proposed build, and still having trouble deciding on GFX card.

[Blitzen]

Well it says "Cooling System One 120mm front fan(optional) One 120mm rear fan" but either way, not much difference, it's always good to have an intake and exhaust as that means no heat gets trapped in the system and all your components inside are better off.

The card he linked was a 8800GTS OC 512mb
(4850> 4770> 8800GTS 512MB> 8800GT 512mb> 4730> 8800 GTS 640mb> 8800 GTS 320mb=4670 FYI)

Above is not 100% true but it's just my opinions of the cards anyway. They are all at stock settings.

The 8800GTS 512mb is superior to both the 4850 and 4770.
They can be had now (and holding steady) at around £50 second hand

[jimborae]

The 8800GTS 512mb is superior to both the 4850 and 4770.
They can be had now (and holding steady) at around £50 second hand

QFT, What he said ! Thats why I hadn't upgraded for so long.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

The 8800GTS 512mb is superior to both the 4850 and 4770.
They can be had now (and holding steady) at around £50 second hand

The 8800GTS 512MB is NOT superior to the HD4850 512MB. The GTS250/9800GTX+ was slightly ahead due to its higher clockspeeds over the 9800GTX in many games:

http://www.legitreviews.com/article/731/1/

The 9800GTX which has lower clocks trades blows with the HD4850:

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/P...850_PCS/1.html


The 8800GTS 512MB is clocked 25MHZ slower on the core,63MHZ slower for the shaders and 130MHZ slower for the memory than a 9800GTX.

The 8800GTS 512MB has lower core,shader and memory clocks than a 9800GTX and hence is slower than an HD4850.

The 8800GTS 512MB,9800GTX,9800GTX+ and GTS250 all have exactly the same G92 core in either 55NM or 65NM flavours with 128 stream processors.

The 8800GTS 512MB is still a decent card(I had one myself) especially if you can get one for around £50 or less.

OTH, the HD4770 has performance between that of an HD4830 and an HD4850 so the 8800GTS 512MB could be a bit faster or similar in speed. The HD4830 is very similar in speed to an 8800GT and the 8800GTS 512Mb was slightly ahead of the 8800GT.

[Kathryne]

Personally go for a Samsung or WesternDigital hard drives over a seagate.
Couple of £ more but both under £33 for 320gb
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/320-G...MB-Cache-89-ms
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/320-G...MB-Cache-89-ms

no monitor, keyboard or mouse ?

A 2nd low cost 120mm fan would be ok as would a low cost 120mm fan based cooler but not vital
low cost quiet 120mm fan
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/120mm...bearing-design
or
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/79896
Granted the tri cool is not a great fan, but the speed control gives it an advantage and it's not that bad a fan.

PS where are you buying from? best to add small things to a larger order otherwise postage costs can cost more than the item.
pps play.com is good for the odd low cost thing as p&p is free, although it can be a right hassle to find stuff on the play website

I have a decent monitor, and a keyboard and mouse (well, a tablet with a mouse) i realise i will probibly have to pinch a cheapy mouse from my friend to get everything started before i can install the tablets software but thats easily done.

I'm ordering from a selection of places, depending on where i'm finding good deals, ebuyer, ebay, amazon for bargain second hand parts, with good coverage if they're dammaged, aswell as novatech, because thier cardiff branch is only a £4 train ride away.

[Domestic_Ginger]

Keep posting; 20 posts you can get your free scan postage if you didn't know.

the heatsink on the Phenom IIs are pants but if you don't plan on overclocking I would not worry.

The Build you have specced has nice room for a CPU upgrade later. I would consider the X3 athlonIIs as they seem to be a bit more expensive (ca £55) but that extra core may be handy. Not sure you can unlock cores on a 240 but there have been some successs on the tri I think.

Though about mATX? Looking back it might have been something i could have looked into before buying mine.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

I have a decent monitor, and a keyboard and mouse (well, a tablet with a mouse) i realise i will probibly have to pinch a cheapy mouse from my friend to get everything started before i can install the tablets software but thats easily done.

I'm ordering from a selection of places, depending on where i'm finding good deals, ebuyer, ebay, amazon for bargain second hand parts, with good coverage if they're dammaged, aswell as novatech, because thier cardiff branch is only a £4 train ride away.

I would definitely check Maplins as they have the HD4850 1GB with an aftermarket cooler for £80 on-line and also in-store. This would be an excellent choice for the price.

Here is a review of the 1GB version of the card:

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/P...850_PCS/1.html

Maplins also have refurbished cards for around £70:

http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?...27858&T=Module

They also had free deliver until Monday too.