cheapest PC for gaming - is it possible

[Oobie-]

Hey guys,
A friend has looked into this and asked for my help but Im not a great help with the low end stuff. So he wants to spend max of £300 on a comp for playing games (all the half lifes, and games around the same time as that)
Just wanted to know if theres anything we can change to get the most out of his £300.

Heres what we got so far:

http://img26.imageshack.us/img26/8372/52796324ca6.jpg

Any suggestions welcome,
Thanks.

[staffsMike]

Looks like he's on top of it with that

I'd change the Hard drive to a 320GB sammy single platter (might as well if you can find one for a few quid more.)

The motherboard to a G31 based board, you might have trouble with an old chipset like that. Will only be a few quid more.

Graphics card to an HD4830 or 9800GT (or 8800GT) with the change if it can be fit into the budget.

[shadowmaster]

Graphics card to an HD4830 or 8800GT with the change (if it can be fit into the budget).

+1, If he can stretch just £30 more or so he can one of the above. Both are significantly better then the 8800gs.

Besides that looking good imo

EDIT: What psu is coming with that case?

[staffsMike]

EDIT: What psu is coming with that case?

I assume it's the coolermaster 460W.. real power? Something like that.

Nothing fancy but should do the trick.

[Ciber]

Suggest reading this thread: http://www2.custompc.co.uk/phpbb/vie....php?p=1142936

[Oobie-]

right o guys, looks good, thanks for the replies.

[shbris]

945G mobo's are RIDICULOUSLY bad overclockers, don't expect anything more than 5-10% overclock

[mac124]

For a low cost build i'd consider going amd unless you plan on doing some serious overclocking, the 7750 wont cost much more than the intel chip and at stock is a more powerful cpu.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

You can save some money on Today Only:

http://www.scan.co.uk/TodayOnly/Index.aspx

If you are running at stock speeds the AMD Athlon X2 7750+ is faster than an E5200!

The AMD X2 7750+ is currently £56, a Samsung DVD writer is £13 and a Western Digital 500gb 16mb cache drive is £44 on Today Only.

You should also go for this better motherboard too:

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/148368

If you want to stay with Intel You can make the previous changes but go with this motherboard instead:

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Gigab...-SATA-RAID-ATX

It will work with the E5200 and is known to have good overclocking ability for a budget motherboard.

You should be able to keep to your budget still with these changes!! The 8800GS is not a bad budget card. A bit overclocking will help with games too!! You would have to move up to the 9600GT to get another card which is significantly faster and this is another £30 or so.

Remember that Scan has free postage for Hexus members and Ebuyer has free postage for orders over £50!!

Also I assume that you have a copy of Windows to hand??

[Time Bandit]

Some sort of aftermarket cooler if you want to OC the E5200.

Akasa AK-965 £13.03 if you are going with CCL. It certainly is up there with the the big boys according to Frostytech and seems to have superceeded the arctic cooling freezer 7 pro as the budget cooler of choice for many.

There are many claims of reaching up to 4.0GHz with this chip see bit-tech for an interesting bang-for-buck OC review of the E5200 and X2 7750.

They use a much more expensive motherboard but the Gigabyte GA-G31M-S2L is often partnered with the E5200. (£42.55 at CCL)

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

The AK965 is £10 from Scan:

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Akasa...Intel-push-pin

The Gigabyte GA-EP31-DS3L which I mentioned before is a good motherboard for overclocking and only costs just over £50!

Here are some reviews:

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

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/200...buy-dec-2008/2

[UseItNow]

Don't Novatech still have any of the 8800GT for what was it? £68 Delivered? It was posted somewhere in the current bargains, I think?

[Pob255]

Heck a 2nd hand 8800gt would be good
Or ATi 3850 512mb or 3870 depending on cost but better than that 8800gs

But then again, if you mean half life 1, opposing forces and blue shift and other games around that time, a high end 7series or x1xxx series will rock on thoes games.
If you're talking original release HL2 then the high end dx9 will still be ok (HL2 ran ok on my 7900gs 256mb at 1280x1024) but a 8800gt/9800gt (same card) or 4830 would be better

I'd also consider a AMD X2 7750+ and 790G motherboard, will be the same sort of price as the e5200 + g31
the 945 chipset is ok, it's fuctional (still used heavily in basic socket775 prebuilt systems) , just don't expect any overclocking out of it.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

For under £50 the 8800GS is still a good card for the money and it will be fine with a lot of older games. It will also do fine with some newer ones too:

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/EVGA/GeForce_8800_GS

The 9600GS0 is also the same as the 8800GS as it is a rebadge!!

[Hyperviper34]

Case and PSU – Coolermaster Elite 330 Black Case With CM eXtreme Power 460W PSU £52.99

Motherboard – Gigabyte GA-EP31-DS3L, iP31 Express, S775, PCI-E (x16),DDR2 1066/667/800, SATA II, ATX £51.88

CPU – Intel Pentium Dual Core E2220 2.4GHz (800MHz) £59.99.
Memory – Crucial 2GB kit (2x1GB) DDR2 800MHz/PC2-6400 Ballistix Memory Non-ECC Unbuffered £24.99

Graphics Card – Sapphire HD 4670 512MB GDDR3 Dual DVI TV Out PCI-E £63.77

Hard-Drive - Maxtor 160GB Hard Drive SATAII 7200rpm 8MB Cache OEM £29.78
Optical Drive - LG 22X SATA DVD±RW/DL/RAM Black Bare Drive - OEM £15.79

Total Price - £299.19 (ebuyer)

[Time Bandit]

CPU – Intel Pentium Dual Core E2220 2.4GHz (800MHz) £59.99

For intel option E5200 is probably the better option - faster, 45nm, cache etc.

60.95 - CCL
57.60 - ebuyer
57.03 - Scan