Would like advice for a home built system

Would like advice for a home built system. Looking for a computer to do some general stuff, i.e. surf open office and low end games (sims). Trying to keep it cheep (current climes (thanks Gordon)) but with some future proofing. Would like gigabyte network connectivity. Otherwise what's the recommendation. OS would be Win XP not going vista route yet.
Thanks in advance.

If you have 20+ posts on Hexus you can free postage with Scan!!

If you do not want to go down the overclocking route then an AMD based build will do the job as the integrated graphics on their motherboards is quite fast.

Build One

X2 7750 ~ £49

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/AMD-A...B-Cache-Retail

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/155158

Review:

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/cpu...-cpus-review/5

Alternatively you can go for a triple core processor though:

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/159069

TBH a dual core would be good enough for the purposes you are thinking about.

Asus M3A78-EM~ £61

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/150278

Specs:

http://usa.asus.com/products.aspx?l1...52&modelmenu=2

Back panel picture

http://www.asus.com/999/images/products/2252/back.jpg

The motherboard has DVI,VGA,HDMI and Displayport outputs. It also has gigabyte LAN,e-sata and firewire.

The 780G basically has an HD3450 card integrated onto the motherboard(without the dedicated video RAM).

Review of chipset and its gaming ability:

http://techreport.com/articles.x/14261/8

If you want something faster then an HD4650 GDDR3 will do the job for £53:

http://www.elitebastards.com/cms/ind...=647&Itemid=27

There are faster graphics cards but TBH it is more than fast enough for light gaming.

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/151454

A review of a similar card:

http://www.elitebastards.com/cms/ind...=647&Itemid=27

Build Two

If you are doing overclocking I would go for an E5200. If you checked the X2 7750+ review I linked too the X2 7750+ is faster at stock speeds. However the E5200 is a very good overclocker from what I have read. However remember that overclocking is not a given for any CPU(Intel or AMD) and hence YMMV.

Intel E5200 ~ £55

http://www.scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProductId=860613

Gigabyte P43 motherboard ~ £62

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Gigab...7-SATA-300-ATX

You will need to add a graphics card to that to. The stock cooler will do for light overclocking(upto 3ghz IMHO) but for anything heavier I would get an aftermarket cooler like an AK965 or an Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro.

Other Bits


4gb of RAM ~ £36

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/130429

Silverpower 400w ~ £39

http://www.scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProductId=876036

Silverpower is part of the same company as Tagan. Here is a review:

http://techreport.com/articles.x/16073/11

Of course the other parts are down to personal preferance.

The Third Way

There is another route though!! Buy a Dell!! They often have very good deals available. Of course you may need to add a graphics card like the one I suggested as they usually don't have decent integrated graphics(they usually stick with Intel chipsets).

Remember that you can get Quidco cashback from both Dell and Novatech!

Thanks
Will look into the info you have supplied.

You can't go far wrong with the builds CAT has suggested - both good performers at a good price.

As far as graphics goes, I'd recommend that if you're buying now you go for an HD4830 (ebuyer have 2 for less than £80), or hold off for a month or so and get the HD4770, which should be ~ £90. These will give you much more longevity than a 4650 / 4670 would.
Otherwise, I'd put up with the onboard graphics for as long as possible (if you keep game resolutions to 1024x768 and details to low / medium it should last you for a while) and then buy a discreet card only when you need it - there should be at least one, and potentially two, new generations of card before then, and the midrange of the next generation of cards should be significantly faster than the current midrange cards.

thanks as well

This website usually recommends a decent spec every month for budget/gaming etc builds. They also use the cheapest parts from popular retailers recommended on this forum.
http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/200...y-april-2009/1

Graphics card, nvidia option, 9800gt (£90-100) or if you don't mind 2nd hand bits you could have a look for a 8800gt 512mb graphics card which would also be fine (basically the same card and can be got for under £70 2nd hand) as would a 8800gts 512mb

I'd agree in general with CAT's builds there, you can shave off a small bit but only getting 2gb of RAM which is still all you need most of the time, however with current ram prices not very much is saved over 4gb

I'd also agree with looking at a Dell or even some of the other branded pc's as there are good deals to be had.
The novatech bundles are a good starting point esp if it's your first build and you're scared.