I'd arguably say that, if you're going to buy new, either go for an i3 2100 system, or a Llano system, Because an i3 2100 won't cost much more than a high-end Phenom II, and it'll still beat the living daylights out of one. Or go Llano, pick up the best of the bunch, and live without a GPU for a while, The onboard one is usually fast enough to let you get away with that little stunt for a while, and it means you're not trying to earn an extra 120 odd for a reasonable card. I agree with Parge on the second-hand option, though. i7 920's are still faster than most Phenom II's, and if you're feeling lucky; you can happily take one up a good bit to squeeze some extra performance out, flaw with this, though, is that Bulldozer will almost certainly outpace most of the middling and low-end i7's, so you'll wind up left behind faster, but it's likely to be the same story with any other components you can manage to afford. Hokay, after a quick dig through, this is likely the cheapest you can get a Sandy-bridge system; Clicky I'm not saying that'll run much graphically, but the Gts450, while a little old now, will happily manage most games on medium-low settings, even at 1080p. 1TB drives are Dirt cheap, so no problems there, the i3 comes with a heatsink, and 4GB ram is standard now-a-days, and it's also dirt-cheap, so there's not an excuse not to include it. Case is just the first one I picked that looked like it'll at least provide a bit of airflow for the components, and I trust the Corsair builder series, as I possess one of the CX600 PSUs personally, and it's not failed me yet.
UPDATE: Currently looking at cheaper components such as amd or i3 cpus. To lower the cost of the build. Still working on securing funding budget still currently lies at £0 thanks for the ongoing support.
UPDATE: Same circumstances as previous update nothing much has changed. Found a good deal on a CPU: http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/...ium=affiliate&utm_campaign=1018132_HotUKDeals Thanks
That's not a good deal. An i3 2100 costs slightly less and will outperform it. Plus I don't really advocate buying Phenom II when Bulldozer is so close and Intel variants are so much better for the same price. And so to prove it; £1 cheaper, and 2x faster; http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/...i3,i5andi71155socket/intel/bx80623i32100.html
Seeing as i haven't been able to attain funding i will be looking into a 775 socket cpu such as E2180 or E6300 in order to cut down costs. Its not long until im off to uni so need to get something sorted ASAP .
It is very cheap, it will work, it has loads of storage room and it won't consume much electricity. It is in not really upgradeable, it won't play anything much more taxing than Minecraft, it has no OS.
I was checking out a i7 920 build but it was worth it. Think you can get a i5 2500k for £160 plus a £100 Msi p67a-gd53 Then £40 for ram and your £300 worse off. Which is a great price for that amount of tech. Plus the i7 920 won't be much cheaper plus it will be second hand. If I was you I would secure a overdraft via new student account and enjoy yourself.
