Building a Gaming PC

[Ferrus]

Some of you may remember me from my thread a couple of months ago, I was having trouble getting the money together but now I have it I'd like to get down to business with my first PC build.

This PC is primarily for gaming, my budget being £1100 which is around $2180.

The website I will be using is www.scan.co.uk, but I am flexible if there are certain
components that cannot be had on this site but can be elsewhere.

What I need: Everything exept speakers.

I was thinking maybe an 8800GTS, 9800GTX, or 9800GT for the video card. The GTX is already around, but the GT is supposedly due within the next few days.

For the processor I'm pretty much set on the Intel Q9450 quad core.

And for the case I really like the CoolerMaster Cosmos 1000. Anybody is welcome to convince me otherwise.

For the PSU I've been looking at the Corsair TX750W.

Everything else is open to suggestion. But remember I need everything right down to a nice mouse, mouse mat, monitor, and keyboard.

Thanks!

[rich218]

is there any particular reason why you chose www.scan.co.uk? i used www.lambda-tek.com for most of my components and www.overclockers.co.uk for the GPU. Seems to be cheaper.

[Ferrus]

Well to me Scan seemed to be cheaper.

[spartan015]

well mouse is really personal preference, i'd be going with one of the laser mice from logitech, and the new G15 (orange version) keyboard. That's just me, I would recommend a Viewsonic over Acer for gaming purposes (better ms and also better color) or Samsung. That's just me. You aren't going for SLI are you? 2 8800 GT kills an ultra and is cheaper, idk how the 9800 compares to the 8800 gt

[rich218]

If you're looking to compare the higher end graphics cards this review has some decent benchmarks:
http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/nvidia...w-30590-2.html

Bare in mind the test settings are widescreen resolutions (16:10)

Q9450: Scan - 232.94...Lambda-tek - 199.53
TX 750W: Scan - 93.87...Lambda-tek - 87.90

Just trying to save you a bit of money! not having a go or anything.

Personally for mice i like the Razer builds, very responsive and look good to boot.
http://www.razerzone.com/

[Masaki 7-11]

The 9800GTX is faster than all the other cards in the Nvidia line (save for the 8800Ultra) and sells for less than a 8800GTX, however it doesn't give that much of a performance boost over the previous generation of video cards, and it's specifications are very much like that of a 8800GTS 512MB except it has higher shader, core and memory clocks. If you want to save some money, go for the 8800GTS 512MB, if you can find a good price on an overclocked one, get one of those instead of a stock clocked card. Since the 9800GTX is only a small amount faster than previous generation, most likely the 9800GT will have performance about the same as the 8800GTS 512MB, so it won't be worth buying unless it's confirmed to be as fast or faster than the 8800GTS 512MB and costs around the same or less.

A good inexpensive lazer mouse is the Laser Mouse 6000 from Microsoft, it is ergonomic (easy on your hands), has 5 buttons, scroll and is a decent amount more responsive than most optical mice. I'm not sure what the price on it is where you live (if it's available), but I bought mine for about $25 dollars CDN from Walmart, that's about 12 GBP.

If you are overclocking, or plan to overclock in the future, you'll get better results with the Q6600 since it has lower FSB (more room to overclock since most motherboards tend to have problems with increasing the FSB higher than 450) and it has a higher multiplier meaning you get a larger increase in frequency when increasing the FSB compared to the Q9450.

[Doom]

Personal opinions here...

- If you consider SLI, I'm very happy with my new EVGA 780i SLI borad... though I'm still running a single GPU on it.
- For a monitor, SAMSUNG 216BW is a great option (I love mine).
- I thing gaming mice are overrated. I was going to get the Microsoft "RAZR" gaming mouse... but usually you're paying $30-$40 more for an LED or some other feature that just isn't worth the money.

[brizey]

Originally Posted by Doom Personal opinions here... - If you consider SLI, I'm very happy with my new EVGA 780i SLI borad... though I'm still running a single GPU on it. - For a monitor, SAMSUNG 216BW is a great option (I love mine). - I thing gaming mice are overrated. I was going to get the Microsoft "RAZR" gaming mouse... but usually you're paying $30-$40 more for an LED or some other feature that just isn't worth the money.

I like my Samsung as well (got a 226BW). They can be had for less than $300 here in the US at places like Frys. Sometimes for slower moving tech like monitors or mice, on-line is not always the best deal since you can often get last years (or last months) model for cheap at a place like Frys.