------------------------Editted----------------
Quite a lot of people have helped me out and all my previous questions have been answered (once more, thanks!), however i have 2 new ones:
Based on a number of "best buy list" 2 different mobo's came up:
1) MSI P67A-GD55
2) Asrock P67 Pro3 (B3)
The second one is ~20 euro cheaper, and has been given a comment of "less good" - What are the differences between mobo's in general (i always thought: if you can plug all the components you have on, they're good), and these in specific?
I just recieved notice of an unexpected 100 euro comming in - so i do have the cash for the "upgrade", worth it?
And: My friend didn't have a spare power supply after all - so i'll have to be getting one myself.
To sum up the build im likely going for:
cpu: i5:2500k
gpu: MSI GTX560 Twin Frozr II
mobo: one of the above
Ram: 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3-1333 Corsair CL9
HDD: 7200 RPM sata
and a regular DVD drive + 2-4 case fans.
What kind of Wattage should i be getting to safely run this? Also: i might want to OC the cpu/gpu later, or add a SSD if they cheapen up a bit - i dont want the power supply to cap that too quickly. What kind of brands should i be looking it for an affordable but decent power supply?
----------------END OF EDIT-----
Ok so, before anything else - yes i registered here, and my first post is one full of questions - I've been a long time reader off pretty much everything on the sites and forums, but never bothered to make an account. I do feel bad about it, but i don't really have any other place to go...
So here's the issue: about 9 years ago, i bought a pc (from family who were always up to date, basicly i got a 6month old system for dirtcheap)... Then when that thing was totally worth shit (about 4.5 years later), and i went to college, i bought a laptop trough university (pretty good deal for the cash). Now we're another 4.5 years later and it really is time to finally invest in a new computer.
The problem is though, in those 9 years since i last bought a pc - a lot of stuff has changed and i'm completely lost in what is good, or bad, and what is good value for money.
I still have a HDD (400gig sata) that i purchased as an external hdd to my laptop - so i dont need that
I still have a DVD drive that works (believe it or not, my 9 year old rig has one)
I am ok with using the case of my old pc - its a huge ass hightower, so i think that should be ok.
I have a mouse, a keyboard, and am getting a decent screen from a friend, who just upgraded his, for 25 euros.
Furthermore, it seems like i will be able to get a power supply from a friend.
SO: i have approximately 500 euros for a budget, and afaik, for that money i need:
~A motherboard
~A processor
~A graphics card
~RAM
That should be everything, right?
Like i said, i'm completely lost in what is good or bad, and what fits and what does not.
I've seen motherboards come with different "sockets" and all the technical blah blah that i'm totally confused about, what are the things that matter?.
The graphics cards - i simply dont have a clue what is good or bad, and what is good value for money.
RAM - well i know i "need" DDR3 - and with my budget i'm probably looking at getting 4gigs - but theres also speeds on them it seems, do they matter much - What on earth is the difference between 4gigs costing 35 euro, and another set costing 80 euro?
Then there's one more issue i'm thinking about: i'm also considering getting parts second hand. I'm dutch and we have stuff like tweakers.nl that have a pretty decent second hand market it seems. Would doing that get me a decent performance boost in the system? or a significantly lower price for the same stuff? Is buying second hand a good idea at all - and maybe more so for some parts then others?
To sum it up: I have 500 euro to get the parts of a computer i need - will that number get me anywhere? - What should i be looking at/for when buying the parts? - Is buying second hand parts a decent idea (and is that so for all parts?)?
Thanks so much for reading trough all that - and if you are going to leave a reply with some helpful comments thanks even more, i really do appreciate it.
~bruzag