advice on buying a PC

[Dave_21]

Im after a base unit only,but havent bothered with pcs for years want to spend about 400-500 max

what should i look out for?
which are the best procesors atm for my price range

from what i gathered when looking on ebay i should be looking at a quad core??
im abit lost with all this new tech can anybody give me some info,

[Leo]

make sure it has a decent processer thats the main thingyou can add more ram, a graphics card, and other things later.

[Dave_21]

is quad core the thing to have,i have no idea what sort of power is needed for games or apps nower days im still using a athlon 1.4 ghz and the last game i played was deus ex lol

[Butcher]

400-500 your not looking at quad core unless you don't want a lot of other things.
Tell us what your going to use the computer for.

Intel is faster at the moment, but if your on a really tight budget AMD can be better value.

Nvidia has the better graphics card, high end is the 8800GT (best value)
For mid range graphics card your looking at the ATI 2900 then 8600 nvidia, that is if your looking for DX10 (soon to be replaced with 10.1 which current cards cant do)

If you only want to play DX9 games best card to get on a budget is the ATI 1950, but a 8800 would be better but more money.

RAM 2gig for XP 2-4 on vista.

Hard drive SATA 2 what ever size you want, raptor if you want a bit more speed.

Sound card, x-fi? you can get the music one pretty cheap these days.

Mobo, might be an idea to get a P35 mobo that supports the new intel processors and DDR3 RAM once prices drop.

I think that covers it until you tell us what your going to use it for.

Places to buy in the UK.
Overclockers UK
Computer hardware and software at amazing prices, available online from Scan Computers UK

[Shike]

I can't honestly recommend building on such a tight budget really. However, if you're looking at just the system and not OS your best bet would be the lowest Athlon X2 you can find, 2gb if possible value DDR2 memory (Corsiar, Mushkin, Kingston, OCZ, Crucial are all good brands), and for a video card a Radeon HD 3850 should suffice (they're rated as the best bang for the buck currently). Throw on a 300GB+ SATA drive of your choice and you can probably find a way to scratch by.

[fanaticalmoose]

ATI 2900 is not midrage, it cost around $400 while hte nvidia 8800GT cost around $250-300.

For midrage, it is the ATI3850 at around $170 and the nvidia 8600 at around the same price.. ATI 3850 is the better deal.. it whoops the 8600 at all test..

[Dave_21]

i only use this pc for internet and movies however id like to be able to play games,in the future,am i best waiting fo rthe new cards to appear?

£500 im uk remember

[Butcher]

Em, if you wait for the new cards you could probably pick up a 8800 cheaper but i date say its going to be over 1/5 your budget.

Do you want speakers etc?

Here is a quick one, you can probably save on everything, like case, graphics card, RAM etc.

[Dave_21]

no just the base unit.

[Slicerz]

hmm you may need a higher budget.