Building my 1st pc!

[stupidmutt]

Hey guys, I have a problem!!! Well I have many but if you lot can help me with one I will be a very happy pup!

I am building my first pc as I cannot afford to replace my now completely defunct windows98 old one.

I need to be able to run:

* Adobe Photoshop 7.0 (or equivalent as I want to move to Linux)
* A music player for regular CDs and MP3s
* A DVD ripper & burner programme
* Email and internet (broadband)
* Digital (freeview) TV

Preferably all at the same time, but Photoshop, music & DVD's a must (I'm an artist and might like to get in to video manipulation but I am sure that can wait! What I need to know guys is, if I am on an extremely tight budget (like really tight, about £400 max and all inclusive) which processor and motherboard can I get away with? Of course I would love to get something like the AMD 64 FX and fantastic DDR2 bits and bobs, but I don't really understand them and the need for a PC is starting to outweigh my need for bells and whistles. Do I go for a built in sound card? Do I max out on a graphics card? Help!!!

My PCs on average tend to last me about 5 years. What would you guys recommend and why?

I really appreciate you taking the time to read and reply to this
(if ya do!!!).

Stupidmutt

 

[baronvongogo]

well for £400 you could by a nice editing pc, depends on what your keeping from your old computer if anything such as, case, PSU, mouse, keyboard etc

 

[stupidmutt]

Well, I wanna keep the dvd drive but add a DVDRW drive. I'm keeping the keyboard, mouse, and screen. So I guess I only (only?!?!?!) need a PSU, case, CPU, motherboard, graphics, sound & TV card. Oh and all the cables. Are they pricey? The TV card can wait as long as the option is there.

The case is dented, ****ed and blah blah blah, the PSU is only 200 and something ?watts and the sound and graphics are bordering on shite.

any ideas?

 

[baronvongogo]

well then £400 wont go that far lol

Id recommend on board sound it does its job. Will you be playing games? if not then just something cheap and simple like an Nvidia 6200 will do.

 

[WorldIndustries]

Get a Sempron 2800+ (Runs about 50 bucks now, woo), 512MB RAM, a decent motherboard, a 80GB hard drive (120 if you need it), probably a cheap video card (GeForce 5200? Yeah, Not like you're doing any gaming, but it'll help anyway.)

PSU's are a little tricky, especially in your price range. Stick with brands that are KNOWN to be good. I'm sure there are budget Antec PSU's, or even get a Winbond, but stay away from PSU's that are flashy, especially Coolmax, Powermax, etc., Since the only decent flashy PSU's are actually at or above the $100 price range.

 

[stupidmutt]

cheers worldindustries. can you expand on what a 'decent motherboard' means? like which one. there seem to be fifty options for every decision!

 

[stupidmutt]

and no, i don't play games, but i do use very large files that i manipulate for artworks. some are 30MB but most are nearer 10.

 

[WorldIndustries]

Well, maybe you should scale your video card up a little, instead of a 5200, maybe a 5600, depending on how much you have to spend... Are you worried much about it being futureproof?

Be sure you stick with an AM2 socket motherboard, if you go with AMD. It's the most future-upgradable... This also means you'll have to get DDR2 ram, which is also a plus... As for the video card, make sure the interface on your motherboard (either AGP, or PCI-E) matches the interface of your video card (there are only two, so it's not that hard to mess up )

Just stick with a major brand-name in motherboards, like MSI, Asus, Gigabyte, DFI, etc. This is just a little thing I do, but I would get all my other parts first, and THEN get the CPU, that way, if you have extra money left, you can be sure you might be able to afford a better CPU than the one you planned (Ie: 30 extra bucks might be able to upgrade you from a Sempron to Athlon 64).

 

[baronvongogo]

I would think if he wants to do heavy graphical work 2 gigs of ram or a dual core processor would be most advisable. The graphics card is secondary to those.

 

[baronvongogo]

heres a build that might be ok:

Motherboard:
Gigabyte GA M55S-S3, NF550, S AM2, PCI-E (x16), DDR2
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/ProductInfo.asp?WebProductID=448647

CPU:
AMD AM2 Athlon 64 4200+ Windsor Core, Dual Core 2.2GHz
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/ProductInfo.asp?WebProductID=401101

RAM:
1Gb Corsair Value Select, DDR2 PC4200 (533)
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/ProductInfo.asp?WebProductID=121514

Hard drive:
120 Gb Western Digital WD1200JS Caviar SE
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/ProductInfo.asp?WebProductID=253983

Graphics card:
128Mb EVGA 6200 TurboCache Mem 400 MHz
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/ProductInfo.asp?WebProductID=383640

Case+ PSU:
Antec NSK4400 Mini Tower Case - 380W SmartPower PSU
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/Antec_Cases.html

Total:£388.07

Not 100% sure about the case and if it will fit everything but Im sure it will. Apart from that think its an ok pc for £400 obviously the graphics card sucks but you said your not playing games.