Thinking of building a gaming PC

[Biohazard15]

Hi :) ,
For a long time now I have been considering building myself a gaming PC. I've had a look at your excellent guide which has (along with talking to other PC experts) convinced me to go through with it. Last weekend I went into Maplins and had a discussion with one of the experts there. Between us we priced it up:

Memory (1GB 400MHz) £80 ~ $150
Processor (3GHz dual core) £120 ~ $220
Hard Drive (80GB) £70 ~ $130
Motherboard £80 ~ $150
Graphics Card (SLI) £200 ~ $380
Sound Card (built in)
DVD Drive £40 ~ $70
Box £30 ~ $50
Power Supply £30 ~ $50
Operating System (XP Home) £80 ~ $150

Total £730 ~ $1,380


Is it just me or does this seem a lot? I want the computer to run the sort of high-end games such as FEAR e.t.c. I was convinced that a computer was the way to go, but looking at the cost it seems that buying an XBox 360 would be significantly cheaper, and I would be certain that all the games I buy would run.
What I really want to know is whether this estimation is correct, and if so where are the best places to save money.

Thanks for your time.

(Sorry about the US prices, I'm English so had to use an online converter :o )

[Freakitchen]

First, don't worry about converting to $US, some of us can understand £s here ;)

Second - don't buy computer parts from Maplins. There are worse, but like all high street vendors, they're overpriced. Have a browse on www.overclockers.co.uk and www.ebuyer.co.uk

To play high-end games well, you're looking at going for a Dual Core Processor, 2GB of RAM, A £200 video card (or thereabouts), and a quality power supply. A figure between £600 and £800 sounds about right to me.

Do you have a preference towards AMD or Intel?

FK

[Mr.Ferrari]

Are those numbers the limits of the parts your already looking at? Or the budget that you want us to go by? More details please

[Chris_Rootes_Wizard]

www.savastor.com

good!

Yeah, im Eglish, and can also work in U.S.D (pritty much)

£600 - £800 will get you a pritty good computer, and will allow you to upgrade for sometime.

[Biohazard15]

Thankyou to everybody for their input. I was thinking that I could probably save money by using my current 60GB hard drive (a temporary solution only :) ) and my DVD drive. I already have the screen, and a spare case if I'm really desperate :p

To Freakitchen: I have had a browse on your suggested sites (and Chris_Rootes_Wizard's) and your right it is significantly cheaper to buy online. I don't really have a preference to either, but I will probably go for an Intel. They seem to be slightly cheaper for the same quality, and are easier to cool.

To Mr.Ferrari: I was just hoping to confirm the original question. I will probably add to this thread later when I have found my parts ;) sorry for the confusion.

[Freakitchen]

The most difficult thing to get right at the moment is the motherboard and CPU combination - with both Intel and AMD bringing out new sockets recently (core2 duo and AM2 respectively).

The Core 2 Duo chips are excellent, and that's where you should be looking for Intel. The only problem is the limited supply of good motherboards.

Look at the ASUS P5B (3rd fron the top in this link)
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/Online_Catalogue_Asus_177.html

...and the best processor you can afford (any of the 'retail' versions)
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/Intel_Pentium_Core_Duo2.html

Using your existing hard disk / DVD drive won't be a problem.

FK

[Biohazard15]

To be honest I don't think my budget would stretch that far. I only intend to spend £600 preferably less. If I were to go for those, that would only leave £400 for graphics card, memory e.c.t.

[Chris_Rootes_Wizard]

oh, by the way, the links wrong, its www.savastore.com

I missed the E stupid me.

[Chris_Rootes_Wizard]

Oh, my budget is £700, and my things come to £600.

Look at the rig on my siggy, that comes to £612 from Ebuyer.com Thats with an AMD dual core processor and a £100 pound videocard. And everything elce (not monitor, keyboard Os etc tho.)

Plus VAT and shipping

"£400 for graphics card, memory e.c.t."

Memory, £60 (kit of 2) 1GB

Video Card £120

PSU £50

Case £50

£280 for that, you still got £210 for the rest.

[Biohazard15]

Will that graphics card be sufficient for the games I want though?

EDIT: Looking back I'm not sure if I made myself clear. I already have all the peripherals, and the screen. I'm just talking about the actual rig (and maybe plus the OS. I have a copy of XP home edition that came with a different computer and the key code. Will that work/be legal?)

[Chris_Rootes_Wizard]

"EDIT: Looking back I'm not sure if I made myself clear. I already have all the peripherals, and the screen. I'm just talking about the actual rig (and maybe plus the OS. I have a copy of XP home edition that came with a different computer and the key code. Will that work/be legal?)"

Oh, you have plenty enought then!

A 7600GT would be good for a budget or a 7900GT if you wana spend £200


Edit, it also depends on what res you want, if you want top of the rage games with ultra hight settings a 7900GT is your best bet (or even in SLI mode) But your not a power hungry gamer with deep pockets, so the 7600GT will probably suffice.

[jayb1234]

You will have to get a new OS. The manufacturers OEM load that came on the other machine isn't transferrable.

[Biohazard15]

so how much is that, about £150? or can I get it cheaper?

[Freakitchen]

If budget is a concern, I'd consider a socket 939 AMD system. The dual core processors have just taken a price tumble, and crucially, a quality motherboard is less than half the price of a Core 2 Duo motherboard.

All prices from Overclockers, getting an AMD 939 3800+ X2 processor, an ASUS A8N5X Motherboard, a 2x1 GB kit of Corsair XMS RAM (CAS 3) and an Evga Nvidia 7900GT Video card clocks in at £490. Windows XP Home OEM adds another £62

If you re-use your existing Hard Drive and Optical Drive, all you need is a case and power supply. From this List, the Antec Sonata II case is excellent, and comes with a quality 450w power supply. It's £77

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

Total spend £629 inc VAT, minus delivery (add about £10 for that)

FK

[jayb1234]

Overclockers UK has XP Home w/sp2 OEM (http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/Operating_Systems.html) for 62.26 including the VAT.

[Biohazard15]

Fantastic. Thanks for all your help. I'll put together some draft builds and post them here later :)

[Chris_Rootes_Wizard]

Also whats the difference between an oem and a non oem o/s? they both have cds, and dont need anything elce?!

[Biohazard15]

Asus P5B (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard (MB-151-AS)

Here £111.61
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/Online_Catalogue_Asus_177.html

Intel Core 2 DUO E6300 "LGA775 Allendale" 1.86GHz (1066FSB) - OEM (CP-135-IN)

Here £126.89
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/Intel_Pentium_Core_Duo2.html

Sapphire Radeon X1900 XT 512MB GDDR3 Dual DVI/ViVO PCI-E

Here £209.98
http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/products/index.html?rb=21425318357&action=c2hvd19wcm9kdWN0X3NwZWNpZmljYXRpb25z&product_uid=113153

Kingston 1GB 400MHz DDR PC3200 DIMM 3-3-3

Here £62.04
http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/55296/rb/21425676204

Antec Sonata II Piano Black Quiet Case - 450W Smart Power PSU (CA-040-AN)

Here £77.49
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/Antec_Cases.html

Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition inc. SP2 - OEM - 1Pk (N09-01528) (OS-001-MS)

Here £62.26
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/Operating_Systems.html

Total: £550.27

[Freakitchen]

I'd change to the retail version of that CPU. The OEM comes without a warrenty, and without a heatsink/fan.

I'd also highly recommend 2GB of RAM for a gaming build. Modern games use more than 1GB. You'll also need DDR2 (667 MHZ recommended) for a Core 2 Duo build. DDR is not compatible.

On a purely practical note, you might consider getting all of your parts from overclockers. It saves paying two lots of delivery.

FK

[Biohazard15]

this one maybe?

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/Patriot_Memory.html
(2nd one down)

[Mr.Ferrari]

965 boards are a bit picky about memory. I suggest one of these instead.

Corsair 2GB DDR2 XMS2-6400C5 TwinX (2x1GB) (MY-092-CS)
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/Corsair_XMS2_Memory.html
6th One down.

OR

Corsair 2GB DDR2 XMS2-5400C4 TwinX (2x1GB) (MY-095-CS)
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/Corsair_XMS2_Memory.html
7th One Down.

And that 450watter is a bit pushing it for that X1900XT...The smartpower series isnt as tough as the Truepower or other FSP/Seasonic series. But I think you should be ok.

[Biohazard15]

Great, the second one definately looks promising. Is there anything you would reccommend I down-grade? I'm going a little over bugdet.

[Freakitchen]

Because the video card and RAM are so important to a gaming computer, the best way to save money would be to switch to the AMD system I specced out earlier - allowing you to save over £70 on the CPU and motherboard.

If you decide to stick with Core 2 Duo, my only budget-helping suggestion would be to see how much getting the 256MB version of your video card saves you.

FK

[Mr.Ferrari]

How bout you exchange the videocard for this?
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/X1800_Series.html

Still plenty powerful and pretty good deal too. And theres only 256mb version of the X1800XT's. Sadly x1900xts are all 512.

[Biohazard15]

Which would effect the performance least?

EDIT: which one one the list would you reccommend Mr.Ferrari?

[Mr.Ferrari]

The videocard. Difference between X1800XT and X1900XT is not much. If you dont have the extra $$$ I suggest the Downgrade. Otherwise you have all the basic parts and 2gb ram will really boost performance in gaming.

[jayb1234]

You could get 2x512Mb RAM now and add another 2X512Mb when you have a little more cash.

[Biohazard15]

Ok, thanks for all the help. I'll check back soon with a revised list.

[Biohazard15]

I think I'll pass on the duo core. Having just read up on them iy would appear they won't run games any quicker than a normal chip and I don't really ever need to mulititask.

[Chris_Rootes_Wizard]

Yes, that is true, but you could burn a C.D, run an antivirus and play a game at the same time. Or run a antivirus, and do someother things, with out your computer lagging all the time. (Which is great, because i never get time to run an antivirus, as its so slow) Just an E.g. But i doubt that worries you too much, i just wanted you to know, incase you change your mind.

Any way, good luck with the build :)

[blue60007]

If you're still looking at Core 2 Duo, I'd stick with it. Even the lowest end one is only a little more expensive than some of the single cores...even a single core Core 2 would beat the heck out of the Pentium 4's...In short, the Core 2 Duo is still faster than any other of the Intel's (single core Pentium 4's, Pentium D's, etc), and most of the AMD's.

[Biohazard15]

The thing is the only one I could get is the 2.4GHz, which isn't really fast enough to most games without lag.

[newbuilder14]

^ No, that isn't true. 2.4ghz on a Core 2 Duo will blow by any other processor from AMD you could get for the price. You will be amazed with how blazing fast it is. Infact, you will at least be getting 2-3 times the FPS you were getting before in most games.

[blue60007]

Ghz isn't everything any more - you have to look at a lot of other factors (FSB, cache, architechture of the CPU, and other things). From what I've seen the Core 2's are blowing away pretty much every Intel processor before (and the upper end beating all AMDs with the lower-end being about equal to AMD's). Right now the big focus in the CPU world is effeciency - and the Core 2's do more per clock cycle than the P4's which is one of the reasons they outperform.

[Biohazard15]

Ok, I'm having a bit of trouble putting together a build for under £600. I would appreciate it if someone could construct a build including OS for under £600. What I'm aiming for is something that could be easily upgraded in the future so it doesn't have to be top notch when I initially put it together, but could be upgraded when the next gen games come out. It would also be fantastic if it was Core 2 duo.
Thanks