£800 max......buy or build

[duff]

Hello folks

I am in the process of getting a new pc with a budget of between £650 - £800. Will I be able to get a new pc with great specs or will I be better off building myself ?
what kind of specs am I looking at with such a budget with both buying and building. Software already taken care off.
All suggestions welcome.

thanx

[Stewart]

Build my nizzle.

If you already have software, monitor, keyboard etc, so you have 800 notes to spend on just a base unit, you can get something pretty sweet. Of course, you'll need to list exactly what you are looking for, and if you want to go down the Intel or AMD \ AMD64 route.

[PanzerKnight]

AMD will prolly provide the most "bang for buck"

[duff]

Only have software covered so monitor, keyboard etc included in the price. Not really bothered whether it's intel or amd, just how far that amount can stetch.

[joely]

dont buy a tft do buy amd uhhhh thats about it and dont for god sake buy anything from pcworld, comet or dixons, if you do i will have to go on another one of those murderous rampages. Anyway i just said dixons so i am going to have to cleanse myself of my sins, now where did i put my good whip?

[yamangman]

You could go buy, you might be able to stretch your money a little further, but look into every component that comes with a bought system as if you were gonna build it

Also, don't buy from high-street retailers, (Dixons), Superstores (PC World) or catalouge shops (Argos). Either order online or from mags like Micromart <definately have a look.

[Nomadd]

re: "dont buy a tft do buy amd uhhhh thats about it"

TFT: agree.
AMD: well...

P4's are cheap and very high overclockers. Not got anything against AMD (god knows, built enough PCs with their processors..) but I wouldn't exclude Intel just for the sake of it. Northwood P4s can still be steller performers for not much cash.

M.H.O.

Nomadd

[skattrd]

There was a thread earlier with someone else wanting spec for an £800 machine - check it out here

[starbuck]

aug edition of custom pc show how to build a good overclockeable pc for £550 so if you have that, use it as a starting point and go from there.

[Leo]

AMD Athlon 64 3000 (Socket 754) - Retail (CP-070-AM) £102.50

MSI K8N Platinum nForce3 250 (Socket 754) Motherboard (MB-022-MS) £69.95

GeIL 1GB (2x512MB) PC3200 Value Dual Channel Kit CAS2.5 (GE1GB3200BDC) (MY-005-GL) £104.95

Connect3D ATI Radeon 9800 Pro 128MB DDR TV-Out/DVI (AGP) - Retail (GX-005-CO) £112.50

Samsung SpinPoint P SP0812C 80GB SATA 8MB Cache - OEM (HD-010-SA) £41.00

NEC ND2510A Dual Layer 8x DVD±RW ReWriter (Black) - OEM (CD-008-NE) £46.50

Antec Sonata Piano Black Quiet Case - 380W TruePower Silent PSU (CA-003-AT) £69.95

Hyundai ImageQuest Q770S 17'' Perfectly Flat CRT Monitor - Black/Silver (MO-006-HY) £80.60

Microsoft Wireless Optical Desktop v2.0 - OEM (KB-018-MS) £27.00

Altec Lansing 221 Versatile 2.1 Speaker System (SP-004-AL) £26.95


Subtotal £681.90
VAT £119.34
Total £801.24