsMike]

I think he means it works on linux/unix/OSX etc..

EDIT: beaten to it lol

[eshrules]

Bit of flexability and bang for buck..

Antec Case + 380W earthwatts PSU - £55
Abit IP-35 - £60
Intel E2160 - £43
2GB PC5300 - £25
250GB Western Digital HDD - £40
Optical drive - £20

At this point you can swap the motherboard i've suggested for one with integrated graphics and reduce some of the flexability of the system. These can be had for as little as £45.

Or you can buy a graphics card.

ATi 3650pro - £50 for media, HD decoding etc..
Nvidia 8600GT - If it's for gaming.

i don't want to be flexible on graphics really, the ability to run current games is a must. the system i've got at the moment won't even run Doom3, in respect of being 'future proof' graphics is probably the one area im not prepared to be skimping on

one area i can save is probably HDD and Optical drive, i've got an IDE i can transfer for storage, so would only need around 80gb for the master HDD. ive already got 2 dvd rewriters, one is my 'main ' writer, being dual layer etc... so thats taken care of, if that helps.

It's basically an office machine so it doesn't matter what it looks like - go for the Asus barebones solution.

exactly.. looks are definitley not a priority, nor is space to an extent, it'll simply be stuck in a corner on a workstation and left to run.....

[eshrules]

*nix will run Doom 3 perfectly well.

I think he means it works on linux/unix/OSX etc..

EDIT: beaten to it lol

chuffing eck, i'd only just typed that....

linux is a possiblity, but i've not used it before, so i'd be new to all that as well....

im not sure how linux is for gaming support?

[staffsMike]

well if you remove optical for the budget and perhaps £10 for a smaller hard drive then you should have around £80 for your graphics budget which might bring into the 256mb ATi HD3850pro which is a very good card considering it's price. If you push it to £100 then the 512mb of the same card becomes possible and then you really are going to fine for a good while in terms of gaming.

It can do very few modern games. If you want to play games get windows.

[eshrules]

well if you remove optical for the budget and perhaps £10 for a smaller hard drive then you should have around £80 for your graphics budget which might bring into the 256mb ATi HD3850pro which is a very good card considering it's price. If you push it to £100 then the 512mb of the same card becomes possible and then you really are going to fine for a good while in terms of gaming.

It can do very few modern games. If you want to play games get windows.

ok...

so within the budget, around £80, if i had to stretch another £20/30 to double the spec of the GPU, i'd be quite happy to do that....

in regards to windows, would you suggest xp or vista, given what i want?

[staffsMike]

I might set the wolves upon myself if I suggest XP over Vista or vice versa haha.

Personally I still prefer XP. It's stable, everything you want to work will work.

Vista with SP1 on the horizon has the potential to be greatly improved and if it can be made as stable as XP then it's probably the better OS to go for. Gaming wise when the final move to DX10 is made you will need vista anyway.

In my experience (which is vista on both a laptop on desktop) it works well on fairly good desktops but hates laptops so.. my suggestion is..

Vista. 64bit is actually suprisingly good and well supported but, I wouldn't want my only PC running it if you know what I mean.

The HD3850pro is a vast improvement in gaming performance over the 8600GT and HD3650pro.

[eshrules]

I might set the wolves upon myself if I suggest XP over Vista or vice versa haha.

Personally I still prefer XP. It's stable, everything you want to work will work.

Vista with SP1 on the horizon has the potential to be greatly improved and if it can be made as stable as XP then it's probably the better OS to go for. Gaming wise when the final move to DX10 is made you will need vista anyway.

In my experience (which is vista on both a laptop on desktop) it works well on fairly good desktops but hates laptops so.. my suggestion is..

Vista. 64bit is actually suprisingly good and well supported but, I wouldn't want my only PC running it if you know what I mean.

The HD3850pro is a vast improvement in gaming performance over the 8600GT and HD3650pro.

yes... i realised just how big the question was when i'd asked it lol

personally, i've used XP since it came out and i'm very 'at peace' with it, i understand the little quriks etc, but with the looming withdrawel of support and games inevitably being developed for the vista platform, i suppose it would make sense to purchase Vista, not xp. my head says one thing, my heart another

i have a laptop and another main pc , both running xp, these would stay as they are, no point in messing with those me thinks.

for the benefit of long term gaming perhaps, Vista would be the wiser move....

in regards to the GPU, i don't suppose i could be cheeky and ask for a link?

[staffsMike]

no problem
Computer hardware and software at amazing prices, available online from Scan Computers UK

and if you look here
Computer hardware and software at amazing prices, available online from Scan Computers UK in the super savers section at the top the same card is £105.

If you wait for the right time though these card are often as cheaper as £90/£95 not that £105 isn't still a bargain.

256mb version
ATI HD 3850 Pro 256MB GDDR3 Dual DVI TV Out PCI-E Graphics Card - Ebuyer

If you have other PC's I would be inclined to take the dive on 64bit Vista. It's been very good to me so far.

[directhex]

chuffing eck, i'd only just typed that....

linux is a possiblity, but i've not used it before, so i'd be new to all that as well....

im not sure how linux is for gaming support?

generally? not great. for iD Software games? no problem. and a few MMOs. still, you need to remember windows costs about 60 quid, and you can't transfer windows from an old pc unless it's a retail copy

[eshrules]

no problem
Computer hardware and software at amazing prices, available online from Scan Computers UK

and if you look here
Computer hardware and software at amazing prices, available online from Scan Computers UK in the super savers section at the top the same card is £105.

If you wait for the right time though these card are often as cheaper as £90/£95 not that £105 isn't still a bargain.

256mb version
ATI HD 3850 Pro 256MB GDDR3 Dual DVI TV Out PCI-E Graphics Card - Ebuyer

If you have other PC's I would be inclined to take the dive on 64bit Vista. It's been very good to me so far.

to be honest, £105 for that card isn't something that concerns me, i'd be more than happy to pay that

the other thing with that GPU, is that it's got a dual DVI out? so does that mean i could independantly control two monitors?
the idea being, i can output to my big tv (Dvi) for films, browsing etc, but keep the 15" tft for sys monitoring, jukebox etc, but using a Dvi convertor?

sorry for all the questions btw! your help is much appreciated

[eshrules]

generally? not great. for iD Software games? no problem. and a few MMOs. still, you need to remember windows costs about 60 quid, and you can't transfer windows from an old pc unless it's a retail copy

i understand about the licenseing etc..i intend to buy a new copy of which ever OS i opt for... hence why i'm leaning more towards Vista....

the OS wasn't ever going to be part of the build budget anyway, im just after a core machine for £250.....

[staffsMike]

yeah you can run two monitors (tv + monitor) no problem. It will output to both at upto 1920 x 1200 without any problems

very good cards for HD decoding

[mycarsavw]

Using Mike's excellent suggestions above;

Ebuyer

Case & PSU - Antec Black NSK4480B ATX/MATX Mini Tower - With 380W EarthWatts PSU - Ebuyer - £52.61 free delivery

Scan - few more posts for free delivery

Mobo - Abit IP35-E - £60.15
CPU - E2160 - £43.65
RAM - 1GB Corsair Value Select, DDR2 PC2-5300 x 2 - £31.80 (may be less if I find my two sticks to sell him)
HDD - 80Gb WD800AAJS x 2 - £57.22
GPU - 512MB PowerColor HD 3850 - £105.74 (TO)

Ebuyer - £52.61
Scan - £298.56
Total - £351.77

I'm sure with some tweaking and more convincing it'll come down in price

[staffsMike]

Using Mike's excellent suggestions above;

Ebuyer

Case & PSU - Antec Black NSK4480B ATX/MATX Mini Tower - With 380W EarthWatts PSU - Ebuyer - £52.61 free delivery

Scan - few more posts for free delivery

Mobo - Abit IP35-E - £60.15
CPU - E2160 - £43.65
RAM - 1GB Corsair Value Select, DDR2 PC2-5300 x 2 - £31.80 (may be less if I find my two sticks to sell him)
HDD - 80Gb WD800AAJS x 2 - £57.22
GPU - 512MB PowerColor HD 3850 - £105.74 (TO)

Ebuyer - £52.61
Scan - £298.56
Total - £351.77

I'm sure with some tweaking and more convincing it'll come down in price

if you watch today only carefully the next model up from the IP-35E (the ip-35 dark raider) will probably come up around £60 too

Only thing I wouldn't do there is the 2x 80gb hard drives. If you're going to spend £60 on HDD's just get a 500GB spinpoint or WD AAKS.

[eshrules]

if you watch today only carefully the next model up from the IP-35E (the ip-35 dark raider) will probably come up around £60 too

Only thing I wouldn't do there is the 2x 80gb hard drives. If you're going to spend £60 on HDD's just get a 500GB spinpoint or WD AAKS.

im in 2 minds about the HDD, because i want this pc to remain 'free' of clutter... my plan was to have one HDD dedicated to OS only, the other for games & app installs....

if that makes sense, or would it just be better to source a larger single HDD and partition?

[staffsMike]

I would put OS and game+apps on one drive and then media and other clutter on a different drive.

Or get a big drive and partition it. There's no real advantage to have just an OS on a drive imo.. it might slow down a bit with the apps on there but not by much in real terms.