Need help building a new PC for uni

Woah, I havent posted here for so long.

Anyway, I am moving to Uni in october, to do a course on Interactive Media Production, and I am going to need a brand new PC. I used to know a fair amount about hardware and specs and stuff... But I havent really been on forums like these for over a year and have got lost in how fast technology travels.

Basically I want to build a new PC which will run desktop apps (like Flash, Photoshop, video editing software) fast. Im not really that worried about games, Id like to be able to play some games now and again, but I dont want to be forking out for a PC thats gonna play crysis, because I just cant afford it and wont get that much use out of it.

Mainly what it will be used for is web browsing, msn, music/video players, flash and photoshop, but I want it to be **** fast for doing this kind of thing.

What would be the best type of machine to get? I dont realy want to be spending anything over £600, thats the very maximum I would say, and also no need to worry about accessories like mice, keyboards etc. Im just not sure right now what the best products are, in the past I always used Intel and Ati, but I knowothers andvery strong contenders now.

Cheers for the help in advance I appriciate it.

Yeah ill be building it myself, with help from my dad. That part will be no problem, I just wanna get the right specs so im not wasting money.

Also vista, is it a pile of crap? should I stick to XP?

yea stick with XP, its not a pile of crap its just thats its got alot of issues which most would rather wait till they are fixed they buy a 200 pound OS.yoyo462001

Yeah thats what I thought. I dont wanna spend money on something buggy thats gonna crash more than the version I already have.

So anyone have any recommendations as to what hardware I should get?

2gbs of RAM is a must.

4 gigs of ram is overkill but if you want your pc to latst for 10 or 15 years I reccomend 8 gigs, also Quad core is where its at, its so good that right now we dont needabetter processor on the market because the quad core can andle ANYTHING!! and it looks like itll be handleing anything for a long wileTrooperManaic

pfft no pc lasts for 15 years. quad cores are pretty expensive surely?

Yeah ill probably go with 2GB RAM. Whats the best type these days? DDR3?

What would be a decent CPU and GPU for my budget?

8800GTS 320mb - 180 pounds

Gigabyte P35 DS3R mobo - 88 pounds

E6550 - 105 pounds

Crucial 2x1Gb 667Mhz Ram for 1:1 ratio - 60 pounds

Seagate 320Gb Sata II HDD - 50 pounds

Antec EarthWatts 500W PSU - 50 pounds

Antec 900 - 66 pounds

8800GTS 320mb - 180 pounds

Gigabyte P35 DS3R mobo - 88 pounds

E6550 - 105 pounds

Crucial 2x1Gb 667Mhz Ram for 1:1 ratio - 60 pounds

Seagate 320Gb Sata II HDD - 50 pounds

Antec EarthWatts 500W PSU - 50 pounds

Antec 900 - 66 pounds

dayaccus007

Sounds good man! tbh it actually looks like that would rip apart most modern games, at least the ones out at the moment anyway... plus DX10 support :P

cheers for the help dude, appriciate it.

[QUOTE="dayaccus007"]

8800GTS 320mb - 180 pounds

Gigabyte P35 DS3R mobo - 88 pounds

E6550 - 105 pounds

Crucial 2x1Gb 667Mhz Ram for 1:1 ratio - 60 pounds

Seagate 320Gb Sata II HDD - 50 pounds

Antec EarthWatts 500W PSU - 50 pounds

Antec 900 - 66 pounds

bulletheory

Sounds good man! tbh it actually looks like that would rip apart most modern games, at least the ones out at the moment anyway... plus DX10 support :P

cheers for the help dude, appriciate it.

np mate. and yes, this rig will handle next games like Crysis very well

P.S. The prices are from ebuyer.com

np mate. and yes, this rig will handle next games like Crysis very well

P.S. The prices are from ebuyer.com

dayaccus007

haha, awesome! I thought you would have to be spending £1000+ to be able to run a game like that decently... cool :)

Hmmm, i might get a lower end gfx card and a better CPU intead... what do you think?

I have just gone for quadcore and 4 gigs of ram. I hear loads of good things from the quadcore and its good for overclocking just to get that bit more out of it.

If you live in the uk i can surgest one great deal to you. If you dont need monitor and speakers cost you 600 quid.

Right, this is what I have pretty much decided on, apart from the graphics card:

ASUS P5K Intel iP35 Socket 775 Motherboard - £ 64.95

Crucial 1GB PC2-6400 X2 - £ 59.10

LG GSA-H62NBAL 18x SATA black bare - £ 16.50

Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 PRO - £ 12.95

320GB Western Digital Caviar SATA2 16MB - £ 89.90

Gigabyte Triton Black - £ 39.95

Akasa 500W PaxPower ATX2.2 PSU - £ 44.95

52 in 1 Card Reader Black with USB - £ 3.99

Intel Core 2 Duo E6750 2.66GHz (775)- £ 104.95

All prices from aria.co.uk

Does that look like a good balanced system? Should it run well?

I cant decide on a graphics card, however.

Currently im looking at either:

Asus Extreme 8600GT 512MB Silent PCI-E

Or

Sapphire Radeon X1950 PRO 512MB PCI-E

They are both pretty much the same price, however the Nvidia card supports DX10 whereas the Ati one doesnt.... what do you think?

Is that 1 or 2gb of RAM? Thats a great price if its 2GB

For the graphics card, the X1950Pro is better now (and always will be), so unless you are interested particularly in DX10, I would go for it!

I would also change the motherboard to a P35 DS3R by Gigabyte, its still great and a fair deal cheaper. (I think!)

All in all a pretty nice system! :)

Is that 1 or 2gb of RAM? Thats a great price if its 2GB

For the graphics card, the X1950Pro is better now (and always will be), so unless you are interested particularly in DX10, I would go for it!

I would also change the motherboard to a P35 DS3R by Gigabyte, its still great and a fair deal cheaper. (I think!)

All in all a pretty nice system! :)

skinnypete91

Yeah thats 2 1gb sticks, they are about £30 each

I think I will go for the x1950pro, seems like a better card after looking at benchmarks and stuffs.

That gigabyte board seems to be about the same price as the asus one, at least where im looking!