basic equipment level

[robbiehall]

Chaps,

What is an average spec level for a graphics card if you want to play PC games?????

I have a spare Matrox G450 (32Mb) that I want to give to a friend, but don't want to give him something that won't cope. He only has a Matrox G200 8 Mb - at present.

Any other considerations to take into account???


Cheers
Rob

[iMc]

well it would def. improve on his card but it wont play todays games all that well letalone anything coming out soon. a btr pressy wud prob be a GF4Ti, they go reletively cheap now.

btw i live in kettering

[robbiehall]

Cheers m8,

Thanks for that. BTW what's btr short for???

I will check out the prices for a GF4Ti card on the usual sources.
Do you favour any local shops???

Cheers
Rob

[Anders]

btr = better?

[joshwa]

depends what games he wants to play - quake3 / colin mcrae 2 / motocross madness 2 / sim city 3000 would all be playable on that card.

Josh

[directhex]

a 4200 costs about £65 from www.ebuyer.com, but considering the 3d capabilitiers of a matrox card, a £15 Radeon 7000 would be an inprovement - let alone a GF4Ti

--jo

[robbiehall]

OK chaps,

This is going to be a budget build, but what would your suggestions be for a new mainboard+processor+memory to go with an average 128 Mb video card - whatever flavour I decide on - to use for gaming????

The case, CD-ROM etc I will re-use, but am prepared to replace the power supply.


Cheers
Rob

[Axion]

how much cash are you willing to spend on the entire build? overclocking?

[robbiehall]

Difficult to be precise, but say £150 for the mainboard+CPU+RAM+HDD and yes - prepared to use overclocking......


I don't want to frighten the bloke - he's my brother-in-law and does'nt really understand about upgrade paths.

Some leeway in the spend may be possible - if I pretend it's an early Xmas pressie.....


Cheers
Rob

[directhex]

getting something useable for that is a tall order.

say £70 for 512Mb budge RAM or £90 for overclocking RAm

say £35 for a 1.6GHz Duron, prices going up for a faster chip

say £40 for a cheap hard disk (30-40gb, probably 5400RPM)

i wouldn't spend less than £65 on the motherboard (Asus A7N8X-X, single channel nForce 2 board), but if he's desparate he can spend £45-£50 on a far inferior KT400-based board.

total..... £200 minimum. sorry m8 :/

--jo

[directhex]

i SUPPOSE you could go for 256Mb RAM, but... ugh...

--jo

[Axion]

you can easily spend less than £70 on ram

my 2x256mb twinmos pc3200 which is good for overclocking amd ram cost my £75 new

go for say crucial pc2700 ram... should cost more than £55 for a 512mb module

id prefer to spend £40 on the lowest athlon you can find (1700+) because it will outperform that duron... check the 2nd hand market for 1700+ juihb's since you can get them for £30-35inc rmsd and they are far better than any duron

£40 in hdd drive market will get you a 60gb 2mb 7200rpm drive onsale... keep your eyes pealed... £45 has been known to extend to a 80gb 2mb... since the 2mb versions are REGULARLY onsale

mobo - again id look @ the 2nd hand arena... to fit your £150 budget you probably will have to...

with that budget overclocking isnt really viable... since the stuff that o/c's well costs that bit more... but still a lot less than the expensive stuff

i know i havent helped that much... but it should give you some ideas...

[robbiehall]

Cheers guys.

Thanks for your replies.

Rob

[Austin]

As said G450 is beyond dire and considering the Rad9000-9200 and GF-FX5200 are around £40 it makes no sense getting less ... but I would seriously suggest a £60-75 GF4TI4200 (pref 128MB but 64MB is still v.good) as the gfx card is easily THE most important part for gaming.

For components I would seriously point you to www.dabs.com ...

£40 DabsV BioStar nForce2 400 = no Dual Channel but that makes only a tiny diff anyway, still better than all VIA & SiS as well as within 5% of the top £80-100 nForce2 Dual CHannel mobos.

£15 Volcano 11+ HSF = great cooling and you can adjust to find the happy medium between max perf (or o/c) and noise.

£75 (IIRC) GF4TI4200-8X 128MB (no TVout).

80GB 7200rpm should be under £60, you'll halve the size of the HD and only save £10 ... plus an extra £10-15 probably gets you 120GB.

For your RAM I would suggest http://www.crucial.com/uk/ with FREE P&P and lifetime warranty. PC3200 ensures you won't be limited by the RAM when you o/c. 256MB is MORE THAN FINE, add more when it's necessary (and cheaper). 256MB PC3200 Crucial £38.

Duron 1.3ghz is actually pretty powerful and only £30 but the newer Durons have a lot more o/c'ability in them, 1.6ghz about £40 IIRC and about as fast as an XP1700+. If you buy AthlonXP don't worry about the stock speed, only the core is important and you MUST get TbredB or Barton. All of those CPUs should hit XP3000+ to XP3200+ with little bother.

Dabs don't guarantee the core so you could look at a place like www.cpucity.co.uk and save some cash on the RAM by getting TwinMOS or Adata over Crucial ... alll are top notch!

mobo £40 + HSF £15 + 4200(128) £75 + 80GB £60 + 256MB-PC3200 £38 = £228 and then add CPU for £30 (Duron1.3) - £70 (Barton XP2500+).