Build Advice Help needed, first time builder eager to learn

Finally received my bonus from work, and with no current outgoings, hooray!! I'll be building myself a rig.

Budget: £700 - £800 for everything eg: Monitor, OS, peripherals.
Main uses of intended build: Gaming, mainly WOW nothing hardcore.
Parts required: everything
Previous build information (list details of parts): N/A
Monitor resolution: Open to suggestions
Storage requirements: 320gb - 500gb
Will you be overclocking: Yes, I'll be given it a go.
Any motherboard requirements (no. of USB, Xfire/SLI, fan headers): N/A
Extra information about desired system: Wireless card will be required.

Your help would be greatly appreciated.

 

Hi There,

I would start by checking out the bit-tech buyers guide.

If you are aiming to include a monitor in that budget then you are probably looking at the 'All Rounder' PC. I would personally use an Athlon II X3 425 (triple core) processor rather than the X2 (dual core) however - that should give the rig just a bit more longevity. You should be fine with everything else.

Other systems to look out for are in the value end of socket 1156 Intel systems. That will be the Pentium G6950 or the i3 530.

Since you're not going high-end with the graphics card, you should be looking for monitors that have 1,680 x 1,050 resolution (or thereabouts).

 

Yeah, checked out the buyers guide think I'm going to use the affordable all rounder as a basis of components to buy. Along with a decent 20" monitor.

 

Ok so the moment is here to buy the parts, think I'm going to go with July's All Rounder. Any last minute suggestions would be fantastic.

Looking at this for my monitor http://www.ebuyer.com/product/194237

 

Seems Scan doesnt stock the AMD Athlon II X2 240 now so would the 250 be an acceptable replacement?

 

Very slightly faster (As you'd expect) according to CPU benchmark so it certainly wont hurt unless someone knows something I don't.

 

Thanks for reply.. My brain is fried and I'm having problems decided what I want..

Came up with this, but feel it could be better http://www.scan.co.uk/savedbasket/c6f5876404b9442ca26fe232ff80c292

 

Wow, decisions, decision...

Is it always this tricky when building your own rig? Massive help needed.. My experience in this area isn't the best and I'm really starting to struggle, but don't want to resort to just buying an expensive pre build which I could of easily created for alot cheaper.

 

Try to fit the x3 into budget rather than x2. It will make a difference and is not much more expensive.

EDIT: This 3.0GHz one seems to be on special. That's just £10 more than the X2.

 

LOL - just wait, we haven't had everyone come in and recommend Intel yet Methinks they are not far off ...

 

Well to be honest if I didn't have the monitor/OS and other little things to buy I would be rather interested in the i5 range, maybe it can still be done within my budget, need to have a good play with different specs.

 

Yeah go with a intel build

No just kidding go with what you are comfortable with

 

There's another active thread today on the i5. It's hitting around £690 without OS, peripherals, monitor ... there's a few things that could be trimmed back ...

AMD is fine however. That board is an AM3 socket - so there's plenty of CPU upgrade capability in the future (already 6-core Phenom IIs available, probably more in the future). The X3 will be fine for a good while however.

Anyone have comments on the monitor? slightly high pixel count for the 5770 ... but would he want a 22" monitor with a 16xx pixel width for the same price?

 

Ok, so now the ball is rolling case - Antec 300 has been ordered.

Also found this graphic card which seems rather appealing http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-216-SP&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat= thoughts?

 

Sure - the bit-Tech buyers guide lists a 1GB ATI 5770, and that's certainly one of those. That one is a good price and from Sapphire, which is a good brand. There are also some decent priced ones on Scan. Did you know that you might qualify for free delivery from Scan since you're a forum member with more than 20 posts? It can save some cost on a new build.

 

When looking on Scan before for a 5770, I noticed that I had to pre-order, and since I have never used Scan before was unsure how long I'd have to wait. I'm getting to excited by it all

 

Sure, I see that. The cheapest in-stock one at Scan is an Asus card (good brand) but it's £133.00.

New builds are always exciting

 

So only £3 difference, take into consideration the cost of delivery from overclockers might work out cheaper sticking with Scan.

 

So my preferred motherboard option (MSI 770-C45) seems to be out of stock in a few places. Do any of you self build pro's know of a good alternative AM3 board which supports DDR 1333?

The processor I'm looking towards is the AMD Athlon II X2 250.

Cheers in advance.

 

Scan has it listed as coming back into stock today.

You're really set on that X2 aren't you? Pleeeeaaaaseeee buy the Althon II X3 triple core for £10 more. It will make me so very much happier for you & your purchase.