Help a newbie out ...

[tom18230]

To be perfectly honest, I'm embarrassed at how much of a noob I am with computers.

I'm looking to build a gaming pc (my brother built his own last year, he will build it for me). I've got someone to build it for me, I've got the money, my only problem is what to actually buy. I've read over alot of these threads, but it's all just technical jargen to me and doesn't really help me. Well, I'm not as bad as I sound. I know all the basics, I just don't know what hardware to get.

Sorry if I'm posting this in the wrong place or if this isn't allowed or anything, but could someone, anyone, tell me the components I need to build a good gaming pc.

My budget is to a max of £800 (don't include monitor, keyboard, mouse, speakers etc...got all them.).
I want to be able to play games like crysis without any lag.
I'm looking to do alot of online gaming.

Any help would be appreciated, cheers.

[matty-hodgson]

well start with a good case..
Antec P182
then pick Intel or AMD.. pretty much everyone would go for Intel atm.. and probably quad core.
so you'll probably want a Q6600.
then a motherboard.. my motherboard is quite good, but there's definately better out there in the same price bracket.
then you've got RAM and everything.. so long as the mobo says it'll run it.. it pretty much is guaranteed to..

if you would like me to.. i could quickly get you a general PC together on eBuyer.. under £800.. brilliant gaming rig (Y)

just say if you want me to.

[Webby]

Well the standard setup most people will suggest will be along these lines,

CPU: Q6600
CPU Cooler: Thermalright Ultima 90 or Scythe Ninja
Motherboard: Abit IP-35 Dark Raider
Memory: 4GB 800MHz DDR2
Hard Drive: Western Digital AAKS, whatever size you require 500GB should be plenty
DVD: Samsung SG-S203
PSU: Corsair HX520W or Enermax Liberty 500W
Case: Anec P182, Antec 900, Coolermaster CM-690, Silverstone Tremjin series
Graphics card: 8800 GTS 512MB

That should come in at ~£750 depending on models selected.

Oh and don't forget you will need a Windows licence if you intend to use it and don't already have a retail version.

[matty-hodgson]

Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 G0 Stepping (2.4GHz 1066MHz) Socket 775 L2 8MB Cache (2x4MB (4MB per core pair) Retail Boxed Processor £165

Inno3D 8800GT OC edition 512MB Dual DVI PCI-E Graphics Card £155

ASUS P5KC AiLifestyle Series iP35 Socket 775 8 channel audio ATX Motherboard £73

Arctic Silver 5 High-Density Polysynthetic Silver Thermal Compound Thermal paste 3.5gram £5.50

Scythe Mine Rev-B Socket 478, 754, 940, 775, 939 & AM2 CPU Cooler £24

OCZ 2GB Kit (2x1GB) DDR2 800MHz/PC2-6400 CL 4-4-4-15 PLATINUM XTC with LIFETIME WARRANTY £33

Samsung SpinPoint HD501LJ 500GB SATAII Hard Drive 16MB Cache - OEM £57

Antec P182 Gunmetal Grey Super Mid Tower Case - No PSU £81

Corsair HX Series 520W Modular PSU - ATX12V v2.2 APFC £63

total of £650 inc. delivery.. and then you have £150 to spend on maybe getting better on them.. or getting better cooling and more fans and stuff.. or a gaming HD or something maybe


as you can see.. there are a lot of products that have appeared on both of our lists.

[Blitzen]

Dont waste your money on a GT....buy the GTS for a few quid more. If you have a budget of £800 then thats a compromise on price for the sake of it.
Especially if you are going to higher resolutions.

[matty-hodgson]

Dont waste your money on a GT....buy the GTS for a few quid more. If you have a budget of £800 then thats a compromise on price for the sake of it.
Especially if you are going to higher resolutions.

i'd agree with that actually.. the 8800GTS 512 is a better card than the 8800GT if you can afford it (which you can)

but.. with the 9800's just round the corner.. you could wait a few weeks and possibly get 1 of those..
it's completely upto you, but the 9800GTX will absolutely obbliterate everything (apart from the 9800GX2) but that'll cost you an arm and a leg, and the 9800GTX will be about £350 - £450 btw.. so it's totally upto you..

[UrbanKiwi]

Well the standard setup most people will suggest will be along these lines,

CPU: Q6600
CPU Cooler: Thermalright Ultima 90 or Scythe Ninja

The Sythe Ninja is a BIG cooler. I have just built my first gaming pc and have had to fit the Ninja twice to get it right. One major thing you must do is fit it before you put the motherboard in the case!!! The Ninja is impressive as even without the fan I was getting CPU temperatures (Q6600 @ 2.4Ghz) of 20-25c. Also make sure you get a case big enough to accomodate the Scythe Ninja, I used the Antec P182 case as well and this worked really well

Motherboard: Abit IP-35 Dark Raider

I also used this and found the manual and features really good, as a newcomer to PC building I found it easy to get on with

Memory: 4GB 800MHz DDR2

Consider the OCZ 6800 5-4-4-18 currently going for a good price on Ebuyer.

Hard Drive: Western Digital AAKS, whatever size you require 500GB should be plenty
DVD: Samsung SG-S203
PSU: Corsair HX520W or Enermax Liberty 500W
Case: Anec P182, Antec 900, Coolermaster CM-690, Silverstone Tremjin series

As said above I found the Antec P182 a pleasure to work with, plenty of space to work with, well laid out and plenty of onboard cooling.

Graphics card: 8800 GTS 512MB

That should come in at ~£750 depending on models selected.

Oh and don't forget you will need a Windows licence if you intend to use it and don't already have a retail version.

I hope these comments form a fellow noob help!

[Minimos]

My advice is to get the best components for what you can afford. I think its great that people offer advice on slightly better hardware when you are spending your hard earned cash to make it future proof, but in PC industry things move so fast todays best is tommorrow's budget rig.

Set yourself a budget and then price the components within that budget, the main reason being that there will always be something bigger, better and more expensive out or there will be something new just round the corner.

Go with a Quad which should last you a few years, the Q6600 looks good, get a decent case and power supply which will last you many years through most other component changes. I think the suggestion for the case are excellent so far.

[MSIC]

My budget is to a max of £800 (don't include monitor, keyboard, mouse, speakers etc...got all them.).

First of all, hi and welcome, and dont worry because we all started like you a while ago.
Can i ask what monitor you have? Is it old, and what is the resolution (if you know it)?
I ask because, just like the insides of a PC, the external stuff is in constant development and although you might be happy with what you have, you might surprise yourself with what you could upgrade to given your budget.
As an example, you might be happy with a 17" 1280 x 1024 monitor, but find that you could afford a 24" 1920 x 1200 one instead.
Same with speakers.

Just an idea.

The second point is to consider what physical size PC you want or would be happy to have. There is a mid-point, above which cases get very large (and costly) and below which they get nice and small (and costly!).
Also consider noise - you might be used to a fairly noisy PC and suddenly be delighted with something near-silent. Then again, you could be expecting quiet but end up with an uncomfortable jet-turbine sitting next to you, if you pick the wrong bits.
A final point to ask is whether or not power consumption is a factor - i'll be honest, it's not for most people, but you might be a) an eco warrior in disguise or b) thinking about the ever-rising rising electric bills, like me

I'll post some suggestions of specific parts if you want, but let us know about the above first

[tom18230]

First of all, hi and welcome, and dont worry because we all started like you a while ago.
Can i ask what monitor you have? Is it old, and what is the resolution (if you know it)?
I ask because, just like the insides of a PC, the external stuff is in constant development and although you might be happy with what you have, you might surprise yourself with what you could upgrade to given your budget.
As an example, you might be happy with a 17" 1280 x 1024 monitor, but find that you could afford a 24" 1920 x 1200 one instead.
Same with speakers.

Just an idea.

The second point is to consider what physical size PC you want or would be happy to have. There is a mid-point, above which cases get very large (and costly) and below which they get nice and small (and costly!).
Also consider noise - you might be used to a fairly noisy PC and suddenly be delighted with something near-silent. Then again, you could be expecting quiet but end up with an uncomfortable jet-turbine sitting next to you, if you pick the wrong bits.
A final point to ask is whether or not power consumption is a factor - i'll be honest, it's not for most people, but you might be a) an eco warrior in disguise or b) thinking about the ever-rising rising electric bills, like me

I'll post some suggestions of specific parts if you want, but let us know about the above first

Size is not an issue. Noise would only be an issue if it was majorly loud (I have an xbox 360 in my room, so if theres even a pc which could generate that amount of sound...then we have an issue lol). Power consumption...not an issue at all. Im a 15 year old with every single plug in my room used up...what do you think =P.

Ive got a 22" LG tv/monitor. Its got a VGA input for a monitor. (tried it with another pc in my house, looks great.) Its native resolution is 1600 x 900. Its a good tv and a good monitor, I wouldnt consider getting another one unless it was an issue that I wouldn't be able to run a pc on it (ive tried and tested it... I can =P). I got it at christmas there for £300.

Oh I don't know if this is an issue, but I won't actually be building this until the summer. Got exams and what not right now. Also, if its worth waiting until the end of the year when prices go down I would be willing to wait. (don't pc game muh right now, really want to get into it.) So I can really wait however long.

Thanks for all the help.

Oh also... I would be hoping to run XP on this thing. But if its a major advantage to get vista on this to be future proof ... then just say lol.

Also, my brothers a bit of a computer genius but said he didn't want to mess around with overclocking (not enough time + hes lazy lol) so I don't think thats really an option for me.

[Hicks12]

if your not building till around summer then i suggest waiting for peoples opinions. Technology is set to advance a bit in the few months(graphics cards and cpu's and probably ddr3 will be mainstream) so i would just say, bump this thread when your building say a month or less away.


Overclocking is simple. Anyone who can use a keyboard and google can do it. Just takes time and id say a q6600 @ 3ghz is decent for the average person so basicly, ask about overclocking when you have built it, feel free to ask anyone about it(you can pm me if you want) and im sure youll get great overclocking advice.

[MSIC]

I concur, you'd lose say, oh i don't know, perhaps 15% to 20% of it's comparative value over a 6 month period rather than buying it when you actually want it.
For example, in Nov '07 the nVidia 8800GT graphics card was all the rage (it still is really) and was £180, although you really had to pay £190 to get one. Today you can get one for £140 (or less if you believe some people), and that's just 4 months.

[Blitzen]

Size is not an issue. Noise would only be an issue if it was majorly loud (I have an xbox 360 in my room, so if theres even a pc which could generate that amount of sound...then we have an issue lol). Power consumption...not an issue at all. Im a 15 year old with every single plug in my room used up...what do you think =P.

Ive got a 22" LG tv/monitor. Its got a VGA input for a monitor. (tried it with another pc in my house, looks great.) Its native resolution is 1600 x 900. Its a good tv and a good monitor, I wouldnt consider getting another one unless it was an issue that I wouldn't be able to run a pc on it (ive tried and tested it... I can =P). I got it at christmas there for £300.

Oh I don't know if this is an issue, but I won't actually be building this until the summer. Got exams and what not right now. Also, if its worth waiting until the end of the year when prices go down I would be willing to wait. (don't pc game muh right now, really want to get into it.) So I can really wait however long.

Thanks for all the help.

Oh also... I would be hoping to run XP on this thing. But if its a major advantage to get vista on this to be future proof ... then just say lol.

Also, my brothers a bit of a computer genius but said he didn't want to mess around with overclocking (not enough time + hes lazy lol) so I don't think thats really an option for me.

Native resolution for a 22" monitor isnt 1600x900

[r_j_k_p]

its 1680x1050

[tom18230]

1680 x 1050 I meant lol, sorry.

So for a £800 gaming rig I could buy now...by the end of the year it could cost like £650?

So if I waited till the end of the year, I could get a much better rig than if I bought it now..for the same price or less?

[matty-hodgson]

yeah, but if you waited 15 years.. you could get a much better rig for £800.. it's just a vicious circle.. wait a couple of months at least, for all this new (very good) technology to come out.. then see where you can go from there..