£1000 budget for a new Gaming PC.

[Ushakal]

Hello! I'm looking to build a future-proof Gaming PC and this forum was recommended by a friend who said he'd recieved some really good advice here when he was building his PC, so I was wondering if you could help me out.

This is a completely new PC and I only really need it for gaming and general internet usage; I wont be looking to overclock it. Doesn't really matter what's in it, so I'll be happy as long as it can run a typical game smoothly on high (not necessarily highest) settings on a 1920x1080 display, sounds good, runs quietly, will last a good few years and costs up to £1000. I already have a suitable monitor, so I'm not looking for a new one of those.

Thanks in advance!

[GeorgeStorm]

Well, you have the choice, you could go for a new i7 rig, so, an i7 920, Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD5 motherboard 3gb Corsair RAM, Radeon 4870 of Nvidia 260GTX 216.....
Good thing about this, the cpu doesnt need to be overclocked to provide awesome performance.....
Or, you could go for a e8600, Biostar i45, 4gb PC8500 OCZ, or G.Skill for overclocking, and then maybe Radeon 4850X2, or Nvidia 280GTX, TRUE cpu cooler, or Xigmatek s-1283HDT problem is, with this one, overclocking would probs be a great idea, as you could easily get the e8600 to 4GHz, so easy,

Then something like Anetc 1200 for a case, and maybe corsair HX620 for PSU, or maybe the TX750....

Up to you......

Just me........

[vicar]

Remember whatever spec you choose, there is nothing called a "future-proof Gaming PC" . Just build what you like and can afford.

[Infinite]

I was bored enough to actually do this:





Just to check 1333mhz instead of 1600 budget reasons.
You can change the case to different one if you dont like the gaming design, but this is like the standard case everyone points to, lol.
I put a card reader because I believe the are in valuable =P
I didnt add an after marker cooler, no point if oc.
For 1000 you have the cream de la cream of computers.

[NightshadowUK]

Can't fault the above at all if you're going i7 but that's without the OS and peripherals.

I'd be mighty tempted to get a beast of a S775 system for the same price (if not less) as you'd have a complete computer.

[Olmy]

I implore you not to spend that much on a processor.

Most games are more GPU bound than CPU bound now anyway, buy a far cheaper e7200 or e8500 or something. The performance difference won't be that large.

edit : Oh wait I just realised thats with a motherboard. Well I still think its too much just for a CPU and motherboard .

[moogle]

I was bored enough to actually do this:

Which is invalid tommorow

[Pob255]

Remember whatever spec you choose, there is nothing called a "future-proof Gaming PC" . Just build what you like and can afford.

That is some of the best advice.

While a i7 system is very tempting, I'd say stick with a high end 775 system i7 is just too expensive atm.

LN16718 Antec 900 - Nine Hundred Ultimate Gamer Case with 200m Top Fan w/o PSU £71.19
LN19302 4GB Corsair (2x2GB) TwinX XMS2, DDR2 PC2-6400 (800), 240 Pins, Non-ECC Unbuffered, CAS 5-5-5-18 (two lots for 8gb) £75.07
LN22387 640 GB Western Digital WD6400AAKS Caviar Blue, SATA 300, 7200 rpm, 16MB Cache, 8.9 ms £49.32 (I think this is the good single platter one, I'm sure I'll be corrected if it isn't )
LN23007 Samsung SH-S223F/BEBE 22x DVD±R, 12x DVD±R, DVD+RW x8/-RW x6, SATA, Black, OEM £14.81
LN24601 DFI Lanparty DK P45-T2RS Plus, iP45, S 775, PCI-E (x16), DDR2 1066/1200, SATA II, ATX £100.22
LN25322 1GB Asus HD4870, PCI-E 2.0(x16), 3600MHz GDDR5, GPU 750MHz, 800 Cores, HDTV/ 2x DL DVI-I, HDCP £198.89
LN25428 ZEROtherm ZEN FZ-120 Quiet Tower CPU Cooler Intel LGA775 £24.14
LN21951 525W Enermax MODU82+ EMD525AWT Modular Triple PCI-E Rail, ATX12v 2.3 , 88% Eff, £73.01

Total £527.53 then add

LN19488 Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600, Kentsfield Core, S775, 2.40 GHz 1066MHz 8MB Cache, 9x Multiplier, Retail £147.07
or
LN24841 Intel Core2 Duo E7400, Wolfdale Core, S775, 2.8GHz, FSB 1066MHz, 3MB Cache, 10.5x Multiplier, Retail £112.00

And
LN17166 Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium SP1* 64Bit 1Pk OEM (DVD) £87.27

Total is under £865 with the quad or £835 with the c2d
So that leaves extra left over for
more Hard drive space (ether more hd's in a raid or a larger hd)
Sound card, if onboard isn't enough
Speakers, you'll be hard pressed to notice the sound difference between onboard and seperate sound card on cheap/weak speakers
mouse + keykeyboard + any other little things

[Infinite]

Remember whatever spec you choose, there is nothing called a "future-proof Gaming PC" . Just build what you like and can afford.

For me, I believe some "future proofing" does exist.

Way back in early autumn in 2006 I bought myself a C2D E6600, a mobo, and 2GB DDR2 800mhz costing me around 200, 90 and 200 respectively. Nowadays I still see recommended builds costing of a C2D 2.4 - 3.0 ghz, a decent mobo and 4gb DDR2 800mhz. Which is what I bought over 2 years ago.

And only along the way have I needed to upgrade the memory to 4gb (which wasnt completely nescessary) and to buy a new graphics card. (And only needed to OC to 3ghz so to play Crysis smoothly).

So the way I see it, if you buy brand new technology now like a i7, it is bound to last you for a good few years and still be on par with main stream computers in the future.

edit: 1 more thing, I am still finding it hard to believe that the Q6600 that was released in january 2007 (almost 2 years ago) is still a recommended CPU even though newer QuadCores have been released. If that isnt "future proofing" at its best, I dont know what is.

Well done if you bought a Q6600 way back when... you have successfully beat the future game.

[Pob255]

I expect the higher end c2d too keep going strong for good few years as well and a high end c2d (or c2q) sytem (motherboard + cpu + memory) is currently Just under £300 where as the i7 is just under £600
The main advantage i7 has atm is no nead for seperate mother boards depending on sli or crossfire, I very much doubt we'll see any games jumping on this yet as it'll cut out too much of the market who are still on c2d systems.
Remember that dual cpu started back with the pentium D in 2005 and it's only been the last two years that games have really started using that, so it'll be another two years before they really start exploiting quad core cpu's

[CK_1985]

Just a thought, but if you're not planning to overclock then you could save some pennies on the case by getting the Antec 300 rather than the 900. The airflow's not as good but without overclocking this shouldn't be a problem, and you could put the extra £40-£50 towards a better GPU or an aftermarket CPU cooler or something.

[mat-ster]

this article will help :-)

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/200...buy-dec-2008/1

Matt

[moogle]

this article will help :-)

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/200...buy-dec-2008/1

Matt

It's a good article
I like that they do one each month updating it. Helps people who ain't got time to go around searching for whats the best.

[DratUK]

That is some of the best advice.

While a i7 system is very tempting, I'd say stick with a high end 775 system i7 is just too expensive atm.

LN16718 Antec 900 - Nine Hundred Ultimate Gamer Case with 200m Top Fan w/o PSU £71.19
LN19302 4GB Corsair (2x2GB) TwinX XMS2, DDR2 PC2-6400 (800), 240 Pins, Non-ECC Unbuffered, CAS 5-5-5-18 (two lots for 8gb) £75.07
LN22387 640 GB Western Digital WD6400AAKS Caviar Blue, SATA 300, 7200 rpm, 16MB Cache, 8.9 ms £49.32 (I think this is the good single platter one, I'm sure I'll be corrected if it isn't )
LN23007 Samsung SH-S223F/BEBE 22x DVD±R, 12x DVD±R, DVD+RW x8/-RW x6, SATA, Black, OEM £14.81
LN24601 DFI Lanparty DK P45-T2RS Plus, iP45, S 775, PCI-E (x16), DDR2 1066/1200, SATA II, ATX £100.22
LN25322 1GB Asus HD4870, PCI-E 2.0(x16), 3600MHz GDDR5, GPU 750MHz, 800 Cores, HDTV/ 2x DL DVI-I, HDCP £198.89
LN25428 ZEROtherm ZEN FZ-120 Quiet Tower CPU Cooler Intel LGA775 £24.14
LN21951 525W Enermax MODU82+ EMD525AWT Modular Triple PCI-E Rail, ATX12v 2.3 , 88% Eff, £73.01

Total £527.53 then add

LN19488 Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600, Kentsfield Core, S775, 2.40 GHz 1066MHz 8MB Cache, 9x Multiplier, Retail £147.07
or
LN24841 Intel Core2 Duo E7400, Wolfdale Core, S775, 2.8GHz, FSB 1066MHz, 3MB Cache, 10.5x Multiplier, Retail £112.00

And
LN17166 Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium SP1* 64Bit 1Pk OEM (DVD) £87.27

Total is under £865 with the quad or £835 with the c2d
So that leaves extra left over for
more Hard drive space (ether more hd's in a raid or a larger hd)
Sound card, if onboard isn't enough
Speakers, you'll be hard pressed to notice the sound difference between onboard and seperate sound card on cheap/weak speakers
mouse + keykeyboard + any other little things

100% agree. The i7 is one too expensive to justify for a gaming system especially since the gains in framerates arent that substantial. Mainly for the reason Olmy gave, most games are GPU bound, use at the most 2 cores and memory address is fixed at 2Gb.

I was also interested in reading Anands article on the state of all of the current X58 mobos having BIOS problems, major ones at that
http://http://www.anandtech.com/mb/s...spx?i=3471&p=1 for reference.

Unless you want to fanny about with endless bios settings a decent 775 setup such as Pob has shown is to me still valid for now and for sometime to come.

[Perfectionist]

overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=FS-108-OK