I need a new PC...

[Acelister]

I've been putting it off and putting it off, but I can't put it off any longer.

I currently have a Dell XPS 630i, which I can't whack another CPU in, and as it uses DDR2 RAM, I will need pretty much everything. Apparently even a case.

I won't need: graphics card, hard drives.

So, what can I get with a small budget - maybe £500 or so, depending on how soon I want it? What should I avoid (other than Celeron)?

[azrael316]

As you dont need a GFX card, that is a bonus as that would eat a large chunk of your £500.

I would say anything over an i3 with 8Gb RAM will run games well.

I had an i3 and could run anything i threw at it with the HD6950 taking the brunt of the work.

This base system, without CPU Comes to £267.07 at CCL.

Which gives you plenty of scope for your CPU of choice.

[Acelister]

Looks good. I was thinking of an i5, as I don't mind running things on mid-to-low settings, I'm not a quality whore.

What should I look for in a case? I've had a brief look and seen they vary wildly in price.

[dominoid]

main thing I look for is ease of access. sharp lips on the inside that will lacerate your wrist are sadly all too common. Work out what mobo you are getting before you pick the case so you know where you'll need to route cables and you can check out if they'd be easily accessible otherwise you'll curse the choose 2 years later when you're trying to upgrade something. Will you be air cooling? If so, worth working out what kind of flow you'll get by checking out where fan holes are located compared to the main components on your rig.

[Platinum]

Might be worth looking at the AMD 8 core FX chips, older design but great value for money.

[Acelister]

Air cooling to keep costs down, at least at first.

I thought AMD had declined in quality over the years? Back in the late 90s, my first choice would have been AMD, but I thought I read that they are prone to overheating.

[azrael316]

put the Fractal R5 case in that lot because its in the Custom PC "best buys" section for cases under a Ton.

With an i5 chip, youre looking at this...

[Bobster]

I have a 600W Corsair PSU

[Platinum]

Optical drive, really?

[azrael316]

Originally Posted by Platinum

Optical drive, really?

Always nice to have for those old games mate. And for making DVDs etc.

I dont see Optical Drives going away anytime soon, as much as the industry tries to kill them off.

[Platinum]

Optical drives died ike 7 years ago

[Platinum]

SSD added because you need one, you just might not know it yet

[dominoid]

Originally Posted by Platinum

Optical drives died ike 7 years ago

I still buy any non indie games on disk and going by the amount on shelves, I can't see them dying out any time soon.

[Acelister]

Some AAA games have a DVD with an 8MB install...

Would my current DVD drive fit any case? Also, I do have an SSD as my main drive.

Also, that's a very fair price compared to what I imagined.

Bobster, how much? And would it suit a build like Plat's latest suggestion?

[Bobster]

Originally Posted by Acelister

Bobster, how much? And would it suit a build like Plat's latest suggestion?

yeah, same physical size

how much? erm, call it £40 - Corsair CP-9020077-UK Builder Series 650W CS650M ATX/EPS Semi-Modular 80 Plus Gold Power Supply Unit

[MikroTiken]

I need some new foods. I am getting tired of eating the same thing. You ladies have anything?

[Aaroncaf]

I could get in on this too. I posted in the other thread about my graphics card.

I think I need to upgrade my mobo and probably my CPU for that matter too.

Currently have a rather unbalanced Asus A8N-E, 2x1gb Balistics RAM, ATI Athlon 2x4800, Jeantech 650w PSU, and an ATI 4870 512mb DDR5.

I need to do an upgrade too so could find any information in this thread quite handy.

[ChristopheLourd]

I think you should upgrade your CP-9020077 should be reasonable.