Thinking of building a new pc...

[pup]

Ive built one before years ago, but havent really kept up to date with the current specs. any ideas?

[Rik]

What do you want to use the machine for?

[pup]

bloody hel rik your quick at posting 

umm not a great deal, email, browsing storing photos. maybe some games.

just felt it was time to upgrade whilst the funds are there (sort of )

currently got 2.66GHz celeron and 2Gb ram with a 80Gb drive

[Rik]

Others will be better qualified than I to advise, but my approach is always to buy the highest spec you can afford, because tomorrow something faster will be along. The exact type and amount of gaming will determine which graphics card you want. Look for 3GB of RAM, more if you fancy a 64-bit OS. I'd advise a minimum of two HDs (I use 4) with one smallish (80GB) devoted to the OS, another to apps, then a third for data. Switch the Windows swap file to the second drive for best performance. Get the fastest processor you can, ideally in a motherboard which will support an upgrade. Don't skimp on the power supply. Look for gigabit networking built-in to the mobo, and plenty of USB sockets, 6-8. SATA goes without saying, but try and get e-SATA too, it can make external drives fly, until USB3 anyway.

[Glenn]

The first thing is to decide on your max budget

[pup]

The first thing is to decide on your max budget

thats the problem....

[pup]

what are the cpu/motherboard technology's now?

[Glenn]

If I was building a PC today I would still use an Intel Core 2 Duo CPU and motherboard to suit

Something like http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/specpage.html?MBB-E84P6N
or
http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/specpage.html?MBB-Q82P5Q

Add an HDU, DVD RW, PSU, & case, not forgetting a graphics card or your choice, ATI's give the best value at the moment, maybe http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/specpage.html?GW-4850

I have only used Novatech as they are local to me

E8400 CPU bundle £215
Graphics card ATI 4850 512mb £83
HDU 500gb Samsung £41
Case £30
PSU 500W £50
DVD RW £20

Comes to some where around £400 - 450. Using parts from your old PC or cheaper new parts would reduce the cost

[pup]

cheers 

[Glenn]

No problem

[D-Dan]

If you want to maximise processing performance on a budget, AMD Phenom II processors are getting good reviews, and are cheaper than Intel equivalents. AMD motherboards tend to be cheaper, too, but be sure to get one with either ATI or NVidia chipsets. Other brands (SiS and VIA for example) tend to have lower performance and lower compatibility.

If you don't intend to play games, look for decent integrated graphics rather than a discreet graphics card. You can get integrated ATI 1250 graphics that are powerful enough to output full HD these days for video. If you are a gamer, save on a motherboard with no integrated graphics and get the best graphics card you can afford. Just make sure that it's PCI-e and that the motherboard PCI-e slot is full 16x (many are 8x - restricting bandwidth).

It's also worth getting a motherboard with 4 RAM slots rather than 2 to allow an easy upgrade path. All current AMD motherboards support 8 Gig RAM or more.

If buying an Intel processor, try to get a motherboard with an Intel chipset for the same reasons mentioned above. Watch out for maximum RAM support if going Intel, some won't support more than 4 Gig.

Get as much HD storage as budget allows (no matter how much you get, you'll find a way to fill it). As has been mentioned in another thread, you may want to avoid Seagate drives. Samsung are highly recommended, whilst I personally have no problems with Hitachi. Be sure motherboard and HD are SATA 2.

Once you have the components picked, work out the PSU requirements, then get one that delivers more. Don't be fooled by cheap and powerful PSUs, they won't usually deliver the power they are rated at, and can lead to instability. A respected brand name may be a little more expensive, but will also be a more sensible purchasing option.

Finally, make sure that the chassis is of good quality and has plenty of cooling options. Liang Lee cases are highly respected, but also expensive. Coolermaster do some very good and comparatively inexpensive cases. Modern processors and graphics cards can run hot, so a good case with good cooling is almost a necessity.

When looking at processors and motherboards, you can often get some very good bundle deals by looking around.

Steve

[LesD]

I have recently put this together with parts from Micro Direct, a PSU I already had and some of my brother's surplus bits so I know some of the fairly recent prices:

Hardware:         
Component   Manufacturer   Description   Performance   Comment
Case   Samcheer   TX850   ATX   circa £25
PSU   Tagan   Easycon 530 Watt Modular   ATX12V 1.3/2.01 & EPS   circa £70
CPU   INTEL   Core 2 Quad Q6700    2.67GHz 1066MHz FSB   64 bit Quad Core Price unknown
Motherboard   Gigabyte   GA-EP45-DS3 Rev1.0   ATX Intel P45  Chipset   Max Bus Speed 1600 MHz Price unknown
Memory   OCZ   2x1GB DDR2   PC2-6400 800MHz CL=4   4-4-4-15 Dual Channel Kit Price unknown
Memory   OCZ   2x1GB DDR2   PC2-6400 800MHz CL=4   4-4-4-15 Dual Channel Kit Price unknown
Graphics   XFX      GF8500GT DX10   PCI-E Sli circa £35
Hard Disk   Western Digital   WD3200AAKS   320GB SATA II   3Gb/s, 16MB Cache circa £35
DVD-Optical Drive 1   LG   GH22NS40 AUAU   SATA 22x DVD RW   Black circa £15
DVD-Optical Drive 2   LG   GH22NS40 AUAU   SATA 22x DVD RW   Black circa £15
Floppy Drive   Sony   3.5"  Capacity 1.44 MB   500 KBps, 3 ms seek   Black circa £5

Software:         
Component   Manufacturer   Description   Performance   Comment
Operating System   Microsoft      Windows 7 RC  32-bit & 64 bit   Dual Boot   Free but Official Release Pre-ordered at £45 for October '09

This machine is used in conjunction with a Vista one via an Aten CS52D DVI KVM switch and is currently performing well since I got over a problem with the KVM switch by installing the nVidia beta drivers 190.38 for the Graphics Card

[Niall]

I have, over the last 4 months virtually rebuilt my PC.

Nvidia x260 card (currently has Terminator game free with it) £140
Black edition AMD dual core CPU (unless you're planning on playing top end games or doing heavy CPU program use, then dual core will probably do you, but won't be very long lasting if you plan to play top end games in the near future)
Motherboards - I usually go budget on this area as I NEVER overclock. If you don't plan on overclocking anything you can get away with spending about £60 in this area.
Ram - again if you're not overclocking, then generic ram will do (corsair is a safe bet)
Power supply - DO NOT SAVE MONEY IN THIS AREA. A bad PSU can destroy your entire rig (I had one wipe out half my system once ) You'd be looking at £100 in this department, but more if you plan on going SLI and having two graphics cards as you'll need a bigger PSU (and to be honest if you're going SLI you'd probably need a bigger CPU too)
Case - depends what you want really. £60 - £200
Fans for case - depending on case size you could be looking at anything between 4 and 8 fans at £2 - £10 depending on what type you get.
Sound card - Creative X-Fi cards are about £60

If you haven't got a monitor you can get nice HDTV widescreen monitors for £200 (22")
Keyboards - Gaming keyboards pricing varies a lot but you can expect to pay upwards of £60. Generic keyboards £10 or a nice inbetween one for £30 (by the way Logitech have THE BEST returns policy ever. If your keyboard fails contact their support and they ask for proof the keyboard is destroyed and they send you a new one! I did this with my Logitech G15 keyboard. They sent me the new version that cost about £30 more, for no cost to me what-so-ever.
Mouse - again I personally love the feel of Logitech mice. They always fit my hand perfectly, and they have a wide range of products, but there are a lot of other companies out there too.

As for mouse mats, if you're gaming I swear by Ratpadz.

[pup]

Cheers guys, food for thought, have talk to the boss and see how far I can push the budget! 

[Rik]

You go just as far as you want, Pup.

[pup]