Building A Gaming Computer for £500-£600

[TheFallen]

Hey guys i want to get a gaming computer but not for a crazy price so i have set my budget for £500-£600. I Already have a monitor so please dont add that to the price, also would it be possible to use Windows 7 on the pc and if so how could i install it without any other os thanks .

[staffsMike]

Thats a good budget these days.

What is the monitors resolution?

My money would go on a uATX build due to the antec P180 mini (case) being so cheap at the moment.

So,

Antec P180 mini ~£55 (ebuyer) -- http://www.ebuyer.com/product/140996
OCZ modextreme 500W ~£55 -- http://www.ebuyer.com/product/152009
AMD Phenom II X3 720 Black Edition ~£105 --
Asus 780G -EM ~£60 (ebuyer)
4GB PC400 ~35
640GB samsung or Western Digital HDD ~ £45
LG Optical ~£15
Ati HD4890 ~£140

That's about ~£510. Might want to add a nice heatsink and fan like a Scythe Ninja II (that's what is in my p180 mini) Xigmatec do nice tower coolers also.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

This is what I would get:

AMD Phenom II X4 940 ~ £131

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

GA-MA790X-UD3P 790X motherboard ~ £81

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Asus-...Board-VGA-HDCP

4gb PC2-8500 RAM ~ £38

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

LG GH22NS40 DVD writer ~ £16

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

Samsung F1 1tb hard drive ~ £67

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/1TB-S...ache-89-ms-NCQ

525W Enermax MODU82+ PSU ~£77

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

Coolermaster Elite 335 ~ £29

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Coole...r-Case-w-o-PSU


Total from Scan(including postage) : £451.35

If you have 20+ posts on Hexus you can get free postage from Scan!

HD4890 1gb ~ £144

http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/s....html?NOV-4890

Novatech has free postage.

The grand total should come to £595.09!

Alternatively you get the following 760G chipset mATX motherboard instead and go for the mini-P180 case from Ebuyer:

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Asus-...Board-VGA-HDCP

[TheFallen]

CAT-THE-FIFTH, your build looks awesome, but would it be possible to use Windows 7 as the OS on the computer and how would i install it on the pc

[staffsMike]

You would need to burn an ISO of it onto a disc. Then it would be fairly simple. Whether you can do that I'm not sure as I haven't dabled with the versions available to everyone yet.

[Andeh13]

You would need to burn an ISO of it onto a disc. Then it would be fairly simple. Whether you can do that I'm not sure as I haven't dabled with the versions available to everyone yet.

Yep, get the 64bit (4gb of RAM) windows 7 RC and license from here (below) then burn it to an iso pop it in and jobs a gud'n!

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/download.asp

[TheFallen]

Thanks , i dont know alot about computers but can i connect this computer to the internet wireless, also will i need a sound card or will i just need to plug in speakers.

[staffsMike]

You wont need a soundcard but you will need a wireless card or usb dongle to get that going.

http://www.scan.co.uk/Index.aspx?NT=1-0-49-388-0

plenty there, the only thing to be careful of is finding one which works with windows 7 as that wont be set in stone yet.

I'd stick to cards not usb from personal experience.

[TheFallen]

hey sorry for the late reply i have been on holiday for two weeks and just rememberd this thread. Anyway if i wanted to upgraded this computer in anyway e.g a DDR3 type of ram would it be possible, also is ddr3 worth it anyway or is ddr2 just as good.
Thanks

[geezerone]

DDR3 is not compatible with the motherboard suggested by CAT above. Fastest RAM it will support is PC8500 (1066Mhz) which is fine tbh. DDR3 is a little faster but not worth twice the price for lower RAM latencies (7-7-7-20) IMHO.

You might want to wait a little while when the new Intel chips I5/I3 will be launched but if you can't then the suggestions above are worth looking into. One thing I strongly suggest is that you buy a Quad core and not a dual-core!

Personally, I would move to Intel for lower power/heat attributes. The Antec 300 gaming case has very good cooling and layout for the money and can be had from Oyyy.co.uk for about £45 incl. p&p.

[TheFallen]

thanks, if i were to get intel would i need to change the motherboard or would it be fine as it is?

[geezerone]

No you would need a new motherboard. When considering a motherboard you should also think about what else you would like as there are lots of different motherboards from manufacturers (esp Gigabyte) that have slight differences on their specifications, e.g. firewire, dual-ethernet, SATA ports, RAID etc. A good Intel budget board would be something like the Gigabyte GA-EP43-DS3 which has firewire and 8 USB ports. Doesn't mind a bit of overclocking too.

The Intel route may be a bit pricier than the AMD route. All comes down to money - like most things in life.

[Vimeous]

I wouldn't necessarily agree you should be going quad over dual core even now.
If you're just playing current games, the vast majority are not multi-threaded so won't make good use of the 3rd or 4th cores.
A £125 E8400 @ 3GHz stock should outperform all other CPU's at the same price both at stock and OC'd on air (ref CustomPC testing).

DDR3 vs DDR2 comes down to if you expect to need more RAM after DDR2 is no longer mainstream. At that point DDR3 will be cheaper. If you'll be changing again in a year or two DDR2 is more cost effective at the moment.

Something like this:



It breaks the bank slightly and uses Today Only to get the best pricing but Scan has a tendancy to do the items I prefer at weekends conveniently for me! lol

Another quick suggestion: If you plan to use external drives consider if you want to include esata for the fastest connectivity. Yes the motherboards are a little more expensive, as are the drives, but the performance gains would be worth it if you do alot of large data transfer.


I was going to use the RC335 suggested earlier in a build next week but I'm struggling to find it atm.
Also my dearest had a number of OC'd i7 machines supplied to work in that case which are having overheating issues.
It'll be great for stock speeds but for OC'ing I'd suggest the Antec 300 or CM590 because they can carry many more 120mm fans.
Turns out I'll be building my 4th CM590-based machine for family this week!


Windows 7 RC will be available until sometime this month.
To get it go here: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/w...ome?os=nonwin7
Follow the download links and fill in the necessary details. Along the way you'll need to decide on 32 or 64bit. I chose 32bit for my old Sempron 3100 but you should go for 64bit on a modern machine with more than 3Gb RAM.
You will download a big ISO file, 2.3Gb for 32bit (or was it 2.6? ... ah well), then convert that to a usable dvd using Nero, Roxio or similar.
This dvd will be bootable so pop it in you new machine, tell the BIOS to boot from the dvd drive first and you'll be off and running.

Remember in March the RC version will start a bi-hourly shutdown until it expires in June 2010 completely. I suggest you look out for the pre-orders of Windows 7 mentioned in Hexus news and elsewhere from the 15th July. If it really is £50 then it's a no-brainer.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

The Phenom II X4 955 has plummeted in price BTW and is a better buy than the overpriced E8400.

Here are some reviews pitting the 3ghz E8400, 3.16ghz E8500, 2.83ghz Q9550 and 3ghz Q9650 versus the 3.2ghz Phenom II X4 955:

http://www.techspot.com/review/162-a...55/page11.html

http://techreport.com/articles.x/16796/4

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/cpu...tion-cpu-am3/7

http://www.neoseeker.com/Articles/Ha.../pii955/8.html

More and more games are becoming multi-threaded with games such as FarCry 2, GTA IV,Bioshock and World in Conflict being well known examples of game which run better with triple or quad core processors.

Updated Build spec

Phenom II X4 955BE ~ £145

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

Gigabyte GA-MA770T-UD3P ~ £69

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/GIGAB...770T-UD3P-MOBO

OR

Sapphire PURE CrossFireX ~£78

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

4gb DDR3 ~ £52

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

There is some better OCZ Reaper RAM at Ebuyer for a few quid more but I would get all the important components from the same retailer in case you need to RMA stuff.

1TB Samsung HD103UJ Spinpoint F1 ~ £61

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

DVD rewriter ~ £16

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

525W Enermax MODU82+ EMD525AWT modular PSU ~ £79

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/525W-...uard-SafeGuard

OR

520W Corsair HX Series Modular PSU ~ £73

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/520W-...-year-warranty

1gb HD4890 ~ £144

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/1GB-X...DTV-HDCP-Ready

I would look at spending a few quid more and getting the Antec 300 case from Ebuyer.

Antec 300 ~ £45

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/143854

If you do not have the extra cash the Coolernaster Elite 330 should do the job!

Coolermaster Elite 330 ~ £29

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Coole...Scan-Exclusive

Using the cheapest components the total cost comes to £588.81 and with most expensive bits the total cost comes to £619.54 including free postage at Scan and Ebuyer.

[Vimeous]

CAT thanks for the reviews.
The gist I get from bittech that is:
All but the most recent multi-threaded games - Core2 Duo
The latest multi-threaded games - X4 955
All rounder - Core i7

What surprises me the most is how much difference DDR3 made to all the CPUs even though bittech in particular didn't think it's worth it for a Core2.
It also shows how game dependant performance is with Crysis wanting more cores while Far Cry 2 simply wants more cores but Core2's really shine!

Thing is as all the reviews proove each one can make any of the CPU's look great. With most of the tests showing that supporting hardware makes more difference.
Take the stats:

Bittech
Crysis
E8500 with DDR3 2.1% faster than E8500 with DDR2
i7 920 0.8% faster than E8500 with DDR3
X4 955 0.5% faster than E8500 with DDR3

Far Cry 2
E8500 with DDR3 5.9% faster than E8500 with DDR2
i7 920 18.4% slower than E8500 with DDR3
X4 955 3.7% faster than E8500 with DDR3

techspot
Crysis Warhead
i7 920 equal to E8600 with DDR2
X4 955 2% faster than E8600 with DDR2

Far Cry 2
i7 920 13% faster than E8600 with DDR2
X4 955 22% faster than E8600 with DDR2

UT3
i7 920 2% faster than E8600 with DDR2
X4 955 10% faster than E8600 with DDR2

To me that says:
1. techspot should have used DDR3 for their E8600
2. the differences in real-world performance are teenie as all setups scored impressive fps
3. supporting kit is critical
4. I don't think 22% faster than an E8600 is important when even that can manage 53fps at 1900x1200 in Far Cry 2! lol


Anyway sorry to waffle on!

What I guess it tells me is that buy the cheapest CPU/mboard combo with the features you want for approx £220 and it'll perform wonderfully in games!
As CAT says with the X4 955 now far cheaper than it originally shipped and no matching intel price drop I'd have to agree in raw gaming performance the X4 955 wins.

[TheFallen]

hey thanks for the updated build and whatnot also i know i need a network card to connect to the internet but does it matter but if it does can you suggest on for the Sapphire PURE Cross motherboard. Also if i wanted a wired connection instead would i need anything for that?