New Gaming Rig...

[Ben_]

hello! i am looking for some advice on buying a new gaming rig. i have looked at a few options, starting with dell, and quite frankly im confused. so i'll keep what i want simple and hopefully someone who knows their stuff will reply with some advice for me

ok.. so i have about £1200 available to spend. this is semi-flexible but only by a hundred pounds or so. I could do with a monitor but i do have one so that could wait til i have some more cash. So what im basically looking for is a gaming box that can play BF2 on full settings, and play the new games. I want to buy asap so im hoping that for this price there is an easy solution. The box will mainly be used for games but also for general stuff. I looked at MESH computers and they seem pretty good.. but again im not sure which one to go for, what processor, what gfx card etc. i really dont much know what i need for the new games.

someone please give me an easy solution so i can buy and start playing in the next week!

[Ben_]

im giving serious thought to getting this from MESH:

Intel® Pentium® D Processor 950 Dual Core
HT Tech.(3.4GHz ,2x 2MB Cache, 800MHz)
Genuine Windows® XP Media Center
ASUS P5N32-SLI Deluxe Mainboard
2048MB DDR2 Memory 533MHz
500GB Serial ATA Hard Drive
256MB nVIDIA Geforce 7900 GT Graphics
Dual DVI,HDTV & TV Out PCI Express
20" Viewsonic VA-2012 Widescreen with
DVI & 8ms response time + built in Speakers
Sony 16x Dual Layer DVD Writer
Creative Labs Sounblaster Audigy 4 ZS
T6060 or T3330 Speakers + Subwoofer

i could upgrade the gfx to 512mb 7900GTX, but i would then have to lose the monitor and just use what i have now until next month

please let me know your thoughts

[philipbain]

I take it that your after a ready built and configured system? My advice would be to wait until some of the Core 2 Duo based gaming rigs come to market as the Core 2 Duo shows exceptionally well in games, whereas the Pentium D is officially old tech now (I have to say I wasnt a fan when it was current tech!) and they are outperformed by AMD's Athlon 64 X2 chips, which are cheaper too, though concurrently, they are outperformed by Intel's Core 2 Duo chips, though with Core 2 you pay a premium for the lastest tehcnology the performance justifys it.

I wouldnt buy a computer from Dell, the only Dell product that i've used and liked is thier Axim X51v PDA which I use, it's not perfect but neither are the competition in the PDA space! Check out some of the specialist PC suppliers and builders, such as Scan's 3XS range.

[MantisCSS]

also look at goign down the athlon route. they are deemed alot better for gaming. also u thought bout building it urself instead of buying it pre built? good choice of monitor also they are rated quite highly. have u looked at the scan website? www.scan.co.uk. the system u recomended is good but i would personaly chnage to athlon. but other ppl may say differently.

[kasavien]

Most people don't post this kind of thing in here so maybe it should be moved to hexus.hardstuff but i'll leave that to a mod.

Anyway here's my 2 cents. I would suggest that you take a look at scan's website for their systems, i have one from them and it is superb plus their technical and customer support is second to none.

As for the above system its ok but could be a lot better. The current high end processor is the intel core2 duo, most people seem to recommend the E6600, but stock is hard to find so you would have to wait. If you want a system now then i would recommend getting a system based around either an AMD socket 939 or socket AM2 processor. AMD processors are currently good value for money since they have just reduced prices by a significant amount an AM2 5000+ is currently around £220 for that you get a dual core processor - 2.6Ghz per core, i paid more than that 4 months since for a dual core 2.2Ghz processor.

If games are what the system is for get the best graphics card you can as the graphics card is currently what limits game performance the most, the current top end cards are the 7950GTX from nvidia or the 1900XTX from ATI, personally i would opt for the 1900XTX.

I'll try to come up with a decent spec in a few mins that you could build yourself or find a similar system from scan or wherever.

[kasavien]

If i was building a machine currently this is roughly what i would get, this is just the base unit so no monitor, keyboard etc. I would probably get some rounded cables too if i was building myself.

LN14253 AMD AM2 Athlon 64 5000+ Windsor Core, Dual Core 2.6GHz, 512KB x 2 Cache, Retail £189.89 £223.12

LN12976 512MB Sapphire Radeon X1900 XTX PCI-E (x16) Mem 1550 MHz , GPU 650 MHz ,48 Pipes VIVO £294.00 £345.45

LN12201 2GB (2X1GB) Corsair Value Select, DDR2 PC5400 (667), 240 Pin, Non-ECC Unbuffered, CAS 5 £102.54 £120.48

LN14259 ASUS M2N-SLI-DLX NF570 SLI, Socket AM2, PCI-E (x16), DDR2 800, SATA II, SATA RAID, ATX £82.19 £96.57

LN8248 SilverStone "TEMJIN" J05B (BLACK) Aluminum front & SECC Body (w/o PSU) £63.49 £74.60

LN11320 530w Tagan EasyCon - TG530-U15 - 2Force Silent Modular PSU £55.89 £65.67

LN8448 Microsoft Windows XP Media Center 2005 Edition Software *OEM single* £62.89 £73.90

LN13122 200 Gb Seagate ST3200827AS Barracuda 7200.9, SATA300, 7200 rpm, 8MB Cache, NCQ, 8.0 ms £45.35 £53.29

LN7120 Mitsumi FA404M 1.44 Black FDD+Int USB2 7 in 1 Card Reader (SM/MMC/SD/CF/MD/MS) Fits in 3.5" FDD Bay £11.59 £13.62

LN13362 Samsung SH-S162A/BEBN Black 16x16 & -RAM ±R Dual Layer DVDRW Writer OEM UK £18.88 £22.18

Anyway hope this helps

Andy

Edit: all the above is from www.scan.co.uk and comes to a total of £1,106.51 inc VAT and delivery

[Ben_]

thanks for the quick responses!

im not sure that a core 2 duo and a top end gpu is realistic in my price range, ive been looking at the scan boxes and things are getting quite expensive when you start to add stuff

i really cant go above £1400, but i have a monitor/keyboard/mouse etc that can keep me going til next month so i dont neccesarily need those included in that price.

ive thought about building my own but it kinda scares me and i dont really have the time/patience for it at the moment. The height of my hardware experience is installing a pci card or some ram or somethin

so what im really looking for is something to buy now for about 1400. theres always the potential for upgrades when i get some more money, but i really want something now so i can go shoot stuff. bearing in mind my current setup is a 2.6ghz p4 (i think) with a radeon 9500 pro and 512mb of RDRAM, anything will beat that!

[Ben_]

thats a pretty nice looking setup there andy... im almost persuaded .. how easy is it to build your own?
i'd certainly end up with a better box at the end of it for the price

[Noni]

What monitor do you have mate?

You will be drowned with 1900XTs and 7900GTs but if you only have a 17/19/15 TFT/CRT then they wont be used to their full potiential. Maybe a 20inch Widescreen is good for you? It will certainly fit in your budget.

Scan 3XS systems or MESH are the way to go in terms of building by yourself, but I will give you a spec from OCuk (because its the easiest) to give you something to aim for, or what you should be getting for your money.

[Noni]

CP-128-IN Intel Core 2 DUO E6600 "LGA775 Conroe" 2.40GHz (1066FSB) - Retail (CP-128-IN)
£214.95 £214.95
MB-061-GI Gigabyte GA_965P_DS3 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard (MB-061-GI)
£94.95 £94.95
MY-012-GS G.Skill 2GB DDR2 LA PC2-5400 (2x1GB) CAS4 Dual Channel Kit (F2-5400PHU2-2GBLA) (MY-012-GS)
£99.95 £99.95
GX-047-CO Connect3D ATI Radeon X1900 XT 512MB GDDR3 AVIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (3056) (GX-047-CO)
£199.95 £199.95
HD-032-SA Samsung SpinPoint T HD300LJ 300GB SATA-II 8MB Cache - OEM (HD-032-SA)
£59.95 £59.95
HS-003-SY Scythe Ninja Plus Heatpipe CPU Cooler (Socket 478, 754, 939, 940, LGA755) (HS-003-SY)
£26.95 £26.95
SC-043-CL Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Music - OEM (SC-043-CL)
£48.50 £48.50
CA-038-LL Lian-Li PC-7 PLUS Silver Aluminium Midi-Tower Case (No PSU) (CA-038-LL)
£47.95 £47.95
CA-001-SS Seasonic S12 500W Silent ATX2.0 Power Supply (CA-001-SS)
£64.95 £64.95
MO-052-VS Viewsonic VX2025wm 20" Widescreen LCD Monitor - Silver/Black (MO-052-VS)
£249.95 £249.95
Subtotal £1,108.05
VAT £193.91
Total £1,301.96

That leaves £100 for your DVD rom drives and such and also some fans + a keyboard if you want one.

[Ben_]

again a nice setup.. i dont think i will find that for that price unless i build it myself though

perhaps to build myself is the answer, but how easy is it? how commonly do things go wrong? im pretty good at following instructions but if something went wrong i wouldnt have a clue what it might be

20" widescreen sounds nice

[kasavien]

Its pretty much like lego , if you follow the instructions to the letter, not much can go wrong. But when i bought my system i was spending too much money to risk building it myself, so i got scan to build it. I think it cost an extra £150 over what the components cost, but for that i got a very well put together system, 1 year onsight warranty, and their customer service and after sales support really is superb, i can't recommend them highly enough. So in my opinion it was worth the extra money.

[MantisCSS]

yeh its pretty siemple. kasaviens spec is a good one.

[Ben_]

well 150 seems very good if they put it all together and test it for you.

i am seriously considering cutting and pasting kasaviens reccomendations and emailing it to scan and have them build it for me. is there anything else i should consider? the duo 2 processor doesnt seem to be that much more expensive, is it worth paying extra? or would it be a long wait? i really want to get going with this in the next week. also is it worth upgrading the ram to twinx? the case looks pretty sexy i might have gone for one with a window but i dont supppose it matters that much. could u reccomend a slightly larger hdd, maybe 300 or 400 gb. also at this price i can afford to include a monitor now, so could someone reccomend a 20" widescreen or something similar. i think thats everything. to be honest i dont want to sit and faff around with the details would rather get it ordered if everyone agrees im getting the right package!

[Ben_]

not to forget a soundcard too!

basically my max price limit is 1200 excl VAT so about 1400 all inc.

it would be nice if i could include a monitor in for that price, although if the gain in other areas is great enough i guess that could wait

also i'd probaly go for xp pro.. i dont know whats special about media centre and i tend to watch dvds and stuff on my tv. though with a 20" widescreen that might change

[Steve B]

iv been using on board sound for the past 3 years, and its never been a problem for me. i'd say its worth it as you're saving anything more than 20 quid.

kasaviens specced up a really nice machine, but i'd just go with XP home if ur just using it for gaming and stuff, and change the silverstone case for a cheaper one, you can pick up a decent case for about 40-50 quid. that should save you another 50 or so