Ideas for Cheapo Build?

[Rammses]

I need to send my laptop in for repairs (took 2 months last time), so I was thinking of upgrading/building a new stationary. I'm on a very tight budget and would prefer if I could use my current PSU, which isn't removable from the case; it would cost me well over $200 to replace them with the prices over here. The PSU is a 350W Seasonic, which I believe had decent reputation back in the day and it hasn't killed any of my old compotents over 3 years. I also have a WD Raptor and external HD, so I'm set in the storage department. Sound card too.

I'm not interested in many GPU heavy applications at the moment, so ideally I'd want a cheap GPU, but a CPU, mobo and RAM that wouldn't bottleneck a more powerful GPU too much, if I'd want to upgrade in the future (directx 11?). I assume even a cheap GPU is likely to be able to run FFXIV well at 720p and low-med settings, or is that PC fanboy propaganda?

I guess I can forget about overclocking if I keep my old PSU, so that wouldn't matter. Loud fans is a dealbreaker too. Is there much of a difference beteween how demanding different components of the same kind are on the PSU?

Budget is hard to say as the prices are very different over here. Just tips or component recommendations that could point me in the general direction of what to look for, would be appreciated.

[fishstix]

For budget builds, I'd recommend the Phenom II x2 550 or if you really want intel, the core2duo E7400, but tends to be slightly more expensive. The Phenom IIs are a step above the problematic original Phenom version and Athlon series. For the c2d, I think anything below the E7000 series is an older model chip going from 44nm Wolfdale to 65nm Conroe. It'll be cheaper, but slower and potentially hotter/less OC-able.

It'd totally be guessing, but I'd think a $100 9800gtx should be capable of running any new game with at least low-med settings. Also, I wouldn't recommend anything other than a quality powersupply unit, for a budget system, something around 450-550w.

[Caiyuo]

Not sure if you're already a reader of the various tech sites like MaximumPC and Tom's Hardware, but builds of all price ranges are done fairly frequently with updates as various things changed. I'd definitely check Tom's and check out some of their budget builds as a starting point and then just configure and customize from there as you prefer.