Spec gaming rig - around £500

[tfboy]

A good mate of mine wants to have a new gaming PC - last one hard the ati graphics card melt and pretty much fry the rest of his system

However, he already has / can reuse:
- LG W2252TQ 22" LCD (1680x1050, DVI and VGA inputs)
- 200GB SATA HDD

I don't think the case is a real problem, but if he wants to update, I suppose he could. The PSU (don't know what he has) ought to be updated as a safeguard.

However, as his monitor is only 1680x1050, I wonder how much it's worth getting really good graphics (price depending) as he has no plans for a higher resolution screen now or in the future.

Price needs to include OS (W7 x64).

Cable modem nearby so wired LAN is fine, no need for wifi.

So need at minimum:
- Motherboard
- CPU
- RAM
- Graphics (if not integrated, but I guess a dedicated GPU would be worthwhile at those resolutions)
- Case. He's already decided on a Silverstone Raven RV02
- PSU
- Win7

I said £500. Absolute max is £800 but obviously, serious performance / convincing required if getting near the upper limit.

So whadoyathink? Sandy Bridge? Go for a cheaper AMD solution (but the boulder's around the corner)?

Thanks!

[Domestic_Ginger]

I would find a cheaper case and spend the difference on components. You're going to get a top of line case with mid/high end components. A new HDD and good PSU may be slightly limited and you should try to squeeze in the new SB imo.

WRT to the GPU would get a 460 1gb/6850/5850 (if there is a cheap offer on) for ~£130. I do not think its worth getting anything worse as its a gaming machine.

Windows £70 (I want to know if you can get this cheaper...)

Leaves £300 for ram/PSU/mobo/CPU

4GB DDR3 £35 (try for low voltage)
PSU £40-45. Scan today only has been mad on PSUs of late. Adecent 500W should be fine.

Leaves 220 for mobo/cpu.

955 (£100)/mobo (£70-80) and a new HDD (£30) will cost about £210

From intel I would aim for a i5 2500/2500k if OCing however this would cost about 160 and mobo at about 70 (I am not upto date on these.. I know very little about intel setups.

[Pob255]

Yep I'd go with domestic_ginger's suggestions

CPU - PhenomII x4 955
motherboard - AM3 870chipset
GPU - gtx460 1gb or 6850 ether will be great at that res, you'll be able to run at max settings in all but the heaviest of gpu demand games, and those should still work well at higher settings.
memory - 2x2gb DDR3
PSU - look around the 450-500w a good psu is around £10 per 100w so £45-55 As a suggested model have a look at the antec high current gamer range

Case . . . while the raven 2 is nice it's not cheap, £135 http://www.scan.co.uk/products/silve...-ap181-w-o-psu
However at the same time cases are a bit personal, so he just may not be satisfied with less.
I would sugest looking at the coolermaster HAF 912+ http://www.scan.co.uk/products/coole...r-case-w-o-psu (you'll want to get an additional 200mm fan for the top)
or the 690 ii Lite http://www.scan.co.uk/products/coole...r-case-w-o-psu
Or the LanCool K60 (yes they've finally released the K60 over here ) http://www.scan.co.uk/products/lian-...g-case-w-o-psu
And those are the more expensive steel cases I'd look at, if you really want cheap then in the £30-40 range, the coolermaster 430, nzxt Evo beta or casecom 6788 or K5-9388 (both can be got from ebuyer)

PS you might want to tell him to hold on a couple of months, for both the new amd Bulldozer cpu's and the new raven 03 (both due out around april) also the repaired p67 chipsets if he can afford to go the intel route.

[Ultima2876]

Basically what was said above, with this motherboard:

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/gigab...-sata-raid-atx

That's the one I have and it rips. All the cool features (sata 6, usb 3, tons of I/O, rock solid overclocking with 8+2 power phase, looks good, solid components). The only disadvantage is lack of crossfire! If you want crossfire you'll want to spend a bit more.

The Coolermaster Elite 370 is an excellent value case: http://www.scan.co.uk/products/coole...r-case-w-o-psu

It has great cooling, all the trimmings and looks stylish for around £30. Disadvantages are that it feels bit light. Airflow is decent: with 2 exhaust fans and 1 intake fan at the front I get load ambient temps of 36c, 56c on the processor (with an Arctic Freezer 7 - processor is Phenom II 955 overclocked to 3.6ghz) and 65c on the GPU (MSI Radeon 5850).

This is basiclaly the rig I built last week. GPU cost £140, Samsung Spinpoint F3 1tb for £40, other parts were £285 (including some today only offers - but I got 8gb RAM instead of 4gb). PSU was taken from my old system so allow £60 for that. I'm incredibly happy with it.

[tfboy]

Thanks for all the suggestions.

I'll have a look and compile a few options. I agree on the case; he could reuse his existing one rather than blowing 25% of the budget on a new case. But it is such a personal thing...

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Are you going to overclock the CPU??

[Pob255]

The Coolermaster Elite 370 is an excellent value case: http://www.scan.co.uk/products/coole...r-case-w-o-psu

Arrrgh for shame I put the 430 when I actually meant the 370, I got my numbers mixed up.
They are basically the same inside but I personally find the 430 fugly, the windowed side panel is ok but that front bezel

Oh and for cpu cooler the coolermaster Hyper 212+ over the ACF7P every time, it's only £3 more and a better cooler. http://www.scan.co.uk/products/coole...m2-am2plus-am3

[Ultima2876]

Actually yeah, I'd recommend the Hyper 212 Plus as well.

[tfboy]

Are you going to overclock the CPU??

Don't think so. It's not my decision, but if it's good enough from day one, might not overclock until he wants a boost later down the line.

Arrrgh for shame I put the 430 when I actually meant the 370, I got my numbers mixed up.
They are basically the same inside but I personally find the 430 fugly, the windowed side panel is ok but that front bezel

Oh and for cpu cooler the coolermaster Hyper 212+ over the ACF7P every time, it's only £3 more and a better cooler. http://www.scan.co.uk/products/coole...m2-am2plus-am3

Noted

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

This is the cheapest build I would suggest:

Phenom II X4 955BE ~ £105

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/190673

Biostar TA870U3+ motherboard ~ £61

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/259268

Has USB3.0,SATA3.0 and even cooling for the VRM. OTH,the back panel is a bit basic and I suspect overclocking will not be great with this motherboard although it supports 140W TDP CPUs. The Biostar TA870+ or MSI 870A-G54 might be worth considering for between £65 to £70 or one of the more expensive Asus or Gigabyte motherboards.

4GB Kingston 1600MHZ DDR3~ £37

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/239260

PowerColor HD 6850 1GB ~ £130

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/248746

OR

MSI GTX 460 Cyclone OC Edition 1GB ~ £136

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/230557

OR

MSI HD R6850 Cyclone 1GB ~ £140

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/254378

Be Quiet 530W Pure Power PSU ~ £47

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/190751

OR

Antec 520W High Current Gamer PSU ~ £57

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/245671

Samsung F3 1TB ~ £40

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/173804

Samsung SH-S223 ~ £12

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/145450

Casecom K5-9388~ £30

http://www.ebuyer.com/search?q=ASECOM&x=0&y=0

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/239240

Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium ~ £72

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/173791

The total comes to around £533 to £553 including free postage.

[Domestic_Ginger]

Hyper 212+ is £15 at Play.

[Ultima2876]

tbh if it was me I'd rather pay a few quid more and get it at Scan. Play are AWFUL. They randomly cancel your order if there's a 'pricing mistake', delivery is late and slow, customer service is horrific... avoid them, especially for computer hardware.