Build a PC for 1500

banbutcher

im thinking of building a PC from scratch for meself and im gonna spend about 1500 euros. any help as to what i should use the money on??

thanks
Dickie

leeroybrown

For 1500 euro you should initially check out some prices on a "bang for buck" ratio and see how much you have left over. Then you can start tweaking things (either up or down)

I always think that a decent quality monitor is one thing you should go for. After all you'll spend hours looking at it. You might be able to stretch to a 19" Flat CRT if you're lucky.

Check out Kompletts upgrade bundles (motherboard, CPU, HSF, RAM) too. They can make a good building block for a system and will probable be a bit cheaper than seperate parts.

The best thing to do is probably to come up with an initial spec and post it in here. That way people will be able to make suggestions.

banbutcher

thats why im postin to this form as i dont really know what i want!! ill be usin the comp to play games and listen to music and the internet etc etc...

cheers
Dickie

leeroybrown

So you've identified requirements:

Internet: modem/isnd TA/ADSL modem if you're really lucky

No big cost here

Music: soundcard and decent speakers

5.1 Soundcard (SB Live 5.1, Audigy or Audigy 2)

You can also pick a Motherboard with onboard 5.1 sound. On your budget it might be the best option.

5.1 Speakers


Gaming: Good all round system with a decent Graphics card (and sound above)

Maybe a GF4 Ti4200 (good performance for under Euro 200)

Also try to stretch to a decent monitor

System stuff:
Reasonable Athlon XP or P4 (bang for buck) + Heat Sink with Fan. (For price I'd probably go Athlon)

DDR Ram (probably PC2700 on your budget) - 512Mb (2 x 256Mb) if possible

Decent motheboard (I'm not too up on the best current boards)

HDD: 7200 rpm ... as large as you can afford.

Other stuff:
ATX Tower Case and 300Watt (or more, no less) PSU

CD Burner

DVD

Keyb and Mouse

Floppy drive

Basically decide what you want to put in the PC and tweak the main expensive parts (system and gaming bits) to suit your budget.

KdjaCL

If you use your exisiting parts for 1500 you could get a bangin machine.

List what you have ie:
Cd Rom
Floppy
Mouse
Keyboard
Hard Drive
ATX case with 300 PSU
Modem
Speakers
Sound Card

If you have any of the above 1500 will go a long way.
Komplett Bundle
Hard Drive
Monitor

with 1500 to spend on that (assuming you have the above)
Your talking ATI 9700 Pro €400
19" CRT €550
Xp 2000 ,512 ddR RAM ,msi mobo built in sound €350
80gb HD €122

Leaves ya 18 for sweeties

Obviously by dropping each part down to suit (ie ATI ) you can get tweak it to suit your needs and your budget.

KdjaC

leeroybrown

On a 1500 budget €550 is a lot for a Monitor.

http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?action=info&p=21913&t=270&l=2&AvdID=1&CatID=23&GrpID=6&s=pl


Hansol 920D for 286.29 inc. VAT. I have one. They're a nice 19" Flat CRT and good value at the price.

KdjaCL

Umm me and leeroy posted at the same time so i didnt see his post.

€550 was in reference to leeroys opinion of getting a good monitor as he said your going to be staring at it for a long time.
So buy a decent one.


ps leeroy i never seen that monitor b4 looks good i may make an investment in that

kdjac

banbutcher

ok here is what i have so far, comments please

monitor: Hansol 19" CRT 920D 286.05e

modem: Billion ISDN P&P PCI 128k Cologne SE 42.33e

graphics card: GeForce4 Ti4200 64MB DDR 184.48e

mobo bundle: AMD XP2100+1.73Ghz 512mb DDR 562.05e

case: Chieftec Dragon Midi Tower w/Door, Green 127.11e

cd-rw/dvd: LG CD recorder IDE 32x/10x/40x/16x Combo 110.95e

keybrd/mouse: Microsoft Internet Hardware Value Pack 34.04e

floppy: Sony Floppy Drive 3,5" 1,44MB MPF-920 17.85e

thats it, i have hard drives and speakers.
do i need any thing else or not need othes stuff???

thanks
Dickie

KdjaCL

Is that LG a dvd player also??

thats €1364 and a bad ass pc at that if you have physical €1500 move the graphics card upa notch or 2 ti4400 or if you can ti4600

Thats a rather sweet PC.

One word of caution to reduce costs look around for an old floppy drive.

And mice and keyboard if you have them use them etc: the minor stuff adds up and if you have it use it.

Also i assume the mobo has a built in sound card so use that they are quite good the built in ones.

kdjac

banbutcher

yea its a combo drive, i need a keyboard and mouse as the ones i have already are the houes ones!!

whosurpaddy

ye its only a small thing but i was thinkin the exact same, keyboard mouse & floppy could be found 4 next 2 nothin

uve got a good overall system there.

could u post the link for ur mobo bundle as that seems a really good deal

cheers

Celt

Originally posted by banbutcher
yea its a combo drive, i need a keyboard and mouse as the ones i have already are the houes ones!!

Dont get a combo drive, it would be as cheap to get a 16X dvd drive and better cd-rw and will also give you two drives to keep cd's in

Marky Mark

I'm not sure if its more expensive, but its fun to play with anyways:D platinum series have fun

liamk

i have foppy drive if you want one it came form my old pc and is a sony

banbutcher

the link to the mobo ishere

Gerry

Marky Mark, you posted a generic link to elara's pc's. That doesn't offer much help really, and begs the question: Do you work for elara? If so, it would be appreciated to let us know, so we know where you are coming from, instead of just dropping in links here and there.

Marky Mark

no I don't, I just bought one of their pc's thats all

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?s=&threadid=73138