What parts would complement my new rig?

[bargainboy]

I already have the following:
19" iiyama pro 454 crt
2180 Intel CPU and scythe mine (bought 2nd hand last week)
2gb ddr 1066 (dabs should deliver in next few days)
Arctic silver paste (given 2yrs ago)
Ati 3870 512 ddr4 (should be delivered by eBay seller soon)

Keyboard, mouse, ide dvdr going to use from my old machine. I thinking somehow can use my old 80gb ide hdd to a old pci adapter to use as a secondary hdd?

You can see we are therefore looking for a new: sata hdd, psu, 775 motherboard, case

500 GB Hitachi Deskstar 7K500, SATA 300, 7200 rpm, 16MB Cache SCAN @ £36.41
Corsair 650W TX Series PSU EBUYER @ £60.25
Antec 300 case EBUYER @ £35.24
Gigabyte GA-EP31-DS3L, PCI-E (x16), SATA II, SATA RAID SCAN @ £42.77

The challenge budget is £210 for the parts. I would love to see if anyone can see improvements to my selection?

I want a bit of room for cpu upgrade next year when prices drop. I like system to be quiet but reliably overclockable. Scratching my head about what the fuss over p35 p43 p45

[staffsMike]

The only thing you could really make cheaper there, without going to depths that no one should, is to lower the PSU to a corsair 450W VX. It's essentially the same PSU just a lower output but still all you will need for that system

But then I would probably spend what I saved you on a slightly nicer mobo. P31 as you have chosen is the cheapy version of P35. Does away with some of the nice things (if you need them) P35 offers, like RAID probably amongst others.

P43 is the same thing to P45. It's a cheaper version of the chipset loosing non-essential features from the chipset and giving less chipset cooling for overclocking etc..

[bargainboy]

Thanks for your thoughts. Think will have a look at P35 board for raid then.Still dunno which one to get though?

wires are not my thing... what cables would i need to setup raid? Oh yeah think need a adapter cable for graphics card to my CRT monitor..?

[staffsMike]

With only one HDD RAID isn't going to be a problem, since you need two or more lol That P31 did get a good review from customPC so it might be worth it.

Most graphics card come with a DVI to VGA adapter

[bargainboy]

Graphics card from private seller on eBay hasn't been delivered yet. Hope there are the bits that go with it then

Might buy another hdd in 6 months time and do raid staffsmike. Get two the same make and level. Twiddling my thumbs. Also just seen if I make 20 posts get free delivery with scan wahoo! That was normally the crunch point with ebuyer/aria/novatec/dabs vs scan. If scan work out to be a fraction more in cost will get more of bits from scan.

[cpemma]

I was about to agree to avoid the P31 board, but the EP31 seems a better kitted-out board than their P31 which I ruled out for me some months back (only 2 memory slots for starters). I have P35-DS3L, no RAID but a very nice budget board, so stay with Gigabyte and spend on the board features you might need.

I also have E2180 under a Ninja, very easy to overclock quietly.

But cut back on that PSU, you really don't need 650W.