Best Gaming pc for £800?

[Oobie-]

Hey,
I wanted to know what would be the best components for a gaming pc
I only want the Motherboard, CPU, RAM, GFX card, PSU and Case.
I have managed to calculate one pricing for such a system which came out to £866, but as it is £800 is stretching it.

The list is:
AMD Opteron 64 165 Socket939 , 2x 1.8GHz , 2MB Cache, Retail

ASUS A8N-SLI/PREMIUM NF4 SLI, S939, PCI-E (x16), DDR 400, SATA I, SATA/IDE RAID, ATX

256MB EVGA 7900GT CO,Mem 1500 MHz, GPU 500 MHz,24 Pipes, Dual DVI-I S-Video/TV Out Lifetime Warrenty

1GB Corsair Pro LED, DDR PC3200 (400), 184 Pin, Non-ECC Unbuffered, CAS 3-3-3-8

Coolermaster Cavalier 3 Silver Chrome Finish w/o PSU

580w Tagan EasyCon - TG580-U15 - 2Force Silent Modular PSU

Gigabyte GH PDU21-SC - G-Power Omnidirection 4xHeatpipe 61fins Solid Copperbase Nickelplating

Zalman VF900-CU Quiet Dual Heatpipe VGA GPU Cooler Pure Copper

Could anyone advise me as to whether or not these are fine or could be changed for something that is cheaper which has similar performance.

I will most likely be overclocking the CPU

Feedback is appreciated in advance, Cheers

[awm]

I think value ram will save you alot of money. The CAS is pretty usual and the speed is normal, the reference to LED seems to be the only thing unusual. See if you can find anything cheeper, but still brand name. 2*512 might work well, make sure you get 2 sticks for dual channel. You might look into keeping the stock heatsink on the Opteron, but that depends on your OCing plans. Posting prices would also help since I'm not familar with UK pricing.

[Dark Horse]

I would get some value ram if you're looking to save money. The timings you get with corsair value are usually 3-3-3-8 at ddr400 which is exactly the same as you're getting with that pro so you're really just paying money for some flashy lights...

Also I would look at the Hiper 580w modular psu, it pretty similar in quality to the Tagan and is a fair bit cheaper. A few people here have it if you want first hand opinions.

The rest looks fine.

[chazt]

i would change the gigabyte cooler for the slightly cheaper arctic cooling freezer 64 pro, i've got one and its very quiet and very cold.
If you fancy dual core try the new pentium d 805 is supposedly a great overclocker and for £85 its way cheaper than your opteron. Spend the saved money on a better graphics card maybe? I'm always reluctant of Intel CPUs but this one is really tempting me.
An ATI X1800XT can be had for around the same price as a 7900GT now, and its a better performer.
A Jeantech Phong II is a better case which you can get for £49.99 from PC world, and its got a 140mm front intake, 120mm rear and a built in fan controller.

Now can anyone guess what i've been reading this month?

[Noni]

AMD Opteron 64 165 Socket939 , 2x 1.8GHz , 2MB Cache, Retail

What about a 3800X2- £170 deliverd at lowest on web.

ASUS A8N-SLI/PREMIUM NF4 SLI, S939, PCI-E (x16), DDR 400, SATA I, SATA/IDE RAID, ATX

Try the DFI ULTRA D if you are going to overclock

256MB EVGA 7900GT CO,Mem 1500 MHz, GPU 500 MHz,24 Pipes, Dual DVI-I S-Video/TV Out Lifetime Warrenty

Nice choice

1GB Corsair Pro LED, DDR PC3200 (400), 184 Pin, Non-ECC Unbuffered, CAS 3-3-3-8

2GB RAM mate, for games espically. Go for the value and use dividers.

Coolermaster Cavalier 3 Silver Chrome Finish w/o PSU

EWWW! CHENBRO GAMING BOMB 2, LIAN LI PC7+, COOLERMASTER CENT 5. Get one of them, trust me

580w Tagan EasyCon - TG580-U15 - 2Force Silent Modular PSU

Go for the 500W Enermax Liberty. DO NOT GET THE HIPER.

Gigabyte GH PDU21-SC - G-Power Omnidirection 4xHeatpipe 61fins Solid Copperbase Nickelplating

Go for the Scythe Ninja, so much better, or the ARTIC FREEZER 64 PRO

Zalman VF900-CU Quiet Dual Heatpipe VGA GPU Cooler Pure Copper

Good choice

[dave87]

Go for the 500W Enermax Liberty. DO NOT GET THE HIPER.

err, why? No offense but I had a Hiper Type R and it was fine... If you want a decent PSU I would recommend Seasonic, mines been awesome. Tagan has slightly weak rails under full load, though there was a guide to increasing the voltage so that doesn't drop as much.

Honestly though, I can't fault my seasonic, its been excellent, and the Hiper I had before was just as good. Otherwise its a good spec, the case is personal choice, but I'd be tempted by something like an antec p180, or if you want expandability, a big Lian Li

Dave

[chazt]

GFX: Connect 3D ATI Radeon X1800XT 256MB £195.00 http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/106035

CPU: Intel Pentium D 805 Socket775 , Smithfield Core, 2x2.66 GHz , 2MB Cache, Retail £82.23 http://www.scan.co.uk/products/produ...oductID=398397

Case: Jeantech Phong II £49.99 http://www.pcworld.co.uk/martprd/sto...m=null&tm=null

PSU: XClio 480W £44.99 (i've seen this on Today Only for <£30 on many occasions) http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=156689

Now I don't have much experience with Intel systems but these seem reasonable choices for M/B and RAM.

M/B: Asus P5WD2-E Premium i975X £148.98 (http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=348290

RAM: 2GB (2X1GB) Corsair Value Select, DDR2 PC5400 (667) £128.08 http://www.scan.co.uk/products/produ...oductID=398296

All for a grand total of £650

Sound good?

[chazt]

oh yeah i forgot the best bit, cooling!

AC Freezer 7 Pro £15.08 http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...Thumbnails=yes

Zalman VF900 £23.49 http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=369640

Still for under £700, so maybe buy an X-fi or some faster RAM maybe?

[Noni]

err, why? No offense but I had a Hiper Type R and it was fine... If you want a decent PSU I would recommend Seasonic, mines been awesome. Tagan has slightly weak rails under full load, though there was a guide to increasing the voltage so that doesn't drop as much.

Honestly though, I can't fault my seasonic, its been excellent, and the Hiper I had before was just as good. Otherwise its a good spec, the case is personal choice, but I'd be tempted by something like an antec p180, or if you want expandability, a big Lian Li

Dave

Loads have lately been blowing up. Bad connections, 2x fans means that sometimes on high operation its noisy. No long life workspan.

Seasonic is great.

Go for the Enermax liberty, an all round superb psu.

[Noni]

GFX: Connect 3D ATI Radeon X1800XT 256MB £195.00 http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/106035

CPU: Intel Pentium D 805 Socket775 , Smithfield Core, 2x2.66 GHz , 2MB Cache, Retail £82.23 http://www.scan.co.uk/products/produ...oductID=398397

Case: Jeantech Phong II £49.99 http://www.pcworld.co.uk/martprd/sto...m=null&tm=null

PSU: XClio 480W £44.99 (i've seen this on Today Only for <£30 on many occasions) http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=156689

Now I don't have much experience with Intel systems but these seem reasonable choices for M/B and RAM.

M/B: Asus P5WD2-E Premium i975X £148.98 (http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=348290

RAM: 2GB (2X1GB) Corsair Value Select, DDR2 PC5400 (667) £128.08 http://www.scan.co.uk/products/produ...oductID=398296

All for a grand total of £650

Sound good?

1800XT will be noisy and run hotter + use more power but will be a better performer than the 7900gt. And you will viod your warranty with that card.

Personally I would get the 7900gt, from evga. Better package.

[dave87]

Loads have lately been blowing up. Bad connections, 2x fans means that sometimes on high operation its noisy. No long life workspan.

Seasonic is great.

Go for the Enermax liberty, an all round superb psu.

2x fans? only if you go for the 580w plus ones, the type r one I had had a 12cm fan in it - much quieter.

I would avoid modular ones, but thats personal preference, something like the type-r would be perfect - 480w, (530W peak) link here

Dave

[Oobie-]

wow guys, thanks for the quick replies. just a few clarifications/questions

I would rather order everything from one supplier, scan please <3
I completely omitted the fact that I will be ordering this stuff some time in June! (sorry)

If you could indicate to me if you think my original stuff will be about &#163;800 or less when that time comes by would be cool

Are the value select RAM just as reliable as the other ones from Corsair?
and I don't fully understand the issues that AMD's get with more than 2 sticks of ram - if someone could clarify. cheers

Meanwhile I shall take up the suggested components and find some reviews on them

and finally I call upon the Hiper PSU owners to comment on their PSU...woooooooo

thanks again. gonna go lie down, I feel like crap

[dave87]

Value Select is from corsair , its just cheaper (which makes no difference with the advent of Athlon 64 bit processors)

Some athlons/boards dont like 4 sticks of ram, so get something like a 2gb kit, or a single 1gb module, and then add another one in later. Its to do with the memory controllers not liking running it at 1t command rate, and causing stability issues - think thats being fixed with the latest revisions though.

Hiper PSUs I have never had any problems with, but did replace it with a 500w Seasonic, which is near silent, and doesnt get even warm to the touch

[chazt]

the reason you would buy more expensive ram is not for reliability, it is for speed. Overclockers ram like the corsair pro stuff you were looking at originally can often run a lot faster than it is specified to, through overclocking. Therefore, if overclocking isn't a priority to you then value ram fits the bill perfectly.

I would still recommend the x1800xt over the 7900gt, especially as you're getting the zalman gpu cooler, even though the difference won't be massive.

[charger]

Presumably as it is a gaming rig and oobie has chosen an opteron 165 then overclocking will most probably be done to get the best out of the opteron, considering they can overclock quite high on stock air cooling. Still the corsair value ram should allow you to overclock well. x1800xt is a defo especially with the zalman cooler to ensure decent overclocking, cooling and sound reduction.

[Dark Horse]

Corsair value ram is actually UCCC so doesn't clock badly at all with a little work. It is probably fairly lowly binned stuff as it won't go quite as high as the more expensive UCCC though. The majority of "overclocking" 2gb ram kits that fit into the ddr500 bracket with 3-4-4-8ish timings are UCCC so you've nothing to worry about with corsair vs.