upgrading a pc for £500

[starbuck]

my friend wants me do a major upgrade on his pc. cannot remember exact specs but suffice to say he has an old P3 and windows 98. He didn't want to spend more than £500 and ideally wanted to include a TFT screen with that.

Want some advice on what sort of spec/components I can expect for that price. I think I will advise against a tft for that price as I think it would be a major compromise on components. He already has a std monitor so he can cope with that. will also need to get a copy of xp. hard drive prob ok(but may want to upgrade) but ideally looking for mobo, cpu, ram,dvd writer,graphics card etc.

any ideas?

also pros/cons of atx vs sff

[muddyfox470]

could get a decent athlon system with that
80gig hdd
xp2500+
ok ish mobo (asuan nvidia2 one?)
in gfx you would have to plump for a 9200 and then save for a better one in say 6 months to keep to that budget, but it should suffice for light (old) gaming etc.
and cheap benq tft
u kno the rest! cd and dvd drives ~ £20 good luck

sorry my advice is short but i have to rush!

saw someone who got all this etc in a sff for under £500 > shop around but best to buy components from one place!

[johnnr892]

To a certain extent it depends what he wants to use it for mainly. Have a look at this just for an estimate:
Asus NF7-s v.2.0 £45
xp2700 retail £77
maxtor OEM 80gb £35
Crucial 512 pc3200 £54
9800 pro £140
dvd/cdrw combo AOPEN £28
XP OEM home cd £55

TOTAL=434 + about £25 to ship it all which is about £460 pounds.
You will need the fans etc but they don't cost too much, and with that board he may be able to do a bit of overlcoking as well.

[Drat]

Optorite 8 speed dual dvd writer £29.99
Western Digital 80Gb with 8mb Cache £34.70
AMD 64 2800 754 £81.91
Kingston 512mb DDR 400 £50.17
DEL £ 4.99
VAT £35.53
Total £237.09
From EBuyer

AsRock Combo Z 754/939 Mobo £47.95
Nvidia 5900XT £114.95
VAT £ 29.30
Total £196.70 inc carriage

From Planetmicro
The Asrock mobo is made by Asus as a "budget" line. Have a look at the spec its a via chipset. It has 2 sockets 754 and a 939 socket so your m8 can upgrade to 939 whenever without changing the mobo.

http://www.asrockamerica.com/Products/K8combo.htm
The WD drive with the 8mb cache will be nice and speedy.
Total £433.79 leaves enough for XP and a pint.

Good luck