New Gaming Computer For £750

[ikix]

You (or your friend if it's their computer) will need to do a complete clean install i.e. wipe the hard drive and install a fresh copy of Windows 7. It's not a difficult job, but it does mean they'll need to back up all their data, games saves etc. and then reinstall *everything*, so it's a PITA. On the other hand, Windows 7 is a damn fine OS, so I think it's worth the effort...

It will be my friends computer, but the issue is that he simply won't be able to do it, hasn't got much knowledge with computers. May have to go with Vista then

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Cheers for the replies guys, i've now been given a budget of £850 to get everything sorted for this.

Here's what i've come up with

CPU ------------------- AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition 3.2GHz Scan
RAM ------------------ 4GB Corsair TwinX DDR3 1333MHz Scan
GPU ------------------- XFX HD 4890 1GB Ebuyer
Motherboard --------- Gigabyte GA-MA770T-UD3P Ebuyer
HDD ------------------- Western Digital 750GB WD7500AADS Scan
PSU ------------------- Corsair 650W TX Ebuyer
DVD ------------------- Samsung SH-S223L/BEBE Scan
Case ------------------ Antec 300 Scan
OS -------------------- Vista x64 Premium Ebuyer
Monitor --------------- Samsung Syncmaster SM2243NW 22" Ebuyer
Keyboard & Mouse -- Logitech LX 710 Scan

With the graphics card im not sure whether to go for the HD 4890 or the GTX 275, theyre pretty much evenly priced. With the OS i've just put down vista premium for the minute and will look into the windows 7 thing, i will be in a different part of the country when this is released so does anyone know if it is easy to install the retail over the RC copy?

Suggestions welcome

Comes to about £840-£850

Check your local Currys Digital as my local one had the LX710 for around £25.

The HD4890 1gb XXX is available for £140 delivered from Dabs:

http://www.dabs.com/products/xfx-ati...-xxx-62HF.html

Also check the Scan Today Only and Shop Offers web pages too for cheaper deals.

[benus]

I know price is a factor, but I would never buy monitor that hasn't got FullHD resolution. It'll be worthless within 2 years. Hence '24 inch 1920x1200 is a must. Cheers

[ikix]

I know price is a factor, but I would never buy monitor that hasn't got FullHD resolution. It'll be worthless within 2 years. Hence '24 inch 1920x1200 is a must. Cheers

Don't see how, "Full HD" is the mumbo jumbo to sell TV's to randoms in Comet, yes it means something, but its doesn't really apply to a gaming computer which will not be used for watching HD content, and larger resolutions will make the computer more obsolete sooner due to the larger stresses on the hardware. 1650x1080 is more than addequate for gaming, besides it is fine enough for HD content running at x720 which most stuff will be anyways, yes it may get a little stretched unless forced to run in 1 to 1 scale but that isn't the main priority for this rig.

Cheers CAT for all ur responses. With ur suggestions then is that latest rig OK?

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

I would change the hard drive to a Caviar Black or Samsung F1. A lower wattage 500w PSU would be more than enough for the setup although I suppose if you need to plonk in an X2 type card later on it could prove useful.

I would look to get this RAM instead:

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/4GB-%...ered-CAS-9-DHX

Run it at 1333mhz using lower latencies than the normal 1333mhz RAM available for the price.

The HD4890 should be more than enough at 1680x1050.

Here is a review of a 900mhz HD4890(same clock as XFX card):

http://www.hardocp.com/article/2009/...op_video_card/