Building a cheap but powerful pc

[lonewolfxix]

hi everyone, your resident tech-head here. i have set a goal for myself in my newest pc build, anyone can spec the ultimate pc where money is no object, but i have set a goal for myself, it may take me weeks as i am pretty young and therefore don't have a job, my goal is to build a cheap pc that can perform in the latest games at respectable details, i have also set out terms for this, all except one part must be new and the used part must be reliable... the aim is to build a pc that is well within satisfactory results on the gaming scale if i have to overclock it (with no mods) to get it upto speed. here is a list of goals.

I must build a cheap, reliable pc with whatever money i can make
I cannot modify the pc in anyway to get better performance from it that could void the warranty (e.g. changing the heatsinks on parts or performing "voltmods") this needs to be a pc practically anyone can build.
The pc must fall within affordable or atleast second thought worthy on a price scale.

so what am i looking at? i've already done some research comparing the two major processor companies out there.
AMD and Intel, everyone would say intel and say clock for clock they beat amd's and they use less power and bang per buck they're cheaper.... but i have conducted research of performance and cost... both using the same ram which costs ?65 for 2gb on their mid-range boards, for the amd, nf570 (?60 avg.) and for intel, the P35 (?100 avg.) now we know the board is cheaper by about ?40 give or take depending how much, might even be worth upgrading to a top of the range amd board for an extra ?30... now, what about cpu's? you'd expect they'd probably price around the same for similiar performance... let's test that theory with the intel core2duo e4500 which sits pretty at ?83now... similiar price amd... ahh the athlon64 X2 5200 sitting at ?80. now, i can't upload the picture because the site doesnt seem to want to work, but i had jasperking look it up and the 5200 seemed to just be behind the E6600 which costs ?132... look it up. so, with that in mind, by using Scan (www.scan.co.uk) as my place to shop i specced a pc...

Now, I'm going dead cheap on this pc and i am buying these components, but here's what i've chosen.
Motherboard: Foxconn N570SM2AA here (http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/ProductInfo.asp?WebProductID=468707) for ?46
Processor: AMD Athlon64 X2 4200+ here (http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/ProductInfo.asp?WebProductID=445618) for ?46
RAM: Corsair XMS DDR2-800 2gb here (http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/ProductInfo.asp?WebProductID=402849) for ?61 (the 4gb for ?160 is tempting ;-))
Graphics: MSI GeForce 8600GT here (http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/ProductInfo.asp?WebProductID=577065) for ?66

this is all i need for my build, but all other parts are pretty cheap, you can get a decent power supply now for ?25 and a 250gb harddrive for ?40, i hope this little article has inspired some people to build their own pc's, it saves a lot of money, makes you seem smarter to others and the performance is alot better :-)

[Jasperking]

What about the case? it must have a nice case rofl.. so is this going to be the pc your going to use after the one that broke?

[LiNuX]

wow sounds complicated but good luck, make me one and ship it over here lol, shipment only costs around $100 for 3 weeks lol

good luck with it, let us know how it turns out and if you are broke :-P

[lonewolfxix]

I have ?600 ($1200) in my bank so I won't go broke :P

And Jasperking, yes it will, I was thinking of getting a "sharkoon rebel 9" gaming/value case which can be found at Scan (http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/ProductInfo.asp?WebProductID=527915) for under ?30, but since i already have a case right now I was thinking of sticking to it for a little longer.
Also,I have found the motherboard I want for a lot cheaper on ebay brand new with a warranty, so I'm thinking of going for it, ends in 2 days time :) Also, change on the graphics card, I went to ebuyer and the cheaper and better card I wanted is now sold.. the Inno3D GeForce 8600GT for ?67 so I'm ordering that from there (?10 off from google check out and free postage... ?15 saving!)

[Jasperking]

lol the sharkoon rebel 9 looks like a mini atx on scan lol but dw i know its not.

So you only got 2 days to think about if you are going to do this?

[lonewolfxix]

I'm doing it, but i need to make the money ;)
had ?20 in wallet, brother has paid off 1/3 of the harddrive cost (?5) plus i sold jasperking a game for ?5 i now have ?30 which leaves me ?27 away from getting the gpu plus i'm selling a ps2 for an expected ?30, a radeon 9700pro for an expected ?30 and 2 other cards for an expected ?8=/
which is ?98... enough for the board on ebay and my new gpu :)

[LiNuX]

lol wow lonewolf, ur quite the business man, sell jasper 5 more games and u'll be that much closer to that gpu lol

[Jasperking]

rofl sell me 5 more games :p i dont think so lol i dont have the money to throw away :). He didnt give me a used game though..well he did but he didnt use it himself

[LiNuX]

lol wtf, so he was the middleman for the game? thats pretty weird, maybe he found it in a dumpster beind ur house and sold it back to u lol

[Jasperking]

rofl nah he just bought it off ebay.. well he bought 2 of the same game because i said that id buy the other one :)

[LiNuX]

oh that makes sense now, way to go leaving out the whole story in the beginning lol

[Jasperking]

well i wanted to make you guess before i told you :p. But lonewolf has a long way before he can buy his computer hardware and the "Orange Box" which he also wants :P

[lonewolfxix]

The gpu is at... 52% total cash saved and it's only ?57 so it's not that far to go there, after that component i can start playing games :) i have a ps2 i repaired on ebay which cost me ?10 to buy but should go for ?30 so profit there :) also got my 3 old gpu's on ebay and an unopened freddy krueger figure series 1 by mcfarlane if anyone is interested! friend is also giving me ?5 for something :P

Can't wait for my bro to pay me off >.> will be very close then without the ebay auctions! maybe i should make him py me back for all the other stuff. :P that should get me a few hundred.. a thousand if he pays it all off! :P

[Jasperking]

lol if he is anything like my bro he wont be able to pay you back for a very long time :p

[lonewolfxix]

I think you mean unwilling :) I've seen his pay cheques :) in just under a week i believe i should have the money! hopefully my harddrive will be here by then and my friend done lending my psu 8-) I want to actually play cs or TDU for a bit.

[Jasperking]

yeah but even though my bro earns a ton a week he spends it all within the week so if i dont beg him for it on a thursday its gone XD

[lonewolfxix]

you beg him for your money back? i demand mine.. that foxconn board i want there's 1 ending tomorrow at 3ish its currently at ?20 and it's used, there's a new 1 ending in 4 days brand new

[Jasperking]

You could ask your dad to lend you money if you do not have enough till your brother pays you back

[lonewolfxix]

i could always lend it from myself.. lmao. but nah, cba, i can earn it ;)

[Jasperking]

Yeah i know you can earn it but i ment if you do not have time such as a really good price on ebay is about to end

[lonewolfxix]

I have the cash right now. plus it ends tomorrow.

[Jasperking]

so are you going to get the used one then i guess lol. I would be abit skeptic about getting a used motherboard lol

[lonewolfxix]

i've bought quite a few, if it goes over ?30 i won't buy it as i can just order it and the processor at a later date with ?10 off and free postage from ebuyer :)

[lonewolfxix]

just an update, as everyone knows i had ?30 cash, my graphics card just sold for ?25 on ebay plus the other 2 broken ones are at ?1 each... and my leather jacket is just going through now for ?10+ last time i checked (6minz left)
gpu should be coming maybe next week, i wonder when seagate will send my hdd back...

[LiNuX]

lol lonewolf - nice work selling on ebay, i had luck just once with a pc memory card lol

hope u get ur gpu next week :D

[lonewolfxix]

im just getting rid of anything i don't need/want and possibly things i can make a profit on if i can find them lol. let's hope i can get the gpu and hdd soon, i want to play games on my pc again soon

[Jasperking]

Yeah i want to play games again too!!! well my pc is perfectly fine but i cba to play games unless someone asks me to lol

[lonewolfxix]

Hence why i came over the other day and you took ages getting off a game you apparently hate -counterstrike source - to come out with me... ohwell, 1 week time, hopefully.

[Jasperking]

Well that was because i havent played CS:S for like 8 months or something and the one day i have a go on it you try to get me out of the house :/

[snipeshootergal]

Wow all i can say is good luck building that and that's cool if you succeed.

[lonewolfxix]

The building part is easy i've been building pc's for the last 5 years :) I just need to get the money, by the end of the week I should have ?74 which is ?17 more than i need for the first thing so I'm on my way to building it.

[Jasperking]

So are you getting the graphics card first then the hdd and then the motherboard?

[lonewolfxix]

gpu first, yes, simply as the soon as i have that i have a working pc that i can use to play games on and sell more things on ebay. The harddrive is a replacement by seagate and i'm just waiting for them to ship it now. then I have to plan how to get the money for the motherboard cpu and ram and i have found out I am ?33 out. I'm also considering getting Half Life 2 Orange Box (anyone want buy hl2 and ep1 off me for ?8?) but that boosts it upto ?58 need minus the ?8 for selling the games that's ?50 :P I will also be willing to sell my ps2 for ?25 since it's slightly faulty.... last owner done ghetto console servicing and ripped the cable for the LEDs in the front.

Game or money towards upgrade?

[lonewolfxix]

alrighty.. update time:

progress: 98%

I have now basically fully built the PC and i'm using it right now, currently at stock except the graphics card which is running in "energy efficient mode" though it only uses 45watt anyway right now it's using about 30watt :twitcy:

PC works great and came to a (based on comparable components as some of my parts were from my old system) ?300! (about $580.. and remember.. I'm in britain) I can run TDU and HL2 etc. at max spec and at full load it uses a total power of 209watt which equates to about.. 1.8pence/hour to run in britain (3.2cents) or if you were running in america.. about 1.8cents/hour depending where you are.
But right now in energy efficient it's using something like 190watt. soon as i get my ram back i'll clock and underclock my processor see how low and how high i can get it :P

Total spec:
CPU: AMD Athlon64 x2 4200+ Energy Efficient 65w (?42)
RAM: Kingston ValueRAM ddr2-667 2x1gb (?37 now ?35)
HDD: Seagate S-ata150 250gb -- comparable drive : Seagate S-ata3G 250gb 16mb cache (?43)
mobo: Foxconn N570SM2AA 8EKRS2H (?45)
GPU: Inno3D GeForce 8600GT 256mb (?64)
PSU: Antec NeoPower 480watt -- comparable psu : Arctic Power 600watt (?32) -- better to get 700watt v.