My first gaming rig setup advice please!

[domm]

First off sorry if this is in the wrong section :| this is the closest I could find.
Basically ive assembled a spec list which could do with being overlooked by someone who really knows their computers Here goes.embarrassed:

-Intel Core 2 Duo E8500 (3.16GHz) Socket 775 Wolfdale 1333FSB 6MB L2 Cache £137.89

-OCZ 4GB Kit (2x2GB) DDR2 1066MHz/PC2-8500 Reaper Memory HPC Edition Dual Channel £57.37

-Asus motherboard P5Q SE Plus £66.49

-Western Digital WD5000AAKS 500GB SATAII 7200RPM 16MB Cache - OEM Caviar Blue £37.98

-Sapphire HD 4850 512MB GDDR3 HDMI DVI VGA PCI-E Graphics Card £78.56

-ASUS Silent Knight AL Quiet CPU Cooler (775/754/939/AM2) £37.98

-Corsair 650W TX Series PSU - 120mm Fan, 80+% Efficiency, Single +12V Rail £71.63

-Liteon 52x32x52x16 CD-RW/DVD Combo Drive Internal IDE Black Bare Drive - OEM £9.99

-Antec 900 Nine Hundred - Gaming Case with 200mm Top Fan - No PSU £74.98

(I would have posted links but not sure on the rules about that on this forum)

I will hopefully be running Vista Ultimate 64-bit and this rig wull be running games like COD4 but nothing too intensive like Crysis (unless it can )

Overall with periphals and bits n pieces the cost will be about £850

So what do you guys think! What can be improved?
Help appreciated THANKYOU

[Jasp]

I would have a look at this page, http://forums.hexus.net/hexus-hardwa...ter-750-a.html cat has specced a very nice AMD setup for around the same budget as what you have, with the exception of vista ultimate which would be more powerful.

[domm]

Oo thanks Jasp, but I feel that I would like to improve on mine own spec that I put the time into making rather than just scrapping it and using someone elses(unless ofc its really terrible )
Still tho, appreciate it

[peterb]

Hi domm - welcome to Hexus! - This is the right section!

There are lots of people with experience of building PCs optimised for game playing. The guide jasp pointed too is a good place to start, although I can understand why you might want to customise the design yourself. However iyt is a good place to start to give you some ideas - even if you subsequently discard them.

However. I'm sure there will be plenty of advice on the kit you have selected. (I'm not an avid gamer myself, so i won't comment on it - there are others better able to do so )

[Jasp]

Not thats its terrible its just AMD offer at the moment anyway better price v performance, for example if you go for a AMD 955be their bundled cooler is excellent so you wouldn't need the aftermarket one unless you wanted to overclock past 3.6ghz, also its a quad core so is going to be better for future games and a few current ones eg GTA4.

For example, your cooler, cpu, ram, motherboard comes to £299.73

If you went with a these parts from scan :

AMD955be - £145.92
Asus M4A785TD Motherboard - £70.14
Corsair DDR3 4gig ram - £63.37 (ebuyer do crucial stuff which is lower lat but same price (stolen off cat lol))

Total : £279.43

You have saved £20 which could be put towards a 4870 and now got a quad core.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

I have to agree with Jasp here the E8500 is a massive waste of money for the price (nearly £140!) and if you are spending over £80 on a CPU get a quad core or a triple core. TBH I would look at the Phenom II X2 500 series or Intel E5000 or E6000 series processors if you are looking to get a dual core. They are relatively cheap and the X2 550BE has very similar performance in games to an E8400:

http://www.guru3d.com/article/athlon...0-be-review/16

http://www.neoseeker.com/Articles/Ha.../pii550/8.html

The X2 550BE costs around £75:

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/AMD-P...MHz-85W-Retail

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/166518

The problem is that more and more games are becoming optimised for triple and quad cores. The CPUs in the modern consoles are quite weak for single threaded performance and are designed to run multiple threads at the same time to make up for this disadvantage. Most of the major game engines are designed to be cross platform and so are many game releases including the Crysis sequel. Hence many of these game will work better on the PC if multiple cores are present and this is only going to become more common.

Games like FarCry2,GTAIV and ARMA II have increased framerates on triple and quad core processors.

The AMD Phenom II X4 955BE is around the same speed as a Q9550 yet is cheaper. The £20 saved could go towards an HD4870 or HD4890 too.

If you really want to stay with Intel get the Q9400 instead of the E8500:

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Intel...ache-8x-Retail

I would get the following motherboard and cooler combo:

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

Of course the Core i5 is also being released in a few weeks time too - AFAIK the 8th of September is the date I have heard. However whether initial UK pricing is going to be decent is another question as the retailers may price gouge if these are popular(I hope not).

[rushholme]

e7400 overclocked or quad core
or Phenom II triple core black editions

a GTX 260 or HD 4870 1GB would be a much better use of resources (for gaming)

[Terbinator]

Q9550 If you want Intel quad-core.

[Will404]

I would have:
1GB XFX HD 4890 XXX, PCI-E 2.0 (x16), Mem 3900MHz, GDDR5, GPU 900MHz, Cores 800, 2x DL DVI-I/HDTV - £ 149.37
Samsung SH-S223B/BEBE 22x DVD±R, 12x DVD±R, DVD+RW x8/-RW x6, SATA, Black, OEM - £ 16.43
AMD Phenom II X4 945, Deneb Core, Socket AM3, 3.0GHz, 8MB Total Cache, HT 2000MHz, 95W, Retail - £ 133.39
750W SilverStone SST-ST75ZF Black SLi/Xfire Quiet Quad 12v Rail ATX12v 2.2 EPS12v 86% Eff' - £ 67.84
4GB (2x2GB) Corsair TwinX XMS3, DDR3 PC3-10666 (1333) 240 Pin, Non-ECC Unbuffered, CAS 9-9-9-24 - £ 54.63
500 GB Western Digital WD5000AAKS Caviar SE16, SATA 3Gb/s, 7200 rpm, 16MB Cache, 8.9 ms + 45cm Akasa - £ 37.36
Asus M4A785TD-V EVO, AMD 785G, AM3, PCI-E 2.0(x16), DDR3 1800(OC), 1600(OC), SATA II, SATA RAID, VGA - £ 67.84

TOTAL - £ 537.71 minus the £ ~10 shipping which you can save from being a HEXUS member.

For cheeper you could get a HD4870 ~£95 instead of the HD4890, or go with an AM2+ and DDR2 mobo/memory