What spec system?

[Flibb]

High peeps need some ideas.

A friend has around £400 to spend on a SFF rig, main use is gaming. He wants to run it through his TV to start with, but will buy a TFT later if he needs it.

So for £400 he needs
Barebones SFF PC
512mb of memory (preferably 1gig)
CPU
Samsung Spinpoint HD (160gig is £60ish)
Optical drive
Graphics card (possibly a 9800pro or similar)

Can it be done?
Will it run happily just on the TV?
Bit worried about PSU, would a 9800pro be ok?

Might be able to stretch a bit maybe £500, just need to bully him a bit.
The main game he wants to play is GTR when it comes out.

Cheers

[MAS]

In theory it can be done with the TV but I've always found it a bit of a nightmare. You often need to set up the TV out or make adjustments and it requires a normal monitor so you can see what you're doing. I suppose you could lend him a monitor until it's all up and running. I still wouldnt fancy having just the TV though, the resolution and picture quality are poor and even though he wants it mainly for gaming, I'm sure he'll end up using for other things; web, etc?

Also the budget is a bit tight. Assuming he doesnt want cutting edge hardware, but something that will run modern games comfortably, how about:

SN45G - £140
512mb RAM - £50
Sempron 2500+ - £50
Samsung Spinpoint 160gb HD - £60
Evesham LOW Radeon 9800pro - £120

That's £420 and you still need delivery and an optical drive... I'd say £450-£500 is more realistic for a decent SFF gaming system. The other option is to get some bits second hand; a lot of people are going A64 now so you should be able to pick up an SN54G and a decent processor for a good price.

[MAS]

Oh, and yeah, the PSU will be fine with that. You'd be surprised what a Shuttle can handle, they're very efficient.

[Flibb]

Cheers for that, think I can make him see the light. H also wants a laptop for programming his car, so will try and find a cheaper lappy to give more money for the game rig. P2 266 would od all he wants on the laptop front.