DIY Gaming PC - Any Good?
Evening everyone,
If you could possibly comment on the following proposed setup that it would be much appreciated.
Case: Antec 300 - about £45
Processor: AMD Phenom II X3 Tri Core 720 2.8GHz @ 3.5GHz
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-MA790XT-UD4P (AM3) PCI-Express DDR-3
Cooling: Arctic Cooling Freezer 64
Memory: Corsair 4GB DDR3 XMS3 PC3-1600C9 DHX (2x2GB) - all of the last four come to about £300 but come from OCUK :eek: !
Graphics Card: ATI HD4890 1GB Black Edition - about £160
PSU: OCZ ModXStream Pro 600w Silent SLI Ready ATX2 Modular Power Supply - about £55
Monitor: 22” Dell HD LCD Monitor - about £145
Hard Drive: 1tb 7200rpm 32mb cache SATA II Samsung hard drive - about £60
Drive: : LG GGC-H20L Blu-ray, Lightscribe etc. - about £80
Speakers: Logitech 5.1 speakers - about £60
Comes to about £900
Are the components a good price? Are they all compatible with each other? And most importantly for me, is the processor a wise choice? If not could you direct me to one? (I am reluctant to go AMD and even more reluctant to go OCUK :eek: !)
Just any comments on whether my choices are good or not would be greatly appreciated. :)
Oh, and have I missed anything out?
Cheers,
$eamonk3y
Re: DIY Gaming PC - Any Good?
Looks good to me assuming you need blu-ray. If you don't want to go OCUK then don't. There are plenty of other shops.
Re: DIY Gaming PC - Any Good?
Well, I'm not sure - I'm sort of expecting Blu-ray to become more common and also thought that I might as well be able to watch HD if the monitor can do it...
Cheers,
$eamonk3y
Re: DIY Gaming PC - Any Good?
At the moment DDR3 is pretty over priced compared with the performance benefit over DDR2. So you could save a fair bit or improve other components. The Antec 300 is quite a small case so I would go for something a bit bigger for better airflow - room for extra fans.
Also think the Dell Monitor is a bit overpriced - how about an Acer - Aria UK seem to regularly offer good deals on monitors.
By the way what's wrong with OCUK - haven't used them for a while myself - but no problems in the past.
Re: DIY Gaming PC - Any Good?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
$eamonk3y
Well, I'm not sure - I'm sort of expecting Blu-ray to become more common and also thought that I might as well be able to watch HD if the monitor can do it...
If you want to watch blu-ray movies then it's a good choice to have a blu-ray drive :p
But if you expect them to become more common then just wait until they do - if that happens then you will be able to get a drive for £20 rather than £80 :)
Re: DIY Gaming PC - Any Good?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
rkingb
By the way what's wrong with OCUK - haven't used them for a while myself - but no problems in the past.
Do a search, plenty of threads on this - please let's not make this another everyone :)
[their customer service is legendary and not the heroic kind]
Re: DIY Gaming PC - Any Good?
if you don't like AMD or OCUK why look there an pick this system?
ive just upgraded my system(deal of the day on the cpu & m/b) m/b - cpu - ram from Scan for around £300, you also get free delivery :)
Re: DIY Gaming PC - Any Good?
Tri Core? Why not just got for an Intel Quad Core?
Re: DIY Gaming PC - Any Good?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Singh400
TriCore? Why not just got for an Intel QuadCore?
Because tricore is cheaper for the same performance?
Re: DIY Gaming PC - Any Good?
Build specced from Scan and Ebuyer:
Gigabyte GA-MA790XT-UD4P ~ £97
http://www.scan.co.uk/TodayOnly/Index.aspx
4GB (2x2GB) CorsairTwinX XMS3 ~ £53
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/4GB-(...d-CAS-9-9-9-24
AMD Phenom II X3 720 Black Edition ~ £107
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/AMD-P...che-95W-Retail
Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 Pro V2 ~ £16
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Arcti...LL-AMD-Opteron
620W Enermax LibertyECO PSU ~ £96
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/620W-...PeakPower-680W
2GB XFX HD 4870 X2 ~ £241
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/2GB-X...-DL-DVI-I-HDTV
Antec 300 ~ £45
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/143854
1TB Samsung HD103UJ Spinpoint F1 ~ £67
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/1TB-S...ache-89-ms-NCQ
LG GH22LS30 AUAU 22x DVD±R ~ £19
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/LG-GH...SATA-Black-OEM
Total:£752.96
Antec 300 ~ £45
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/143854
Acer X243HQ ~ £154
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/165391
The total comes to £951.63. There is a free postage available for Hexus members from Scan and free Supersaver postage from Ebuyer.
I would get a Blu-Ray drive when they drop a bit more in price.
Re: DIY Gaming PC - Any Good?
Just a quick word to say don't *expect* your 720 to get to 3.5GHz. If it does manage it then all well and good, but overclocking is *never* a given.
Otherwise, it is (as always) hard to argue with any built CAT suggests...
Re: DIY Gaming PC - Any Good?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
kalniel
Because tricore is cheaper for the same performance?
Which dev is going to make apps for Tri Core? It's either Dual Core or Quad Core.
Tri Core is a pointless buy imo.
Re: DIY Gaming PC - Any Good?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Singh400
Which dev is going to make apps for Tri Core? It's either Dual Core or Quad Core.
Tri Core is a pointless buy imo.
Devs will make their code multithreaded - and as such n threads scale to n cores - and scalable. The days of coding for a specific CPU are long gone, let alone coding for 2/3/4 cores specifically. Tri-core is as useful in this context, more so if you can get a core for free (through luck) too. :juggle:
Re: DIY Gaming PC - Any Good?
Exactly - and so far it's been shown that very few games benefit from going from 3 to 4 cores, whereas more benefit from going to 3.
Re: DIY Gaming PC - Any Good?
Thanks so much guys for all your help. Very much appreciated. I'll look into everything you've said.
Cheers,
$eamonk3y
Re: DIY Gaming PC - Any Good?
With memory, on Scan, they have loads of different 4GB ones for different prices but I don't know what the differences are and which one to get...
Any help?
Cheers,
$eamonk3y