PC build for £500 or less

Thanks all :D

I may go with the ATI card, and I'm thinking of possibly getting him a cheap sound card as well. I don't like on board sound at all, and since he'll be listening to a lot of music, I stick it quite high.

A cheap Audigy I think should be fine for that.

I'll put the lists together in a few, with the best bits and see what it comes to.

Haha, he also says he wants one that glows, which I'm guessing means adding blue/red cathodes or something, and will also need Windows XP, which I should be able to get OEM somewhere.

Hopefully, it won't exceed £500, but also, I'd probably end up asking for a small fee for the time as well
 
yeah sticking some cold cathode audio lights in the case would be good and the light covers a lot of the case - im gonna add some myself, looking at the lights go with the music beat is cool
 
Right, I have decided to try and add parts together from the lists of all of you to come up with a good solution :)

Its ended up rather expensive though... I don't know what to do about that, as I said £500 to him

Not sure on this case, but it looks okay, and he said he wanted it to glow...haha...

Case:

Xclio Propeller Midi Tower Case with 36cm Quiet Fan on Side Pane w/o PSU
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Xcli...Case-with-36cm-Quiet-Fan-on-Side-Pane-w-o-PSU
£26.37

PSU:
550W Corsair CMPSU-550VXUK
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/550W-Corsair-CMPSU-550VXUK-ATX-PS-2-5-year-Warranty
£65.78

Motherboard:
Gigabyte GA-890GPA-UD3H
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Giga...-20-DDR3-1866(OC)-USB-30-SATA-6Gb-s-SATA-RAID
£105.59

CPU:
Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/AMD-...ion-Sok-AM3-32GHz-8MB-Total-Cache-125W-Retail
£130.37

Memory:

CMX4GX3M2A1600C9 - 4GB (2x2GB) Corsair XMS3 DDR3 PC3-12800 (1600)
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/4GB-...600)-Non-ECC-Unbuffered-CAS-9-9-9-24-XMP-165V
£108.24

Hard Drive:
640 GB Western Digital WD6400AAKS Caviar Blue
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/640-...aviar-Blue-SATA-300-7200-rpm-16MB-Cache-89-ms
£47.43

Graphics:
The on-board, though not great, should be more than enough for now
£00.00

Sound:
I've decided to give him a sound card, purely because he listens to a lot of music:
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Asus...d-192k-24bit-true-PC-Hi-Fi-audio-presentation
£37.58

DVD drive:
Pioneer DVR-S18LBK 22x DVD±R
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Pion...x8-RW-x6-RAM-x12-SATA-Black-Retail-Labelflash
£18.33

Really not sure if Windows 7 is the best choice, but that is what his girlfriend wants, and home didn't include an XP mode so had to choose Professional.
Windows XP 64bit I thought about, but what do you think?

OS:
Windows 7 64bit Professional:
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Windows-7-Professional-64-bit-(Single)-OEM
£115.23

Total:
£654.92

Hmm... I honestly do not know what to do about that...

If I give Windows XP 64 bit, that is £71.55, and maybe I should go with an X2 rather than an X4...
 
Any chance he has a computer with an XP license already?

Most of the time, they are not locked to the motherboard, so you could uninstall from the old computer, then install to the new one using the same product key.
 
I'll find out :)

If it is just a disc he got from a manufacturer though, with a serial, that doesn't have the installation on it, how should I go about it?

Does the above specs look okay?

I guess I could give him a dual core for the moment, but I'd rather choose Quad, for lasting appeal

Like this CPU, madanchi posted seems okay to me

AMD Phenom II X2 545
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/168972
£66.60

I may also get 2 500GB drives which are around £36 each, which would add up to the same as 1 640GB, and RAID 1 them for extra protection...
 
Those are OEM, haha :p

He said that he wouldn't want a system he couldn't use full use of, so I've gone with an X2 555 Black Edition.

Do I really need 1600mhz RAM if I'm not going to try overclocking the rig? What would getting 1066mhz RAM for instance cause, if anything in speed, and also, would lower latencies be better over a higher mhz rating?
 
Okay, still deciding.

Would an X2 be fine do you think?

There is a small chance I could get a Phenom II X2 555 and have it turned into an X4 for no more money, by using the unlock trick, but that is a small chance.

But since he probably won't end up gaming and will use the computer for internet use/music, is an X4 really worth going for?

The X2 would cost around £80 as opposed to the £130 of the X4, or should I just go for a lower clocked X4 than the 955 which will be cheaper? Least it'd be more future proof, even with a lower clock, right?

Also, is 1600mhz speed RAM really needed if I'm not going to do any overclocking?
 
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