A games PC for £200-£250

[Crevan]

You can play WoW and WIII on nearly anything.

I know, I used to run those on the very first P4 1.4GHz with a GF2 MX and 128 MB or RAM =)

I don't think you'll be able to get anything for £250 that will play L4D or TF2 though.

the suggestions above should do it just fine.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

I would definitely look at getting the X2 7750+ and the HD4830 if the funds would allow it. Spending another £15 or so to have 4gb of system RAM would also be useful although 2gb may suffice.

The motherboard is also compatible with Phenom II X4 and X3 processors with upto 125w TDP:

http://www.msi.com/index.php?func=pr...ncat_no=1#menu

I would prefer this motherboard due to the SB710 southbridge,better CPU compatibility and four RAM slots:

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/161330

However by getting A solid base PC it means that your friend can simply slot in a faster Phenom II X3 or X4 at a later date if they need a faster processor!!

I know that it would increase the budget by £30 to £50 but it is money well spent IMHO.

[figure]

Hi everyone!
I'm the one with the smoking laptop that Crevan mentioned in his first post. I justed poped in to say thanks for the helpfull advices and support.
Eventually I went for the setup that CAT offered with the motherboard for future upgrades and HD4830 because i was seduces by the double core count compared to 4670.
Just placed the order, came out as £304, not in the 200-250 range but money well spent i hope.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Hi everyone!
I'm the one with the smoking laptop that Crevan mentioned in his first post. I justed poped in to say thanks for the helpfull advices and support.
Eventually I went for the setup that CAT offered with the motherboard for future upgrades and HD4830 because i was seduces by the double core count compared to 4670.
Just placed the order, came out as £304, not in the 200-250 range but money well spent i hope.

Did you get the HD4830 from Ebuyer or Novatech? . Did you go with the 760G motherboard and extra RAM too?

The HD4830 is a good card for the price!! They tend to be good overclockers too and my one can run at 650mhz to 700mhz for the core quite stably(from the original 575mhz).

[figure]

I went for the HD4830 from Ebuyer because of the combined shipping, its the same "XFX HD 4830 512MB DDR3" one, yes it is more expencive but i wanted all items to arrive on the same day.
As for the motherboard I took the 760G but with 2gb ram for now, will upgrade to 4 as soon as i can or need. Is it bad by the way if 2 ram slots will not be ocupied?
Thanks

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

There is no need for all the RAM slots to be filled as long as they are filled two at a time with identical modules in the coloured slots. This will mean the RAM will run in dual channel mode.

The case has a window and a blue LED fan too(if you like this sort of thing).

The motherboard has the SB710 southbridge too. Supposedly an X2 7750+ was unlocked to a quad core:

http://www.techpowerup.com/92330/Ath...Quad-Core.html

However I think the chance of unlocking an X2 7750+ is quite slim though.

[figure]

Nice, thanks for the info! Can't wait for it to arrive. The only thing i forgot is the keyboard, guess ill have to pop in to my local Maplin store tommorow =)

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

If there is a Staples nearby they are better for keyboards IMHO. I remember picking up a Logitech G15 for around £25 and a G5 laser mouse for around £15 a few months ago!!

[jim]

Your issue is going to be a windows license, but you could use Win 7 RC if you download it before the end of June - it's good for a year.

That's technically true, but in all reality Windows 7 RC dies on March 1st 2010

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

The motherboard has Asus ExpressGate too:

http://event.asus.com/mb/expressgate/index.htm

[tonpal]

The HD4830 is a good card for the price!!

Sorry to go back over old ground but I would look at the price of an HD4770 and only consider a HD4830 if the price was significantly less. Performance wise the 4770 come close to a 4850.

[sadbuttrue]

The 4770 may be faster on an i7 system with no cpu/memory bottleneck, but that's an unlikely combination. On my system the 4830 and 4770 are almost identical in speed at both stock and maximum zero artifact overclock. The overclocked 4770 is quieter, cooler and uses less power than the 4830 at stock tho.

[Crevan]

Sorry to go back over old ground but I would look at the price of an HD4770 and only consider a HD4830 if the price was significantly less. Performance wise the 4770 come close to a 4850.

Last time I checked, 4830 was 15 to 20 quid cheaper than 4770. Given that the budget was already stretched in this case, 4830 is a better choice.

[scaryjim]

Enjoy your new PC figure should be a significant improvement, performance-wise, over your old lappy! And welcome to Hexus.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Sorry to go back over old ground but I would look at the price of an HD4770 and only consider a HD4830 if the price was significantly less. Performance wise the 4770 come close to a 4850.

When I suggested the XFX HD4830 it was around £10 cheaper than the cheapest HD4770 on Novatech which is fair amount cheaper. The OP spent more on the card from Ebuyer but again the HD4770 had a similar price difference.

Also the XFX HD4830 does come wth a better dual slot cooler too. The HD4830 generally is a very good overclocker and overclocks on the core of 75mhz to 125mhz are not unheard off. I should know as I have an HD4830.

If the HD4770 is almost the same price as the HD4830 I would recommend it - people on Hexus should know how enthuisiastic I am about the HD4770 and its low power draw!! At one point I could not stop going on about it!!

[scaryjim]

At one point I could not stop going on about it!!

I think "point" might be an inaccurate term to describe a period of about 3 - 4 months

But you were quite right to go on about it, CAT - it turned out to be a fantastic mid-range card, after all...