Before buying PC please ask our advice first!

How important is an up-to-date pc case? I'm thinking of building a pc but I'm trying to keep the budget down so I was wondering about stripping the guts out of one of the old pcs (circa 2003) that are just lying here unused and installing a new psu and components into it, definitely I would be upgrading the fans and possibly a water cooler or cpu fan.

Would the old case be harder to cool?

Thanks
A.

Really depends on the case. Also, if you're building a gaming PC then the graphics card may not fit depending on what you're looking at getting.

What sort of budget are you looking at? A great quality case can be had for £50 which can be well worth it in the long run.

http://www.ebuyer.com/350100-samsung-300e5a-laptop-np300e5a-a0huk

Samsung 300E5A Laptop
- Intel Core i5 2450M 2.5GHz
- 6GB RAM + 500GB HDD
- 15.6" HD LED
- Webcam + Bluetooth
- Windows 7 Home Premium 64

under £500

But ideally if you don't think this is good, you should be looking out for an i5 processor and at least 4gb of ram. You could also wait for summer, as the new laptops with Ivy processors will be out.

How important is an up-to-date pc case? I'm thinking of building a pc but I'm trying to keep the budget down so I was wondering about stripping the guts out of one of the old pcs (circa 2003) that are just lying here unused and installing a new psu and components into it, definitely I would be upgrading the fans and possibly a water cooler or cpu fan.

Would the old case be harder to cool?

Thanks
A.

I'm thinking on around 300 - 500 preferably with a decent monitor but I could live with it playing through my TV or using a spare monitor until I save up the cash for a decent one.

I'm not wanting a real benchmark busting setup just something that would be a decent alternative to my ps3 for gaming.

In a laptop i'd say at least 6GB it uses some of the RAM on the graphics.

I'm thinking on around 300 - 500 preferably with a decent monitor but I could live with it playing through my TV or using a spare monitor until I save up the cash for a decent one.

I'm not wanting a real benchmark busting setup just something that would be a decent alternative to my ps3 for gaming.

I'm thinking on around 300 - 500 preferably with a decent monitor but I could live with it playing through my TV or using a spare monitor until I save up the cash for a decent one.

I'm not wanting a real benchmark busting setup just something that would be a decent alternative to my ps3 for gaming.

Even then 4gb isn't used much at all as the person's not gaming. 6gb maybe if it's an integrated graphics.

Perhaps this:

i5 3570k - £173 - Amazon
MSI Z77A-G43 - £74 - Dabs
Casecom 6788 Case - £28 - Ebuyer
Corsair 500W CX V2 PSU - £51 - Ebuyer
LiteOn iHAS124 DVD Drive - £14 - Ebuyer
Corsair Vengeance 1600MHz 1 X 4GB RAM - £22 - Amazon
Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 500GB HDD - £53 - Ebuyer

That's £415 so you can put the rest of your budget on a graphics card, preferably at least £90 on a 6850.

Though if you have a DVD Drive and a good case you can save money there. It's not very realistic to get a gaming PC (even if a low end one) and a monitor for <£500. You can pick up good full HD monitors with HDMI for about £120 when you get the money.

At 300-500 incl. a monitor you're asking quite a bit, 500+a monitor let me have a look....( i use novatech/ebuyer/scan so the links will send you different sites)
processor: http://www.novatech.co.uk/products/components/processors/intel2ndgencorei3,i5andi71155socket/bx80623i32120.html
Motherboard:
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/gigabyte-ga-z77-ds3h-intel-z77-s-1155-ddr3-sata-iii-6gb-s-sata-raid-pcie-30-(x16)-d-sub-dvi-d-hdmi-a
Hard drive:
http://www.ebuyer.com/272944-seagate-500gb-3-5-sata-iii-6gb-s-barracuda-hard-drive-7200rpm-16mb-cache-st500dm002
8GB RAM(can downscale to 4GB if price is too high):
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/8gb-(2x4gb)-corsair-ddr3-vengeance-racing-red-pc3-12800-(1600)-non-ecc-cas-9-9-9-24-xmp-15v
PSU:
http://www.novatech.co.uk/products/components/powersupplies/ocz600mxsp-uk.html
Case:
http://www.novatech.co.uk/products/components/cases/cases/0761345-08300-3.html
Optical drive:
http://www.novatech.co.uk/products/components/opticaldrives/satadvdwriters/sh-222bbrsms.html
GPU:
http://www.novatech.co.uk/products/components/atiradeongraphicscards/amdhd7770series/11201-02-20g.html
Total:£490
It'll play ALMOST everything at 1080p maxed for gaming just hook it up to your HDTV and use your PS3 controller(i think you can anyway)

How much would you say is realistic to get a decent gaming setup?

Would it be possible to maybe leave out some components now and then upgrade later?

Or would I be best to just try and save up a bit more than the 500 I have now?

mine with a dedicated card use up around 3.5GB most of the time( i have 8 so i'm ok) so i'd say having some headroom would be a decent idea.

How much would you say is realistic to get a decent gaming setup?

Would it be possible to maybe leave out some components now and then upgrade later?

Or would I be best to just try and save up a bit more than the 500 I have now?

o.O you sure?
My dedicated card uses it's own 1gb, it's barely on load even on a recent game.

8GB or Ram, watching an SD video surfing on chrome and playing runescape. 38% RAM usage, and i have a dedicated 7770. Windows 7 and a lot of the new programmes are really resource hogs.

8GB or Ram, watching an SD video surfing on chrome and playing runescape. 38% RAM usage, and i have a dedicated 7770. Windows 7 and a lot of the new programmes are really resource hogs.

The reason I have made this thread is that I have seen too many buying a PC then asking us what we think, only to be told that you have paid too much for it.

So the moral of the story is ask people on here first, we are can offer unbiased advice for free unlike the big computer stores

Call this a public service announcement.

Which one should I get?

Run runescape in OpenGL mode (if that exists for runescape) to put more stress on the graphics card.

I'm currently using 26% of ram for chrome on multiple tabs.