I'm new to computer hardware

ronsjellyfish

ronsjellyfish

ronsjellyfish

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Joined
11 Feb 2009
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8
I've had the same computer for 7 years now and decided to get a more up to date one, a friend told me it would be cheaper to build my own and directed me here.
I know nothing about building a computer, so i was hoping you guys could give me some advice on how to build one before i get started on this sort of thing.
 
Im sure you'll get lots of help, theres plenty of videos on youtube etc to guide you through basics, as well as reading the guides on here and elsewhere
As Neil says we need a bit more info though
1) Whats your budget
2) Are you just wanting a base unit (the tower)? or do you want to include monitor, OS, keyboard etc
3) What are your uses going to be?
4) If you already have your own monitor you're going to be using, what size is it?
5) Do you have a balance of noise/quietness to power ratio or are you not bothered? Some people prefer quiter PC's at the expense of power, others want a powerful PC regardless of the noise
 
95thrifles said:
Im sure you'll get lots of help, theres plenty of videos on youtube etc to guide you through basics, as well as reading the guides on here and elsewhere
As Neil says we need a bit more info though
1) Whats your budget
2) Are you just wanting a base unit (the tower)? or do you want to include monitor, OS, keyboard etc
3) What are your uses going to be?
4) If you already have your own monitor you're going to be using, what size is it?
5) Do you have a balance of noise/quietness to power ratio or are you not bothered? Some people prefer quiter PC's at the expense of power, others want a powerful PC regardless of the noise
Click to expand...

thanks, i'll check youtube sometime

1) my budget ranges from 400-700 pounds (i could spend another £200-500 at a later date)
2) i want the full works ;)
3) explained above
4) i dont
5) I don't mind how loud it is, aslong as its not heard from 3 rooms away
 
Last edited:
Your basket

Product Name Qty Price Line Total
MO-111-SA_60.jpg
Samsung SM2033SW 20" Widescreen LCD Monitor (LS20CMZKFV/EN) £114.99
(£99.99) £114.99
(£99.99)
GX-168-AS_60.jpg
Asus ATI Radeon HD 4850 512MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI/HDMI (PCI-Express) - Retail (90-C1CLC0-J0UAY00Z) £114.99
(£99.99) £114.99
(£99.99)
MB-280-AS_60.jpg
Asus P5Q Pro Intel P45 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £112.69
(£97.99) £112.69
(£97.99)
CA-008-CS_60.jpg
Corsair TX 650W ATX2.2 SLi Compliant Power Supply £79.34
(£68.99) £79.34
(£68.99)
SW-035-MS_60.jpg
Microsoft Windows Vista Home Basic SP1 64-Bit - OEM (66G-02141) £71.29
(£61.99) £71.29
(£61.99)
CP-251-IN_60.jpg
Intel Pentium Dual-Core E5200 "LGA775 Core 2" 2.50GHz (800FSB) - Retail £62.09
(£53.99) £62.09
(£53.99)
HD-059-SA_60.jpg
Samsung SpinPoint F1 640GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (HD642JJ) £54.04
(£46.99) £54.04
(£46.99)
CA-101-AN_60.jpg
Antec 300 Three Hundred Ultimate Gaming Case - Black (No PSU) £49.44
(£42.99) £49.44
(£42.99)
KB-109-LG_60.jpg
Logitech Cordless Desktop LX710 Laser (967670-1120) £41.39
(£35.99) £41.39
(£35.99)
MY-092-CS_60.jpg
Corsair 2GB DDR2 XMS2-6400C5 TwinX (2x1GB) £26.44
(£22.99) £26.44
(£22.99)
CD-000-OT_60.jpg
Sony NEC Optiarc DDU1615S 16x SATA DVD-ROM (Beige) - OEM £11.49
(£9.99) £11.49
(£9.99) Sub Total : £641.89 Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DHL Select Next Day (Delivered Mon-Fri)
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £14.99 VAT is being charged at 15% VAT : £98.53 add after market cooler after you have brought it
Total : £755.41
 
thanks to the two people who posted their recommended choices, but right now i know next to nothing about hardware. I'll start doing some research in the morning on how to build and what works with what:D
 
As I've read this I feel obliged to throw in a fact or two...
Building your own PC saves, on average, 30% of the price!! AMAGAWD!

I notice that the two recommendations both lack speakers :eek:

Can you tell us what sort of games you plan to use this for? eg, give an eg.
That would give more people an outline of the needs ;)
 
Fledge said:
As I've read this I feel obliged to throw in a fact or two...
Building your own PC saves, on average, 30% of the price!! AMAGAWD!

I notice that the two recommendations both lack speakers :eek:

Can you tell us what sort of games you plan to use this for? eg, give an eg.
That would give more people an outline of the needs ;)
Click to expand...

i really have no idea! I guess i'd like an up to date PC ready for diablo 2! :D
 
Basically at this budget you should assume certain components:

4gb of OCZ/Corsair/Patriot RAM - preferably in 2 sticks of 2GB each, but if you're pushed for cash now you can go with 4x1gb, it just makes upgrading a few quid more expensive. These are the brands you're likely to get, possibly kingston. £45

Antec 300 - unless you'd rather spend £10-20 more on a Cooler Master 590/690 which are both very similar to the antec. It's most people's case of choice for mid-range builds. £50

Caviar Black or Samsung F1 - 500GB. Again save a tenner by going down to 320GB.

500-600W Power Supply. Take the first two digits and add 10 to get the price. Eg 500W = £60-ish. If you can get a modular supply that's helpful. It just means that you plug components into sockets on it, rather than use wires trailing from it. It's tidier and easier because you don't have unwanted wires lying about.

A graphics card is a little more complicated, but you're basically looking at a few depending on budget. These are all fairly comparable performance, just get the one that fits your budget best. Naturally the more expensive outperforms the middle which outperforms the cheapest; but not massively so.
£100 - ATI HD4830
£115 either an nVidia 9800GT+ or an ATI HD4850
Most will go with the 9800 or 4850, but the 4830 isn't bad to save some money.

The Intel Core2Duo E5200 is basically the only option if you need monitor+Operating system at this price. There are CPUs from AMD at this price range but the 5200 beats the pants off them.

Windows Vista Home Premium 64bit. Basic is rubbish and looks naaasty. £90

With the monitor I'm going to suggest you shop around and get a 22" for £100. I can't give a competitor's name on here, but there's at least one with this available. OCUK just can't seem to match their monitors for price.

Get a wireless keyboard and mouse for about £10-15. Mine's a logitech and is fantastic for the money.

Speakers - £15 2.1 system from any supermarket if you aren't fussed about surround sound.

DVD-RW about £15 again. This is pretty much a given.

It's basically down to choosing a motherboard and how much you want to spend on your graphics card.
 
^small addition to the above, which I fully agree with.
For choosing a motherboard you'll want one with socket 775 written on it, and thats about it for basics. All take up to four sticks of ram and function in basically the same way. As prices increase the number of things built into the motherboard goes up, and they start to acquire heatsinks, but all of them should have a lan port, onboard sound card and so forth. You probably want an ATX board as these are by far the most common. mATX is smaller and likely to have a onboard video card, but games on this might be painful.
 
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