PC Build Updates

[English Invader]

Some of you may remember that I started a thread on REMOVED about building a PC. The motherboard I bought went back and there have been a few changes since then.

I decided to go for a budget build instead of future-proofing. It's my first build and if I'm going to make mistakes it's better to make them with cheap/used parts instead of expensive ones. These are the parts I've acquired so far:

- used Asus M5a97 motherboard with 2.8 Ghz CPU, cooling fan and 2GB RAM (£50)
- Radeon HD 5450 graphics card (£20)
- used 160GB SATA hard drive (£10)
- used PC case (hand me down from a friend)

The only expensive part I'm going to buy is the PSU (Corsair 500w most likely). When I've got the PC up and running, I'll probably upgrade the RAM and install Windows 7 (64-bit) on a low end solid state, but initially I'll just run live Linux distros like I'm doing now with my old laptops.

Plenty of people have said that it would be cheaper to buy a ready built used PC, but unless you do what it takes to get the technical knowledge and experience for yourself you're always going to be relying on the people who do know. Even now, after just looking at PC parts for a few weeks, I can look at the specs of a machine and know what they mean. I can look at that £2k gaming PC and tell if it's built to last or if it's an overclocked piece of rubbish that will pack up in a year.

[hammerhead]

Looks like a pretty good call for an ultra-budget system.

The HD5450 is very aged now but fine for an entry-level £20 card. I've still got one running a dual-monitor setup (VGA + HDMI) on Windows 7 and it copes.

The 160GB HDD is presumably SATA I so while it'll do the job, it'll be the bottleneck of the system.

I recently had to upgrade an older PC which had a single 2GB memory stick installed. After checking the part number I found a matching s/h stick on eBay for just £3.50p! So that might be a cheap way to upgrade.

Good luck with the build

[Shaun]

Yeah, I'd be inclined to go for cheaper ram and push the budget on the graphics card to a HD 7750, which is a fairly decent entry level card. I nabbed a low profile one secondhand for A$75 (just over £40), and it performs quite well for the price.

But then again, maybe it's not a bad idea to get a super cheap gpu for now and look at what your upgrade options are once DirectX 12 is out.