New PC - What to get?

[furnace]

I want this computer to be upgradeable so that's the most important thing. I used to be pretty knowledgeable with hardware, but I haven't been keeping up to date with it recently..

I have the tiny budget of £450 (a bit under $800)!

What do I need..? Something like this:

Mothorboard
Must have PCI-E, and a few PCI slots (TV Card, Network Card, Sound Card).
Processor
AMD preferably, no idea why but they've always seemed like the cheaper-but-faster option to me
Gotta be future proof... so dual core would be good! :D
Hard Drive
SATA! But really 150GB is _more_ than enough for me, so I could save some money here.
RAM
512MB or 1GB (I can upgrade later) of some niiice fast RAM if that's possible in my budget, if not just something that will work in my mothorboard until I can upgrade.
Graphics Card
None! For now I'll use on-board graphics. I think nowadays you have to choose your mothorboard depending on whether you're going AMD or nVidia don't you? I mean, if I ever wanted to use SLI or Xfire, don't I need the right mothorboard to do that? Or can I get a mobo that can do both?
Case
I can get a cheap one of those, lets just presume that's costing me ﾣ15 out of the budget. Looks aren't important.

Monitor, Keyboard, Mouse, CD Drive, Floppy drive, PSU, Speakers, etc etc, I already have on my old computer.

Cheers!

 

[mut]

Well the Intel Core 2 Duo processors are the best around, and don't set you too far back on your budget.

How does this sound:

Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo E6400 - £150.39
Motherboard: Abit AW9D-MAX Intel 975X - 138.64
RAM: GeIL 1GB (2x512MB) PC2-6400 - £93.99
Hard Drive: Seagate Barracuda 160GB - £42.29

Giving you the total of: £425.31
Leaving £25 for a case and any extras.

Core 2 Duo is top of the line in processors.
The motherboard above has the latest chipset - providing you with great performance and it's futureproof.
800MHz RAM with low latencies will also boost your speed.

That would be a great system, but it lacks a graphics card which I recommend you getting.

 

[Big B]

Unless your power supply is of a quality unit and 450W with a 24-pin ATX connector, I would strongly advise you to purchase a PSU to go along with your upgrade. While Core 2 Duo's are nice, there's a real lack of C2D motherboards with integrated video, so do understand if you go that route, you pretty much will need to obtain a video card.
Also, virtually every motherboard to come out these days features an integrated network card, so you really won't need one unless you're going to to have heavy network traffic on this system.

In any case, here's a suggested setup:

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-M51GM-S2G £52.01
CPU: Athlon64 X2 4200+ £123.01
RAM: Corsair PC2-6400 2x512MB £113.00
Hard Drive: Hitatchi 160GB SATA II £39.95
PSU: Hiper Type-M 530W £45.00
Case: CoolerMaster Centurion 532 £52.01

Total: £424.98

 

[izzy007]

Unless your power supply is of a quality unit and 450W with a 24-pin ATX connector, I would strongly advise you to purchase a PSU to go along with your upgrade. While Core 2 Duo's are nice, there's a real lack of C2D motherboards with integrated video, so do understand if you go that route, you pretty much will need to obtain a video card.
Also, virtually every motherboard to come out these days features an integrated network card, so you really won't need one unless you're going to to have heavy network traffic on this system.

In any case, here's a suggested setup:

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-M51GM-S2G £52.01
CPU: Athlon64 X2 4200+ £123.01
RAM: Corsair PC2-6400 2x512MB £113.00
Hard Drive: Hitatchi 160GB SATA II £39.95
PSU: Hiper Type-M 530W £45.00
Case: CoolerMaster Centurion 532 £52.01

Total: £424.98

good psu. u could also get one which is better but about £20 more. antec neo he 500watt with 41 amps on the 12v rail. 456watts on the triple 12v rails and v2.2 specs.