Need new PC guts

[BliarOut]

Anyone good on speccing PC's? Nasty smell came from mine yesterday and I think it's pretty well cooked. Not even getting any BIOS beeps.

I think I need a new MoBO, CPU, CPU cooler! and case (PSU doesn't smell very good either)

Can anyone suggest what to look for on ebuyer, I don't want to mismatch what I already have. I've got about 1/2GB of RAM that I think is still ok from my old Duron 1GB machine.

More worried about price than performance, not looking for the cheapest in terms of quality, I tend to prefer to buy older good technology.

Any suggestions greatfully received, I need to get an order on, it's hell not having a PC at home.

[ErnestM]

Asus do excellent motherboards so I would recommend them as a start.

In fact I just built myself a new system for home that includes the new Asus P5WD2 (Intel 955 chipset), Pentium Extreme Edition (dual core plus hyperthreading - shows up as FOUR processors in XP), 4GB Kingston RAM, Nvidia 6800 Ultra PCI-E 512mb graphics and five of the new Western Digital 250GB SATA II drives (300mbps).

Pixar called and want to lease time on the machine for creation of thier next feature

ErnestM

PS: Also - the airflow from the new Antec tower cases is really good. The new machine has been running nonstop for a week now with no heating issues.

[Plotloss]

DDR memory I take it?

I'd be looking midrange Athlon with complimentary mobo - £60-£70 the pair.

AMD761 chipset I find cracking

CPU coolers, just a decent mid price job

Case, whatever you fancy, Xcase.co.uk

I would avoid very cheap cases but the mid priced CoolerMasters and the like are very good.

>> Edited by Plotloss on Tuesday 21st June 12:39

[silverfox]

Look here:

www.scan.co.uk/todayonly/

Scroll down to the Aopen Barebone Combo.

£140 gets you :

Aopen M3 tower Barebone System M3 SoA + Combo 52x32x52x16 CDR/DVD +Keyboard+Optical Mouse+Speakers
+ 512Mb PC3200 (PC400) DDR Memory
+ AMD Sempron 2300+ (SoA) (1.583ghz) OEM
+ Coolermaster XDream III Socket A

You do get a bonus CD/DVD and keyboard/mouse as well but not bad value unless you're after something specific.

[BliarOut]

Cheers chaps. After a bit of searching, I think I'll go for the following. A bit of mixing and matching on the advice. I decided to whack some new RAM in anyway. it was a couple of years old and would hold the machine back. Besides, last thing I saw was my CPU running at 95 degrees at about the exact moment I realised I had a heat problem!!!

I've gone with a modding case :geek: so I can see any fluff build up. I think that was what killed my last machine.

Does this look a sensible choice?

AMD Athlon XP2600 333mhz 512 L2 Cache Barton OEM CPU
059669 £41.16

Asus A7v880 SKT A VIA KT800 ATX Sound GiG LAN USB 2.0 FSB400 SATA133 Retail Box 063448 £31.19

I-Cute 0314TL ATX Gaming Case in Black with side window and 400w PSU(no power cord) 059321 £34.99

Ebuyer High Quality Round Floppy Cable 60cm in Blue 036345 £1.70

Ebuyer High Quality Round IDE Cable ATA100 60cm in Blue 036351 £2.22

Kingston 1GB DDR PC3200 400MHz Non-ECC CL3 (3-3-3) 184pin DIMM's (Kit of 2 x 512mb)
049296 £55.86

Arctic Cooling Copper Silent 2l (blue Light) (maximum Support XP3400) 058513 £7.12

[mcflurry]

BliarOut said:

Cheers chaps. After a bit of searching, I think I'll go for the following. AMD Athlon XP2600 333mhz 512 L2 Cache Barton OEM CPU 059669 £41.16

Maybe the XP3000, its only £23.80 more and offers 15% extra processing on paper (2600 to 3000). (In reality it will be less than this due to other bottlenecks)