I’m fairly adept at using computers and I've come to that point where I want to build my own. The PC I’m using right now is getting old and has some serious cooling problems so instead of buying a ready-made one I've decided I'd like to buy the separates on-line and build it myself. I’m in my second year of a computing degree so it'd be a nice project to get stuck into, methinks.

The budget I want to spend on my tower is around £300. (I could maybe push it to £400) I know what I want in the tower in terms of extras (burners, NIC's and so on) but I'm just unsure of what mobo and processor to get. I know I'd probably be happy with most of the stuff out there and could pick up something fairly cheaply but I want something that I know that’s gonna last and has scope for improvement later if needed. So, first step would be to say what I want to do with it:

1. First off, this PC is not gaming orientated. I have Halo2 on my Xbox and I'm happy with that until the 360 comes out this Christmas. So if this PC runs Half Life, great - but if it don't, it's no biggie.
2. I'm a heavy downloader so I'm looking at around 120G hard drive with good access speeds (I'm always using Explorer).
3. I like to convert and encode movies like VCD's, so I'd like my baby to fairly capable/stable/fast in that department. In the future I would probably looking to get a capture card as well, but for the time being I need to be sure this PC is comfortable doing like a 6 hour conversion.
4. I burn a lot of CD's and will be getting a separate DVD burner for this PC.
5. The usual browsing, and playing music, and so on.
6. Graphics Card. Although I'm not really bothered about graphics in terms of gaming I will be watching a lot of rich content on this PC such as DVD's and stuff downloaded so I'm unsure how this affects my choice of motherboard and indeed what kind of graphics/3D cards I should be looking at.
7. I will be buying a mod case with all the perspex and blue lights hoohaa. These cases tend to have the two USB and Firewire at the front so I'd like my motherboard to accommodate these fairly easily. This is fairly important since I use them to connect my flash pen and digicam to my PC regularly.

So the above is what I have in mind for my PC, but as I said the choice of mobo and CPU is giving me some problems; probably because since I'm building the whole thing from scratch my choice is fairly wide and I’m not trying to match mobo to any existing equipment. I've Googled all over the place and seen many recommendations but I'm still no closer to a definite decision. As for the Intel / AMD debate - while I do like my brand names I'd probably go for an AMD since it would hopefully bring the cost down. So, if you can recommend a specific model / brand / chipset or even just what I should be looking at with the above in mind, it would be much appreciated.

Thanks,

Barry Harsgate, Edinburgh, Scotland

I’ve played about with configurations and prices for ages here and I’m sorry to say I can’t do it! I can’t fit a ‘future proof’ system into your preferred budget and I can’t find a suitable resource to track down the cheapest prices for you there in the U.K. (We're in the penal colony.)

A base level system for you to build for the purposes you describe is going to require the following:

• An adequate entry level processor which fits the latest processor socket type.
• A suitable (preferably Nforce4 chipset) motherboard which can later accept a dual core processor upgrade and the addition of SATA hard drives. Adequate onboard multi-channel audio and headers for the connection of extra USB and Firewire sockets. Must have PCIE slots to allow for the later addition of up to date display card.
• 1G of suitable RAM
• A dual layer DVD burner
• An entry level display card which has up to date graphics features and is going to be suitable to use with Windows Vista
• An adequate power supply unit rather than a cheap, generic one.
• Definitely NOT an Ethernet card. A decent motherboard will include onboard Ethernet, and most likely Gigabit Ethernet.

The Intel/AMD distinction is no longer ‘Good one/Cheap one. I’d choose an AMD based system for the following reasons:

• It will outperform an Intel equivalent at most tasks.
• It will underperform the Intel equivalent in tasks such as the video encoding you mention, but only by a smallish margin
• It will run cooler
• Suitable motherboards are less expensive and do not require the more expensive but no faster DDR2 RAM
• A later upgrade to a dual core processor will eventually give you much better performance level than an upgrade to the Intel competitor would. Athlon64 X2 processors are the best performers at everything!

Your budget of £300 converts to a budget of just over AU$700. Your upper limit of £400 comes in at just under AU$1000. Choosing components from a reasonably cheapish major on-line vendor here in Australia, and keeping quality in mind, put me way over your preferred budget before I even chose a case.

• Athlon64 3000+ Venice core (Socket 939) $219
• MSI K8M Neo4-FI motherboard $ 159
• Corsair ValueSelect DDR400 1G kit $165
• 160G 8M cache IDE hard drive $120
• Dual layer DVD burner $80
• nVidia 6200 based PCIE display card $115

There’s $858 already, and there’s no case or power supply unit included. Using on-line price locator StaticIce and sourcing the cheapest ‘n’ nastiest such parts I could find still had me well over the $800 barrier with a generic case and power supply unit included. Choosing a suitable Intel platform (you’d need an i945 or i955 chipset motherboard) would add at least $150 to the cost.

I’d strongly recommend that you don’t choose a cheap case which includes a generic power supply unit. Instead, I’d advise you to purchase a quality unit such as the Antec Sonata, Coolermaster Centurion, or perhaps the Thermaltake Tsunami. All of those can be purchased with quality power supplies included, and range from around $160 to $250. An alternative course of action is to simply purchase a quality power supply unit, then use an old case shell, cut and fit a window yourself, and paint it.

The next bit of bad news is that as far as I’m aware, prices in the U.K. are generally somewhat higher than they are here in Australia. It’s most likely that to build a system worth building with the future in mind, you’ll need to go to the upper limit of that budget and beyond. But you’d definitely end up with a system worth having. If any UK readers would like to take the above list and source UK prices, we'd be interested to see them.

I’ve tried to keep the suggested system one which is realistically affordable yet does not compromise on quality. Upgrade potential would include:

• A dual core processor which would make that video editing really fly
• The addition of matched SATA hard drives for data storage, and the ability to use them in striped RAID configuration.
• The addition of RAM up to a total of 4G to assist with processing really large video files
• The addition of a mid to high end current display card to add high performance gaming or 3D rendering

If the scenario doesn’t suit, then I really think you’re faced with one of two choices:

Settle for building a more basic system built around a Socket 754 VIA or Nforce3 chipset AMD platform or an i865 chipset Intel platform and resign yourself to replacing rather than upgrading it later on or…….. wait until you have more money to add to the budget.

If you can locate a decent U.K. based PC gamers or overclocker’s internet forum, I’d suggest you have a good read through the information you’ll find on their forum board. You are sure to get the best advice in relation to cheap but reputable local hardware vendors, or you might find that there are price locator sites which work in the same way that StaticIce does here in Australia.

If you’d like suggestions related to a cheaper system which would not be intended for later upgrading, please feel free to drop us another query.

Cheers

Terry O'Shanassy