Gaming within budget - please give opinions!

[vrfx]

Okay so 1st of all hello Hexus community, being my 1st post here i just thought it would be a nice thing to start with.

Moving on to the matter in hand, I had a limited budget of £600 and well I couldn't get the rig I wanted but I tried to make the best choice possible considering the budget.

So what do you think about this system ? I got it off pcspecialist (found out later about scan as I'm very new to UK) and as it's already ordered there is not much to do now but I really wanted to make an introduction in this community and share my system config but, also to see some maybe more advised opinions (I lost contact with the latest in PC hardware about 4 months ago so I choose what I thought it would be OK).

Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™2 Duo E8400 (2 X 3.00GHz) 1333MHz FSB/6MB L2 Cache
Memory (RAM)
4GB CORSAIR XMS2 800MHz - LIFETIME WARRANTY! (2x2GB)
Motherboard
ASUS® P5N-D: DDR2, SATAII, 2 x PCI-e x16, 2 PCI, 2 x PCI-e x1
USB Options
6 x USB 2.0 PORTS (4 REAR + 2 FRONT) AS STANDARD
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
250GB SERIAL ATA II HARD DRIVE WITH 8MB CACHE (7,200rpm)
1st CD/DVD Drive
20x Dual Layer LightScribe DVD Writer ±R/±RW/RAM
Graphics Card
512MB GEFORCE 9800GT PCI Express + DVI + TV-OUT
Sound Card
ONBOARD 8 CHANNEL (7.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Facilities
WIRELESS 54Mbps NETWORK CARD
Case
Stylish Silver/Black Trident case + 2 front USB
Power Supply & Case Cooling
450W Quiet Dual Rail PSU + 120mm Case Fan
Processor Cooling
STANDARD CPU COOLER
Monitor
19 Inch Wide TFT Silver/Black 1440 x 900 5MS, D-Sub, DVI, Audio
Keyboard
Logitech® Internet Keyboard + Hotkeys (Black)
Mouse
Black Logitech® Premium Optical Mouse

Warranty
1 Year Return-to-Base incl 1st Month Free Collect & Return

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Total order Price (inc VAT)
£633.00

I also wanted to ask if anyone has Option 3 from BT (8Mbit with unlimited traffic) how is BT as a ISP ? Are they stable good service or ... ? (I know it also depends on the area, the wireless connection but as an ISP how are they)

My own review about the system I made:

- the CPU is not a quad to give more power but i think it's damn fine and if needed can be overclocked, and then I would probably need a new cooling system for it
- RAM should be ok I believe, 4Gigs@800 guess no game should have problems because of that
- MB, I think it's a good choice considering it supports Quad CPU so no need to replace for upgrade, also supports SLI if later needed the only drawback I could say is that it doesn't support better memory (RAM) but I can live with that (frequency max 800)
- HDD no comment as you can always upgrade that
- GPU well as I've seen here on this community most of you have either 8800GTS/GTX or an ATI but I choose the 9800 because it's a 9 series so even if it has the same speed as 8800 it has some better features (like PsyX) and later on I could just buy another1 (should be cheap then) and SLI them
- the monitor unfortunately I have no idea what brand it is but monitors with speakers just plain suck by default ... tho a 19" wide should be enough for now, I can only hope for the best
- PSU, I believe 450 should be enough for this system although, again I don't know the brand so I hope it's good
- peripherals ... well I didn't spend any money one those since they can also be replaced when more funds will be available (although I can't call myself a gamer with a $4 mouse but I'll live)

Well that's about it, thanks for reading and start spamming with some opinions, although in a £600 budget I think it's fine.

[shaithis]

Welcome to hexus

The rig looks fine, I have never heard of the company you are ordering it from....so good luck

A few things that jump out from the spec (which otherwise looks fine on a quick glance for your budget):

Power supply - Very important to get a quality PSU and the brand isn't mentioned on the order - no brand name normally gets my spidey-senses tingling!
Hard drive is very small for todays standards, only a few quid normally to get something substantially bigger.
Motherboard has a nVidia chipset, a lot of people do not like them for various reasons, normally the only people you see with a nVidia board are those who "must have" SLI graphics cards.

Only other thing to say is.....Make sure you use a 64bit OS if you want to use all your 4GB of RAM, without it you will only have about 3GB usable.

[NovaSphere]

- the CPU is not a quad to give more power but i think it's damn fine and if needed can be overclocked, and then I would probably need a new cooling system for it
- RAM should be ok I believe, 4Gigs@800 guess no game should have problems because of that
- MB, I think it's a good choice considering it supports Quad CPU so no need to replace for upgrade, also supports SLI if later needed the only drawback I could say is that it doesn't support better memory (RAM) but I can live with that (frequency max 800)
- HDD no comment as you can always upgrade that
- GPU well as I've seen here on this community most of you have either 8800GTS/GTX or an ATI but I choose the 9800 because it's a 9 series so even if it has the same speed as 8800 it has some better features (like PsyX) and later on I could just buy another1 (should be cheap then) and SLI them
- the monitor unfortunately I have no idea what brand it is but monitors with speakers just plain suck by default ... tho a 19" wide should be enough for now, I can only hope for the best
- PSU, I believe 450 should be enough for this system although, again I don't know the brand so I hope it's good
- peripherals ... well I didn't spend any money one those since they can also be replaced when more funds will be available (although I can't call myself a gamer with a $4 mouse but I'll live)

Well that's about it, thanks for reading and start spamming with some opinions, although in a £600 budget I think it's fine.

Welcome to Hexus!

As first, that's a pretty fine build you got there if you ask me ^^

- The CPU, great CPU tbh, I'm getting the same next week in my new build, read a lot about it, great value for money (unless you going to overclock than a lower edition would be better, but staffsMike will tell you all about that I suppose ;P)
- The RAM is a good choice.
- The HDD is ok, I would go for one with 16MB cache though.
- The card is a good one, as you already thought about it, it looks perfectly fine.
- I would advise you to get a Samsung monitor, they have overall great performance, look good (your taste though) and are simple good quality. I would go for a 20" or 22" though, but seeing your budget, a 19" would do fine.
- The PSU, I would advise you to get a PSU from a known brand (Corsairs the best imo), for example the HX520W, which should be more than enough for your system, will give you more space to upgrade later on (your SLI thoughts) and is a modular PSU.
- A mouse and keyboard is personal preference, anyone can play with a 4$ mouse, maybe if you're a diehard CSS player you want some better ^^

[richieuk]

Hi mate, If you dont mind me asking, is it a pre-build your looking for?

I have an edition of computer shopper from last month with a bunch of under £700 pre-builds, with some a bit better than that (although I agree, it is very good)

One im sure has soemthing like like 22" monitors, with the same processor and ram and a 8800GTs... But if i remember rightly the best buy wasn't the highest performer...

Not sure about the motherboard and such of the top of my head. But tbh, its very nice

(EDIT - Its now onine - http://www.pcpro.co.uk/shopper/labs/.../products.html but no mention of the parts brands)

(EDIT 2 - Nevermind, for £633 thats is as good/beter than those there, and you get some quality parts in there, only upgrade i'd suggest for under £40 if you can get it is the monitor, being a little small for a widescreen)

[vrfx]

Thanks for the warm welcome

I can't really change anything now as it's already ordered (well I could but it would cost me some £20 extra, amend tax after order plus the extra for the piece of hardware).
But from my experience and from your reviews I think it's enough to start with. Being a desktop it can always be upgraded to some degree.
I really hope the PSU is a brand name cos I've had previous experience with noname PSU and I now know how important is in a system ... and shaithis I know about the 3GB RAM limit for 32bit systems but thank you for reminding!

All that remains now is to get it delivered and start killing some orcs and/or making some frags

Thanks again for the reviews, I feel more confident now about my choice.