£600 to spend - What would you go for?

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Ah balls, 1 my maths is bad and 2 I forgot some stuff. Least I'll be under the budget anyway even with an optical drive and a few fans.

Bad choice for the processor. The X3 720 has an unlocked multiplier meaning that it will be much easier to overclock. The X3 710 has a locked multiplier. The 780G it a better chipset than the 8200 IMHO and also I have not seen much about the overclocking capabilities of the 8200.

The HD4870 is £8 cheaper at Novatech who are a good company:

http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/s....html?SAP-4870

They have free postage too!

Vista Home Basic is £3 cheaper at Scan:

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Micro...t-1Pk-OEM-(DVD)

The 320gb Samsung F1 is on Today Only for £37.94!

There are some 120mm fans on Today Only too.

[Warpy1]

Man, you are sharp! Thanks - good job I haven't ordered yet

[Sputnik]

If you want a 720 you'd better be quick. Only one left at Ebuyer!

[MSIC]

I've just read this review over at TR, of a machine with essentially the same major components (and costs twice the price):
http://www.trustedreviews.com/pcs/re...-Perseus-PC/p5

Although that machine has other benefits, in terms of game frame rates etc it's a useful read.

[Pob255]

Seasonic 500W PSU or silverpower PSU (made by seasonic) available at scan for £45. If you look at the review site photos the internals in the silverpower PSU are exactly the same as the much more expensive Seasonic.

Umm which PSU is that?
I ask because SilverPower is a subsidery/sister company of Tagan (maxpoint), who make there own PSUs, SliverPower is aimed at OEM/non-gaming with Tagan makeing the gaming/high end psu's
There are quite a few other PSU's made by seasonic.

For the price of £120ish the PII x3 720 is a very good buy
I would combine it with an mATX motherboard for the simple reason that very few people us lots of additional cards now as so much of what was on the commonally used cards are now all on the motherboard.

The Antec miniP180 would be a very good case to look at for a gameing mATX motherboard, however at £100 it's probably way too much.

The Antec 300 is good for cooling vs price vs layout vs quality and ofcourse fits ATX so will not restrict you for future upgrades.
However a case is a personal thinghave a look at different ones and see what you like the look of.

[Warpy1]

The Antec 300 is good for cooling vs price vs layout vs quality and ofcourse fits ATX so will not restrict you for future upgrades.
However a case is a personal thinghave a look at different ones and see what you like the look of.

Isn't the 300 quite small though? It looks fairly small, I think I'd prefer something a little bigger. Any ideas what I could get?

I see the Akasa Zen is quite cheap, reviews say it's quite good. What do you think?

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

The Akasa Zen is not a bad case. It is a bit light though and the two included 120mm fans need to be run at least medium speeds for decent cooling. It is a nice looking case though as many people commented on it for a build I did at work.

[Pob255]

Akasa Zen v4
200 x 450 x 500 (WxHxD mm)

Antec 300
205 x 458 x 465 (WxHxD mm)

So it's a small bit longer, but both are roughly the same size.
it's a good bit cheaper.

I cannot find out what the differences are for the version4 zen, the version 2 zen had screwless 5.23" drive bays where as the original v1 didn't, but what else has changed I don't know.
The main issue you'll have is for low cost cases you're limited to smaller mid tower cases, if you want a big case then you're look £75+
For what you are putting inside this case I'd say an mid tower is fine, the only issues you could run into is the graphics card length.

You could look for something likt the Chieftec Uni BG02 or simular layout.

The advantage here is the hard drive cage does not go all the way down so it leaves lots of space for over sized graphics cards.

EDIT:Antec NSK series may be good to look at, nsk4000 or nsk4480 (around £45)

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

I have an NSK4000 case for my backup PC.

The hard drive bay does go a reasonable way down so unless your motherboard has a PCI-E slot towards the bottom of the case very long graphics cards maybe impeded.

[Warpy1]

Thanks for all your help guys. I ended up going for an Akasa Zen!