super cheap build £200

[Pob255]

Ooo nicely spotted CAT, I wonder if that is the XFX card or not? hope it is because A- I like the cooler and B- They look so good and would fit well into the overall look I'm thinking about for this build.
However you will have to work a little harder if you want more thanks out of me

Not sure how much thoes reviews can be fully trusted, I always consider these things with a pinch of salt and a margin for other factors
like all of them are using AM3 motherboards with ddr3 and high end GPUs, also the first of the links show the e5200 loseing to the x2 250 at stock but when overclocked the resaults are reversed.

I'm not saying no to the amd option, but with this tight a budget a lot will depend on what I can pick up very cheap/2nd hand
If I can pick up a 775 motherboard or c2d cpu cheap then that's the way I'll go, if I can pick up a cheap AMD cpu or motherboard then that's the way I'll go.

Although I'll admit I'm leaning towards the Abit Fatal1ty FP-IN9 SLI simply because of the colour scheme and while long in the tooth it's not a total pile of crud. (and £30)

I was wondering if it would be sort of worth it if I did pick up an sli board then getting a 2nd 7900gs to sli thinking I could probably pick one up for under £30
How wrong was I they are going for £35 +p&p on top I may actually sell mine instead
Ok I that that back people are putting them up for that, looking at completed listings £25 inc p&p
So would £25 be worth it for 7900gs sli?

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Ooo nicely spotted CAT, I wonder if that is the XFX card or not? hope it is because A- I like the cooler and B- They look so good and would fit well into the overall look I'm thinking about for this build.
However you will have to work a little harder if you want more thanks out of me

What about this card then:

http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/s...tml?SAP-4850VX

The best HD4850 IMHO! I suppose now it will be too expensive!! No pleasing some people!

Not sure how much thoes reviews can be fully trusted, I always consider these things with a pinch of salt and a margin for other factors
like all of them are using AM3 motherboards with ddr3 and high end GPUs, also the first of the links show the e5200 loseing to the x2 250 at stock but when overclocked the resaults are reversed.

The Intel testbeds are using higher end P45 and X48 based motherboards too BTW so it is an even matchup! Also the overclocking results are not a given too - they often will indicate the best possible result using expensive motherboards,coolers and PSUs.

The en.hardspell.com review uses PC2-6400 DDR2 and a 770 DDR2 motherboard and the X2 245 comes out quite well in the tests TBH. The Asus 760G and newer 770 motherboards share similar southbridges too(the newer SB710 in the 760G and slightly older SB700 in many 770 motherboards although some have the SB710). AMD 770 motherboards which use DDR2 cost under £60:

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/166037

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/167128

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/159073

Hence I consider the X2 245 a better buy than the E5300 as even with a relatively cheap motherboard it has decent performance. Tests done by silentpcreview also show that DDR3 makes little difference with the Athlon II X2 too!

[staffsMike]

I agree with that the sapphire vapour / atomic range are what i would buy with my own money.

[Pob255]

Yes I'm probably getting a head of myself here, still waiting for my friend to get back to me so I can get a better idea of the budget for this.

Looking about I'm drawn to the Gigabyte GA-MA770-UD3 for aprox £60 and the amd athlon II 245 for around £50

PS I don't think the xfx card is bad, from the reviews I've seen it's very good and it looks very sexy.
But then again so does the sapphire vapour chill

So annoying the 4830 no longer exists, I liked thoes cards.
but I still thing a 2nd hand 8800gt/gts/9800gt for £50ish would be a good fleabuy target
or even a 3870

EDIT: the AMD X2 Dual Core AM2 Athlon 64 4400 2.3GHz may be worth looking at as very low cost @ £35
oh and no matter what I get here it'll be a step up, he's still on an athlon xp atm good in its day but it's day was a while ago, which is why I was not fully jokeing about the old pentium D
I went from an athlon xp to pentium D and it was a good step up esp in things that can use dual cores

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

The HD4830 is still around:

http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/s....html?NOV-4830

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/159710

However it has actually risen in price whereas the HD4850 has dropped in price!!

The HD4730 is comparable with an HD4830 with AA off and is available for around £64:

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/166614

Last week it was available for under £60.It does have dreadful power consumption as it requires two PCI-E power connectors.

Here are some reviews:

http://www.hexus.net/content/item.php?item=19175

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/HD_4730

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

or even a 3870

The HD3870 is a very underrated card IMHO. I had one and it overclocked like crazy(from 777mhz to 877mhz and was probably capable of more) too. It did well in most games without AA and only in the last two stages of the original Crysis did it struggle. I have also had an 8800GTS 512mb too and this was an excellent card too.

Scan also had some HD3850 256mb cards for under £40 recently:

http://forums.hexus.net/current-barg...ered-scan.html

[Pob255]

Well I've just ordered the cheap alienware look a like case, if nothing else I'm going to have some fun cutting that up

http://forums.hexus.net/chassis-syst...od-advice.html

[Pob255]

Well the case turned up today, so I've started a build log

http://forums.hexus.net/project-logs...ect-spork.html

I wasn't expecting much from this case and it managed to be better than I expected in some areas but worse in ways I wasn't expecting.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Well the case turned up today, so I've started a build log

http://forums.hexus.net/project-logs...ect-spork.html

I wasn't expecting much from this case and it managed to be better than I expected in some areas but worse in ways I wasn't expecting.

Pob255,you are now famous!!

Have a looksy:

http://www.hexus.net/content/item.php?item=19348

[staffsMike]

Lol.. methinks this makes him about as famous as..

The extras in..

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0441041/

[Pob255]

Pob255,you are now famous!!

Have a looksy:

http://www.hexus.net/content/item.php?item=19348

How did that happen?

Arrragh Pressure!

Well I pinched the guts from a p2 350mhz pc from work as it was onroute to the skip, maybe I can just stick that in there and hope no one spots it

[scaryjim]

Lol.. methinks this makes him about as famous as..

The extras in..

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0441041/

I think it makes him about as famous as the lead cast in it!

[watercooled]

I wish businesses/schools would let people take the old computers and put them to good use rather than binning them - I mean if they were being binned anyway what harm would it do? I wouldn't mind paying a fiver a piece myself!

[Pob255]

I wish businesses/schools would let people take the old computers and put them to good use rather than binning them - I mean if they were being binned anyway what harm would it do? I wouldn't mind paying a fiver a piece myself!

Most of our kit is on 3 to 5 year lease so it goes back to the lease company at the end of the lease, or we can pay about £50 per unit to keep it,

I work in a school and most of the kit we have is far from high end to start with, so I'm not sure anyone would want it any way.
With ever increaseing flash/java/shockwave scrpting on websites even just web browseing has become far more cpu demanding.

If you like I can let you have this p2 guts once I've finished with it.
This was the pc it came from

even have the case still at work (Chieftech), just pulled the motherboard tray out

[Pob255]

I'm keeping this thread open, for hard ware advice/questions, build log is seperate

Seeing as I just stupidly missed a real bargin yesterday of a coolermaster 700w modular psu
I'm keen not to let anymore slip through my grubby little hands
Nexus 400w
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...m=140333202531
FSP 500w blue storm
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...m=220452224645
worth going for? or hold on for something better?

[watercooled]

Look at the price of postage before you consider buying. I'm unsure of the quality of either of those units TBH.

Also thanks for the offer on the P2 but I'll pass.