cheap budget mobo+ram+cpu+ fan wanted

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

I am going to stick in another suggestion.

A Llano A4 3400 and an A55 based motherboard:

http://www.ebuyer.com/282388-amd-lla...-ad3400ojgxbox

http://www.ebuyer.com/279251-gigabyt...rd-ga-a55m-s2v

The motherboard comes with 6 SATA 2.0 ports and can run dual monitors AFAIK.

For another £5 more you can have an A75 based motherboard with 6 SATA3.0 ports and 4 USB3.0 ports instead:

http://www.ebuyer.com/274047-asrock-...board-a75m-hvs

The Llano CPUs have relatively low power consumption under idle too.

[Unique]

thanks guys. it's a bit more gutting if i can't even rely on the PSU and if that's a likely cause of the problem i wouldn't want to trust it on a new build. as my requirements aren't so high i might be better off just getting another second hand system and selling off the case and PSU

[Pob255]

Well 2nd hand would be a way to go for a super low cost system.

Here we go an athlonII x3 440 for £38.50 http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/AMD-Athlon...item2568850f9d
Just need a cooler for it, heck I've got an athlonII cooler kicking about you could have for postage.

Look on the "for sale" and wanted sections here and you could pick something up cheaply
Also look for auctions on ebay

Going the 2nd hand route will take a bit of time however.

general note: beware many "buy it now" on ebay, they are often more expensive than you can get them online, heck often an online retailer does a special offer people buy it up then sell it on via ebay "buy it now" for a profit.

[Unique]

i've been keeping an eye on the for sale forums, but i don't use ebay, never have used it once, i don't really trust it. at least with forums you can get a bit more sense of the seller from their posts, and from computer forums you might expect someone to know more about the things they are selling. i got another second hand machine from here just a few weeks ago and that runs great, if i could get an exact same at the same price i'd get one like a shot. it was partly the success with that, and the speed difference between that and my other older pc that made me go for the one that failed

thanks for the help everyone, i'm still looking and reading, i don't want to rush my options