£900 to spend on new gaming rig! HELP!

[robtotheb]

I used the wisdom of the hexus forum users about 3 years to build my current pc and it has served me VERY well, thanks to all the people who helped me pick out the parts!

Now its time to build a new one. I have £900 to spend and I'm going in circles reading "build your own guides." I just want a comp capable of playing Bioshock, UT3, Assasins creed, Crysis, TF2 etc with a smooth frame rate and short load times.

Note: Don't like fancy cases and want it reasonably quiet.
This is what I'm thinking atm...

Case: Antec P182 - £79
PSU: 520W Corsair HX Series Modular - £63
Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo E6750 - £121
CPU Cooler: Scythe Ninja Plus
Motherboard: Asus P5K-E - £104
Memory: 2x1GB Corsair XMS2-6400 DHX - £66.55
Hard Drive: 500 Gb Western Digital se16 - £65
Video Card: 768Mb BFG Technology 8800GTX OC2 - £370
DVD-/+RW: Samsung SH-S203B - £18


Massive thanks to everyone helping so far

[Queelis]

Change the processor for either the E6750 or Q6600, if your budget allows you that.

For the case, I'd recommend this:
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=318079

According to the poll of Hexus forum members, the most reliable HDD maker is Samsung, which is definitely quiet as well, so you might reconsider your choise.

And they say that Creative X-Fi drivers are pants

The motherboard: change to an Asus P5K-E, or abit IP35 (Pro), P35 chipset is better at everything than nVidia's.

[robtotheb]

What does the Q6600 add for the extra ££?

[staffsMike]

What does the Q6600 add for the extra ££?

2 extra cores!!

that case is alright but this is my favourite for cooling and silence. My silent running pc uses one and its inaudiable, fans, hard drives, even the optical is quieter than normal (samsung sata dvd writer)

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=604059

[Ilandor]

With your current components, I reached a total price of £901 from Scan (inc P&P).

If it were me, I'd make the following changes:

» Upgrade the CPU to an E6750. (-£11)
» Ditch the sound card, use onboard sound (unless of course you have some really expensive audio setup) (-£53)
» Unless you really need 1TB of space, I'd go for 2 x WD 250 GB drives. (-£43)
» Then, the biggest change, upgrade the Graphics from the GTS to a GTX (+£110)

New total is £904

My suggestions would give you a more powerful gaming PC, easily capable of running Bioshock, TF2 and Crysis at high settings. Although it does cut the storage space in half (500 GB is plenty, surely!) and maybe the audio quality too, but it won't be anything noticable.

If your budget allows for an extra £40, you could take the CPU up to a Q6600, which future-proofs it somewhat.

Edit - And yup, the Antec P182 is a nice case, although as far as I know, if you install an 8800 GTX into it, there isn't enough room for one of the internal HDD bays (the card is too long), but as you only plan on using 2 HDDs, it's not a problem.

[robtotheb]

2 extra cores!!

that case is alright but this is my favourite for cooling and silence. My silent running pc uses one and its inaudiable, fans, hard drives, even the optical is quieter than normal (samsung sata dvd writer)

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=604059

Nice case, thanks!

[robtotheb]

Whats a good brand of GeForce card?

[staffsMike]

As said above unless you're an audiophile then the sound card is pretty pointless. With a rig like that the 1 or 2 FPS you get back in games won't be noticable

[Ilandor]

Whats a good brand of GeForce card?

EVGA, BFG, XFX are 3 of the main ones, although I think EVGA are the most popular.

[staffsMike]

EVGA, BFG, XFX are 3 of the main ones, although I think EVGA are the most popular.

All good choices accpet xfx which i can't comment on as i've never had one.

Gainward are good too but EVGA and BFG have very long warranties which is appealing..they look nice too

[robtotheb]

What PSU will I need?

[aidanjt]

A Corsiar VX450 would do fine.

[staffsMike]

What PSU will I need?

I'd get the corsair 520HX, it works better with the P182 as its modular

[robtotheb]

» Unless you really need 1TB of space, I'd go for 2 x WD 250 GB drives. (-£43)

Your right I don't need 1TB. Scan lists about 6 different WB 250GB drives, which one do you recommend?

[aidanjt]

500GB disks are the sweet spot right now in £/GB. I got some WD SE16's, and they're great, quiet, & fast.

[staffsMike]

the AAKS version WD's are fantastic.

Shocked a mate with them in my antec p182 yesterday as you can't hear a thing when it's on...not a single click

..it's actually a little weird lol

Have you thought about HSF's yet... Again in mine i'm using the scythe ninja rev B with the fan and again..silence

It's perfect for the case, as the two fans on the top and back line up just right with the tower so it effictively gets cooled by three fans