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Thread: £800 gaming build

  1. #1
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    £800 gaming build

    Hey, I was going to build earlier, but due to some circumstances I decided to wait. Now I've drawn up another specification for £800, inc. KB/Mouse/Monitor/OS. Emphasis on bang for buck gaming performance (Orange Box, Oblivion, Sav2, CS:S). I don't do any video encoding or heavy multitasking, and don't care much for Crysis.

    PSU:
    Corsair HX Series 520W Modular PSU - ATX12V v2.2 APFC £66.93

    Note: It's more expensive than I'd prefer, any other cheaper recommendations?

    Case:
    Coolermaster CM-690 Dominator Black Midi Tower Case with Mesh Top Panel w/o PSU £46.99

    Note: Is there enough space and is it easy to build in? How's cable management/cooling? I like the look more than the Antec 900, and it is cheaper.

    Monitor:
    20" LG L204WS-SF, Silver/Black, Widescreen, 5ms, VGA, 1680x1050, 2000:1, 300cd/m2 £119.84

    Keyboard:
    Saitek PZ 30AV Eclipse Wired Keyboard, BackLit Blue Keys, USB 1.1/2.0, Black £21.09

    Mouse:
    Wolf King MSWK-TR-BLU, Trooper Gaming Optical Mouse, 2200dpi, USB 1.1/2.0, 7 Buttons, Blue £15.26

    Mobo:
    Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3L, iP35 Express, S 775, PCI-E (x16), DDR2 1066/667/800, SATA II, ATX £54.64

    CPU:
    Intel Pentium Dual-Core E2180, S775, 2.0GHz, 800MHzFSB, Allendale Core, 1MB Cache, Retail £56.38

    Note: It's a stop gap for Nehalem, so I see little point in splashing out for lots, especially with price cuts in April. I can just overclock this, right?

    CPU cooler:
    Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro £14.68

    Note: How far do you think I can overclock E2180 with this? Should I spend more on the cooler? Since it is my first build I'd quite like a cooler with an easy installation.

    Gfx:
    512MB XFX 8800GT Alpha Dog, PCI-E (x16), 1800MHz GDDR3, GPU 625MHz, 2xDual Link DVI-I/S-Video, HDCP £172.23

    RAM:
    OCZ 4GB Kit (2x2GB) 800MHz/PC2-6400 Memory Platinum Performance CL5 (5-4-4-18) £70.00

    Hard Drive:
    320 Gb Western Digital WD3200AAKS Caviar SE16, SATA300, 7200 rpm, 16MB Cache, 8.9 ms £47.29

    DVD Writer:
    Samsung SH-S203B 20X DVD±RW/RAM / DL Serial ATA Black Bare Drive - OEM £18.50

    OS:
    Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium x64Bit OEM 1PK DVD £58.95

    Total: £776.26 (inc VAT).

    How is it? Any changes/advice/compatibility/criticisms are all greatly appreciated. I'm thinking of buying from SCAN and Ebuyer.

  2. #2
    AKA daniel.phillips Sprite's Avatar
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    Re: £800 gaming build

    I would just spend £10 more on the graphics to get an 8800GTS. And with the AC7 Pro you should hit 2.8GHz on the E2180 pretty easily.

    If you want a slightly cheaper PSU you could look at the Corsair VX450W one.
    Main - Intel Core i5 2300 @ 3.5GHz, 8GB DDR3 1333Mhz RAM, Asus P8P67 Pro, Coolermaster iGreen 600w, GTX 480, Antec One Case



  3. #3
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    Re: £800 gaming build

    Quote Originally Posted by daniel.phillips View Post
    I would just spend £10 more on the graphics to get an 8800GTS. And with the AC7 Pro you should hit 2.8GHz on the E2180 pretty easily.

    If you want a slightly cheaper PSU you could look at the Corsair VX450W one.
    Yep, I replaced the 8800GT with a GTS since the price did seem pretty close. 2.8GHz sounds enough for my needs for a while. I also downgraded to VX450, since it is a fair bit cheaper. Thanks

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    • Wyoming's system
      • Motherboard:
      • Asus A8N SLI Deluxe
      • CPU:
      • AMD 64 Athlon 3700+
      • Memory:
      • 2x 1GB DDR PC3200 OCZ Performance Series
      • Storage:
      • 500GB Western Digital
      • Graphics card(s):
      • HIS HD3850 pro 256MB
      • PSU:
      • Corsair HX520
      • Case:
      • Cooler Master Ammo 533
      • Monitor(s):
      • Asus PW191 19" @ 1440x900

    Re: £800 gaming build

    Any reason that you've gone for that mouse? Could just be personal preference but a nice Logitech MX518 is cheap-ish and much nicer imo.

    Otherwise a very nice system.

  5. #5
    Senior Member Merlin4458's Avatar
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    Re: £800 gaming build

    change mouse to mx518, g5, unless u prfer razor in which go for diamondback/deathaddder
    Rig: Amd 64 3700+ San Diego | Abit AT8 | 4x512 Corsair XMS3200C2PRO | PowerColour X850XTPE / Arctic Cooled | Samsung Spinpoint 250Gig | Enermax NoiseTake 485w | Arctic Freezer 64 Pro | Coolermaster Wavemaster Silver | Dell 2405FPW | Logitech G5 / Everglide Destrukt Monstermat |

  6. #6
    Senior Member crazyfool's Avatar
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    • crazyfool's system
      • Motherboard:
      • Striker Extreme
      • CPU:
      • Q6600
      • Memory:
      • OCZ 6400 2 x 2GB
      • Storage:
      • Samsung Spinpoint 500GB
      • Graphics card(s):
      • BFG 8800 GT OC 512MB
      • PSU:
      • Coolermaster Real Power Pro 850w
      • Case:
      • Coolermaster CM-690
      • Operating System:
      • XP, Vista, Windows 7 & Ubuntu
      • Monitor(s):
      • Samsung 2232BW

    Re: £800 gaming build

    I have just finished my first build with the CM-690 and theres plenty of room, the toolless parts are pretty good and it looks good. I was gonna go for the Antec but because it didn't have fan filters I didn't.

  7. #7
    finding nemo staffsMike's Avatar
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    • staffsMike's system
      • Motherboard:
      • evga 680i
      • CPU:
      • e6600
      • Memory:
      • geil ultra pc6400
      • Storage:
      • WD 320gb
      • Graphics card(s):
      • leadtek 8800 GTS 640mb
      • PSU:
      • ocz gameXstream 700w
      • Case:
      • akasa eclipse
      • Monitor(s):
      • dell 2007wfp and Lg L194WT
      • Internet:
      • pipex homecall

    Re: £800 gaming build

    So lets say monitor keyboard, mouse and OS is ~ £200. That wolfking mouse looks a bit naff by the way. You can't switch to 400dpi which is perfect for sniping
    leaving ~ £600.

    E8400 + scythe ninja £155
    Abit IP-35 - £65
    4GB geil Black Dragon £70 (or what you picked)
    ATi HD3850pro 512mb - £110 or 8800GT - £160 (look for a better deal than the xfx)
    Antec Sonata 3 + 500W earth watts - £70
    500GB WD AAKS or spinpoint - £60
    DVD writer - £20

    Thats £550 with the HD3850 and £600 for the 8800GT.

    The 8400 clocks like a nutter but you could drop back to the E2180 which should clock to around 3.0GHz with a decent cooler.

    If you ask me what the bangs for bucks PC is.. it is either the above or the above with a Q6600 (and the HD3850)

  8. #8
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    Re: £800 gaming build

    Yeah, I changed the mouse to a Razer (like the feel of them). I've bought the whole package now, so I await delivery. Thanks for the suggestions!

    I'll probably post later since it is my first time build (I'm fairly well informed though, just practical stuff).

    Staffsmike - I agree that's a good build, but since I don't encode/heavily multitask I didn't think buying an expensive CPU would be a good use of money. Intel price cuts in April, so I can always upgrade then if I need to. 8400/Q6600 is overkill for my needs.

    Again, thanks alot for input.

  9. #9
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    • EarlGrey's system
      • Motherboard:
      • ASRock Z77-Extreme6
      • CPU:
      • 3570K @ 4.2GHz
      • Memory:
      • 16GB DDR3
      • Storage:
      • 256GB SSD + 2TB + 4TB
      • Graphics card(s):
      • GTX 980 Ti
      • PSU:
      • 600 OCZ Stealthstream
      • Case:
      • Lian Li PC7-S
      • Operating System:
      • Win7
      • Monitor(s):
      • BenQ 120Hz 3D Vision
      • Internet:
      • Infinity

    Re: £800 gaming build

    All looks good to me

    Get the cooler you want to put with your Nehalem later, no point having to get another. The Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro will do fine, but you might as well spend a tenner more and get a great cooler - A thermaltake or Scythe should do the trick.

    The new 8800GTS is probably worth the few extra pennies, and yes an overclocked E2180 will tie you over for a few months. Have fun!

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