500 quid 'budget' Gaming Box replacement

[atrull]

I'm still on a 4YO 1ghz athlon gaming machine (yes, 15 fps at lowest possible quality in DOD:S) so I'm very eager to completely replace the box I've currently got with a faster one

I've already got the soundcard, keyboard, monitor, mouse, etc.

The budget was a strict 500 squid - I am trying to work out how to get the best gaming performance for my squid.. I'm not really interested in any other performance beyond that... well, read on.

Well, you might have guessed it but I went and broke that limit since the performance/capacity benefits of a slight stretch are well worth it on quite a few parts. damn you davethechamp and others

so what'd I settle on ? the 144 with an eye to clocking it to 3500+(or more) speeds

QTY £ (exc Vat) Total £
1 LN 1.44Mb Sony Black Floppy Disk Drive OEM £3.99 £3.99
2 LN 12cm AK-174BK-S Black Case Fan, 3 Pin, Sleeve Bearing Ultra Quiet (17dBA) Retail Package £2.90 £5.80
1 LN XClio 3010B Black Midi Tower Case w/o PSU Hi End Prescott Ready £16.50 £16.50
1 XClio 3010B Black Midi Tower Case w/o PSU Hi End Prescott Ready
1 LN NEC ND-4550A Black 16x16 DVD±RW Dual Layer DVD-Writer OEM UK
+ Ahead Nero Express Burning ROM Sui £25.50 £25.50
1 NEC ND-4550A Black 16x16 DVD±RW Dual Layer DVD-Writer OEM UK
1 Ahead Nero Express Burning ROM Suite 1 6.6.x OEM ** NEW**
1 LN 10pcs eProformance Premium x52 speed (80min) Spindle £0.75 £0.75
1 10pcs eProformance Premium x52 speed (80min) Spindle
1 LN Scythe Ninja Fanless HeatPipe Cooler S775/S478/S754/S939/940 £27.49 £27.49
1 LN 420W Tagan I-XEYE Blue Light Whisper quiet 21db aPFC 12v EPS/SATA/XEON 3rs Warranty ATX/BTX £40.39 £40.39
1 LN 1Gb (2x512Mb) Corsair Value Select PC3200 non-ECC unbuffered CL2.5 Lifetime Warranty £49.94 £49.94
1 LN AMD Opteron-UP 144 1.8GHz 64bit 1Mb Cache S939 *OEM* £84.18 £84.18
1 LN 256MB ScanFX PCI-E *Extreme Edition* GF7800GT *450 Core 1.05Ghz Mem* (256bit) ViVo 2xDVI £187.99 £187.99
1 256MB ScanFX PCI-E *Extreme Edition* GF7800GT *450 Core 1.05Ghz Mem* (256bit) ViVo 2xDVI
1 LN 200Gb SATA300 Western Digital Caviar Special Edition WD2000JS Caviar SE (7200rpm,8Mb) £54.45 £54.45
1 LN Abit KN8 Ultra PCI-E S939 NF4 DDR400 SATAII Raid Gbit Lan USB2 7.1Ch Audio £57.00 £57.00
Net Total £553.98
Carriage £0.00
V.A.T £96.95
TOTAL £650.93

[atrull]

not bad for a first post either, come to think of it.

[5lab]

hmm.. if i was to spend £500 on something to play games on, right now, it'd be an xbox 360. give it some serious thought - it'd save you a packet and be a LOT more future proof - i'd imagine that pc will struggle to play new games in 18 months time - the xbox would be playing new games in 5 years time..

[herulach]

From scan
LN11781 350W FSP Bluestorm 350 aPFC ATX 12v v2.01 PSU SATA 24/20 pin ATX power connectors £29.95 £35.19
LN10620 AMD Athlon 64 3000 32/64Bit CPU S939 "Venice" 90nm *OEM* £80.30 £94.35
LN10517 160Gb SATA150 Maxtor Diamondmax Plus 10 (7200rpm,8MB) "Sabre" NCQ £45.90 £53.93
LN11240 1Gb (2x512Mb) Corsair Value Select PC3200 non-ECC unbuffered CL2.5 Lifetime Warranty £49.94 £58.68
LN12330 Asus A8N-E S939 PCI-E NF4-Ultra DDR400 SATAII GbE Lan 8Ch Audio USB2 £58.01 £68.16
LN12489 256Mb Sapphire PCI-E ATI X800GTO Ultimate GDDR3 TV DVI Ret £118.79 £139.58
LN11746 LG GSA-4167BA Ivory 16x16 ±R Super Multi Dual Layer DVDRW/RAM Writer, OEM UK £23.27 £27.34

Total 488.99

[sgoaty]

Right sorry I went almost £50 over budget but I have picked you out a far faster gaming rig with a DVDRW and a quality case (not the prettiest imho but it is quality)


MB-086-AB Abit KN8 nForce4 (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-086-AB) 1
£59.95 £59.95

CP-141-AM AMD Opteron UP 144 San Diego 1.8GHz 1MB Cache (Socket 939) - Retail (CP-141-AM) 1
£99.95 £99.95

CA-023-AN Antec SLK1650B Black Quiet Mini Tower Case - 350W SmartPower PSU (CA-023-AN) 1
£39.95 £39.95

GX-037-PC PowerColor ATI Radeon X850 XT 256MB GDDR3 TV-Out/DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-037-PC) 1
£123.95 £123.95

MY-005-GL GeIL 1GB (2x512MB) PC3200 Value Dual Channel Kit CAS2.5 (GE1GB3200BHDC) (MY-005-GL) 1
£47.95 £47.95

HD-001-OK OcUK Value Floppy Drive - Black (HD-001-OK) 1
£6.50 £6.50

HD-047-WD Western Digital Caviar Special Edition 160GB 1600JS SATA-II 8MB Cache - OEM (HD-047-WD) 1
£50.75 £50.75

CD-036-LG LG GSA-4167BRL 16x16 DVD±RW Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - Retail (CD-036-LG) 1
£25.85 £25.85

Subtotal £454.85
Shipping (City Link Parcel Next Day (Delivered Mon-Fri)) £9.95
VAT £81.34
Total £546.14


thats all from OCUK and it will play almost every game maxxed out

[dave87]

order a similar spec to what sgoaty said off scan and you might save a few quid (and when up to 50 posts) get free delivery

[herulach]

Ah, i didnt include a case, but if you hang around a few weeks youll easy get teh post count for scan free shipping, which gives you 25 quid (ish) to spend on one (one of the 3XS things should do fine, and theyre pretty good quality

[sgoaty]

Only trouble is OCUK are doing a cracking deal on the X850xt just now scan are almost £60 dearer

[atrull]

interesting...

is the Opteron UP 144 San Diego 1.8GHz 1MB Cache (Socket 939) really going to be faster than an amd64 venice for gaming ?

[sgoaty]

about the same at stock but these thinks overclock like mad. Bad ones do 2.4-2.5 your then faster than a 4000+ youve also got an abit motherboard listed so you should get a good overclock

[davethechamp]

you only need 25 conctructive posts to qualify for the free carrige offer.
See here for carrige offer
These are my thoughts on the system, included is a quality PSU that should see you fine for most tasks including some overclocking!
All from WWW.scan.co.uk
Have a look on the today only section to, some bargains to be had most times!!

AMD Opteron UP 144 1.8GHz 64bit 1Mb Cache S939 Retail with AMD Heat Sink Fan 3Yr - £115.36 - LN12173
Abit KN8 Ultra PCI-E S939 NF4 DDR400 SATAII Raid Gbit Lan USB2 7.1Ch Audio - £66.98 - LN11722
1Gb (2x512Mb) Corsair Value Select PC3200 non-ECC unbuffered CL2.5 Lifetime Warranty - £58.68 - LN11240
160Gb SATA300 Western Digital WD1600JS Caviar SE (7200rpm,8Mb) - NCQ - £61.09 - LN11543
420W Tagan I-XEYE Blue Light Whisper quiet 21db aPFC 12v EPS/SATA/XEON 3rs Warranty ATX/BTX - £47.46 - LN8301
128Mb ScanFX PCI-E GEFORCE 6600GT TV+DUAL DVI - £83.13 - LN10779
NEC ND-4550A Black 16x16 DVD±RW Dual Layer DVD-Writer OEM UK - £30.39 - LN11813
1.44Mb Sony Black Floppy Disk Drive OEM - £4.69 - LN5291

That lot comes to about £470 (including the free deliver) leaving about £30.00 to choose a case with.

Dave

[atrull]

could always go for scan for most of the hardware + free delivery and ocuk for their niceprice x850xt

.. I'd better go and post some nonesense somewhere. give me time..!

[davethechamp]

not to much nonsense though! constructive posts. Give it a few days and you'll get there.

If your thinking of spending that much on a GFX card, have a look at one of these, the 6800GS seem to be pretty good cards from what I've read. SM3, SLI capable etc - good clockers. An X850 is a bit of old backwards tech now I believe?

Dave

[Matt1eD]

I would ditto 5lab's comment. A 360 would be a wise investment for the money and be playing the games for a lot longer.

Then your old computer would cover internet, email, office apps. e.t.c.

[atrull]

I'm not really interested in console games ;( - more into fps and semi-serious flightsim (think forgotten battles etc)

so what is the best value for money graphics card these days ? semi-futureproof budget-style with some overclocking potential ?

[davethechamp]

http://www.hexus.net/content/item.php?item=4058

have a gander here... seems pretty good to me.

dave