New budget build

[tonye]

Looking to replace the home PC with something a little more up to date as dell are wanting silly money for parts.

I have a £300 budget and have come up with this so far:

Coolermaster Elite 335 Black Mini Tower Case with Rear 120mm Fan w/o PSU £24.14
400W Corsair CMPSU-400CXUK Power Series PSU, ATX, PS/2, UK Version 3 year warranty £36.78
Gigabyte GA-MA785GMT-UD2H, AMD 785G, AM3, DDR3 1066/1333/1800, SATA 3Gb/s RAID, Micro ATX, VGA £63.24
AMD Athlon II X2 250, Regor Core, S AM3, 3.0GHz, 512KB x 2 Cache, FSB/HT 2000MHz, 65W, Retail £48.29
500GB Samsung HD502HJ Spinpoint F3, SATA 3Gb/s, 7200rpm, 16MB Cache, 8.9 ms, NCQ, OEM + 45cm Akasa A £34.49
2GB Corsair DDR3 PC3-10600 (1333) 240 Pin, Non-ECC Unbuffered, CAS 9-9-9-24 £34.62
Sony AD-5240S-0B 24x DVDR 12xDVDDL DVDRW x8/-RWx6 SATA Black £16.03
Microsoft Wired Keyboard 500, Internet/Multimedia Keys, PS2, Black, Spill Resisant £6.77
Microsoft Wheel Mouse Optical, 400dpi, PS2/USB 1.1/2.0, 3 Buttons, Black £6.77

Total £271.78

I already have windows 7, so in total it just comes over budget.
Are there any better components I could substitute, even if a little more over budget?
Will the system be ok with a single 2GB stick of ram? Once/if the price of ram comes down then I'll add another 2GB stick.

Thanks

[nikohmr]

that looks fine to me ,i wouldn't have gone for a gigabyte mobo but that's just my personal preference (ive had a lot of faulty boards of them so will not buy them)

[tonye]

that looks fine to me ,i wouldn't have gone for a gigabyte mobo but that's just my personal preference (ive had a lot of faulty boards of them so will not buy them)

Thanks for the reply. I have three PCs with gigabyte boards which are used everyday and all have been fine. Like you, my choice was down to personal preference. Touch wood, I haven't had many misfortunes with PC components! (Only a duff power supply so far).

[nikohmr]

no problem mate ,it amazes me how much pc you can get for your money now ,im sure there a lot better value than 5 or so years ago

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

I would be looking to get the RAM in dual channel especially with the fact that the AMD processors have the memory controller in the CPU itself.

I would look to get this kit:

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/166996

It is also low latency which has more effect on performance with current AMD CPUs than for the Core2.

Also I would look at getting this motherboard too:

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/MSI-7...Board-Graphics

[tonye]

I would be looking to get the RAM in dual channel especially with the fact that the AMD processors have the memory controller in the CPU itself.

I would look to get this kit:

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/166996

It is also low latency which has more effect on performance with current AMD CPUs than for the Core2.

Also I would look at getting this motherboard too:

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/MSI-7...Board-Graphics

Thanks for the recommendations.

Any reason to go for the MSI over the Gigabyte?

The only problem with the memory is that the 4GB is pushing my budget, hence only going for a single stick at the moment. Ah what the heck! 4GB it is.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

The MSI is cheaper!! It is a fairly basic motherboard but it will still do the job and has 4 RAM slots,VGA,DVI,HDMI and Firewire too.

OTH,if you can afford the Gigabyte it is a better motherboard. You may also want to consider this Asus motherboard which also has sideport memory:

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Asus-M4A785TD-M-EVO

[tonye]

The MSI is cheaper!! It is a fairly basic motherboard but it will still do the job and has 4 RAM slots,VGA,DVI,HDMI and Firewire too.

OTH,if you can afford the Gigabyte it is a better motherboard.

Thanks again. Think I'll stick with the gigabyte and see how it goes. Shall go ahead and order!

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Thanks again. Think I'll stick with the gigabyte and see how it goes. Shall go ahead and order!

I have also added a link to an Asus motherboard you may want to have a look at.

[Maccer101]

Could you stretch the budget and have a 1TB drive instead, since its a media centre the HDDs could fill up fast.

[tonye]

I have also added a link to an Asus motherboard you may want to have a look at.

Stuck with the Gigabyte board in the end. All ordered

Could you stretch the budget and have a 1TB drive instead, since its a media centre the HDDs could fill up fast.

It's just an office/home PC so no media centre functions required. I've a few NAS devices so have plenty of capacity in the meantime