Building a gaming rig.

[Ciber]

Cheers mate,

Oh and it the heat sink I opted for nice? Personally I want my rig to be as cool as possible, whilst being as quiet as possible.

The arctic freezer should be good for a dual core: http://www.ebuyer.com/product/105994

Also I opted for this monitor initially:

19" Acer V193wab Black Widescreen LCD

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/19-Ac...70001-DCR-VESA

but I saw this alternative for slightly cheaper and seems better, but not too sure.

ACER P193W/19 Wide TFT 5ms 2000:1

http://www.misco.co.uk/applications/...&sourceid=3266

What would be a better buy? and maybe you guys have other suggestions when it comes to monitors?

King regards,

Hassan.

I don't know much about those screens. Everything you do on your PC is on your screen so it makes a big difference to everything and most keep the same screen for years, so get the best screen you can even if it means sacrificing other areas. If I was you I would maybe try to stretch to this: http://www.ebuyer.com/product/142909

[hsn_]

Cheers mate,

I think I'm gonna reduce cost in other areas to cater for that screen , I'm gonna post the update rig spec in a lil bit, if your on, you can let me know what you think.

[hsn_]

Hey dude, one question is this ram any good? It's propa cheap, and I don't know that brand.

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/2GB-I...d-CAS-6-Retail

[Ciber]

Hey dude, one question is this ram any good? It's propa cheap, and I don't know that brand.

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/2GB-I...d-CAS-6-Retail

I think it will be pretty bargain basement RAM, so it might hold you back on overclocking.

[GeorgeStorm]

For a decent board, I would reccomend a Biostar, their P45 boards have been brilliant, I have used both the i45, (£110) and the HP version (£90ish i think)
Both are great for overclocking,
I got an e7300, because of the extra cache, but its gone up in price, I got it for just under £90, so I dunno
The 9800GTX+ is £110+del at aria, where I got mine, it comes with an aftermarket cooler, not the one in the pic, great card, outperforms the 4850 I had in a clients build, but mine mighrt just clock well...... (running at 850/2100/2300)

[hsn_]

Thanks for the suggestions mate, about the 9800 GTX does it out perform the 4850? .. and which out of the 2 runs cooler?

[hsn_]

Hey guys, I made changess to setup I posted yesterday, I've tried to tighting the cost in some areas and maybe sacrifice a fair bit. What do you guys think of this potential base gaming rig? .. totalled £686.43, maybe cause a monitor is included in the this setup. I'm still considering weather to save money on the gpu, but this is gonna be a gaming rig, so dont want to sacrifice good graphics.

Case + PSU -- Coolermaster Black CM690 Case With 520W Modular -- £112.54
Central Processing Unit -- Intel Pentium Dual-Core, E5200 -- £57.37
Graphics Processing Unit -- ASUS HD 4850 512MB DDR3 -- £111.98
Memory -- Crucial 2GB kit (2x1GB) DDR2 800MHz -- £31.22
Storage -- 500 GB Samsung HD502IJ Spinpoint F1 -- £43.76
Heatsink -- AC-FRZ-7P - Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro -- £18.27
DVD Drive -- Samsung SH-S223F/BEBE -- £15.24
Operating System -- MS Vista Home Premium 64bit -- £88.03
Motherboard -- Gigabyte GA-EP31-DS3L -- £53.44
Monitor -- LG W2252TQ 22" TFT -- £154.58

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

I would personally get Vista Home Basic 64 bit and use the money saved to get 4gb of RAM for around £40.

The differences are listed here:

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/win...s/default.aspx

Most of the missing features can be replicated by free software. Vista Basic also has less of the bloat other versions have.

Also the Akasa AK965 cooler has got decent reviews and only costs £10 from Scan:

http://www.scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?W...228&source=hx1

The motherboard you chose is not bad for overclocking:

http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/575

[hsn_]

Cheers mate, I didn't consider going home basic.

One thing I don't get is, whats the difference between OEM and Retail? .. is it that it doesn't come with the box? Only the DVD?

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

OEM is tied to the motherboard you have. If you want to re-install it on another motherboard you will need to go retail it seems!!

You can get some good 4gb kits for £40:

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/133709

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/143844

[hsn_]

So what if I want to reformattin my pc and re-install windows on it? .. will it let me? or will I have to buy another copy?

Also, I've changed the setup to have 4GB RAM now, and Home Basic 64 insteal

What you think of it? Will it be able to handle all the latest games on max settings as it stands? it's only a starting point

[crazyfool]

with oem you can reinstall only on the same pc though... i've done it plenty of times before...
The only difference between home basic and premiuim is media center and aero which aren't major things for a gaming rig.
As far as the build goes the for a budget gaming rig what you have specced up is pretty decent and the artic freeze should cool that cpu nicely

[hsn_]

Thanks Crazyfool, you know when it comes to the gpu right, which runs cooler? the 4850 or the 9800GTX.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

The AK965 has very good reviews:

http://www.hexus.net/content/item.ph...=15387&page=16

http://www.silentpcreview.com/article812-page4.html

http://www.custompc.co.uk/reviews/14...sa-ak-965.html

http://www.frostytech.com/articlevie...id=2137&page=4

http://www.xtremecomputing.co.uk/rev...?id=362&page=7

http://www.driverheaven.net/reviews....d=535&pageid=4

For £10 from Scan it is excellent value for money!!

[hsn_]

What is a better value for money? and more silent? .. the Akasa AK-965 or one I've listed in my setup? AC-FRZ-7P - Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

The AK965 is better value for money as it has very similiar performance to the Freezer 7 Pro but costs nearly half the price. The Freezer 7 Pro is probably quieter though. The problem is that the Freezer7 Pro has jumped in price by £4+ in the last few months though. It used to cost between £12 to £14 before.