Gaming Machine on a 600 quid ish budget?

[sybrows]

Alright all,

I have been asked by my mate to spec him up a Gaming machine for around the £600 quid mark. Now the last machine I built was a XP-m Barton based machine so its been a while!
I have put together a list of what I reckon I can get for him, but you guys prob have more of an idea than me particularly on GFX and Mobo choices.

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256MB Gainward 8600GT Bliss Golden Sample, PCI-E, Mem 1600 MHz, GDDR3, GPU 600 MHz, Dual DVI/HDTV £97.51

Abit AB9 WiFi iP965, S775, PCI-E (x16), DDR2 533/667/800, SATA II, SATA RAID, ATX £92.46

2GB (2x1GB) CorsairTwinX XMS2, DDR2 PC2-6400 (800), 240 Pins, Non-ECC Unbuffered, CAS 5-5-5-12 £61.09

400 Gb Samsung HD401LJ Spinpoint T, SATA300, 7200 rpm, 16MB Cache, 8.9 ms, NCQ £54.04

500W AKASA Ultra quiet Active PFC ATX 2.2 PSU with Black 12cm Fan £52.75

Intel Core 2 Duo E6600, Socket 775, 2.4 GHz, 1066MHz FSB, Conroe Core, 4MB Cache, Retail £142.16

Coolermaster RC-330 Elite Black Midi Tower Case w/o PSU £26.19

Optiarc (Sony/NEC) AD-7170S-0B 18x DVD±R, 8x DVD±DL, DVD+RW x8/-RW x6, DVD-RAM x12, SATA, Black, OEM £19.85

Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium 32Bit 1Pk OEM (DVD) £64.60

Total £610.66

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All prices inc vat and are from scan.

He has a nice HDTV so I have missed a screen off, though not sure if this would be OK for playing games as not sure on make model etc. So I may be looking into a monitor for him too.

Such a lot has moved on since my last build could do with a bit of advice.

Cheers

Si

[shaithis]

I'd change the PSU to a seasonic or corsair, drop the CPU down to an E2160 and overclock it to 3GHz instead and with the 80ukp saved from the CPU, buy an 8800GTS instead.

[sybrows]

Can it be done on Air and via the FSB on this Mobo?

[staffsMike]

I'd probably go for the e4300 for a bit of extra cache..

It's not a hard overclock for the most recent motherboards but it's whether your chip can take it.

It can be done on air though.

[s_kinton]

I'd change the PSU to a seasonic or corsair, drop the CPU down to an E2160 and overclock it to 3GHz instead and with the 80ukp saved from the CPU, buy an 8800GTS instead.

Spot on. Definately do not go with the 8600GTS card. Its not really meant for gaming IMO.

[sybrows]

It does look like you can squeeze a lot out of the e4300 but will the Ram I have picked handle the overclock or will I need to get pc-8500 as used HERE

[Blitzen]

The PSU is also fine for your needs although i personally wouldnt pay £50 odd for it.

One thing though...why make a 64 Bit system and run a 32 bit Operating System? Go for 64 Bit Vista.

If its a gaming machine then:
a) Go for a 8800GTS (DX10 when arrives) This for £182 is cracking value: http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=546950
b) For cheaper go for 7950GT (Auction sites then move over to DX10 card when mood takes him). Or this: http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=618011 for £123

TBH though, the extra £60 will make an amazing difference.

The 8600's and below are poor.

[Queelis]

It does look like you can squeeze a lot out of the e4300 but will the Ram I have picked handle the overclock or will I need to get pc-8500 as used HERE

The RAM you've picked can handle 800MHz, which means 400MHz FSB. As the FSB on the 4300 is 200MHz, you can get 3.6GHz from a 4300 without even overclocking the RAM.

[shaithis]

It does look like you can squeeze a lot out of the e4300 but will the Ram I have picked handle the overclock or will I need to get pc-8500 as used HERE

Thats why I said the E2160, it has a 200FSB. 9 x 200 at standard = 1.8GHz. 9 x 333 = 3GHz...and thats with PC2-5400...you can go past 3GHz with PC2-6400

You will not notice the cache difference unless you are into synthetic benchmarks

[sybrows]

OK I have had a Re-jigg, taking into account a lot of what has been said:

Overclocking does seem to be the way to shave off the needed cash for a nicer GFX card, and have plumped for the Gainward one as mentioned, though the ASUS 8800 GTS did do well HERE and came with a couple of games. But I have got a Gainward card and quite like em

Here goes:

Coolermaster RC-330 Elite Black Midi Tower Case w/o PSU £26.19

520W Corsair HX V2 Series Modular PSU, ATX, EPS12V, whisper quiet, 5 year warranty £68.02

Abit AB9 WiFi iP965, S775, PCI-E (x16), DDR2 533/667/800, SATA II, SATA RAID, ATX £92.46

Intel Core 2 Duo E4300, Socket 775, 1.80 GHz, 800MHz FSB, Allendale Core, 2MB Cache, Retail £74.01

2GB (2x1GB) CorsairTwinX XMS2, DDR2 PC2-6400 (800), 240 Pins, Non-ECC Unbuffered, CAS 5-5-5-12 £61.09

320MB Gainward 8800GTS Bliss PCI-E (x16) Mem 1600MHz GPU 500MHz 96Streams HDTV/2xDual Link DVI-I £182.11

400 Gb Samsung HD401LJ Spinpoint T, SATA300, 7200 rpm, 16MB Cache, 8.9 ms, NCQ £54.04

Optiarc (Sony/NEC) AD-7170S-0B 18x DVD±R, 8x DVD±DL, DVD+RW x8/-RW x6, DVD-RAM x12, SATA, Black, OEM £19.85

Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium 64Bit 1Pk OEM (DVD) £65.65

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Total £643.42

[Blitzen]

Thats better

Last thing......may well be worth your while getting a 120gb or 160gb drive instead.
Hard Drives are very cheap now.

[sybrows]

Instead of the Samsung 400gig? it might be a bit overkill I spose! And could get mouse and keyboard (which I forgot) if he is going to use his HDTV (bravia I think) I should prob get Vista remote and wireless keyboard and mouse too.......

[NightshadowUK]

Spend an extra couple of quid and get the Abit AB9 QuadGT as it's a better overclocking board.

Or failing that, if you can see yourself upgrading to DDR3 and a 1,333 FSB CPU in the future, go for the Gigabyte GA P35C-DS3R.

[EarlGrey]

Or failing that, if you can see yourself upgrading to DDR3 and a 1,333 FSB CPU in the future, go for the Gigabyte GA P35C-DS3R.

I def. agree. the P35 boards have shown themselves to be quick, and have good overclocking headroom, but most importantly they have massive upgrade potential. The gigabyte board can take the DDR2 RAM now, and you can pop in 4GB of DDR3 later, prob around the same time you upgrade to quad core

'The P35 chipset is also the first chipset to officially support the upcoming 45nm CPU architecture. We reviewed the P35 chipset and the new Intel ICH9 Southbridge in detail and found the combination to offer one of the best, if not the best, performance platforms for Intel's Core 2 Duo family of processors.'
Read more here: http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=2999
and here: http://www.tomshardware.com/2007/06/...ed/page11.html

It's good to have the option, and save yourselves the rebuild in a couple of years time.

As for the earlier comments the 8800GTS 320MB is a must have for a gaming rig, so it was worth rearranging to include that