I'm going to build a new PC to replace my currently ancient PC with a celeron D 478 pin processor etc. I have an absolute budget limit of £400, although I'm trying to keep quite a way under this. So far I have decided on an AMD processor, as I can't afford intel's i7 processor and compatible motherboards, but I can afford AM3 - also I would like DDR3 SDRAM to maintain upgrade paths...

So far I have decided on an AMD Phenom II 2.6ghz, 4GB DDR3 SDRAM, 9800GT graphics card, 500GB hard drive.


Here are the links

Processor:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Phenom-2-6GHz-4x51...0423&sr=1-7


£124.99



Motherboard:


http://www.dabs.com/products/gigabyte-am3-...?refs=432790000

£74.01


RAM:

http://www.dabs.com/products/corsair-memor...refs=4294951079

£60.40

Gra card:


http://www.dabs.com/products/best-value-ge...html?refs=42740

£88.48


HD:

http://www.dabs.com/products/hitachi-desks...l?refs=42240000

£38.91

I need a final check of if these components are compatible with each other. Also, are these the best components to get with my budget and please suggest any possible improvements. The whole lot comes to £384 which is close to my budget limit. Also I have an IDE CD drive. Would this be compatible with the proposed board or would I need an SATA CD drive? Finally, I currently have a 400W Jeantech power supply from this computer that I only got last year - would this be enough to power the components I want?

All looks good with the exception of the PSU.

You should have at least 500 watt with at least one dedicated 6 pin PCI_E lead for that card.


The mobo has one IDE channel so you can use an IDE CD/DVD drive.


Also the mobo requires or at least accepts an 8-pin ATX12V connector which again would relate to the PSU.

You need, or should have, a new PSU for this hardware.

Not sure how many sites you know, but here is the same list from another site, although in a few places I offered a substitute thats either about the same, of better than in your list, and the difference in cost:
Processor; AMD Phenom II X3 720 2.8GHz Socket AM3 6MB L3 Cache Retail Boxed £91.73inc vat, it's only triple core compared to your one, and I can't say how it would compare performance wise, but if money is tight it gives you an alternate option, more so with needing a PSU as well on top of your list.

Motherboard; here is a budget choice MSI 770-C45 AMD 770 AM3 £59.99inc vat

Another option you may not of considered is a bundle deal, so here is a good alternate to the above; Intel Core 2 Quad Bundle Deal Including Quad Core Q8200 Retail Box Processor and Asus P5Q SE2 Motherboard £179.98inc vat, I know it's not AMD, but I suspect it's performance will be better than the AMD choices.

RAM; Corsair 4gb (2x2gb) Ddr3 1333mhz Xms3 Memory Kit Cl9 (9-9-9-24) £53.59inc vat
Or for a better performance OCZ 4GB KIT (2 x 2GB) DDR3 1600Mhz PC3 12800 REAPER SERIES DUAL CHANNEL KIT (7-7-7-24) £66.59inc vat

Graphics; BFG 9800GT EcoIntelligence Low Power Edition 512MB GDDR3 Dual DVI PhysX and Cuda ready PCI-E Graphics Card Including World Of Warcraft 30 Day Full £79.99inc vat
Alternate options; ASUS GTS250 512MB DDR3 Dual DVI HDTV Out PCI-E Graphics Card Including World Of Warcraft 30 Day Full Game Trial While Stocks Last £80.54inc vat
Sapphire HD 4850 512MB GDDR3 HDMI DVI VGA PCI-E Graphics Card £78.56inc vat

Hard Drive; Forget that drive they are not a good make, this is much better, Western Digital WD5001AALS 500GB Hard Drive SATAII 7200rpm 32MB Cache £44.14inc vat

PSU; PC Power & Cooling Silencer 610 EPS12V 610W Power Supply £67.99 inc VAT, without doubt the best PSU you will ever get, apart from higher powered ones of the same maker.
If you did want to save a little bit then this, but the other is far superior.Corsair 550W VX Series PSU £63.89inc vat

Your total = £386.79, my total = £329.44 taking the 1st suggestion in each case, and thats without the PSU added (£397.43 with).
The price of the bundle deal comes over your budget with the PSU added, £370.70 without, £438.69 with.

Should you still want to stick with your original choices at least compare them on the other sites I have linked here, some are a good £10 less than Dab's, so you could save money on your selections by getting some of it elsewhere, hope this helps though.

Depending on what your purpose is, you might want to go with a dual core instead of a triple or quad. The only programs (right now, that will utilize more than 2 cores are heavy-duty video editing programs, or hard-core multi-tasking. In the future, some games will probably utilize more than 2 core, but right now, depending on your intentions, a dual-core with a faster clock should yield better performace than a similar priced, with 4 cores + slower clock.