I looking to build a gaming/work pc (LFS, RBR, Flight Sims) on a budget of about £300 max for the pc.

So far I've got:

MSI Saturn 890 AM2 Mini Tower Barebone - VIA K8M890Pro Chipset With 350W PS http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/120687 £69.99

AMD Athlon 64 4200 x2 http://www.overclockers.co.uk ... 1&catid=6&subcat= £64.61

Team Elite 1GB (2 x 512MB) DDR2 PC2-6400C5 800MHz Dual Channel Kit
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-005-TG&groupid=701&catid=8&subcat= £23.49

Western Digital WD800JD Caviar SE 80GB 7200RPM SATA/150 8MB Cache - OEM http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/59556 £26.34

Samsung SH-S183 SATA 18x DVD±RW/RAM Black - Bare drive OEM http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/127260 £20.56

Point Of View 7600GT 256MB DVI AGP Graphics card http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/127243 £65.19

Total = £270.18


I'm not really literate with all the hardware speak but this is what I've concocted. Is there anything I've missed out or any components that should be swapped?

Any ideas would be very appreciated.

I'll just say one thing... Get a much bigger hard drive than that. In the hundreds of GB. They are getting cheap too.

yeah thats true i have 1 terrabyte of external memory so i keep nothing on my pc except important programmes , the terrabyte cost me 200 euro per 500 gb brick drive

I would not buy motherboard with AGP slow nowdays.You will be pretty limited later when you will be upgrading graphic card.PCI-E is much better choise.

The motherboard that the barebone's kit comes with has a PCIe slot, you chose a AGP card. You need a PCIe card like this to be compatible. I would definitely recommend that card for any build as it is DX10 and has comparable performance to a 7900GS at medium resolutions (1024x768/1280x1024).

Looks good although I think you can get a bit more HD space for about the same amount of money. I got a 7200RPM 300GB for $70 after rebates.

I would go for this:

Dabs Value Midi Tower 400W Silent
http://www.dabs.com/productvie ... klinx=39MW&PageMode=1
With 350W you might have a problems.
£27.08

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/ ... duct.php?prodid=MB-071-MS
MSI AMD2 socket motherboard.
£49.34

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/ ... duct.php?prodid=MY-005-TG
same memory as above
£23.49

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/ ... duct.php?prodid=CP-168-AM
Athlon X2 64 4200+ , 3 years warranty instead of 1 for your OEM version.
£70.49

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/ ... duct.php?prodid=CD-053-LG
LG Multi DVD+- writer including DVD-RAM
£19.96

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/ ... duct.php?prodid=HD-046-WD
WD 250GB 16MB cache.Very fast. 80GB would be really on the low side.
£42.29

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/ ... p;catid=56&subcat=912
8600GT - you are on limited budget but this card is very good value for the money.
£88.11

Makes total 320,76 GBP total including VAT.

Going with the 80GB you would save 16 GBP and that makes total 304GBP and also I dont have good experiences with VIA chipset last 2 years.They have been very good before but not nowdays.My friends who wanted to go the really cheap and buying VIA chipset motherboard had a lot of problems with chipset drivers and over stability.

I would invest those 20 GBP more.

Hope it helps you.

Do not get a 8600 GT, even if you are a light gamer. They just do not stand up. a slightly OC'ed 7600 GT or a 7900 GS will kick it in the teeth, and they can be found for the same price and/or cheaper.
~Bryan~

7600GT will not kick 8600GT which can be orverclocked as well.
8600GT has sometimes sligtly better performance then 7600Gt and sometimes up to 7900GT.

http://www.computerbase.de/art ... e_8600_gts_sli_8600_gt/1/

http://anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=2970&p=1

Also 8600GT support DX10.I am not saying it will fly in DX10 games but 7900GS and 8600GT are for the same price.Its hard decision as he is very limited on budget.I would go rather with ATI X1950PRO from overclockers.co.uk but then would be another 15GBP and I am not sure Eddster would accept it.

DX 10 isn't really something to be considering yet, not unless you are hardcore 1337 gamer that needs two 8800 GTX's in SLI. Most DX 10 games that come out in the future will be DX 9 compatable (disabling the DX 10 features) but again, the cards and games won't become mainstream for years...
~Bryan~

Thanks for all your suggestions, especially DEVIL 007 for pointing out that the graphics card is the wrong slot and for giving me an alternative better spec system.

Although I think I will keep an eye out on ebay for a couple of weeks, and try and get a good price comparison for the kind of system I want, before I commit to the stress of building a pc from scratch.

Oh just so you know, that PSU sounds kind of sketchy. 350W is pushing the bare minimum for that setup, I'm not too sure how a DX10 card would cope with that power, because I can't imagine the 12v rails having alot of juice for the job.
~Bryan~

Thats why I have suggested him the PC case above with 400W.
The full load should be around 220-225W.Its always better to be ob save side and not to push PSU to the limist especialy with the cheap one models.

http://www.bjorn3d.com/read.php?cID=1086&pageID=3336

It's not even the wattage I'm worried about. But if he ever wants to overclock, or even run a mid to high end graphics card he will need alot more amps on the 12v rails.
~Bryan~