Thanks to the overclockers forum they came up this for me with my £500 budget, but I thought I'd check up with you guys here - just incase I'm making a serious error or buying a dated hardware piece.

Here is the following. (The graphics card, cd/dvd rewriter and floppy disk drive have deliberately been excluded.)

Motherboard.
Asus A8V Rev.2 Deluxe (Socket 939) Motherboard (MB-083-AS) --
£74.61 Including VAT at 17.5%

http://usa.asus.com/products/mb/socket939/a8v-d/overview.htm


Processor
AMD Athlon 64 3000+ Winchester 90nm (Socket 939) - Retail (CP-096-AM)
AMD's Athlon 64 is the latest evolution in the desktop computer industry. With its revolutionary 64bit architecture this CPU is fully compatible with future 64 bit operating systems and offers blistering performance in current 32 bit applications. With AMD's new HyperTransport technology and a massive 512KB L2 cache. Designed with a new 90nm architecture for improved performance and cooler running.
This retail boxed product is supplied with an AMD heatsink and fan and has a 3 year warranty

RAM.
GeIL 1GB (2x512MB) PC3200 Value Dual Channel Kit CAS2.5 (GE1GB3200BHDC) (MY-005-GL) -- 99.82 Including VAT at 17.5%
http://www.geil.com.tw/portal/product_400_tv_dc.php


HARD Drive
Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 10 200GB 6B200PO ATA-133 8MB Cache - OEM (HD-019-MD)
Maxtor DiamondMax® Plus 10 drives are designed for mainstream PC, consumer electronics and emerging markets. These 7200 RPM hard drives offer a 8MB or 16MB buffer, ATA/133 or SATA interface and capacities of 160, 200, 250 and 300GB. Their combination of performance and capacity makes them an excellent choice for performance PCs, gaming systems, network attached storage, home networking devices, digital video editing and entry-level RAID applications. DiamondMax Plus 10 drives are equipped with fluid dynamic bearing motors for acoustic sensitive applications. This allows the drive to operate with extremely low sound output, an important feature for many applications.

- 200GB capacity
- ATA-133 interface
- 8MB cache buffer
- Fluid dynamic bearing motors for quiet operation
- Maxtor Shock Protection System
- Maxtor Data Protection System
- 3 year manufacturer's warranty


Case.
OcUK Value Estar Benz Case Silver With 350W PSU (CA-001-ES)
These cases have an extended depth of 470mm so they can accommodate the full size PIV boards which measure 12 x 13.25". This extra length increases the space between the 20 pin M/B power connector and adjacent CD devices thus minimizing obstruction.

- 4 x 5.25" bays to fit CD-R, CD-RW, Tape Drive and expandibility for the future.
- 2 xUSB 2.0 Ports on front facia. In setup connect internally, and then add peripherals without the need to mess around to rear of PC.
- 80x 80mm side fan with protected metal grill preinstalled on panel- blows air directly over CPU.
- Comes with a 350w ATX psu with PIV connector (AMD /XP recommended) . PSU connectors 5 x 4pin 2 x 3.5 1 x P9 Voltage connector (optional)
- Predrilled PIV screwholes on M/B plate.
- Folded interior, smooth, dipped finish.
- Removable side panels with excellent ventilation.
- For use with ATX mainboard.


Software
Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition - OEM (OS-001-MS) -- £55.46 Including VAT at 17.5%

TOTAL = £447.44 incl delivery

AT the bottom is the software for Windows, - on ebay I can get the proffessional edition for less than this price. Can someone here tell me what I need to be looking out for on ebay. There are loads of items with/without codes, bits of hardware to prove whatever, and other things. What exactly should I be wary for and therefore look out for to make sure I don't buy a dud/copied version? I won't pay the same price for the home edition from overclockers when I can get the professional for less!


I look forward to your replies.

Ben

I cant work out what that HDD actually is.  Its in the Pata section but says it has SATA interface too??

Well I would go for a drive from the SATA bit.  This would be my choice

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/westerndigital_sata.html

Western Digital Caviar Special Edition 200GB 2000JD SATA 8MB Cache - OEM (HD-013-WD)

£75.79 Including VAT

As said also that PSU isn't that higer wattage.  DOH! Overclockers have stopped selling the Antec case with a 480w Truepower fitted.  I suppose if your not gonna fit and megga graphics cards and loadsa HDD the 350W will be ok.  Its only if you end up saving up for a 6800Ultra or X800 XT PE that wou dont wanna be worrying that its underpowered.  If you dont plan on getting one of these cards in the near future then 350W should do it.  Saying that the case is rather cheap so the PSU isn't gonna be top quality (It may not put out a true 350w) so if you get any unstability problems on yor new system that would be one of the things I look at.  What G/card are you putting in it? how many CD/DVD-roms etc?

Just so you know for future an Antec 480w Truepower is about £78 inc VAT.

Sata drives generally access data faster than Pata drives.

Pata is old hat now anyway!  I have both a Pata and Sata in my comp and when I do speed tests my Sata is noticeably quicker. 

The drive they chose is weird though, its primarily a Pata drive but it also has a Sata interface.  What it doesn't do is list the seek time in the specs.  The seek time is the important bit.  So I looked at the seek time on the Maxtor Sata drives and they aren't as quick as the Western Digital ones.  I would go for the Sata drive I listed as its pretty close in price.

There is another 200gb Sata drive

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/Seagate2.html

Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 200GB SATA 8MB Cache - OEM (HD-016-SE)

£82.19 Including VAT

More expensive stil but its seek time is only 8.5ms compared to the Westerns 8.9ms.

As for the PSU.  I cant find any cases on there with a 480w PSU so I would get a case and PSU seperate (which is expensive)  You will be fine with the case specced at the moment.  Just be aware you may need to upgrade your PSU at a later date if you got a top of the range g/card.

If your quick to order the PSU then this one

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/Online_Catalogue_Enermax_111.html

Enermax Noisetaker 485W EG495AX-VE(G) SFMA ATX2.0 PSU (CA-007-EN)

£62.22 Including VAT

As to the case well that has to be your personal choice IMO.  Which one do you like the look of?  This Enermax case looks ok to me Enermax CS527 Case Black No PSU (CA-018-AN) £35.19 Including VAT

The Sunbeam ones kinda have there own look if you want somthing like that!

There are some cheap Coolmaster ones too near the bottom of the coolmaster page.

You can get upto four fans on the Enermax and two on the Coolmaster.  Your choice 

Looks good to me.

You shouldn't need any screws or glue.  The retail AMD CPU's heatsink already has thermal paste on it so you wont need to apply that.  I got a loada screws with my case or mobo when I purchased it so hopefully you will too.

Reckon its safe getting XP Pro off ebay? just gotta hope its not a copy I suppose.  Guess its worth a chance as it is a fair bit cheaper.

Well! IT's ordered and done and dusted - I ordered it today and one item had dropped by £5! So that was good.

AMD Athlon 64 3000+ Winchester 90nm (Socket 939) - Retail (CP-096-AM)      £94.95 (It came down by £5!).

Enermax CS527 Case Black No PSU (CA-018-AN) £29.95

Enermax Noisetaker 485W EG495AX-VE(G) SFMA ATX2.0 PSU (CA-007-EN)  £52.95

Asus A8V Rev.2 Deluxe (Socket 939) Motherboard (MB-083-AS)  £63.50

GeIL 1GB (2x512MB) PC3200 Value Dual Channel Kit CAS2.5 (GE1GB3200BHDC) (MY-005-GL) £84.95

Western Digital Caviar Special Edition 200GB 2000JD SATA 8MB Cache - OEM (HD-013-WD) £64.50

Subtotal:      £390.80
Shipping (Next Day (Mon-Fri) - UK Mainland)      £9.75
VAT      £70.10

TOTAL:      £470.65

So I hope this all works out well. I'll probably be troubling you all agian with questions on its building!
Can't wait for Monday! lol
Thanks all very much.

Ben

Well, we finally did it.

The bits:


Assembling


Finished


Lights out! Cool. 8)


Me (standing) & my Dad.


Thanks very much all.

So I hope to have my simulator on there soon. I haven't swapped the Graphics card over yet and the XP pro is coming in the post. Running Windows 98 at the moment!

Thanks again,

Ben

Congrats Saitek 

Once you get XP and the Graphics Card installed it will be time to start optimising that system to get FS running silky smooth  8)

As for the overclocking, with the retail cooling fan (I have one) I had my 3500 (2200Mhz) running at 2600MHz with little rise in heat  8)

One thing that is scarey in your pics is the case fan looks like its going round but the CPU one doesn't !!!