[HELP] Building 1st PC

[dudeinmud]

Hello.

I intend on building my own PC near Christmas time, and have come up with a spec that I like. I am not an expert, so I am not 100% sure if these parts will be compatible and/or safe together so I hope that someone will be able to tell me. The parts are as follows:

Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 3.0GHz http://processorfinder.intel.com/details.aspx?sSpec=SLAPL
GEIL 4GB DDR2 800 CL5 DC BLACK DRAGON *****************
Gigabyte GeForce GTS 250 PCI E Graphics Card *****************
WD HD SERIAL 500GB UDMA 300 7200RPM *****************
Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium 64 *****************
T/TAKE CASE LANBOX LITE VF6000BNS BLK *****************
SC-148 CD Drive *****************
GA-73PVM-S2 Motherboard http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Products/Motherboard/Products_Overview.aspx?ProductID=2734

As you may have noticed, I haven't included a PSU. If all these parts are OK together please reccomend me a PSU that is safe and/or compatible with the selected parts (bearing in mind I am on a tight budget).

Thanks in advance, Luke.

Linking to competitors is against the rules. Please make sure you read the FAQ - No promotion of OcUK's competitors section.

 

[dudeinmud]

You do see a lot of new accounts posting to other competitors early on in there thread count i wonder if they have a connection to the owner or just don't bother reading the rules

I just didn't read the rules, sorry.

Thanks for the help so far guys, my budget on a PSU is £50, but I would like it to be a little cheaper, as I don't need so much power for these parts do I?

My budget is £500 maximum, and my pc will be used for gaming mostly.

I WOULD like to keep the case I selected, as I will be using it for portability. Nobody has told me yet whether these parts are compatible (eg. will the motherboard and gfx card fit inside this case?)

Thanks

 

[dudeinmud]

I'd bin windows vista and go for windows 7 home premium.

It comes with the W7 voucher.

Can someone please confirm these parts will fit together before I buy them? My main worry is the motherboard and graphics card fitting into the case.

 

[dudeinmud]

hmm the core 2 e400 is a good chip but games are starting to become more threaded and taking advantage of quad cores plus its a dead socket so your upgrade options are limited to the core 2 quad 9x50 series. you might be better off going for an i5 or i7 setup, the cheapest i5 for example is only 20 pounds more expensive than an e8400. and you can upgrade to i7-8 series or whatever else they bring out in the future.

as for the case - hmm most i can find out is that it fits 8800 series gpus.

Thanks, at least I know now that the gfx card will fit.

I still need to know:
Will the motherboard fit the case?
Are there any quad cores for the same price as the e8400 that are just as good?
Will my motherboard support the quad core you reccomend?

Thanks again

 

[dudeinmud]

did some more reserach and edited a bit

its a micro atx motherboard so as long as the case supports micro atx then it will fit - as its a cube case it probably will. edit yes it supports micro atx

your motherboard supports most core 2 quad core processors according to cpu list but might require a bios update

you can get a q6600 and a q9450 about the same price as the e8400, some stuff may benefit from e8400s higher clock speed though.

if you want an i5 quadcore which mostly benchmarks higher than an e8400 yes you will have to change motherboards but you will have more upgrade options. final edit also forgot that i5 uses ddr3 only so you will have to change ram to so that might take you out of price range.

Ok thanks a lot for the help! So will everything else definaley fit like the PSU etc?

Also I only play counter strike source and that is a single threaded game, so do you reccomend I get the e8400?

Also is it better to have a quad core of 2.5ghz or a dual core of 3.0ghz? do they add up?