New PC Build

[Redrob]

I'm new here so please forgive me if I am posting this in the wrong sub forum.

I'm looking to build myself a new pc. I'm on a pretty tight budget so not looking for anything too pricey. I was tempted by this one I saw on Ebay then thought I could save some cash by building it myself. I've installed HD's, Optical drives RAM etc... into previous existing PC's so I'm pretty relaxed about putting the pieces together.

I've pretty much decided to go for a Phenom II X4 840 3.20 GHz for £75.77 on ebuyer.com Looks to me like a better bet than the Athlon x4 640 3 GHz @ £72.41, unless someone here wants to tell me different. What I really need help with is choosing a motherboard. Is the a website where I can compare different motherboards side by side? I'm going to want to get 8gb RAM, but may want to increase this later. I'd also like to be able to add multiple hard drives as & when I need them. I'm going to want a graphics card at least 512mb, if I can get a motherboard with this integrated that would be a bonus. Any help picking one would be much appreciated.

[unidentified]

Well, if you are on a tight budget then you can go with the Asus M4N68T-M LE V2 Socket AM3 DDR3 motherboard that supports AMD AM3 Phenom™ II/Athlon™ II/Sempron™ 100 Series Processors. It also has a integrated Graphics Processor with maximum shared memory of 256 MB. It has got 1 x PCIe x16 slot that can be utilized for a graphics card upgradation if needed as well.

[Redrob]

I really want a at least a 512mb graphics card. I was looking at this one on ebuyer yesterday

Asus M4A88T-M 880G Socket AM3 Onboard Graphics 8 Channel Audio mATX Motherboard

Anyone know anything about it?

[Spyrus]

Yes, the Asus M4A88T-M 880G is also a nice board that comes with Onboard GPU = HD 4250 and chipset = AMD 880G. The same AMD 890GX motherboard which can be used to build an efficient and slim home theater PC using the integrated ATI Radeon HD 4290 Graphics, can be augmented with ATI Radeon™ HD 5450 Graphics for a dual-graphics performance preview, or upgraded to a gaming powerhouse with ATI Radeon™ HD 5870 Graphics and the visual realism of DirectX® 11.

[Redrob]

Thanks for the reply. I think I'm going to be going for this combo.

I do have another question

Although I will be buying a new HD for the system, is there any reason why I shouldn''t lift the HD out of my current Dell set up? It si a SATA drive running XP right now. I have an upgrade vbersion of Vista which I haven't bothered to install as my current PC really isn't upto it.

[Spyrus]

No need. You can use the old hard disk in your system. It can act as an extra storage space for your system. You can even go for Windows 7 if you have a good ram and graphic card support. Windows 7 needs around 512mb of spare ram space with a good graphic control, or else your system performance degrades. But Windows 7 is much better than in Windows Vista in compatibility and performance.

[Redrob]

Windows 7 will cost me money though. I allready have Vista allready. I'm sure for my purposes this will be fine

I was intending to use my current for running the operating system & any Software, then I can just buy a 5400rpm drive for storeage. that way I'll get a 2TB drive for not much more than I was expecting to pay for a 1TB drive.

[Redrob]

Well I've been doing more research before buying my set up & it seems I will have to by a copy of Windows afterall. I am getting 8GB of RAM. Didn't know until last night that I will need a 64 bit version of windows for that.

[unidentified]

Well, if you install a 32 bit operating system then there is no need to install 8 gb ram as 32 bit windows operating system will recognize a maximum of 3.5 gb ram to 4 gb ram. I have a system with 2 gb ram installed only with windows 7 and it is all running perfect without any issues. Ram isnt much of any use, if you intend to run a server or something.