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"Thinking of building my own PC..."

I've done it before, but I'm a bit out of step with what constitutes a good PC. It's mainly for gaming, as I've got a half-decent laptop for work with the following specs:

P4 2.66GHz processor
40GB HDD
512 RAM
GeForceFX 5200 64Mb graphics card
DVD reader/CDRW

So I'm guessing that the minimum to incorporate future gaming needs would be something like:

P4 3.5GHz+
200GB+ HDD
2Gb+ RAM
Hefty graphics card (blimey they're expensive!)
etc.

Is that about right for a starting point for the next generation of games? The motherboard would have to be future-proof too. I remember building a PC before with ISA slots, then everything went PCI! Looking through SR's range of components and PC's, it seems I could get a half-decent PC for £500, then beef it up for another £300-400 - is that what people normally do? I'm quite capable of starting from scratch and waiting for it all to come together...

Cheers for any advice.

I got this far and then got bored:

AMD Athlon 64 3500+ Winchester 90nm (Socket 939) 187.94
Corsair 1GB DDR XMS3200C2PT TwinX (2x512MB) CAS2 131.54
Abit AV8 (Socket 939) Motherboard 73.97
Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 10 NCQ 200GB 6B200MO SATA 8MB Cache 69.27
OcUK ATI Radeon X850 XT 256MB DDR3 TV-Out/DVI (PCI-Express) - OEM 305.44

768.16

monkey_man wrote:
> What's the dea with socket939 AMD processors? They seem to be lower
> speeds than Pentium, but just as much?

Lower clock speeds, yes. Slower, no.
Athlon 64s = the choice for gamers.

And it the nVidia SLI thing a gimmick? That package with the mobo and 256Mb card is that expandable after it becomes old? I could just get an SLI mobo and 2 cards to match the onboard memory for a bit cheaper.

This is fun. But sad because it's not looking much cheaper than going out and getting a new one!

What's the dea with socket939 AMD processors? They seem to be lower speeds than Pentium, but just as much?

Also, I gather I'll be looking for a PCI-E capable motherboard, which matches up with the processor stuff...only the cheapest ones are about £200 and that's for 2.2Ghz speeds?

And ebuyer aren't that much cheaper than SR surprisingly...!

P4 my ass.

The thumbs say aye.

Looking at ebuyer at the moment.

Have a look at novatech for parts they are pretty good price wise and i have never had a problem with any of there products.

AGP = Accelerated Graphics Port

PCI-Express is faster though. Top graphics cards are GeForce 6800 Ultra and Radeon X850 XT.

Could a monkey build a PC?...

You? Build a PC?
hohoho