Building a gaming PC

[philipbain]

I wouldnt worry too much about Direct X 10 for now as the system it's self won't be available until Vista comes out and you'll probably want to wait a while until you adopt Vista anyway (theres always a "running in" period where early adopters discover massive blunders in the OS which are subsequently patched up or updated via service packs). Also as Vista is still a few months off so are Direct X 10 optimised graphics cards and crucially games that actually take advantage of the new features that Direct X 10 has to offer are even further away.

[Barseman]

Also would i be able to purchase a wireless card in the future for that motherboard? Sorry for the endless questions!

[Barseman]

Ok thanks phil, you've been a great help. Your setup above is pretty much perfect for me!

[philipbain]

I take it that your reffering to a wireless network card? The answer is yes of course, it has PCI, PCI-E and USB 2.0, all of which support wireless networking solutions so you should'nt have a problem adding wireless networking capability to it

[philipbain]

No problem at all, always glad to help, if you have any other problems or questions I as well as everyone else on these boards are usually about to dispense advice!

[Barseman]

Yeh thanks again. As you can tell i know a bit about computers but not alot! Your help has been greatly appreciated, cheers!

[MSIC]

It's always worth bearing in mind that internal components of any system, no matter how good, will always go out of fashion and will devalue quicker than 'external' components.
By that, I am talking about: Case; Monitor; Keyboard; Mouse etc
These are the things that you interact with, that you can see and feel, that actually shape the 'experience' of owning and running a PC.
I therefore suggest that you consider, in the example of a £1200 build, allocating the following budget:
Monitor: £400
Case: £100 (maybe inc PSU)
Mouse & keyboard: £60.
Speakers: £100.

That then leaves you over £500 for internal components.

Many people can talk about about a 'kick-ass' system that will fly through benchmarks really well, but if the machine is as loud as a jet engine and you have to use a roller-ball mouse that keeps sticking, i don't want it.
Just a thought.

PS for the record I thought that Phil's suggestions were also quite good, and importantly for me would be nice and quiet.

[Barseman]

Yeh thats good advice MSIC. Ive taken out the mouse and keyboard, speakers and the monitor from phils build which has given me a total of just over £1000 on scan.co.uk.
I will probably use my current dell speakers and logitech mouse and keyboard setup in the meantime.

As far as monitors go i have a pretty good 17" dell monitor atm but will probably purchase a new one in the future. After all, i still have around £200 left on my budget.

[mallett]

you can get fantastic 19" monitors for the £200 mark, im gonna be getting a iiyama E483S for £191.81 which i have only seen really good reviews for, and a 19" will still be very good for gaming, espically if your on a budget of £200 like me...

http://www.savastore.com/productinfo...=0&rstrat=3240

[spazman]

£400 for a screen is a bit much i just got my Samsung for £190, 2ms 19" 600:1 is a beauty. and £500 on components in a £1200 system is just silly.

[MSIC]

It's fine to disagree, and I do disagree. OK, you can get very good monitors indeed for 200 quid, but a really cracking 20" widescreen display at 1680 x 1050 will cost you.
I'm not in any way saying that anyone needs to spend this, but it's just something to consider when you have a budget to spend on a system. later on down the road when you are happy enough with a 17" monitor that does the job, you might not consider the upgrade worth the difference.

[Barseman]

A 20" or 21" monitor would be very nice indeed. I might leave it for a while and once i have more money down the line purchase one. Samsungs scynmaster range look very nice.
Id rather buy my computer parts in the next few weeks so im not constantly distracted by the availiability of new components. Then i'd never get round to buliding one!

[RDL]

Why would you want to spend that much on a system and be lumbered with 1280x1024 resolution, when you've got a top of the range GPU?

Make sure you get yourself a 20" + TFT (20" TFT's can be had cheaply now, they've price dropped a lot), and unlock 1600x1200 and more, for a better gaming experience.

[Barseman]

Yeh thats what i was thinking. A monitor in the 20-21" range should be fine?

[nvening]

I would get this monitor http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=355845

Also the case which was mentioned by philipbain is not exactly hi end and authough i dont actually know the case i imagine that there may me cooling/ quality/ noise issues with it.

http://www.dabs.com/productview.aspx?quicklinx=3VTR

That would be a good case and a good PSU too.

[Barseman]

Are you sure? The case recommended by phil seems to be acceptable.