Building a PC

[Mozzer]

Been asked to spec up a system with a budget of £1000, but hte catch is he won't be buying it all at once. He will be buying £500 of it first, then the rest as he gets the money. He does want a nice case and some nice case mods which could easily cost £150 alltogether, he liked the i-cute last time i asked.

Anyway. We will be ordering the first £500 soon, so wondering what to go for, CASE, PSU, graphics, mobo, CPU, ram? As the items on the market may be better when he orders the rest so want to wait until the last minute to order the things which will be replaced sooner. It will be overclocked but not alot, so air cooling should be sufficient.

Ideas?

Edit: The system will be used for everything; Gaming, Working, Downloading etc. Also, he did want a large TFT but i suggested having a dual 17" CRT setup instead which would work out cheaper.

[ed^chigliak]

Would wait - expect prices or technology to change
DVD-RW drive (12 & 16 speed due soon)
LCD monitors (maybe cheaper bigger faster)
AMD64 platform & CPU's (new socket better overclocking options)
Graphics card (next generation released 13th & 26th april)

Consider buying - don't expect much change
SATA HDDs
AMD XP mainboard & CPU's
CD/RW drive
Sound Card

Buy it now
Case
PSU
Case mods
Case Fans
CPU cooler
CRT monitors
CD-RW
Speakers
Mouse
Keyboard
Floppy!

[Dorza]

DVD-RW drive (12 & 16 speed due soon)

yup indeed they will, and they'll also support dual layer writeing , so yes id defo wait for them to come out, which isnt long now really

[Byatt]

Would wait - expect prices or technology to change
DVD-RW drive (12 & 16 speed due soon)
LCD monitors (maybe cheaper bigger faster)
AMD64 platform & CPU's (new socket better overclocking options)
Graphics card (next generation released 13th & 26th april)

Consider buying - don't expect much change
SATA HDDs
AMD XP mainboard & CPU's
CD/RW drive
Sound Card

Buy it now
Case
PSU
Case mods
Case Fans
CPU cooler
CRT monitors
CD-RW
Speakers
Mouse
Keyboard
Floppy!

Spot on...I'd probably add premium memory to the top category as well, tis pricey stuff at the moment, unless you're buying cheaper stuff like twinmos - in which case you could probably get it now. I'd definitely get the PSU now - demand for high power PSUs is going to increase when NV40 appears, so I'd expect a price jump there...

[dgr]

yup indeed they will, and they'll also support dual layer writeing , so yes id defo wait for them to come out, which isnt long now really

dual layer writers will be HELLA expensive.

oh and so will the media. .

[Falcon2004]

dual layer writers will be HELLA expensive.

oh and so will the media. .

But 9GB! Thats bigger than my first HHD!

[Jonny M]

Why not wait until he has £1000?

[Bungle]

Spot on...I'd probably add premium memory to the top category as well, tis pricey stuff at the moment, unless you're buying cheaper stuff like twinmos - in which case you could probably get it now. I'd definitely get the PSU now - demand for high power PSUs is going to increase when NV40 appears, so I'd expect a price jump there...

True, the PSU is one of the most overlooked part of a system. People think that "this bog standard el cheapo 440W one will do" but then they experience BSOD's and they dont know why... Well its your psu! Invest in a good quality one like Enermax or Antec