Building a gaming PC

[Barseman]

Hi all, im planning on building new computer, budget £1000-£1200. Anyone got an idea of the best components for a powerful gaming system, if my budget allows!

Thanks, Andrew

[Hidden Hippo]

Well, I would go with something along the lines of what I will build.

Core 2 Duo E6600
Gigabyte GA_965P_DS3 Mobo
2GB G. Skill PC2-6400
Sapphire Radeon X1900XT
250GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 HDD
580W Hiper Modular PSU
Thermaltake Armour Jr Case
Arctic Freezer Pro CPU cooler

This comes (with DVDRW and floppy drive etc.) to £988.61. This would give you a system that could take on any game at the moment with ease. However, if I am correct in thinking that you are in the UK, you will have trouble getting hold of a conroe of any sort, due to Intel calling the 24th a paper release date only. Most of the etailors aren't getting anything other than the E6300 and the X6800 until sometime until august and then again the stock will still be limited I expect.

The alternative is to take advantage of the AMD price drops and buy an X2 4600+ and a Fatal1ty motherboard. This would come to about the same price as the conroe and the motherboard and give you pretty decent performance to boot.

Hope that helps.

[rad]

Go for the 7950gx2 graphics card. It is absolutely awesome.

[philipbain]

I would also concur that the Geforce 7950 GX2 is the better option and price wise not a lot more than a Radeon 1900XTX. Also I would hold on and get the Core 2 Duo when it's available, considering that the E6600 outperforms the Athlon FX62 in most benchmarks, particulary games and has loads more overclocking potential. I would also use a Zalman CNPS9500-AT Intel LGA775 Aero Flower Cooler rather than the Arctic Freezer, but thats just me being picky, though that cooler is the finest air cooling solution on the market.

[MantisCSS]

get a 150GB raptor if ur budget allows if not maybe a 74GB. bare in mind they are loud.

[rainbow]

agreed with mantis, i have two 150s in raid 1 theyare very nice and quick, and thjey arnt as loud as you may think i mean i have heard louder ones but the performance outweighs the noise issue by a mile, plus they have a window so you can see you platter and such

[MantisCSS]

but they are a bit £££ though. if u want soemhtign as bit cheaper and wanna spend more on other stuff i can recomend the 250GB spinpoints.

[rainbow]

^^ only reason i bought them is beacuse i get them at trade, otherwise they are a stretch, i hear two spinpoints in the raid setup is still very fast and quiet.

info for you all, dell use spinpoints for there quiet qualitys, im sure you know when a dell is on you cant actually hear it

[philipbain]

I just put together this spec quickly:

Kick Ass Gaming System - all parts from Scan.co.uk

Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 S775, 2.40Ghz, 1066Mhz FSB, Conroe Core, 4M Cache Retail £252.57
Zalman CNPS9500-AT Intel LGA775 Aero Flower Cooler £30.42
Gigabyte GA 965P-DS3, Intel P965, S775, PCI-E (x16), DDR2 533/667/800, SATA II, ATX £98.34
2Gb (2X1Gb) Corsair TwinX XMS2, DDR2 PC6400 (800), 240 Pin, Non-ECC Unbuffered, CAS 5-5-5-12 £145.28
1Gb XFX 7950GX2 OEM, PCI-E (x16), 1200 MHz GPU 500 MHz, 48 Pipes, S-Video/TV Out 2 x Dual Link DVI-I £292.58
2 X 250 Gb Samsung Spinpoint P SP2504C, SATA300, 7200 rpm, 8MB Cache, 9.0 ms, NCQ (2X £49.69) = £99.38
Pioneer DVR-111 Black 16x16 x5 RAM DVD±RW Dual Layer DVD Writer (Reduced Length) OEM £25.06
Xclio-II CS-3060 Midi Tower Case 250mm Side Fan Super Cooling Dual Core Ready w/o PSU £35.24
580W HiperPower HPU-4M580 Black SLi Ready Modular 20 + 24Pins P8 Ready ATX2.2/BTX £52.82
19" ASUS MM19SE Silver/Black TFT, 1280x1024, 8 ms, 700:1, 400 cd/m2, Speakers £147.69
Cyber Acoustics A5640RB 5.1 channel Speakers 140W True RMS Hi-End £55.21
Microsoft Laser Mouse 6000 1.0 USB PC/MAC OEM £18.79
ZBoard MERC Gaming Keyboard Black £25.84

Total: £1279.22 - a little over budget but very complete

[MantisCSS]

thats pretty much perfect tbh.

[rainbow]

brilliant bar the zboard and the mouse, change them for a saitek eclips and a logitech g5 and your on for a winner

[philipbain]

The keyboard I wasnt too sure on as I don't use a keyboard for gaming myself (I use an Apple USB keyboard as it's got great feel, compact and looks really cool), the only games I play on my PC are driving sims which I have a Microsoft Widewinder wheel for. I think the mouse is up to the job, it is a high resolution laser jobbie which should be ideal for games although it's not a gaming mouse per se.

[philipbain]

Having had a good look at the Logitech G5 I have to say that I agree that it's a very accomplished gaming mouse with very high resolution and some good customisation options, obviously at £45 it is a good deal more expensive than the Microsoft laser mouse but offers features that make it attractive to gamers, so if your likely to be playing a lot of FPS and other mouse centric games then the G5 would be an excellent choice. Also the Saitek keyboard does look good for games and is priced at around the same point.

[rainbow]

thanks phillip

i have the g7 which is the wireless versiojn of the g5 and its the nuts, couldnt ask for better, and i also know the g5 is just as good, a keyboard is not as important as a mouse but still for thre price the eclipse is good

[Barseman]

Cheers guys, think ill wait for the conroe processors and build my pc around that. With the new DX10 cards coming out next year will my system be able to utilize the technology after the kinks and that have been sorted out?

[rainbow]

yup always wait a while because things are full of bugs and stuff,just like vista will be