£600 ish Gaming build

[Merlin4458]

Specced up a build a month ago, but decided to wait for the new ATI cards.

This is what I have specced so far

Antec Mini P180 Case = £80 ish

AMD Phenom II x4 955 BE = £110 ish

Gigabyte GA-880GMA-UD2H mATX = £85 ish

650W Antec True Power New 650 = £83


Anything changed within the last month? Or is that still the best choices?

Also, need a GFX card, and I have no idea what these new cards a like? But i was looking at the 5850 last month...

Also need ram, not sure what to get...


Thanks all

[TheWizard]

I recently went for a build similar to yours except my one is under £500. I went for a cheap Thermaltake V3 case - £32, Corsair 4GB DDR 3 1600MHz - £55, Gigabyte DL3 MB - £51, Coolermaster PSU 550W - £45, XFX HD Radeon 6850 Preorder - £133.57.

Basically saved a lot on the graphics card and going for a low end case (it has good reviews). Why are you going for the small form factor? For a gaming PC and AMD 955BE which produces quite a bit of heat a small case might not be the best idea for cooling especially if you do extended hours of gaming.

I would probably recommend CM Storm Scout (£65 on Ebuyer) my friend recently bought it and his Sapphire 6850 runs a remarkable 33 degrees idle inside it.

[nibbler]

P180 mini can handle the heat easily, it's practically ATX sized but looks cooler, plus it has space for so many fans and is quiet as well

[Merlin4458]

Deff sticking with the case, but not sure on ram and gfx. Most of this was specced by cat-the-filth so trust his judgement. And yeh ive heard the case is fine when handling heat.

[Merlin4458]

Can anyone advice me on a GFX card and ram?

And does everything else look good?

[nibbler]

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/4gb-%...-9-24-xmp-165v
That's decent ram and an amazing price.

[Merlin4458]

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/4gb-%...-9-24-xmp-165v
That's decent ram and an amazing price.

nice one thanks.

What about gfx cards?

I was waiting for the new atis to come out, but now been told theres new Nvidias coming out tuesday?

Any ideas?

[nibbler]

Not sure about that, certainly not likely to be anything that will change my recommendation. I would say based on the budget get a GTX 460 768mb if you only have £115 to spend, or a 6870 if you have closer to £180 or a 6850 or GTX460 1GB if it's in the middle

[Merlin4458]

cheers nibbler. Going for the 6870. Any brands to stray away from? Loks like im buying from Scan, unless everything turns out cheaper on ebuyer.

I wanted to spend 200 on a card so the 6870 is right in that.

Cpu still a good choice,?

[nibbler]

It's a good CPU, if you're feeling really adventurous you could splash out on a 1055T which is hexcore but essentially it should delivers slightly lower frame-rates as it runs at a lower frequency. THat said if you overclock it you're laughing but it's up to you.
For a 6870, Scan only have the Sapphire card in stock, but that's not a bad thing, Sapphire are pretty solid AFAIK.

[Merlin4458]

How does that look guys?

[nibbler]

Looks good, don't know anything about the PSU myself, have you looked into it? Should be fine, Antec are a good brand.

[Merlin4458]

Yeh I have done nibler. Meant to be a solid PSU, and plenty of wattage.

Last thing is OS.

What am I gonna need? 64bt, 32bt? (always confuses me)

Win7, XP, or Vista. Where is the cheapest?

[nibbler]

Get win7 64-bit, you will not regret it.

[Merlin4458]

Get win7 64-bit, you will not regret it.

Thanks nibbler. Just gotta find it cheap


Anything else im missing here before i click buy. IVe got a samsung spinpoint already.

How about a CD drive burner DVd combo?

Any favourites from ebuyer?

cheers

[Merlin4458]

Get win7 64-bit, you will not regret it.

Cheapest Win 7 64bit?